DRW50

Big Mo has some brothers and they probably have kids. Belinda has kids, doesn't she? I think they could have Belinda return a few times. I think Little Mo might work for Billy's exit, as I think unless something changes there's no real reason for Billy to stay around. I think Zoe could be successfully recast. Michelle Ryan was just OK. Lynne is someone else I'm not sure what they could do with but just to return for visits, she might work. I hope they will at least bring back Lynne and Little Mo if Charlie dies. I know that Jessie Wallace and the woman who played Lynne had issues with each other though. If Sean had been around when Yorke was producing then I think he could have been interesting. He was so damaged, as was Kat, so that might have been a dynamic. The Sean of the Santer era was often just an unwashed, racist thug who barely noticed his family. Other than sneering at Kat and Zoe for daring to go near a black man, I can't see him interacting with them. Thanks to the BBC, Walford Web is now putting up detailed spoilers (one involves Ryan showing off his fantastic chest...) http://www.walfordweb.co.uk/spoilers.php

Thanks for posting that. The scam video would have been a pretty good idea. I'm really looking forward to seeing Kat again. I hope fans will give her a chance. It does sound like the Christmas episode could be very Slater-centric, although with the way Stacey has been sidelined since Bradley's death, I also wonder if it may be a "here's your hat..." type of exit. I hope they will have some good moments before the end, the Slaters. I also hope they may bring one or two new Slaters in to keep the dynamics going, because there are not enough strong families. The Mitchells are dislocated and barely give each other a word, the Brannings have again drifted apart, the Masoods have been heavily damaged by Syed.

Spoiler photos for Ben: http://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/s2/eastenders/scoop/a221393/eastenders-pics-ben-mitchell-goes-to-court.html

One thing I just love at the moment is the endless tension between Declan/Nathan and Natasha/Nathan, as Declan falls for Natasha. It's such interesting stuff -- I'd like to see Will become close to Declan, so Nathan will really go insane. Nathan is such a great little punk, he's not a big time villain and they don't try to claim he is, but he's getting darker and darker and I can see him becoming what Chris Tate was. I LOVED that scene where Nathan grabbed Declan's arm and said, "If you ever put your hand on me again, I'll break every bone in it." I'm glad they are continuing to remind viewers of how uneasy Ryan and Maisie are around each other. The show missed a trick not pairing them up...

I just wish the girl who plays Holly wasn't such a terrible actress. I was surprised the Hannah bullying story didn't go on longer.

I know some have said that the other stuff in those episodes will be better, I don't know. It looks like it's going to be more of the Pat/Peggy nonsense and also stuff with Liam, a character who is only interesting because he never takes that damn cap off his head. At least Carol will show up again, briefly. Santer really did just give up after his beloved Archie story. Or even before the story was finished. I'm still in disbelief that something like Ronnie being raped for years by her own father was treated so cavalierly. I keep forgetting Billie and Whitney are still on the show. I wonder how much longer they will be...

Thanks. I'll have to watch those again, it's been ten years now. For some reason I thought Harry died -- I guess I was confusing him with Colin Grimshaw on Corrie. That last scene with Kat and Harry really hits you in the stomach, especially how much he truly believes that she was just some hot thing who wanted him. I was just reading about the ratings for Doctor Who last night, which keeps getting pushed earlier and earlier down the schedule, thanks in part to those endless Andrew Lloyd Webber shows the BBC keeps burping up. The ratings hit 4.2 or so, which is the lowest ever for the show since 1989. With the hot weather and the upcoming time changes from the World Cup I guess all the soaps are going to start having much more serious slides soon.

I'd forgotten she tried to kill herself. That scene where she smears the lipstick on her face is so harrowing. Where was it she got the busted lip from?

