DRW50

Wow. That sounds like very tough stuff, especially for 1973. I don't remember the Labines doing the quasi-incest stuff on any other soaps (unless you count Richard and Edmund on GL, which I don't think was intentional...). Was his death near the end of the show? Sorry if this was already asked but what was the story behind Kate dancing drunkenly in front of children? I think that was mentioned in Schemering's book. I wish this show was available. I loved Diana van der Vlis as Nell Bealuac on Ryan's Hope. She was phenomenal, she really did carry the show in its first six months, along with Jack and Mary, as other stories had a lot of casting problems.

He sees wanting to have sex with a woman as being impure, and wants his wife to be pure.

Becca was first seen in a mental institution with Stacey. As a "joke" she had bandages on her wrists. Sean is a racist thug played by an actor who tended to look constipated most of the time. Leon looks good sometimes but other times the scrawniness and the spots on his face work against him. I think the show struggles to cast men with gravitas, or has in recent years, so that's why they may not seem as attractive. Of recent hires I think Fatboy is good looking, and Christian, although he's a bit overdeveloped (choosing body over face) and the expressions he makes when he cries are like EE's version of the ugly Oprah cry. And of course I think Max is very hot.

The woman who plays Anita doesn't work that well for me when she's in dramatic situations. I was also distracted in her scenes with Carmel because they have similar hairstyles and facial expressions and similar acting styles. They should have had Carmel as her mother instead of Tricia Dingle. Marquess is very good at scenes which don't have dialogue but move the story forward. The moments where Jacqui dug the gun out of the dirt and then where Anita found the gun were both excellent. I also liked the comedy scenes of Jacqui being desperate to get away with the gun, only to be stopped by one person or another. And of course Carmel's line about "ladymen", because she finds "trannies" not nice, was fun. So far Marquess seems to have more of a handle on Carmel than Lucy Allan did. I don't really like what they've done to Zak, but I also don't think they do Michaela any favors. This story is just kind of sad, made even worse by all the backstage furor which spilled out to the public. The stuff with Des spreading his racist poison around is still interesting but I hope they won't drag it out too much longer. The woman Dave was attracted to had such a jutting collarbone I could barely focus on the rest of the scenes. Given Dave's gaunt appearance, she would be more like his sister than his dream woman. I really liked the moment where Dom was hanging out with a battle buff he knew who turned out to be a drag queen. I wish we could see more of that. When they figure out what to do with Dom he can be very entertaining in a unique sort of way.

Do you think it's a mistake?

Wow. That's a big shock. I guess he must have been friendly with the team, as he appeared in some of their Revealed specials, but I didn't know they'd hire him for such a big job. I think they need a change, so hopefully he will work out, and at least it shows again that Kirkwood isn't taking the easy way out.

There's already a lot of speculation about how many characters will die. I honestly don't see Eastenders being as out there as Hollyoaks and killing five people (or was it six), especially since some of those who are leaving are already in a very dramatic story as it is which would be overshadowed if they died in a fire. My guess is that if anyone dies it would be Leon and Charlie, and perhaps Adam. Have you heard if they will change the decor? I hope they will finally get rid of that bust. Every time I see it I think of the whole Stacey thing. Walford Web had a writeup on location shoots, and interviewed someone from the show about the Pat/Peggy scenes in London. http://www.walfordweb.co.uk/item.php?id=2497

One of the Captain and Tenille's best:

A few from Dark Shadows: If Kathryn Leigh Scott had not left Dark Shadows, they would have cast her as Samantha Collins If Roger Davis had not left, they would have cast him as Desmond Collins If Don Briscoe had not left, they would have cast him as Randall Drew

I'm not surprised if Amanda goes, I'm actually surprised she's stayed this long, as she doesn't ever stay anywhere for very long. I will miss Natasha dearly though. Maisie, that one does surprise me. She's been a great character, both as the addled Wylde heiress and as the sarcastic barmaid. This also leaves poor Nikhil in story limbo again. As much as I enjoy watching Nathan I'm not sure if they can keep him around without his two main relationships. And Ryan is also going to be fairly isolated. I wonder if they may just write out the entire Lamb/Wylde bunch.

