DRW50

If you are going to be offended by a story on Eastenders then pick one that actually teaches bad lessons. Widdecombe has a very ugly career in Parliament and she desperately wants publicity.

I'm still disappointed we didn't get any bare-assed Oz-type shots out of that story...the actress certainly got her cleavage out enough in the press articles.

The prison woman went to his house once to see Faye, and then she was transferred and it was never mentioned again.

Irma was Hilda's daughter. Irma was a wonderful character, full of laughs and yet also, as the years went on, a lot of pain. She often resented her trashy parents but wasn't as different from them as she believed. Loved Bet. She was just fantastic. One of the best characters ever. I hate how easily many dismiss her now.

I wonder why Hazel is even around. She has had little purpose beyond caring for Jackson. James was really good in his first year on Hollyoaks. I guess that was a real combination of writing, acting, and chemistry with his family and with Craig, but it's a shame none of this ever came together on Emmerdale. They have had no idea what to do with the character - the stuff with the prison guard still baffles me.

Some scenes of Whitney's upcoming story, with some scare quotes from publicity seeker Ann Widdecombe and one of EE's worst villains. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1351901/First-look-EastEnders-Whitney-Dean-takes-streets-teenage-prostitute-soaps-controversial-new-storyline.html#ixzz1CXeA6cZE I'm glad Janine's role in this isn't as ugly as I first thought.

I hated the Teresa exit story. I don't blame Lloyd for it, but the story sucked. I wanted to bring her back in my ideas but had little idea of what to do with her. Maybe she could run the chip shop (who is running that now anyway). I would keep Lloyd but as a supporting figure, comedy with Steve. I liked him with Liz before all that was trashed and Bev Callard vanished. I forgot about Michelle. She's such a waste of space. She can just go to be with her parents. The Armstrongs are boring as hell. I like Izzy but she is the one the show has the least interest in. Owen is AWFUL, he's so boring, he sucks the life out of every scene. He also cheapens Eileen's character. Ches is OK, I don't think he's as bad as some make out, but there seems to be no story for him, so I might get rid of him, unless they can figure something out. We haven't seen or heard anything about Irma in many years. Her son with David died in 1970. She vanished in 1972/73 and after that the only mentions were that she was living in Canada and wasn't in touch with her family. I think Peter and Anna are about the same age. In one sense I can't see Peter with her but in another I think that would be a nice breathing room for him. Eventually I might put him back with Leanne, but Collinson has totally destroyed that relationship and the only way they will work again IMO is a long separation.

They haven't given her much story at all for a long time. They seemed to lose any idea of what to do with her or Ryan - I will be shocked if James Sutton is still there within a year's time. They should have tried her with Cain, or even Andy. But then there are a lot of characters who are just sort of aimlessly wandering around these days.

What a treat. That is certainly a fascinating way to end a show, although for some reason the habit ends up seeming a bit like a costume. That logo is huge! That set reminds me of something else. I think Lyla's house on ATWT.

That's part of the reasons I picked Emily - it's not something she would ever do, so it would confuse her, and also make the people in her life wonder what has happened. Or you could give the story to Sophie... I know very little about Sally's past, other than she has a sister and she had a bad background, so thanks for telling me that. It's a shame so much of that is unknown by the show. I miss Ivy.