This is the Daily Star article. It's about Andy and Adele, which has been hinted at in the show already. I can't see it going anywhere, but I like Adele, I hope this means she will become a bigger character. http://www.dailystar.co.uk/soaperstar/view/136456/EMMERDALE-Andy-Surgen-gets-more-than-he-bargained-for-in-the-pub-with-Adele-Allfrey/

They did a wonderful job with setting up the Slaters as very different women, but also believable as sisters. They also did a good job then of hinting at just what a monster Trevor was. You saw how uneasy Little Mo was but never knew exactly why until bit by bit happened. It was a copout with Ronnie and Danielle, there were so many contrivances for a big moment which had no payoff. The show mined years of story over Kat and Zoe being mother and daughter. Neither character had "ice cream in the park," or whatever Santer called it, after Zoe learned the truth about Kat. They both continued to have very messed up lives, yet came to love each other as mother and daughter. It was brilliantly done and resulted in that very moving scene where Zoe and Kat said goodbye. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVHVvebOx90&feature=related

Looks like it's the sister. http://www.itv.com/soaps/emmerdale/newsandgossip/leylassisterarrives/ Their character profiles are interesting. Apparently Declan arrived in 2009... There are also way too many pictures of David with hair that makes him look like a surfer dude. Imagine him as Eli! I'm glad that didn't happen.

That's a beautiful little scene. A happy Christmas on Eastenders. Like the 2003 one, which also had a beautiful little montage at the end. Kat looked so overjoyed, she could barely contain herself. Considering what happened to most of the people who were standing outside, no wonder Phil got the hell back in the pub Here's one of the early Slater scenes. They do the big Nolan Sisters hit. And watch for Janine doing "What I Am" (not too bad). Also early Laura, when she was just starting to be destroyed by Ian. This must have been around the time Ricky Groves and Hannah Waterman were getting together. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HW_UKz77O8&feature=related

There were rumors that Corrie wanted Todd to return permanently, but then that stopped. I wonder if that was because Kim Crowther took over. She has not been fond of the Grimshaws. Eileen has been wasted and Jason only slightly less so. He was so good with Becky, only to be dumped. Then he was good with Tina, but that was only about David's reaction. Then he was dumped, again, and now he barely appears. He's so gorgeous and Ryan is a good actor. To see him sidelined while wizened Nick is strutting around, I don't get it. I think they wanted us to feel a little sympathy for Rosie, or perhaps I'm deluding myself that they did. I hated when they made Rosie such a joke, and I was fine with the character being written out if that was how she was going to continue. She seems more human lately, and Helen's acting is improving. I think the problem with Tracy is she steamrolls over everyone. Kate Ford needs someone who is a strong match for her. The Charlie/Tracy pairing was not one with all sorts of heat, because again, Tracy isn't all that believable in such a setting, but it was entertaining because he did not put up with her sh!t.

I guess it might be from the point of view of some of those papers. I guess it's my fault for thinking this might be more. If it had been something big it probably would have been mentioned on the site, or by Kris Green.

I don't think Lucy would have a problem playing that story out

I can see them fighting, although I'd like to see the softer side too, which Bianca rarely has now, sadly. At least Patsy kept up with the show, even though she wasn't fond of it for a while there. Lucy Benjamin has said she hasn't watched in years. I always had a soft spot for Lisa though. I even like Lucy in her old Jupiter Moon episodes. I wonder if anyone's asked her about those days... I hope they'll do justice to Lisa's return.

The only thing they mentioned about her past before now was that she had to work and work to send money home.

I guess this might be the news. Not that great, although it could be OK... http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/showbiz/821661/Dales-new-girls-Nat-good-for-sis-Natalie-Anderson-will-quotraise-hellquot-as-latest-sexy-addition-to-Emmerdale.html

I think they overlap briefly, or I hope they do. Do you think the show suffered while Peggy was gone for those 2 years? I guess that was the closest viewers got to a Mitchell-free Eastenders, although something tells me the next few years may be the end of them. I'd love to see a Kat/Shirley friendship. Or Kat and Bianca. I can see her bonding with Ronnie, after some initial hostility, as I'm sure Ronnie might look down on her. I don't miss Garry that much but I always liked his relationship with Kat. Garry was at his best in the pre-Minty years.

