Past tense. (Apologies in advance for any typos - bad keyboard and limited time - also, I'll try to put across a coherent argument without letting emotions get in the way, but I am really angry about this (for reasons I'll explain later)) It is incorrect English to say that events happening over a 22 year span all happened at once (i.e. in the present). For example, to say that "EastEnders begins" is incorrect. EastEnders began. In 1985. The article as it is at the moment (in present tense) reads like EastEnders is a film - with a set end, which we know it is not - it keeps running. It is my strong belief that events that happened in the past in something that runs in real time should also be written in real time (i.e. past tense for things that hapened in the past) - an argument that I have seen all three editors above use at different times. One of the reasons I am angry about this is that certain editors seem to have such a disregard for our language and the way it should be written, that they are willing to forget all about grammar and write this article (which, in my opinion, and as stated by Gungadin elsewhere) is harder to read than it was before, in past tense - just to get this article to FA status - how glory-seeking is that!? Don't get me wrong, it'd be great for this article to get to FA status, but to totally forget about good grammar just because the policy pushers (may I add that WP:TENSE is a guideline, not a policy) say that it needs to be in present tense juts takes the biscuit. WP:TENSE was obviously decided without taking into account real time series - something myself and Elonka have raised on various talk pages to try and change this, but as soon as I have gone away it seems everyone has changed their minds and are happy to have this article written in bad, hard to read English, just to get it to FA status. I say we should have it in readable tense - past - and screw tha FA status. If the voters can't see this is better in past tense, at least we all know it is deserving of FA status anyway - AND readable. -''''''(contribs)