DRW50

I think Kirk's time has passed but I don't see him as enough of a problem that he has to go quickly. I think they could use him to phase her in, as they did with Julie, although Julie herself is barely around these days.

Antony Cotton has no dramatic ability (dramatic talent in his mind seems to be pouting), but he also has no real comedic ability, as those drunk scenes on Friday suggested. He also tends to overdo his one-liners. I thought the way Violet and Jamie ran off with the baby was unfair but then and now it was difficult to care. I didn't know all that about Betty's DIL trying to con her out of her money. That's awful. I guess that was when they recast her son a few years back. I liked Molly a lot before the Molvin stuff and now I'm not even sure why. I like Tyrone too and I think he's an underrated actor, he also works well as a background character, but I'm not sure where he would go now. The sad thing is that with the way Corrie has changed over the last few years there doesn't seem to be any real foundation for a Jack or a Vera. Becky used to be one of my favorite characters but I skip most of her scenes involving this baby. I just don't care and I don't think she is in the right frame of mind to be raising a child. The only part I enjoyed was when Fiz saw her outfit and asked if she had another court appearance coming up. So far I'm liking Izzy (she also reminds me of Stephanie Waring, Cindy from Hollyoaks, and she played Charlie Stubbs's baby mama 3-4 years ago). She is "feisty," as the cliche goes, but not too harsh, and she works well with Kirk. Friday's episodes were stronger for the Blanche story. Ken talking about how much he'd miss Blanche and how he never had time to tell her was so sad to hear, especially knowing Roache lost his wife last year.

I wonder if it was something going on with Lauren that we don't know about, as it doesn't seem like the usual firing of a teen actor. I don't know what they could have done with her -- the Max hit and run story was terrible and seriously damaged the character, and her relationship with Peter never went anywhere as she retreated into her own moroseness -- but I don't see a reason why she'd have to go. Some are speculating she may be killed off but I can't see them doing that. Perhaps the actress wanted to leave and they're taking some time and then recasting. The clinic is ridiculous, most ridiculous because there is nothing wrong with Jack. He has gotten better without any real effort at all. He just wants to go there so he can shag all the nurses. Billy's character is reduced to the same handful of poor me unloved Mitchell, and I can sympathize with this for long periods of time because the Mitchells truly are so entitled and such unpleasant, demanding people, but giving Ronnie this lecture, the Mitchell who has been most cast out by her family, even after what she's gone through, I just didn't want to hear it. They don't have any idea of what to do with him and even worse they aren't making any effort. Everything in those fire scenes was laughable and of no effort -- the club has been burned down how many times now? And if you don't have the budget to start a fire, that's fine, but why tell a story abotu a fire? It's not like anything interesting is coming out of it. Then there's the pointless ambiguity of, "Gee, did they mean to start a fire?"

They were also saying on Walford Web that, talking about new characters,

Welcome! The board just went through a down period for a few days so that may be why there haven't been any responses. Anything you have to tell us about the show, it would be great. Were there any characters or stories you particularly admired? What happened in the last episode?

I think they may have planned more with the Heather story and either they didn't follow through or the negative audience reaction stopped it. He doesn't even mention his son now. I like him best in scenes with Tamwar. If the show needs to have comic double acts I'm not sure why they don't do more with that one. They're probably the best comic double act the show has had since Jim and Patrick.

The Darren fans might enjoy this:

Did you hear that about how some woman, Tessa Jowell, was compared to Joan Collins, and then made a bitter remark about Joan using Botox. I've heard that the BBC election night coverage got a lot of criticism, but they seemed to do well in the ratings. It looks like a hung parliament, and like the exit poll that many disbelieved when it came out was close to the mark. So will Clegg and Cameron work together? Will the Lib Dems have any credibility after that? Interesting article on the Tory star candidates who generally flopped. I guess any party that shows off people who are supposed to be so different from their usual standards are likely to see those people fail. One of them lashed out at the press in a very soapy diva manner. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/election/article-1275139/UK-ELECTION-RESULTS-2010-The-Tatler-Tory-A-listers-failed-make-Westminster.html

