Eastenders: 26 February 2009

We're expected to believe a lot when we watch soaps: that a group of Metallica fans would descend on the Rovers Return when Becky is working alone, or that Maria is now sympathetic toward Tony Gordon (in Coronation Street of course). As ever, Eastenders has to go that step further and venture into what can only be described as surrealism. I'm referring to the impossible expectation that we the viewers could possibly ever believe ... that Ian Beale is preparing to 'celebrate' his fortieth birthday. He has been fifty for at least twenty years, and yet here he is having a mid-life crisis when he should be having a party for the fact that he now gets his telly licence for free. This is just too much. I can just about accept that Patrick is ashamed of being caught up in a riot (fifty years ago, when Ian first set up the fruit and veg stall), but Ian being forty, never.