We’ve spent the last year celebrating the numerous soap anniversaries which took place in 2010: 50 years of Coronation Street in TV Heaven, a visit from the cast and crew of Hollyoaks, and there was even a display commemorating 25 years of EastEnders.
Unfortunately the museum’s year of soap has come to an end. It’s time to carefully pack up Arthur’s bench of tears, Bianca’s wedding dress and Sonia’s trumpet and return them to the EastEnders prop and costume department. All the items will now be carefully returned to Elstree, where EastEnders is filmed.
It will be sad to say goodbye to the Queen Vic bust and Pat Butcher’s earrings, but we’re looking forward to seeing some old favourites from our collection back on display again—Zippy and George from Rainbow, the PlaySchool toys and Gordon the Gopher all feature in the display. A selection of Gerry Anderson puppets have also been brought out of the archive to join the other children’s favourites.
I hope visitors will enjoy seeing a special item from the collection which hasn’t been on public display before. I’m a huge fan of Shaun the Sheep and this character from the programme is a wonderful new addition to the museum’s collection. The simple charm of the character and the attention to detail on the bale of hay are just typical of Aardman’s wonderful work.