EastEnders boss Ben Wadey has revealed the emotional hidden details of Nigel Bates’ special episode. This week will see Nigel visited by ghosts of Christmas past, Pat and Barry Evans, as his dementia symptoms continue to worsen.

In upcoming episodes, Nigel becomes frustrated by his loved ones when he overhears them arguing about his care needs. He exits the screening of his new movie and heads over to The Vic, where he is reunited with his long departed friends in a hallucination of the past.

 

 

“That episode worked so brilliantly and is so beautifully directed by Richard Lynn, because the whole team came together and really pulled their A game onto it,” Wadey told Digital Spy and other media at a festive screening.

As well as the return of two classic characters, viewers will also be transported back to the ’90s through the nostalgic design of the landmark pub. The executive producer praised the design team for their attention to detail while remaking the set.

“You saw The Vic there, with everyone smoking in the background. But the details that the design team added to that with the booths, the covering on the booths, redone so it looked like exactly like it was in the ’90s, down to the details,” he explained.

“Like the peanuts on the wall were actually authentically the same style as they would have been in the ’90s.”

Wadey continued: “The costumes that Costume and Makeup did – so the attention to detail was amazing. And genuinely, when I was talking to Pam [St Clement, who plays Pat] on set, she was saying it was like stepping back in time, walking back onto there.”

Meanwhile, St Clement revealed that she found it “strangely difficult” to reprise her iconic role for the special episode, after more than a decade away.

“I thought it was going to be much easier, but I think I’ve probably been through the point in my life, having played her, where I had divested myself of her,” she shared.

“Her accoutrement, her clothes, her make-up and everything else, and I thought I had, but the strange thing is that the public don’t because it’s so fresh. That’s probably because there are a lot of repeats that go on, on television.”