Finally finished the last, special featureless, second season DVD. I had totally forgotten about the episode where Eric was talked into smuggling dope to a party with one of Ginger's sisters and a corruptive Eric Stoltz. I had totally forgotten Ginger had any sisters. Stoltz sprinkles her joint with angel dust, and she has a bad reaction and goes into the water, almost drowning. Eric saves her, but she's still in a coma. While they wait to see if she lives, Eric is in torment, and Sid and the girl's mother both say he is partially responsible since he brought the joints (all I kept thinking was, they aren't going to have any other joints at this party?). This episode has a lot of repetitive dialogue ("a chance is better than no chance at all" "you'll be the man of the hour"), but benefits from the sensitive performance of the late Steve Shaw, who always made Eric so believable because he always just seemed to channel emotions, instead of act. They were wise not to give this story to Diana. This is probably the most tolerable Diana episode ever, as she does not SHOUT, she does not SMIRK, and she tries to support Eric. She also has a great line where she makes up a statistic to Sid about watching TV killing more brain cells than smoking pot. My only real complaint here is that Ginger's mother is in the episode, for one scene, confronting Eric, yet she has no scenes with Ginger! She is the one who made Ginger have an abortion when Ginger was a teenager (which led to Ginger being stalked later on), and yet she has no scene with Ginger now that Ginger is finally pregnant with the child she's always wanted? If anything ever showed just how little respect the show had for Ginger, this was it. The next episode was Earl Trent, the raging queen (he looks a lot like the one in Boys in the Band, the one with the 'fro) who was married to Jane Elliott and drove her to sleep with Gary, becoming obsessed with Val and trying to get her to sleep with him to somehow even the score. This really didn't work that well - there was a cute guy at the start of the episode, another student, who took up for Val when Earl began belittling her. Temptation between him and Val would have made more sense. This episode also had Laura becoming closer and closer to her boss, as his wife - the divine Rosemary Prinz - and everyone else think they are having an affair. They're not, but they are surely tempted, leading into a big story for the next season. This whole thing has a scene that annoyed me, where Karen smirkily assumes Laura is having an affair, and is all "You go girl" and so on. This had little to do with anything that would actually help Laura, and a real friend would not assume such things. I always had a lot of issues with some of Karen's friendships on the show, and wanted to see more of Laura/Val. Anyway, Scooter was played by John Considine, an actor I have found singularly uncharming - thanks a lot AW - so this didn't quite work for me. It was nice to see Rosemary Prinz, although she had little to do here, she does return for a huge bitch fit in season 3. This particular story, for the rest of the season, ends on Richard and Laura trying to be happy, and it shows the basic chemistry Constance and John Pleshette had. The next episode features more of JR trying to get Sid's clean fuel engine. Was this story dropped after Sid died? I know David Jacobs said none of the JR crossovers worked, but I think that the ones in season 2 did, especially when he was sharing scenes with Abby, his match in many ways. This story is intertwined with Abby's ex Jeff planning to kidnap the kids, which is kind of undercut because he has a big sign on his forehead saying WILL KIDNAP MY KIDS. The final episode has the brilliant cliffhanger of Sid going over the cliff with no brakes - Sid screaming OH GOD - chilling, and very effective. Unfortunately there is too much plot for one episode, and I wonder why they didn't stretch it out longer over the last 3-5 episodes of the season. There's also a scene with Abby breaking down over her kids and a tape of them which - no offense Donna Mills - is probably one of Abby's worst ever scenes on the show. There was a much better scene, earlier, where she was alone in the house, and found a blanket or something, and began to cry.

