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EastEnders tackles antisemitism with storyline about vandalised Jewish grave
Character of Dr Harold Legg, who is Jewish, is confronted by hateful graffiti as he visited his parents' grave
The BBC’s EastEnders has become the first soap to tackle the issue of antisemitism, in a new storyline introduced this week.
The programme has used the character of Dr Harold Legg, thought to be the only identifiably Jewish role in British soaps, to address the issue. Dr Legg is played by the 92-year-old Jewish actor Leonard Fenton.
Thursday’s programme showed the elderly doctor visiting his mother’s grave in a Jewish cemetery, together with “Dot Cotton”, the role played by June Brown, who is 91.
Dr Legg is explaining to Dot the custom of leaving a stone on a grave, when the pair, to their horror, see graffiti and a swastika daubed on Esther Legg’s tombstone.
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