Advent Calendar - 14 December

Since variety shows died a death, and before Downton Abbey arrived on the scene, Christmas Day TV viewing was dominated by soaps. The highest ever viewing figures in the UK (excluding sports and news events) was for this episode of Eastenders in 1986. Nothing will come close today with the arrival of so many more channels to choose from and means of watching them. Nearly 2/3rds of the total population of the country watched this.

For those not familiar, the closing scene is between Den and Angie, the landlord and landlady of the local pub, the Queen Vic. He is a serial adulterer and all-round scum bag, and confronts his wife, who is an alcoholic and, faced with the prospect of him leaving her for his latest mistress, has told him she has cancer and only a few months to live.

YouTube

The drum sequence that starts the closing credits has become iconic. You could play just the first beat to the overwhelming majority of adults in the UK and they would recognise the programme.

Originally posted by Rank outsider
For those not familiar, the closing scene is between Den and Angie, the landlord and landlady of the local pub, the Queen Vic. He is a serial adulterer and all-round scum bag, and confronts his wife, who is an alcoholic and, faced with the prospect of him leaving her for his latest mistress, has told him she has cancer and only a few months to live.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcqqJc4xYxQ

Ooh look, it's miss Brahms! Never mind yet another unpleasant matriarch from Whackford, I'll always remember her fondly as Shirley Brahms.

By the way, the tendency for soap characters to end badly at Chrimbo has even been noted on TV Tropes: <http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SoaplandChristmas>.