User:Kelvin 101/Pat and Mo

"Pat and Mo" (sometimes called "Pat and Mo – Ashes to Ashes") is a special episode of the British television soap opera EastEnders, broadcast on BBC One on 1 April 2004.

Plot
This episode reveals what caused the feud between Pat Evans and Mo Harris that lasted until Pat's death. Pat and Mo meet at the grave of Pat's brother and Mo's husband, Jimmy, and reminisce about old times through a series of flashbacks to the 1960s. Mo's brother, Stan Porter also appeared in the episode.

Cast and characters

 * Pam St. Clement as Pat Evans
 * Laila Morse as Mo Harris
 * Derek Martin as Charlie Slater
 * Sam Kelly as Stan
 * Emma Cooke as Young Pat
 * Lorraine Stanley as Young Mo
 * Callum Dixon as Young Stan
 * Alex King as Jimmy Harris
 * Vas Constanti as Tony Cattani
 * Natasya Rush as Young Viv
 * David Durham as Mr. Hagan
 * Uncredited as Mr Roscoe

Background
"Pat and Mo" is one of EastEnders' "bubbles", part of Mal Young's (BBC's controller of drama serials) plan to expand the EastEnders brand. Young confirmed in January 2004 that the episode had been filmed, and said, "We look at them through the eyes of their characters now and we use flashback. I don't think it's lazy spin-off. It's giving you an understanding of, and a history to, characters who have been on screen, in Pat's case, for over 10 years. Hopefully, the viewers will enjoy and value that." The one-off episode was officially announced on 10 February 2004, after St. Clement signed a new two-year contract to play Pat in EastEnders. It was reported by Digital Spy that the episode "will reveal Pat and Mo's lives in the swinging [19]60's London and explain why the pair didn't speak for 30 years. Mo married Pat's brother Jimmy, starting a rift between the two." It was confirmed that the episode would feature Pat and Mo in the present day and in flashback, played by Cook and Stanley respectively. Stanley has since appeared as two other characters in EastEnders, Thelma Bragg in 2016 and Karen Taylor in 2017.

Reception
Ian Hyland of the Sunday Mirror reviewed the episode and said that EastEnders has "[failed] to learn from previous spectacularly burst soap bubbles" when it produced "Pat And Mo". He said that the episode contained "many flaws" and added that "one thing stuck out [was] Young Pat. Because it was hard to look at young Pat (Emma Cooke) without thinking 'I definitely would'. There have been many references over the years to Pat being a bit of a looker in her youth but surely this was stretching things too far. Still, you can't blame the casting department for taking an afternoon off." He wondered what the point of the episode was, and said, "The closing credits were more like a roll of shame—fittingly accompanied by a blast of "Who's Sorry Now?" Answer? All of them, I hope. It was hard not to think the whole thing had gathered dust on the BBC shelves for a year before being snuck into the schedules at the last minute," pointing out continuity errors such as Charlie still driving his cab in the episode despite losing his licence in EastEnders earlier in 2014 and "The fact that Pat and Mo were gathering for the 25th anniversary of Jimmy's death—his gravestone said he died in 1978". He called the episode a "half-baked, context-lacking mess" and opined that the writers should have come up with a "decent" storyline for Pat and Mo in EastEnders insstead of "wasting time [...] on daft bubbles like this".

Ratings
Official ratings from the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board showed that "Pat and Mo" was watched by 5.56million viewers, and was the 16th most watched episode on BBC One that week. Whilst this special episode did not achieve similar viewership to the other episodes of EastEnders that week (13.01million, 12.50million, 12.01million and 11.71million), it did gain a higher viewership compared to other popular programmes, such as Ground Force (5.34million), Crimewatch UK (5.08million) and A Question of Sport (4.98million).