But film critic Elvis Mitchell tells Scott Simon that he thinks another performer really stands out: Mark Wahlberg, playing a cop from his native South Boston.

NPR: Ensemble Films Fill the Screen with Cameos

"If that bit is right it will get the best out of the audience and the actors, they will all feel it, " says Simon Ashdown, former scriptwriter for EastEnders and responsible for killing off Tiffany Mitchell (hit by car), Ethel Skinner (euthanasia) and Arthur Fowler (brain haemorrhage).

BBC: How to kill off a soap star