You can guarantee that a lot of people who ignored him or barely know anything about the character will suddenly say this is a mistake and an outrage and Emmerdale doesn't like old people.

I like the theme music, especially the original, tinny version, but the titles are a bit too bland. At least the ones from ten years ago, which would now look very dated, had some character (they showed people hang-gliding, rock-climbing, etc). Amello I think the spoiler with Zak/Lisa/Sam involves I like Nikhil/Maisie but I think I would have loved Nikhil/Debbie. If this means she has to go with Andy, bleh... Chas was a stripper for a while, I don't know how long, before she got to the village. Her earliest scenes were being hired as a stripper for Marlon's stag night, then the Dingles were shocked to see her, because she was his cousin. Shadrach being Shadrach still perved at her even though she is his daughter.

I'd been waiting so long for the interview that I had actually lost interest by the time it showed up. Fortunately I started to get more interested as the interview went along, especially in his teasers for the Sharma brothers, Charity, and Adam. It's unrealistic that more women would not be fighting to get into Adam's pants. I have always wanted to see a storyline with Adam and Eve, I think that would be big fireworks and probably reveal a more vulnerable side of Eve, but I guess that isn't likely. I really hope that what he says about upcoming stuff for Charity is true and also about stuff with Chas. I know a lot of people don't care for Chas but I think when she is written correctly she's a fascinating character. There was an episode a few years ago where she, Ross, Donna, and Marlon went to a policeman's ball, and one of the men there recognized her from her stripper days and kept humiliating her, and Lucy Parteger was fabulous. I'm especially glad to hear that we will see more of her relationship with Charity, which I love. Can't wait to see more of Declan, and his past. I wish they'd do something to connect him to the show's forgotten history and reveal that he's related to the Verneys, who owned Home Farm for hundreds of years until 1978 or so. So it still sounds like they may be going with Bob/Hazel. And it sounds like Jackson and Aaron will definitely be ending. Did anyone else get the feeling he was saying Andy/Debbie will get back together? My reaction is NO NO NO NO. I think Debbie can do so much more as a character and she was also there when he was terrorizing Jo. I had to laugh at the question about why Katie wasn't in more stories. She's a bore and she works best as a supporting figure. I also had to laugh at the answer about why we aren't seeing Ryan more. Yes, Ryan is onscreen quite a bit, but that is as a supporting figure and delivering some good one-liners. While I enjoy that and I'd much rather see this than Katie/Ryan, I certainly can see why James Sutton fans would be annoyed and I don't think telling them "What are you talking about?" is going to do much to soothe them. I still don't buy that as the reason why Priya left so quickly. I don't really care but still I don't buy it. I was hoping we'd hear more about Gennie, and as you mentioned, Viv. They never seem to do a lot with Viv. I hope it's not a concern that they asked him about falling ratings when I'm not sure they asked any other producers about that. Emmerdale's ratings could be better but considering all that has been going on with other stuff and the general stigma the show faces, that's not going to be easy. I like the idea of the titles being changed, because I think Emmerdale's are very staid. Hopefully they will come up with a way to update the titles without having Aaron breakdancing or Belle wearing very large sunglasses. I wonder what story they wanted to tell with Debbie that they couldn't.

That's a good point. I keep forgetting that. I just have this feeling that someone might see Duncan as some kind of a great character, since this type of cliche is so popular now (James Corden among others).

Marquess seems to be keeping some of the cheap comedy characters, like Duncan or Cheryl, perhaps because he thinks the show is too "dark". I think they make the show look awful and like an embarrassment and my guess is they actively drive away viewers. Duncan and Ricky are also examples of extremely lazy writing and producing -- one is mopey, the other is desperate and pathetic, so therefore they must be some good team. If they are going to keep Cheryl around I wish they could at least fix her hair and makeup. When I first saw her in Hollyoaks Later a few years ago she didn't seem that bad to me, but now the way they make her up, like her shot in the new opening credits, it just makes you want to skip watching.

