My friend’s neighbour in Cambridge is an EastEnders’ scriptwriter. I was told that he heads off to Cambridge University Library each day to draw on his creative juices, away from the distractions of his demanding young kids, where he sits in the midst of one of the world’s greatest collections of  books and manuscripts.

I used their fabulous facilities once, surrounded by rows of towering, heaving bookshelves, when I researched a feature on the poet Rupert Brooke. I was breathless with excitement when I read his  letters which were in their collection; it was an amazing experience to hold them in my own hands and pore over his innermost thoughts in his own writing which have been immortalised.

This writer is apparently one of 14 EastEnders scriptwriters who files his work off to London. Could such a ghastly plot have sprung from the bosom of academic excellence, a stone’s throw from the university’s cloistered colleges? I’m not sure if he had been working on the soap’s controversial storyline of the cot death and baby swap which has resulted in 6,000 complaints to the BBC; feelings are so intense that the actress playing Ronnie Branning who swapped her dead baby for her friend Kat’s healthy son is now being abused in the street by angry public.

A cot death is the most heartbreaking situation which can happen to anyone, and the way EastEnders handled it was clearly intended to sensationalise and shock to boost their TV ratings. It could have been handled in a sensitive and realistic way which bereaved families could comprehend, as well as educate; terrible things happen in life, but surely no woman would really steal her friend’s baby this way.
The storyline went too far with the baby swap.

And why hasn’t anybody noticed the differences between the two babies?  I thought the dead baby had a small club foot which the other one did not.  Surely this would have been spotted during the post mortem. And why don’t mothers remember what their newborn babies look like as they all have their own distinguishing features which would be remembered?

When this script writer returns to his hallowed university library, I hope he can think of a way out of this dreadful saga that has angered bereaved parents throughout the country and is plain unbelievable.