ANNIVERSARIES are supposed to be happy times when people celebrate, throw a party and have a good time with family and friends. How different it is if you happen to live in Soapland.

Then these occasions, like other key social gatherings such as weddings and birthdays, turn into scenes of bitter rows and violent arguments at best – or tragedy and disaster if the producers really want to push up the ratings.

BBC1’s EastEnders celebrated its 25th anniversary earlier this year with a live episode from Albert Square – and a death as Bradley, pursued by police for a murder he didn’t commit, fell to his death from the roof.

Not content with that, producers have announced that they plan to burn down the Queen Vic pub, a familiar part of Albert Square for a quarter of a century, later this year.

The dramatic storyline will coincide with the departure of EastEnders legend Barbara Windsor, who plays Peggy Mitchell and has served behind the bar for many years. There’s speculation she won’t be leaving in the back of a taxi – a favourite exit for Walford characters – but will perish in the fire at her beloved pub.

Producer Bryan Kirkwood said her exit will be “both epic and poignant”, fuelling speculation that she’ll go up in flames along with the pub.

There’s a more practical reason for destroying the iconic Queen Vic. Parts of the EastEnders set, including the pub, have to be rebuilt as part of the soap’s move to high definition. The old set won’t stand up to the scrutiny of the new cameras, which pick up every detail, every blemish.

And with 13 cast members set to depart before the end of the year, a big blaze could be used to get rid of a lot of them in one go.

All of which leaves Coronation Street bosses looking for something to top that to mark their milestone 50th anniversary in December.

They’ve already done a live episode, had fires at their pub the Rovers Return and, only the other week, had a gunmanand- hostage plot unravel.

So they’re taking a leaf out of the book of ITV’s Emmerdale. This soap village is possibly the world’s most unlucky location where new houses have exploded, chimneys toppled in violent storms and once a passenger aircraft crashed on the village. Why anyone chooses to live there is a mystery.

Corrie will become a similar scene of death and destruction over a week of episodes as the soap turns 50 on December 9. The viaduct at the end of the street will collapse, sending a tram crashing on to the famous cobbles.

All very different to how Val Barlow met her death in earlier days – she was electrocuted by a hairdryer. Now exits have to be big and dramatic and involve stuntmen.

This won’t be the first viaduct tragedy in Weatherfield history. In 1967, a train crashed off the viaduct, leaving several people buried under the rubble.

One of them was Ena Sharples, a woman with a sharp tongue and hairnet.

But she lived to fight another day after David Barlow rescued her from the rubble.

Only one person was killed, the wife of a local police officer.

The regular cast won’t be so lucky this time. Producer Phil Collinson won’t name names on the casualty list, merely saying that “everybody’s future is uncertain”.

With Bill Tarmey, who plays Jack Duckworth, and Vicky Binns, who plays Molly Dobbs, among characters due to bow out of the soap this year, the cast must be wondering if they’ll exit in dramatic fashion in a body bag.

Collinson says it feels fitting to screen “an event of this magnitude which will affect the lives of all the residents” as the show reaches its 50th anniversary.

“We’ll be using all the wonders of modern television production to bring you a disaster that will rock the lives of everyone in Weatherfield,” he told ITV’s This Morning programme.

“At the heart of the drama, though, will be ordinary people on an ordinary street battling adversity – the template for the programme created by Tony Warren 50 years ago.”