Nana Moon is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Hilda Braid. In a special episode, Kate Colgrave Pope played her as a 24-year-old in a flashback episode from 1944. She was introduced alongside her grandsons, Alfie (Shane Richie) and Spencer Moon (Christopher Parker), and made her first appearance on 3 December 2002. She was introduced by executive producer Louise Berridge in 2002, and a decision was made to kill off the character in 2005 following the announced departures of her on-screen family, and made her last appearance on 16 December 2005.
Braid appeared in 210 episodes as Nana Moon. Her storylines included meeting Wilfred Atkins (Dudley Sutton), a fraudster who wanted to con her out of her possessions and fulfilling a list of things she wanted to do before she died. During later storylines, Nana's health began to fail and she developed dementia. Nancy Banks-Smith from The Guardian criticised the portrayal of dementia, but praised Braid's performance. Dek Hogan from Digital Spy said the dementia scenes were "a welcome change."
One of Nana's final storylines saw her visit Normandy with Alfie to see her late husband's William's (Dickon Tolson) grave. The episode featured a two-minute silence, flashbacks to Nana's backstory, and a guest appearance from the actor Trevor Peacock, who played Sid, a war veteran. The episode won Best Single Episode at The British Soap Awards in 2006. Braid's final scenes saw her character killed off, after dying of aortic aneurysm. The decision to kill off Nana was criticised by fans and critics, who did not see why she had to be written out of the series, simply because Richie had announced his departure.
Creation and development
Nana was introduced in December 2002 as part of a new family of three introduced to the soap by producer Louise Berridge, the other two being her grandchildren Alfie Moon (Shane Richie) and Spencer Moon (Christopher Parker). She was described as a "batty granny". Gavin Gaughan wrote Braid's obituary in The Guardian, and in it he described Nana as "vague, but always affectionate" and having "a wide smile and good-natured manner, her niche as a maternal Cockney was in the screen tradition inaugurated by Kathleen Harrison, which included Irene Handl and Patricia Hayes."
A special episode featuring Nana and Alfie in France on Armistice Day, the anniversary of the official end of World War I, aired on 11 November 2005. In the storyline, Nana visits her late husband, William's grave in Normandy. The episode also features flashbacks of Nana's first encounter with her late husband in war-time London, and a guest appearance from the actor Trevor Peacock, who played Sid, a war veteran. The episode included a two-minute silence to mark Remembrance Day—a day to commemorate the sacrifice of veterans and civilians in World War I, World War II, and other wars. It was the first time that a soap had featured the silence. The scenes were aired on 11 November 2005.
It was reported in September 2005, that a number of EastEnders characters were to be axed, Nana Moon being one of them. It was subsequently confirmed that the character would be killed off. The reason to kill the character came after the announced departures of her on-screen family. A BBC source commented, "Everyone loves Nana, but [...] she won't have any family left. It's sad, but all good things must end."|source=—Dek Hogan from Digital Spy on Nana's final scenes. The Armistice Day episode—which was written by Sarah Phelps, directed by Paul Wroblewski and produced by Tom Mullens—won the Best Single Episode award at The British Soap Awards in 2006.
Writing of her storyline with Wilfred, Gaughan said that "Despite the comedic talents of Braid, Sutton and Richie, any hints towards Cockney family comedy were eschewed in favour of Albert Square's preponderance of gloom. Nana's death was criticised by EastEnders fans, "who pointed out that she did not have to be written out of the series merely because Alfie was going." Gaughan called her death scenes "touching".
Dementia
Susannah Clapp from The Observer criticised how EastEnders portrayed dementia, saying that "[Nana] faded fairly quickly from beaming vagueness to doolally hopelessness." Nancy Banks-Smith, from The Guardian, also criticised the portrayal of dementia but praised Braid's portrayal of Nana, saying, "There was something odd about Nana, don't you think? On the face of it, she wasn't all there. The part of the brain that notices when all hell is breaking loose around you in large lumps seemed to be missing. The BBC's book about EastEnders refers to her only twice, once as loopy and then as barmy. This hardly covers the case. She may have been conceived as Alfie's batty granny but Hilda Braid injected a steely and unnerving sweetness into the role that made you wonder if Nana wore her battiness as a protective flak jacket." Dek Hogan from Digital Spy said that the dementia scenes were "a welcome change", and added "The scene when [Alfie] was desperately trying to get Nana to eat steak and chips was very moving."