Some of those shots look very unflattering -- poor Nick Pickard. Then Frankie in the school uniform, although the actress looks pretty good. I wonder what type of opening it's going to be, as a lot of the shots almost seem like a joke. Was Ravi also in there? And India? The best part is the men in tuxes. Darren always looks good and Kieron Richardson looks incredibly handsome. Gilly looks pretty good too, in whatever he's wearing. http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/soaps/s13/hollyoaks/i299460/hollyoaks-behind-the-scenes-2010-titles-ste-hay-kieron-richardson.html Most recent episode -- I still think the stuff with Des's sister and how she is preying on his worst fears is very good drama, she's a very believable villain because she's not any type of mustache-twirling figure. I wish they could keep her around. I wish they could keep Dave around too, I like the way he winds up Charlotte and Kris. Why did 30 year old Anita suddenly forgive Lauren and why does she have the money to give Lauren like it's Christmas? I'd rather believe she did this as some plot to break up Lauren and Gaz, after the way Gaz treated her, but even then it's all very rushed and kind of strange.

Yeah he said not to believe what we read in the paper for the Natasha story, but then there's this. The soaps have these constant big leaks for the papers. I guess they want people to know what's going to happen. In the case of this story, which is so awful and has been dead for such a long time, they may think this will cause some revived interest, who knows. It's crazy how many stories involve such depressing topics. And this is kind of a knockoff of what happened to Kevin's wife Allison. This isn't what I expected at all from Collinson...his work on Doctor Who was nothing like this either, and RTD when he's spoken about Corrie seems to see it as a happy show, not as Brookside Street.

Yes, she was. I'd forgotten that comparison, I ended up thinking more of the looks or personality.

That's interesting. Jessie Wallace as Pat Phoenix will be a bit strange to see, but that's because I can't really see anyone as Pat Phoenix. Lynda Baron, I don't know enough about her, I know she was on Eastenders but that was during one of the times I wasn't really watching. I mostly remember Christian weeping over her like he weeps over everyone. Jane Horrocks, huh. She probably would have fit in well on Corrie, once upon a time.

I guess Molly was the new Vera Duckworth after all! I hope this is at least going to be a boy. After what happened to Kevin's last son I wanted him to get to have a son. Even if these are awful circumstances. I wonder what will happen to Tyrone...

Brent, you might have already seen this, but there were some soap magazines from the late 60s/early 70s put up in the main soap thread. Here's one from early 1971, which has some brief mentions of Storm, Best of Everything, and Marjorie Gateson.

Her RH episodes from 9/81 might be on Soapnet before too long, I guess we can check. Thanks, both of you. I could not make out her name, well, aside from Betty. I thought it was Betty Powell or Betty Lowell or Betty Rowell, I don't know. It's just so strange seeing this random woman as Nancy. I kept remembering something about this to put in this thread but couldn't remember who the character was and then suddenly I did. For a while I thought she was one of the Clara Hudsons but obviously not. So did she only take over for Helen Wagner for a few days?

I didn't know she was married to Geoffrey Pierson. No wonder I thought they had a little too much chemistry when I saw some of the episodes where Frank and Maggie were attracted to each other.

That sounds like how I felt in summer 92/early 93 with GL, Beverlee McKinsey, Sherry Stringfield, and then Ellen Parker all gone. The show was never the same to me. I haven't seen a lot of Judi as the earlier Paulina, I've just seen her as the later, crying version who had weight issues, but I really liked Cali as Paulina, I thought she got the little girl lost quality which made up so much of Paulina. I'm sorry she didn't get more soap work after that. I didn't know she had so many fans either. I don't feel too alone now.

I think I read that There's an episode coming up where I kind of like Rae too, sometimes. I still think she's on her way out, as she said to Anita that she's going to have to live with her grandmother, but who knows. Is it me or did Darren actually look pretty good with the makeup on? I'm glad he didn't seem all that bothered. I thought they did a much better job with the "OMG RACISTS!" angle with Des and his sister than they did when Des just started randomly telling Zak about the evils of non-whites. I'm glad they remembered Tina (I'm surprised they were able to show a photo of her -- perhaps in the UK you don't have to pay to do that).