I guess they didn't want to take the time to address those who were already gone, and they may not have wanted to kill Annie because Doris Speed, although retired, lived for quite a few years after she left, so that may have been out of respect for Annie, but I do wish they'd done something. Ena was such a strong presence and even though she barely managed to appear in her last few years she still left a mark. I think the most they did was to mention in one of those compliation videos from 1984 or 1985 that Ena was dead. Ken told some ex girlfriend who was visiting that Ena had passed away, and she was shocked, as Ena was so strong, but then she remembered that Ena was up there in age. I liked that with Annie, they at least kept a photo of her in the back room (I think a lot of that had to do with Julie Goodyear), and then when Bet had to give the pub up, they showed Annie's photo again, passing the torch. Trevor you did see -- he was laughing with Janice and haggling World Cup tickets with Steve. I agree that Ken and Becky came out well with Blanche's passing, and that some on the show are probably mourning for Maggie, not Blanche (Maggie was apparently a very nice woman). I wish we saw more from Peter. Nick does like to bully those he sees as lesser. He's very nasty with David. I also don't believe that he actually cares about Gail. He may want to but I don't think he does. I have no idea what they are planning with Nick but I think he's very vile. Frankly I think he's a sociopath. I really wish they would write him out, but if they don't, then this could be what they use to implode the Platt family once and for all. I don't hate Gail, I actually kind of like her, but her children are nightmares. I think Maria's supposed to be back this month? Or next month. Hopefully that's not it for Mary. She's the type of character Corrie does so well, and the actress is a real find. I especially liked when she was ranting at her mother in the mirror, and any of her scenes in her camper.

So did you like the scenes where Peter found out about the abortion? I thought Melissa Suffield was very good; sometimes she just has a stone face but she actually seemed upset in these scenes, I was impressed with her work. Thomas Law was not as good, he's still very green, but he was OK.

I wonder if Tyrone may leave with Molly. Betty has a son, but it's been mentioned more than once that Betty doesn't feel comfortable around his wife, who is stuck up and resents Betty. She retired once and went to live with them and his wife was not very happy to see her. I do hope they will give her some exit, hopefully a decent one. Some of the show's most iconic characters, like Ena and Annie, never got to say goodbye oncamera. There was something hot yet also something weird about the binman, I never quite knew where his character would go anyway. I spent a lot of his scenes checking to see the size of his hands, as I assume that's the main reason Carla would be interested in him. I see that the board going down also took away some of our complaining about I still am not getting that much from the scenes about Blanche dying. I did like June Whitfield's comic turn as the drunken friend, and I really liked that scene where Ken went into Blanche's room and looked at her wedding photo, and other treasures. I think Blanche was such a harsh and comic character, without a lot of sympathetic moments, it's not as easy to get into a sad mode with her. It doesn't help that I find Deirdre hard to take, although I did feel sorry for her when she couldn't go into Blanche's room. Not so much when she started haranguing Ken yet again.

Some casting news from the last few days. Vicky Binns is leaving as Molly (good riddance to Molly). The guy who plays Trevor the binman is also being written out. And the sad one, Betty Driver, who plays the longtime barmaid Betty Turpin, is also leaving. 91 years old. I guess you can't blame her for wanting some free time. She's an iconic part of Corrie and I hope they will give her a decent exit. http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/showbiz/809073/BETTY-CALLS-TIME-Betty-Driver-leaves-Coronation-Street-after-41-years.html

I'm sorry for you, I know you were a fan of Charlie's. I think he's been given some very tough material and I don't envy him, especially with the hate he's been put through. This part makes me Do you think they're going to do what they did with Steven Beale around ten years ago, when he's shipped off after his bad behavior? I hope they'll handle Ben's eventual return better than Steven's. I think it's a good decision to write Lauren out. I don't think the girl who plays her is capable of handing strong material -- she was OK at first, but then when it started with her running over Max, the actress just was not able to make that work. There are some other cuts that can be made, like Jordan, but I still want to see Denise stay, so Jordan is probably the only reason she would stay. I wish they could write Louise out too.

Another average (?) set of episodes. Zsa Zsa doing the slowest and clumsiest baseball bat wielding ever. Leon being such a poor actor that he can't even feign getting hit in the balls. Pointless ambiguity over whether Billy actually meant to burn the club down. Rushed buildup of Billy having to raise his kids, and Jay looking stupid for not having any idea that Billy is below the poverty line. I skipped everything with Roxy and Danny and most of the E20 "comedy". Syed and Christian doing their usual mopey stares and Syed once again trying to have it all ways and trying to play the martyr. The Masoods becoming a miserable, depressing family in no time at all. The best part was Shirley repeatedly threatening and abusing Leon. I love Linda Henry. I was confused by the point of even referencing the election result. I thought they did that to seem current, but when they had Minty say something that didn't go along with the reality (same old same old -- how is hung parliament same old same old?), it just made them look strange. Why not just show it on the front of a paper and not have anyone actually comment.

