One of EastEnders' longest-serving script writers isn't a real person.
Steve McFadden
The BBC One soap's former executive producer Matthew Robinson has revealed Julia Honour, who has penned numerous scripts since 1998, is in fact a pseudonym used when one of the show's chief scribes has to rewrite a "dreadfully poor" script.
He wrote: "'Julia Honour' was the authorship pseudonym appended to a script when a member of the editorial staff had to take over and completely rewrite a dreadfully poor - and thus unsaveable - early draft from a commissioned writer.
"The practice had started just before I joined and has, I believe (though I can't swear to it) continued to this day.
"So far as I can tell, the lovely Julia has penned (saved) 54 scripts since early 1998. (sic)"
During his exec producer reign on the soap - which stars the likes of Steve McFadden as Phil Mitchell - Matthew came face-to-face with the other script writers before requesting a meeting with Julia only to find out she wasn't actually real.
Writing on his blog Walford Web, he added: "The script editors I'd inherited smirked conspiratorially whenever I asked how soon I'd be exchanging pleasantries with this Spectral Scribbler. "Don't ask." they'd say. "You don't want to know."
"With many other things on my mind, I didn't pursue it at first, particularly as the lovely Julia's scripts weren't half bad. In fact, they were pretty damned good. Certainly in the top 20% as far competence went.
"Then I noticed something odd. Julia Honour's scripts always started with Draft 3 - Drafts 1 and 2 were always missing. (In those days, EE scripts went to up six drafts, all of which would arrive in an almost continuous flow of mind-numbing regularity, stacking up on a sturdy set of shelves just inside my office door.)
"Not being able to bear the suspense after a month or so, I cornered the Senior Editor and demanded she arrange a meeting for me with Ms Honour. Eyes to the floor, she admitted the truth. (sic)"
The name Julia Honour is thought to be a tribute to the show's co-creator Julia Smith.
Tagged in Steve McFadden