Anna and Gary... When Eddie leaves, going to prison for a crime Gary committed, Gary is devastated and Anna can barely cope. "Uncle Len" swoops in, as he has always wanted Anna, and Gary idolized him for years. Gary's volatility is too much for Len to handle, and Anna rebuffs his advances. Finally during a bitter argument, he blurts out that he is Gary's biological father. Gary lashes out at him and shuts himself off from everyone, living on the streets. Peter has dumped Leanne, and after a one night stand with Carla, washes his hands of her when he finds out she encouraged Nick/Leanne. He finds Gary drunk and half-dead in an alley, and tries to help him pull his life together. Since his flat holds too many bad memories, and Anna can no longer afford her home on her own, Peter and Simon move in with Anna, and Peter convinces Gary to come home. Anna is initially wary of brooding Peter, but soon has a crush on him, and Peter doesn't bother to resist her. Simon also develops a brotherly bond with Gary. Peter tries to hide the fact that he is still in love with Leanne. Leanne moves in with Nick, more because she has nowhere else to go than for any other reason. They quickly realize they feel nothing for each other and when she ends up out the door with little to her name, Carla surprises everyone by taking her in. Both women love Peter but have moved on, and go out for drunken nights on the town. During one of these, Carla decides to finally admit what she has felt for a long time - she actually hates Underworld and has nothing but terrible memories of the place. She decides to start up a more low-key lingerie business with Leanne, and sells Underworld to an international conglomerate. A representative pops in long enough to appoint a permanent supervisor to take over Carla's former job. To the surprise of many, Hayley gets the job, and her first job is to fire every existing machinist but one. The shellshocked workers insist they won't fight for favor, but naturally, they do. After a few weeks, Hayley picks Sally. Fiz, already upset over losing her jobs, vents to John, who tells her she has nothing to complain about, and rattles off his many crimes to her, subconsciously wanting her to turn him into the police. She does, but unbelievably, the police laugh at her, saying no one would ever believe that story. She calls Cilla, who, needing a ready-made family to charm a lonely millionaire she knows, gets Fiz and Chesney and the baby to join her in America. John, meanwhile, even more unbelievably, gets a teaching job - in his own name ! - in London. Maria continues to date Chris, not caring that everyone is repulsed by or scared of him. She would rather have any man than no man at all. This malaise continues until a furious Michelle calls her and Liam's parents to confront Maria. Chris knocks Liam's father out and begins throttling his mother. Maria knocks Chris out, and he is taken away, never to be seen or mentioned again. Maria swears off men. Todd returns to Weatherfield, and spends a lot of time with Sean, and Sean's boyfriend, Marcus. Sean, already upset over losing his job, becomes obsessed with the idea of Marcus and Todd having an affair. They aren't, but the more he goes on about it the more they're tempted. Finally, Todd moves out, and Marcus and Sean have a big fight. Marcus moves in with Maria. Marcus and Maria, commiserating over their bad relationships, get drunk, and Maria kisses him. They have sex. Sean, going to apologize to Marcus, finds them the morning after, and berates Marcus for being a "traitor." Having nothing left in Weatherfield beyond a friendship with Eileen, he tells her goodbye and moves to be closer to his son. Maria feels ashamed of herself, even though Marcus repeatedly tells her it's no big deal and it just happened. She can't believe she is so desperate for a man she even had sex with her gay best friend. Kirk swears he has found a foolproof system for betting on the horses, but no one believes him...until he wins, and keeps winning, and keeps winning. He becomes a millionaire, and decides to travel the world. His sister Maria asks if she and the baby can go with him. Saying goodbye to their longtime friends, brother and sister Sutherland look forward to a happier future. Lloyd's boring stripper girlfriend realizes she was only with Lloyd because she felt like she needed some kind of protection from Chris, and that she has no real interest in Lloyd. She leaves town with her son, never to be mentioned again. Owen is in the middle of berating Izzy when Jason, doing repair works on the Rovers roof, accidentally