Teringer An Exercise In Nonsense

Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Justina The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

bunnies4 In 1992 when Eldorado first aired on the BBC I watched it avidly. Yes, some of the characters seemed a little "outrageous" and maybe some of the acting could have been better. However, I was hooked, especially as we were off to Spain on holiday in the August. Sadly the BBC axed the show, which was a pity.Three and half years ago, we retired to Spain and now live in a very mixed community of Europeans, ex-pats included. Oh brother! Believe me I have met virtually every character featured in Eldorado, as outrageous as some of them appeared. Whoever researched the program originally did a pretty good job, how sad that it wasn't appreciated at the time. So real is it that our community has now been re-titled Eldorado by our visiting family. Wish the episodes were available on DVD!

myles-campbell "Are you ready for Eldorado?" This was the immortal line used by the BBC to herald their new thrice-weekly Spanish sunshine soap 'Eldorado' back in 1992. And much-heralded it was! 'Eldorado' was everywhere back in early 1992, in the papers, on TV trailers and in magazines. It was to be set in the purpose-built fictional Spanish resort of Los Barcos and would feature the "hedonism, heartbreak and deep-dark secrets" of a group of ex-pats and their fellow Europeans and would be the BBC's crowning glory, a sun, sea and sangria "supersoap". Were we ready for Eldorado? After enormous trumpeting, it looked like although 7 million of us were indeed ready for 'Eldorado', the show itself clearly wasn't ready for us. The flaws were unmistakable. Firstly, producer Julia Smith (who gave the BBC the hugely successful 'Eastenders' in 1985) had agreed to bring the start date forward from September to July. This created numerous problems. For a start the beautiful multi-million pound set would not be fully finished and it seemed foolish to have spent so many millions on such a great set design by Keith Harris, only to hurry ahead without allowing for it to be finished to the standard that such investment warranted. Not only this but summer viewing figures are always lower than those in winter so it seemed strange to launch a sunshine soap at a time when it would have the least appeal-in the summer! Julia Smith hired many unknown actors in a bid to make them stars but most were wooden and had to be axed after only a few months, notably the notorious Kathy Pitkin as Fizz. Writers were not allowed to see each others scripts which made continuity extremely difficult, another rule of Smith's, and because the set wasn't complete, sound in areas such as the Centro Commercial was awful. To top it all many scenes were conducted in foreign languages, which alienated viewers, story lines were poor and with the BBC ordering 3 episodes per week instead of the initial 2, the show simply couldn't cope. With no time for rehearsals, read-through's or help with acting, 'Eldorado' was not the "supersoap" promised by the BBC. Only 3 weeks in and it was in crisis, viewing figures were tumbling to 3 million, the papers slated it daily and it was fast becoming a £10 million failure. Something had to give. After only a few months, Julia Smith was axed from her post as producer and replaced by Corinne Hollingworth. Almost immediately the show began to turn around. Characters such as Dieter, Allan, Gavin and Snowy were axed in a cast cull while Marchell Betak was replaced as Trine Svendsen by Clare Wilkie. Exciting story lines such as the secret life and subsequent death of Javier, the attack on bar owner Joy and the difficulties of alcoholic Drew, were introduced. Scripts improved enormously, the sound was perfected and there was more focus on the experienced actors. New characters such as Natalie and 'Razor' proved a hit and by late 1992, 'Eldorado' was quickly becoming the hit that the BBC had promised. It had begun to find a direction, an identity, it wasn't too serious or too light-hearted but a mixture of both. It was becoming a quality production dealing with the highs and lows and emotions of people who no longer belonged in the UK and who had to build a new sense of who they were in an alien European community. It was relevant, very different and a soap that was giving us a new perspective. It was an experiment with the genre of soap opera that was starting to pay off. 'Eldorado' was being networked in several European countries, public opinion was changing and viewing figures were growing rapidly, ultimately matching those of 'EastEnders'. 'Eldorado' was finding its feet. However, just as things were on the up, Jonathan Powell was replaced by Alan Yentob as director of BBC1 and within a week of his appointment, he made the shock announcement that 'Eldorado' was to be axed. Yentob disliked the show and was largely unaware of its recent improvements. It seems he felt that it hadn't achieved the success expected of it after 8 months. Indeed it hadn't, but that was because the BBC had expected far too much; an instant hit. Soaps need time to grow and develop and no soap is an immediate success. Like 'Eldorado', 'EastEnders' was no major success story after its first 8 months and had numerous teething troubles. Unlike 'Eldorado', 'EastEnders' was given a chance and just look how it turned out. By March 1993, 'Eldorado' was destined to emulate the success of its sister soap 'EastEnders' but it would never have the chance.'Eldorado'was going to get there, watching some of the late episodes alone proves that, as do the high viewing figures it was achieving towards the end. But it was not to be. On July 9th 1993, we said goodbye to some great soap characters such as Freddie, Gwen, Joy, Trish and Marcus not forgetting the likes of Drew, Isabelle, Pilar and Nessa (the first disabled soap character who was played by a real-life disabled person). Far from justifying the criticisms leveled at it by the tabloids, 'Eldorado' went out in style with an excellent final episode that demonstrated just how far it had come. A massive 11 million people watched as Marcus and Pilar sailed off into the night and those blue credits rolled for the last time to Simon May's fantastic arrangement of the theme tune. In the end, we were ready for more 'Eldorado' just when the show had become ready for us. Isn't it ironic then that we had to say "Adios Eldorado".

