A Tube train with no graffiti in Sadiq Khan's London? EastEnders fans mock show for featuring spotless Underground carriage
The soap opera has filmed multiple scenes in a London Underground carriage this year but with its sparkling interior, fans say it was far too pristine to reflect the actual Tube
By GRANT TUCKER, ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
Published: 00:08 GMT, 28 December 2025 | Updated: 00:22 GMT, 28 December 2025
With its endless murders, affairs and characters coming back from the dead, EastEnders is known for being a little far-fetched at times.
But in one instance, BBC bosses have been forced to concede that the show stretched the boundaries of reality too far.
The soap opera has filmed multiple scenes in a London Underground carriage this year. But with its sparkling interior, EastEnders fans complained that the new set was far too pristine to reflect the actual Tube.
‘You know it’s fictional when the tube train is this clean. No gum on the seat, graffiti, the lights work and the floor is clean,’ one viewer moaned earlier this year.
Another said: ‘Cleanest tube carriage in all of London!’
The Mail on Sunday can now reveal that the show’s new boss Ben Wadey, who took over as executive producer in June, has listened to fans and ordered the crew to paint the carriage with three ‘tags’ – a stylized signature of a graffiti artist.
An insider on the show – set in fictional Walford in the east end of the capital – said: ‘Every time we used the new carriage set, viewers would write in saying they wished the Tube was that clean. It was honestly becoming a bit of a running joke with even the cast laughing about it.
'So Ben instructed staff to dirty the carriage to make it more realistic of what public transport is like in London.’
The soap opera has filmed multiple scenes in a London Undergroundcarriage this year. But with its sparkling interior, EastEnders fans complained that the new set was far too pristine to reflect the actual Tube
However, the show’s new boss Ben Wadey, who took over as executive producer in June, has listened to fans and ordered the crew to paint the carriage with three ‘tags’ – a stylized signature of a graffiti artist
London Mayor Sadiq Khan on board the first Night Tube train on the Victoria line in August 2016 (left). A man sits in a Bakerloo Line carriage covered in graffiti on June 16, 2025 (right)
As Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan has also been chairman of Transport for London since 2016. It recently changed its policy so that London Underground carriages with interior graffiti are no longer being removed from service – despite a ‘significant’ rise in vandalism.
Whereas trains used to be taken out of daily service to remove any graffiti, carriages are now only cleaned overnight when the Tube is not running.