drops a chimney on Owen's head. Jason is briefly suspected of killing Owen due to Owen's ugly behavior towards Eileen, but is cleared, but not before a great strain is put on his relationship with Rosie. The last straw is when the papers, wanting a scandal for one of the most popular glamour models in the UK, set Jason up with two strippers. Jason is happy to indulge, and their fling hits the front pages. A humiliated Rosie dumps Jason, but milks the situation for all its worth. Eventually a "re-virginize"/chastity organization asks her to be its spokeswoman, and seeing more money in her sights, she accepts. She genuinely does try, but ultimately ends up destroying the organization when she seduces the very hot and very untouched spokesman. Sally's good-for-nothing-but-sometimes-charming father, seeing an opportunity since she and Kevin are divorced, moves in with her. Sally tries to cope as the Street takes much amusement in this "cultured" woman having such a common father. Rita is initially put off by him but they soon fall for each other, and make plans to marry. Sally, for reasons even she doesn't fully understand, rebels against the idea of mother figure Rita actually being her stepmother. To get back at Kevin, Tyrone sells his half of the garage to a company looking to develop in the area. Kevin manages to convince to them to keep the place open, but has to accept a new manager, a woman around his age who puts on a conservative face around her bosses, but around Kevin likes to drink and talk about football. They become lovers, and their casual relationship infuriates and disturbs Sally to no end. Emily has a fall at home and many fear she won't pull through. She makes a miraculous recovery, and becomes convinced God is talking to her. Many put this off as eccentricity...until she starts telling them things she would have no way of knowing. Irma Ogden arrives back in Weatherfield with a bang, hanging on for dear life to her outspoken and rude kids and constantly embarrassed grandchildren. Ken is virulently opposed to them from very early on, filing multiple complaints with the Council to have them thrown off the Street. Deirdre is dumbfounded by his objections until, during a bitter argument with Irma, Ken reveals that he still resents Irma for surviving the car accident that killed his brother and nephew, one Irma said she caused by nagging David. Deirdre sides with Irma, and says she can't remember the last time Ken was so emotional over her. Ken says he and Deirdre have never loved each other, but that he at least used to respect her, and belittles her for becoming such a complete idiot. Deirdre is deeply hurt and she and Ken separate, with no real plans to reconcile. She moves into the Rovers, with a Spain-dwelling Liz's permission, and becomes a barmaid, constantly annoying Betty. Graeme proposes to Tina, and she accepts, but as she begins passive-aggressively putting down anything and everything he does, he realizes she doesn't really love him, and is too badly burned to have a relationship. He quietly puts his engagement ring in the gutter and drives off into the night, not telling Tina of any of his plans. Tina is surprised at how little she cares, and begins to realize she needs serious therapy before she can be happy again. Becky and Steve's marriage, thin as it already was, falls apart at the seams after Kylie tries to kidnap Max in the middle of the night. Becky and Kylie struggle, and Kylie falls and hits her head, dying. Becky insists it had nothing to do with her, but even Steve doesn't believe her. Becky flees town with Max, only bothering to tell Roy and Hayley, and Tracy, seeing the opportunity while Steve is in pieces, grabs Amy and also flees. Completely alone, Steve falls back into old patterns with drugs and alcohol, runs up huge debts, and ends up in a coma. Jim, Lloyd, Eileen, and Andy keep vigil, along with, surprisingly, his first wife Vicky. Although Vicky is happily married and has no desire to ever be with Steve again, she still loves him, and when he comes to and realizes the brewery sold the pub because of his debts, she tells him she bought the Rovers and wants him to continue running it. To keep an eye on him, she has her grandmother Bet Lynch return. Bet clashes with Steve but takes pity on him, as he reminds her of the son she never had a chance to raise. Over time she realizes that any desire she had to run the Rovers again is long gone, and she spends more time romancing Dennis Tanner, who is living with Eileen after an ill-fated attempt to explore her Grimshaw roots dropped him on her doorstep.