chris_myers90 When in 1992 the BBC decided it needed a second soap to relieve the burden on 'Eastenders' to be the networks solo rival to ITV'S 'Coronation Street' and 'Emmerdale' the novel idea of setting it in the sunnier climes of Spain amongst British ex-pats seemed to give the show a unique selling point. Many shows come and go but the fatal blow to this soap opera may have been the original fanfare with which it was launched. The BBC spent £10,000,000 on preliminary sets and production but upon first glance the hugely anticipated drama seemed to have little in the way of story lines or characterisation. There were production problems with the sound that made the show at times impossible to watch.The hype that the show had been given and the fact that it was funded by the licence payer meant that the British press leapt upon it and it became a favourite object of derision. Initially encouraging viewing figures tumbled to only 3 million per episode and ten months after its fanfare debut the BBC pulled the plug and cancelled the show.It is well known that the quality of the show and the viewing figures were climbing towards and the end and that perhaps the show was finally starting to catch on. However, the damage had long been done. The media had slated it and tainted it as a joke and from this there was no return for the BBC. The massively expensive sets were mothballed and are now a museum for intrepid tourists and curious TV fans. The shown came to an end satisfactorily and somewhat gracefully (for otherwise see Crossroads #3) but one can only imagine how devastating it was for the actors (other victims of the shows bad initial production) and we can only estimate how much money was poured down the drain on the massively hyped and massively expensive white elephant.

chuffnobbler With the terrible reviews and screaming front-page headlines it got at the time Eldorado didn't stand a chance. The series was launched in too much of a hurry with too great a fanfare, leading to very high hopes for its fairly poor first episodes. After a little while, with a few of the huge cast removed and a more definite sense of direction, Eldorado became the best soap on British TV. But the damage was done, and it never really gained the place in public affections that it needed. The Beeb pulled the plug after a year.Eldorado, by the time it finished, was absolutely unique. It had found its place in the world, and knew its direction. It was expending a lot of energy exploring the nature of people who leave their motherland and o to live in the sun. So much was revealed about the true nature of ex-pats, and some characters who seemed a bit faceless at the beginning were revealed as far more complex once they were given a bit of screen time to themselves. In Freddie Martin, Eldorado gave us one of TV's greatest gay characters: his reunion with his longlost daughter, Natalie, and his silent grief at the death of his secret boyfriend, Javier, were immaculately written and performed.Eldorado was able to give great depth and involvement to the idea of culture clash, and to highlight what life in the "new" Europe was really like (boo-hiss baddie Marcus Tandy calls German Dieter "Adolf" at one point). There were characters and relationships never seen on TV, before or since (the Leducs' open marriage, modern Spanish women breaking away from traditional Catholic families, gay parents), and plenty of imagination given to thoroughly original storylines.After the dodgy beginning, Eldorado became the most unique TV show that the BBC had ever tried. Ten years on, I still think it's a shame they didn't have the confidence to carry it through. Mind you, the last episode was a corker.