Flashback episodes have been featured on EastEnders since 1988 and help to give storylines more of a backstory and add extra details for the viewers at home. In total there have been 5 special flashback episodes that were shown outside of the show and 28 that exist within episodes of the show.
One-off specials[]
| # | Name | Date | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CivvyStreet | 26 December 1988 | Lou and Albert Beale celebrate their marriage in 1942 and Albert is conscripted for war. The episode shows Lou's life as she navigates looking after her children until she is reunited with her husband. Ethel Skinner is also present as Lou's friend. |
| 2 | Dot's Story | 2 January 2003 | The episode followed Dot Branning to Wales to visit the family she stayed with during World War II. Through a series of flashbacks, we see Dot being evacuated, and her experiences of evacuation. Her guardians Gwen and Will featured in the episode. |
| 3 | Slaters in Detention | 10 November 2003 | Kat, Zoe, Lynne and Little Mo are dressed up in school uniform for a local disco. They end up in a police cell where they reflect on the events of their lives, such as Kat revealing that Zoe was her daughter and Little Mo's marriage to Trevor. |
| 4 | Pat and Mo | 1 April 2004 | Pat and Mo meet at the grave of Pat's brother and Mo's husband, Jimmy Harris, and reminisce about old times. Through a series of flashbacks, it is revealed how their feud was caused. |
| 5 | Bianca & Terry - The Beginning | 8 November 2013 | This episode shows how Bianca Butcher met Terry Spraggan in Manchester and how they came to be in a relationship before both landing in Walford. |
1990s[]
| # | Episode | Characters involved | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 27 March 1990 | Diane Butcher Disa O'Brien |
Frank goes to Kings Cross to meet Diane. She does not turn up but Frank is unaware that Diane is stood a few metres away standing at the side of a ticket station. She is dishevelled, having been on the streets for the past 3 months. In flashbacks to January 1990, Diane is seen living on the streets of London where she meets northerner Disa O'Brien and her friend Jackson. |
| 2 | 29 March 1990 |
2000s[]
| # | Episode | Characters involved | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 5 October 2001 | Kat Slater Viv Slater |
Kat is in intensive care and a flashback to when she was younger shows her trying to tell her mother, Viv, about her uncle raping her. |
| 4 | 11 November 2005 | Nana Moon William Moon |
Alfie and Nana travel to Normandy to visit William's grave. Nana is very frail, and Alfie struggles to cope, especially when he finds a letter from Nana of a list of the things she wants to be sorted for her funeral.
A flashback shows a young Victoria Moon gazing out of a window with a blackout tape. She recalls the memories of her first meeting William Moon, their courtship, their marriage, and later the birth of their baby Alfred in an air-raid shelter as bombs fall like rain around them. |
| 5 | 25 December 2006 - Part 1 | Pauline Fowler Lou Beale Michelle Fowler Mark Fowler Arthur Fowler Martin Fowler |
The first scene of this episode showed a collection of photographs from Pauline Fowler's family album. Over this was various audio clippings from previous episodes from the characters displayed on the photographs. The following quotes were taken from: 19 February 1985 (Lou Beale discovers that Pauline is pregnant with her third child); 19 September 1985 (sixteen-year-old Michelle Fowler tells Pauline that she is pregnant); 26 July 1988 (Lou gathers the family together to say her final goodbyes); 26 December 1991 (Mark Fowler tells Pauline and Arthur Fowler that he is HIV Positive); 20 May 1996 (Pauline protests Arthur's innocence after a false imprisonment); 14 February 2003 (Mark tells Pauline that he's leaving the Square to die); 22 December 2006 (Martin Fowler disowns his mother). |
2010s[]
| # | Episode | Characters involved | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 19 February 2015 | Ian Beale Jane Beale Lucy Beale Peter Beale Cindy Williams Bobby Beale Lee Carter Whitney Dean Max Branning Lauren Branning Billy Mitchell Masood Ahmed Jay Brown Ronnie Mitchell Charlie Cotton Liam Butcher Ben Mitchell Jake Stone Denise Fox Rainie Cross Abi Branning Arthur 'Fat Boy' Chubb Roxy Mitchell Vincent Hubbard |
A flashback to Good Friday 2014 sees a build up of events leads to the death of Lucy as Ian's up to no good. Meanwhile, Ben has returned from prison and Ronnie meets a stranger. |
| 7 | 25 December 2018 | Kat Moon Lynne Hobbs Little Mo Mitchell Charlie Slater Viv Slater Harry Slater Belinda Peacock |
The beginning of this episode contained a flashback scene of a previous Slater Family Christmas in 1978, featuring younger versions of Charlie Slater (portrayed by Richie Dayshe), Harry Slater, Lynne Slater (portrayed by Isabelle Jones), Belinda Slater, Kat Slater and a baby Little Mo Slater and unseen character Viv Slater. |