Thanks. What a shame they never mentioned her parents again. Marland did generally respect history and use it but in some cases, like Lyla's sister and her daughter Cricket, he seemed to put up a wall.

I loved Leanna (no pun intended) so much so that I was thrilled she was cast at GL and then...not so thrilled when I saw the result. Other than a few months early in her B&B run, Leanne was by far her best soap work. Terry also said he wished Jack had been paired with Cassandra. I wonder if that would have worked.

Thanks! I guess Nina chose David over him? At least he had an exit. There were a lot of Bell characters I remember as just vanishing, like Leanna Love (the first time around) but then later I realized I just missed the episode where they left. Speaking of Cricket, there was an article on loosening standards and morals on soaps, regarding sex scenes, and they had a quote from Terry Lester where he basically said the most offensive thing on Y&R was Cricket sucking Scott's tongue even when she had begun to think they were half-siblings. I was like, wow Terry, don't hold back.

That sounds like a terrific story. Whatever happened to Julia? I wish they had mentioned her in later years. ATWT had that wonderful multigenerational aspect for so long. What did you think of Lisa's mother?

So how long was Chase around? Did he just vanish? Was he one of those nice guys who was just a spoiler, like the mail office guy in the Victoria/Ryan relationship? I have only ever seen him during that horrific Christmas episode where Danny, Phillip, Scott, and Chase all gave Cricket presents. This clip seems kind of degrading to Nina. Did they ever have any feelings for each other?

When he came back the last time he seemed more assertive, although he also kind of looked a mess and was written as being a loser in his career and not very happy in his relationship (some thought the show was punishing Bruno Langley for leaving so abruptly - he was also given a shirtless scene when he wasn't in great shape). I do wonder where they can go with Todd. I sometimes toy with stuff like Todd and Gary Windass, but then like you said, it would be the whole straight guy is gay thing. I do have some story ideas I'm going to write up - I hope you will suffer through them for me When they said Marcus was coming back I started looking for clips of him that were available in episodes, since there was no "Marcus' Story" or "Mean" or any of that. I started the clips and times at the bottom of this page, and it goes on to page 2. I haven't gotten around to finishing yet. http://gaydaytime.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=other&thread=992&page=1#207105

Was it hard for you to accept Munker as Melinda since you saw her as Annie? That's interesting about Kim/Dan and Reilly. For some reason I thought Colenback had been in the role when Dan/Kim started, based on "unfinished love story" and such the Digest talked about when Colenback returned to the role.

I really like Marcus. I would rather he stay on the show. If they are going to continue to have gay men as asexual then they probably wouldn't keep Todd around anyway, as that would seem ridiculous with Todd, whereas with Sean, I'm not sure anyone wants to see him kissing anyway.

Apparently The Sun says Todd Grimshaw is returning this summer. It will be interesting to see whether this is just for a visit (Sean and Marcus are having their ceremony at that time aren't they) or if this will be a longer stay. I would love to see Todd stay around for a while, as Jason and Eileen could use more story and Todd was a great character. But then this leads into the "too gay" hysteria - would Corrie have 4 gay men, and 2 lesbians, on the show at the same time? Since I can't see Ken's grandson staying around long either I guess it might not be much to fuss over.

Thank you for all these details. Was this when Glynis O'Connor played Annie? What did you think of her? I know you've probably already talked about this before, but did you prefer Colenback or Reilly? What did you think of the last Paul Stewart? I'm glad you're posting again. I am going to put up some of the behind the scenes stuff soon and would enjoy your comments.

Thanks again for all the answers. I liked Dennis Patrick on Dark Shadows, so I wish I could have seen him here. I'm surprised they cast Christine in a more sympathetic role at all considering her Janice Frame. It seems like Philece was kind of always in sappy roles - her Donna Love was the same. The Catlins was never in SOD was it? I don't have a lot of issues from that timespan. I'm surprised Rituals was covered as much as it was, since Another Life rarely was either. I guess this was down to Rituals hiring several soap stars. Do you know if Sharon Farrell was cast on Y&R based on this role? This is all the Rituals stuff I have right now but if I have any more I will be sure to post it.

Thanks so much for continuing to give insight and comment on these - that's the main reason I post them, as you know a lot of great stuff. I wonder if people who actually watched the show would remember as much as we do So, you probably already mentioned this, but who played Patrick Chapin and when did he leave? Do you know who Patty was (the person who moved into Sara's boarding house), or much about Kevin, beyond his dating Noel before she chose Brady? It seems like the writers really enjoyed the corporate espionage and everything with Dakota/Mike/Lacey was just there as some type of cliched idea of soap. I wonder if that's why Kin and Philece were displeased.