Louise Berridge
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Louise Berridge is a British television producer and script editor.
Before Berridge had any television work, she was a teacher.
She started as script editor on Granada Television medical drama Medics, her big break came in 1993 when she became a script editor for BBC1 soap EastEnders later going on to become the series story editor, where she worked on the highly successfully storyline "Sharongate".
In 1995, she left the popular soap to become a producer. She started as a producer with video drama, doing two series of Staying Alive, and then moved to film drama. Her credits include Messiah, McCready and Daughter, Ambassador II, and an adaptation of Wuthering Heights.
In January 2002, Berridge returned to EastEnders when she was appointed Series Producer of the show, and four months later she was promoted to Executive Producer.
During her time there, she successfully introduced popular characters, such as Alfie Moon, Dennis Rickman and Chrissie Watts. However, the number of successful characters were outnumbered by the number of failures, which Berridge, as the show's boss, was responsible for, such as the Ferreira family, Andy Hunter, Juley Smith and Spencer Moon.
She was however responsible for some ratings success stories such as the Alfie/Kat love storyline, "Janine kills Barry", Jamie Mitchell's death and the return of one of the greatest soap icons, "Dirty" Den Watts who had been presumed dead for fourteen years. His return in late 2003 was watched by 17 million viewers, putting EastEnders back at number one in the rating war with the ITV's rival soap Coronation Street. But the high ratings didn't last and Berridge soon found out bringing Den back from the dead was a mistake when the off-screen activities of the actor who played him, Leslie Grantham, began to make negative headlines in the tabloid press.
On 21 September 2004 Berridge quit following massive criticism of the show. The following day the programme received its lowest ever ratings (6.2 million) when ITV scheduled an hour long episode of its usually less-popular soap, Emmerdale, against it. Emmerdale was watched by 8.1 million people. However, EastEnders was at a disadvantage as the ITV show had began half an hour earlier, although this did not stop the press from reporting that viewers were bored with implausible and ill-thought EastEnders storylines.
When leaving EastEnders, her immediate superior Mal Young (at the time BBC Controller of Continuing Drama Series) said Berridge "will now be involved in a major new drama project".
In February 2006, a man named Marc Tufano was jailed for 5 months for sending her over 100 abusive e-mails. Tufano, aged 38, targeted Louise Berridge after she rejected his story idea for the BBC soap. Tufano, who had previously played the part of Reg Cox in the EastEnders: Civvy Street special in 1988, branded Berridge "Miss Fancy Knickers" in one message and threatened to get her sacked. He also set up an e-mail account in her name. He admitted sending the e-mails and was jailed for harassment.[citation needed]
[edit] External links
- Louise Berridge becomes EastEnders Executive Producer
- Walford Gazette: Louise Berridge Interview
- BBC News: EastEnders producer defends soap
- Louise Berridge steps down as Executive Producer of EastEnders
- Louise Berridge at the Internet Movie Database
