Now I am the first to admit that I am not a regular viewer of the show, but it seems to me that this is a case of the BBC being hauled across the coals because it is guilty of injecting excessive realism into its script - not something that as far as I can see they are often accused of!
Over the years, there have been several real life cases of distraught mothers who have lost babies snatching infants and passing them off as their own.
I am not condoning this behaviour in any way, but these women are in deep psychological trauma over the death of their child. As a man, I cannot possibly imagine how this feels, but I do understand how it could mess up their minds sufficiently to take the action they do.
In Eastenders, the character loses her baby to cot death and then swaps it for another baby who has been left unattended over the road. It seems to me that the only thing implausible about this is that a parent would not recognise their own baby - but let's ignore that.
The outcry has been such that the actress playing the snatcher, Samantha Womack, has decided to resign over the storyline. Apparently the crew were overcome with emotion whilst filming the scenes, and filming stopped for an hour before they could carry on. So, it seems, that is where the realism stopped...
To the BBC I say "Well done for using your program to highlight an important issue."
To all those thousands of people who wrote in to complain, I say this "Get a life. This is fiction. It is not real."
Since the programme was aired, calls to the Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths (FSID) charity have increased by 500%. You can access their website by clicking here.
