Monday, 1 September 2008

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Viewers' anger at violence in EastEnders

Soap gets complaints about pre-watershed stabbing

Jase Dyer was stabbed to death my members of his old gang in EastEnders

EastEnders received 156 complaints over gruesome scenes in which one of its characters was stabbed to death.

Audiences saw Jase Dyer (Stephen Lord, 35) being attacked in last Thursday's episode. But some viewers found the violence too much before the 9pm watershed.

‘My wife was physically sick and my son of 13 was brought to tears,’ a viewer wrote on the BBC Point Of View website.

But BBC1 has defended its decision to air the scenes.

‘Whilst issues of violence and knife crime may be in the news currently, they were not glamorised or glorified in any way within this episode.

'Rather we saw the devastating consequences of such actions and the clear message was that crime does not pay,’ a spokesman says.

Holly Arnold