The Firm (EastEnders) The Firm (EastEnders) The Firm is a fictional gangland organisation in the BBC soap opera "EastEnders". In late 1985, members of The Firm made local headlines when they were deemed unofficially responsible for putting Kenny Malone, a local badboy, through a sausage machine. Den Watts (Leslie Grantham), who attended school with two of the Vinnicombe brothers, The Firm's tyrannical and elusive leaders, threatened Nick Cotton (John Altman) with the gang unless he left Walford, following his blackmailing Kathy Beale (Gillian Taylforth). The menfolk of Albert Square thought it was a bluff until Den revealed the truth to Tony Carpenter (Oscar
The Banned (EastEnders) been described as "an horrific scenario where fact and soap merged in messy fashion to give the fictional band a real-life hit with the appalling Something Out Of Nothing." The songs, which "were recorded when the show was riding high on huge ratings success", have not aged well in critical opinion. A critic for "The Guardian" newspaper has commented that "The Banned" was "EastEnders"' "Eighties bid to add a pop angle to their socially conscious template", which "went down like the proverbial ton of bricks". The critic goes on to say: "Worse was the record; an acne-scarred 'song' of no