That's why I edited that. I realized it would probably end up being Shadrach, Zak, Sandy...by the way, apparently you didn't see the scene in 2008 where poor Alan was in nothing but a slightly loose towel and Pearl walked in on him. That's something which you wouldn't forget. It's from the Daily Star apparently. These are some of the Twitter quotes.

A poster at Digital Spy is saying there's some big Emmerdale news coming tomorrow. I have no idea what "big" means -- it could mean Mr. Lucas from Are You Being Served? is Pearl's new boyfriend, for all I know -- but hopefully it will be a nice surprise. Perhaps they will have an episode where viewers vote on which men lose their clothes...

Hopefully Yorke will do a good job. He didn't do that well with Sam, but then I think that was more about helping Daniella Westbrook than about the character, who was basically written as a stupid schizophrenic. I agree that Kat was the most popular out of the sisters. I think something which is underrated about Kat, because of how polarizing she was, was that Kat was such a vivacious presence, she often had a real spirit about her. There were very few scenes where she was going around sulking and being catatonic. She added zest to a lot of scenes, and she wasn't always the typical soap control freak harridan -- like the scene where Zoe was scared to tell Kat that she was moving in with Kelly, but when Zoe told her, Kat just said, that's fine, and if she were Zoe's age she wouldn't want to live with her mother either. Hopefully that's where the show will go with her, not some of the one-note screaming Bianca gets into, but a fun presence who can get angry if she has to. That's why I don't think Kat is necessarily too much of what Eastenders already has. At her best, or even her not so best, she was a lot better than a banshee like Roxy.

I could relate to all the Slater sisters (aside from Zoe), but Kat was the one I liked the most because I think that whole tart with a heart, brash on the outside and vulnerable on the outside stuff worked so well with her. I remember the episode where she was at such a low point and she went to the fancy house with the pool and the glass panels and all that and the man she was with was so horrible that she just walked off, in her tiny dress, defiant. Lynne is a lot like many people I know but that's not a good thing sometimes -- I thought she was depressing and kind of a killjoy. You could also relate to Little Mo, this broken woman trying to find her strength. It's a shame they raped her again and made her a victim again. They just destroyed her character for good.

Phil, Peggy, Ian, Pauline, Pat, but she didn't interact a lot with Pat in her return, I don't think. One of my favorite EE posters at Digital Spy, who is a big fan of the Watts family, said that a lot of more recent viewers don't realize just how scant a relationship Pauline and Sharon had in Sharon's 85-95 run on the show. That was something which Yorke built up with Sharon's return, and it was very important to do so. They did a brilliant job with Sharon's return. She felt like she'd never been away and she immediately brought back years of history. I still wonder what might have been if Vicki had been cast with a better actress and given better writing and if Den's return had been better. I don't believe Den's return was the problem, it was what followed. I remember those scenes when he first returned where he had reunions with Pauline, Dot, Pat, Ian, and they talked about what he'd missed and what had become of Walford. A lot of that was down to the whole "let's get Phil" plot but I still loved those scenes; they represented what Den could have been, not the dirty old man he turned out to be. Thanks. This was from Louise: http://www.walfordweb.co.uk/item.php?id=2284

I would think they might have to at least bring in Little Mo for a while, or Belinda, or some of Mo's relatives. Kat and Alfie have few ties to the Square and they're not as fresh as they were back at the start of this decade so they won't be able to pull off the cheeky stuff as well. I guess they can be sort of like Pat and Frank, but they'll need more ties. I know Louise Berridge said she was the one who suggested they put Lacey in as a Slater, so I guess it was Louise and Tony Jordan. They need to try to get Tony back for a while to help them work out where the Slaters should go. He said he'd return for an Alfie/Kat wedding, but he loved that family so much I think he would try to help with story plans if he could. badboy, the Slaters did dominate a lot of airtime but at the time it was a relief for me because the rest was dominated by Phil, whom I loathed.