User:AnemoneProjectors/Liam's gang

Special episode named "Liam and the Gang"

Plot
The gang first appear running from the tube station, having evaded their fare. They are chased by a ticket inspector, and Liam Butcher (James Forde), who already knows them, helps them to hide. They later meet Liam and invite him to join, giving him cash and saying he will make more money than at his job. They later create a mess in the market, and market inspector Tamwar Masood (Himesh Patel) stands up to them, so they leave. They later mug him, taking his money belt, and Kane goes to Liam's house, giving him some money and thanking him for letting them know about Tamwar's money belt. Liam's mother Bianca Butcher (Patsy Palmer) finds the money belt in Liam's bedroom and is then told that Liam has been associating with a gang. Kat Moon (Jessie Wallace) tells Bianca that the police think the mugging was done by a known gang from an estate where a shooting took place recently. Bianca goes there when Liam does not come home, and sees him messing around with the gang. She confronts them, saying they bullied Liam into joining the gang and she knows about the mugging. She tells Liam to come home, saying he could end up dead. Renzo states that Liam is having dinner with him and his mother that night, but Bianca refuses to believe it. Kane threatens Bianca, eventually pushing her to the ground, which displeases Renzo, who checks if Bianca is okay. Some of the other gang members then take Liam away, while Renzo calmly warns Bianca about the area before disappearing. Liam comes home the next day and the gang arrive later on. Bianca finds them, and tries to make them stay away, while Liam has to be physically restrained by Ray Dixon (Chucky Venn) and locked in his bedroom to stop him seeing the gang. After he is let out, he returns to the gang, and they tell him to prove his loyalty to them, by walking a dangerous wall, smashing a car window, stealing alcohol and stealing money from his work colleague Shirley Carter (Linda Henry). The gang then congratulate Liam for passing, by holding a party in his honour. Liam tries to leave the party after being warned off by a girl he knows, but the gang stop him leaving so he hides in the bathroom. As Kane confronts Liam, the police arrive and the entire gang, including Liam, are arrested. They are all released without charge, but the gang blame Liam. When Bianca arrives and sees them all together, Little Chris stabs Liam and they run away. Ava and Dexter then discover the gang have trashed their flat. The gang members are arrested again but as they deny any involvement in the stabbing, they are released on bail.

Liam receives death threats from the gang via text message. Liam's young sister Tiffany Butcher (Maisie Smith) receives an MP3 player from Ali, so Liam tells Bianca and shows her the text message. Tiffany identifies Ali to the police, who then start to patrol the streets outside the school and the Butchers' home. The next day, a brick is thrown through the kitchen window. Liam decides to stay at home while everyone else is out, locking all the doors and unplugging the phone, but then finds Kane sitting at the kitchen table.

Development

 * http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p016d5p0

It was reported on 4 February 2013 that EastEnders was working with the charity Comic Relief on a storyline "to highlight the growing problem of teen involvement in gangs" and that Liam Butcher (James Forde) would become involved with the gang, leaving his mother Bianca frantic with worry. Digital Spy said Liam "[goes] off the rails when he gets involved with a gang in an upcoming storyline." They said the storyline would run "for a while", and Forde had posted on Twitter about being "very busy" at work with "great stuff coming up". The plot was called "hard-hitting", and it was reported that Bianca would try to get Liam to choose between the gang and his family, though his choice remained to be seen. EastEnders undertook research into why teenagers become involved in gangs and the effects the it can have.

It is the second time the soap has worked with the charity, following 2011's storyline of Whitney Dean's (Shona McGarty) sexual exploitation. EastEnders' executive producer said, "We are delighted to be working with Comic Relief once again. This subject matter is something which is touching the lives of so many young people in London and other cities around the UK. We have taken the opportunity to see the impact from a mother's perspective, and Patsy Palmer gives a powerful performance of a mother doing all she can to protect her son. The telling of this story has also given us the chance to explore the reasons behind the attraction of gangs for teenagers." Additionally, Judith McNeill of Comic Relief said the storyline should be equally important as Whitney's in helping people to understand why young people are vulnerable to becoming involved in gangs.

Filming
The estate scenes were filmed on a real estate in North London. A number of stunts were filmed there.

Gang members
The credited members of the gang are Kane (Harry Rafferty), Little Chris (Rizwan Shebani), Renzo (Chase Willoughby), Ali (Leanne Dunstan) and Tayo (Youssef Berouain). Two other uncredited gang members are Dylan (Louis Kyriacou) and Jordan (Tre Medley).

Kane is the leader.

Rafferty described Kane as "quite a different individual", who wants to see how much the gang can get Liam to do. Heat magazine called Kane "scary", while Radio Times said he was "intimidating".

Reception
Kate White from Inside Soap said the storyline was "brilliantly acted" but failed to show what "the great appeal of gang life was supposed to have been", saying "It seemed to be all dingy bedsits and general skulking about."

When Kane returned in April 2013, RTÉ wrote that the final image of Kane sitting at the Butchers' kitchen table was "chilling".

Filipa Jodelka from The Guardian said the storyline was "zeitgeisty", saying this is "bad news". She said, ""This past month, a swarm of the most urban-looking kids from stage school, plus a grown man—presumably the result of a horrific accident whereby the genes of a status dog were crossed with those of a failed grime MC—have been raising merry hell. They got off at the wrong stop on the District Line, performed some thuggery, and enticed Liam into their fold with the kind of slang that suggests someone's been carefully studying Urban Dictionary. A little insultingly, what makes them real baddies and not just common or garden wayward youths is that they reside in 'the estate'. Bianca dealt with her son's new-found criminality in her typical style: calm, measured, and with a great deal of thought. Only joking, it was like someone stuck a pair of wheels and a silver puffa on a rape alarm and pushed it down a steep hill. Bianca shops at Primark and has quite a gob on her, which apparently more than qualifies her to quash inner-city gang activity. Historically, a Jackson venturing on to an estate to "sort it" doesn't end well; last time it happened, Carol ended up beneath her son's best pal, and Bianca found herself peering through prison bars. Not that this stopped our B, though as soon as she ran shrieking down walkways, Liam got himself stabbed right up. Thankfully he's fine, though I can't help but feel this all could have been avoided if someone had just bought him a cap a bit less naff than the one he's been wearing since 2008.""