EastEnders plots new teen pregnancy

Producers at Albert Square are planning to liven Walford up with a new teen pregnancy plot.

10:38 19 July 2004

Producers at Albert Square are planning to liven Walford up with a new teen pregnancy plot.

A 13-year-old schoolgirl, already seven months pregnant, will arrive with her family, the Sun has reported.

Set to begin in September, setting things up nicely for a Christmas climax, the new kid on the block plot is eerily similar to the Weatherfield storyline that saw Sarah Platt give birth at 14.

Soap insiders claim the family are so raw they will make the Slaters look like the Beckhams.

"They are a real bunch of scruffs related to wheeler-dealer Mickey Miller," a source told The Sun.

"They arrive with a flea-bitten Irish wolfhound in a battered old ice cream van driven by Mickey. The first out of the van is the pregnant 13-year-old and within minutes she is the talk of the Queen Vic."

The storyline is an attempt to claw back ground from ITV's Coronation Street and Emmerdale.

In recent weeks viewing figures for EastEnders have slumped from 30 million at its peak to less than 6.3 million - a record low.

But hard-hitting storylines have been losing out to the more light-hearted offerings from Weatherfield - with EastEnders not even nominated at last year's Baftas.