There was a lot of fuss in the build-up of Friday’s Eastenders (BBC One, Friday, 19 February, 8pm). It was the 25th birthday of the show and it was to be shown live. From a TV critic point of view, that’s an exciting notion – ER did something similar and it was all very thrilling. However, what was it like to watch?

Walford, as we know, is a place of staggering gloom. Thinking about that particular pocket of London, it’s difficult to think of much in the way of joy. Probably the most famous bit of happiness the show gave us – Frank Butcher bollock naked but for a bow-tie – still managed to make everyone weep uncontrollably.

However, from the first show, Eastenders set the stall out for tearshed. All that time ago, the first episode saw Den, Arthur and Ali bursting into the flat of Reg Cox to gawp at his corpse.

Now, after the live show, two cadavers hang in the ether around Albert Square. Archie’s ghost has loomed large (after he got his skull cracked open on Christmas Day) for a while… leaving fans wondering who the bloody hell had done it. Turns out it was Stacey who now has the thrill of having seen two cracked bonces pissing blood now as Bradley fell off a roof and bled everywhere in the live episode. Quite why, I couldn’t work out.

You see, I didn’t fully understand what was going on because I’m only a passive Eastenders viewer. I tune in when there’s nothing else on or I’ve got wind of something big that’s about to happen. I just can’t stomach constant cockney tears. My default Northern setting is to shrug at London-suffering.

As such, I tuned in to the live episode in the hope that someone would make a monumental balls-up of it. I wanted it to cut to a scene and see Samantha Janus idly chatting to the crew, unaware she’d been cued… “You seen George Lamb knocking around here? The dick. I wish he’d go and fu… oh, Roxy! I didn’t kill Dad – alright?!”

Anyone tuning in to witness failure would have been disappointed. There were some cock ups for sure (the Jack Branning bloke fluffed a line early doors and the odd shot wobbled like George Best at breakfast)… but really, the whole thing worked quite well once you acclimatised to the liveness.

Whilst it was in no way as ambitious as the live ER from years ago, you have to take your hats off to those involved for pulling the whole thing off. Sure it was clunky and far-fetched… but this is Eastenders we’re talking about here.

Some segments were actually improved by the live situation, notably, Stacey and Max’s reaction to Bradley’s death. While the crew clearly hoiked the stunt-man’s crash mat out of the way off-camera, this left our actors a lot of time to scream and cry in, making for a rather pleasingly unsettling minute of grief. If I cared more I’d probably say it was quite powerful.

As a result, I think Eastenders should do a yearly live show. That’d be fun… not only that, it’d mean that the other soaps would have to up their game and be more inventive too. That can only be a good thing for TV, provided it doesn’t descend into gimmicky rubbish.