I've always thought Karl was kind of hot... Toadie and Susan are hilarious there. It's nice to see Toadie not simpering or being the clown. That's very funny. I guess I can see why it didn't air but it's so entertaining, and also shows what some of the actors can do with different material. It's strange how Neighbours has now said they can't have anything that will scare viewers, or something like that. Was this some network mandate?

That's how June Brown tends to speak as Dot. The guy in the laundromat with Dot was Billy Mitchell. He has been having money problems, again. He's been moved from one apartment and house to another over a few months, and he has to take care of himself and his ward Jay, who is apparently too busy coming out with smart aleck comments to earn money. Billy is the lackey of the Mitchell family, or he used to be. Thankfully they have split up all of the Mitchells and are no longer pretending they are a loving family.

I wish they could do something with Cheryl, she just looks grotesque. I'm glad Glen Wallace got a BSA nomination. Besides being so handsome and charismatic, he's a wonderful actor. I hope they will do a lot with Malachy. For someone who originally only came in as Kris's neanderthal, bigoted brother, he's grown so much.

Sarah Phelps interview. http://www.walfordweb.co.uk/item.php?id=2357

I'm hoping that they might have her stay around and explore some of the aftermath of what she's gone through. The only problem is I don't know how her kids would leave her after this.

Lucas strikes again...

She looks so old, I'm guessing they will bump her up in age before too long. They will probably bring other women in too in that age group. Hopefully Kirkwood is better than Santer at introducing new characters.

Zsa Zsa is going to be a star, don't you forget it. Eastenders has shied away from complex or strong characters for so long now, and yet they also don't want to show everyday life, so that means they lean more towards caricatures, and it's not easy to make a popular caricature of a young woman (unless you have an actress like Lacey Turner who can play anything), or of a homosexual. Eastenders said "We aren't going to be like Antony Cotton" and yet in their own way they have had even more ugly stereotypes than Sean ever had on Corrie. The last gay character I thought worked well was Pauline's friend Derek. It worked for Pauline because she got to share fun and dramatic and tender scenes with a male co-star, yet nothing romantic, which seemed to be what Wendy Richard preferred. And I thought Derek was a good solid character -- generally a supporting player but someone you knew hadn't had an easy life. Was he fired or did he quit?

Syed as a bad boy was something which collapsed as soon as they hired Marc Elliott. His acting as Syed has always reinforced Syed as weak and pathetic; he often looks like he's going to burst into tears. He had behaved badly with the family's accounts years before he came on the show, but that was all gotten over quickly when he arrived. Christian was a confusing mess early on. He was openly leering at teenage boys, like Darren Miller, and he was in a very confusing and half-written story where he was sure that Steven Beale was gay and Steven tried to seduce him. It was an awful story -- the acting was terrible and Steven was just one of the many wonderful bisexual/gay = lunatic creations. After that ended, Christian ran through every single stereotype you can imagine -- he cheated, he could never be happy because men saw him as too old, he was Will and Grace with Roxy and desperate to raise her baby, he wept over his mother, who never loved him. Then this Chryed stuff started, and they clumsily put Christian into the story because he was the only other gay character on the show. Christian just became the damp-eyed, breathy stalker/soulmate to ever-cowering Syed. It's been the same scenes done over and over again and is called "groundbreaking", even though we barely see them kiss and most of the daring aspects of the story were barely covered. I am less and less convinced that they are actually going to put Christian and Syed together. I don't think they've ever worked well together, so that's not a big loss, but I do wonder what will happen after that. I can see them both being gone within a year.

Ben, you are putting such logic into my complaining. I guess it's needed though. I had forgotten about the Pat scene. If that was what they had in mind then I'm glad. I just thought it was their usual overdramatics. Syed is back and playing out the same scripts again! I give up. At least his pecs looked nice in his tight top. Never cared about Jay, still don't, but he does have a good rapport with Billy. I do wish he would get a character trait beyond the whole Artful Dodger thing. I'm surprised that he has no idea just how much financial trouble Billy is in. Is he too busy with Sam Mitchell's underwear? Zainab's pain was so palpable. Nina makes what could be an unsympathetic character so easy to relate to. I still don't know why she doesn't get more credit for her dramatic work. Roxy...zzzz...Danny...zzzzzz...nice chest hair peeking out though. Are we supposed to feel sorry for Roxy? I wonder if Scott Maslen wishes he'd had a pedicure. Marc Elliott interview. http://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/s2/eastenders/interviews/a217924/marc-elliott-syed-masood-eastenders.html