DRW50

No, she has no idea he was involved with Maisie. I agree about Amanda Donohoe. She was phenomenal on Friday's episode, when you could see how much the contempt from the children was hurting her, and finally she lashed out. Some said it wasn't believable that she would kill Mark, but I think it was spur of the moment. She had spent months hiding his secrets, and then to hear him say he loved Faye and that he was staying around...it was too much for her. I thought most of the acting was good (Maxwell Caulfield excluded) or at least got the point across. Some said this couldn't compare to Eastenders, Eastenders is in another league (apparently they forgot the 2008 Christmas/NYE episodes), but they're different shows. If they try to be similar then there's no point in them being on the air. I can't see how the Wyldes have a long term future in the show but I'm hoping we will see more of their dynamics now that Mark is gone.

Bradley exit spoiler.

You're right, losing Max and OB, especially the way it happened, hurt a lot. But this also reinforced just how devoid the canvas had become of friendships and bonds. Stuff like Nancy/Sarah/Hannah, which was often Nancy and Sarah running around, "What about ME?", were not an adequate replacement. 2007 was a very good year for the show, I think the one downside is Kirkwood seemed to think it was the big events which made that year stand out, when I think it was the day to day relationships moreso than plot twists. He's got his work cut out for him, because Eastenders is seen as being in a good state right now. I think there's plenty of room for improvement, I hope he won't continue the stunt-driven, depressing storytelling which often has no followthrough (like Lauren running over her father).

Ravi is a very bad actor and I don't think he's all that believable with men or with women. If they're going to have a gay relationship, which I hope they do, I think they need to bring someone new in. I can also see someone like Ste in this type of story. Lauren is OK but I wouldn't mind seeing the back of Sasha. The girl who plays her is not capable of carrying stories. The only time I was interested in her was when she was with Fletch, and that was ruined when they wrote Fletch off in such a shoddy way (the character deserved better). Everything with Sasha, Warren, I thought it was a mistake. I think you could write out Frankie and Jack and Newt (although Newt must be popular with teens and tweens) without a real loss. I loved Jack but Bryan Kirkwood ruined him. He also ruined Frankie. She was a bitter harridan for his entire tenure and it's been hard to see her as anything different. Kirkwood was lucky in that he left the show with his reputation intact, but his 2008 HO was highly flawed. The story pacing was not good. Niall's story went on and on. Popular characters like Hannah, Justin, and Russ barely had anything to do the entire year. Tony, who had once been a funny and quirky character, became walking misery. Jacqui, a great character, was really damaged by his storytelling, which made her all about Tina's baby. Louise/Warren was repetitive and plot-driven and depressing. The Kieron/John Paul relationship was one of the most oddly written romances ever -- they would be friends, then the characters would vanish for weeks, then they'd sleep together, they'd vanish again, they were in love, and so on. Most of the important scenes were never shown. Then when Craig returned, he and John Paul were rushed together without any of their baggage being explored, and Kieron was killed off as an inconvenience. The character could have been so much more, he had ties to many others, like Ste, and the actor, Jake Hendriks, was charming and handsome. Worst of all was the small little moments were lost, like the conversations people used to have. This especially affected the McQueens, who barely even tolerated each other and only had the occasional scene which wasn't shouting and crying. Everything which had made them stand out in 2006 and 2007 was gone. Jacqui and John Paul had maybe two or three scenes the entire year. I think the show had become very depressing and sparse, and needed a change, but unfortunately, Allan seemed to just think bringing in endless teens and "comedy" stories was the answer. Anyway, here's another Marquess article, from 2002. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2002/feb/18/mondaymediasection6

It seems like she only made one or two appearances. She was on GH more often during that time. That Wikipedia profile makes it sound like she was used a lot on PC and then went back to GH. Then again, that profile also may give viewers the impression that GH actually gave Kent Masters King, Eddie Matos, Kiko Ellsworth, Jay Pickett any type of story when they were at GH. They deserved better (well, maybe not Eddie Matos).

Marie was a lot of fun on A Different World. I wish she hadn't just disappeared. She had the puppy romance with Ron, which then made Ron's transition into being a horn dog even more jarring (I did love Ron in the last season -- Ron/Freddie were a great couple, although the blatant sexuality from them and from Whitley/Dwayne in that last season was such a departure from the earlier seasons). bellcurve, I've always wondered about what happened with Joe. I thought Dietz and Jennifer Hammon were very good together and worked well as the young romantic leads. They were billed as the show's breakout couple. Then they dropped Dietz to recurring and he had to play an increasingly less important part until they found David Gail. It seemed like they wanted to make Joe more edgy, or whatever. Perhaps this was an ABC mandate. It felt very strange and did Joe no favors. Joe wasn't supposed to be edgy. I just wish the show hadn't had to go so heavily into those hollow arcs, which were blatantly plot-driven and which wrecked so many characters with such flimsy reasons. Kevin's a lunatic because he got jabbed with a needle! People are paid to write this? I wish they'd done more with Gabriella. They had an interesting story when she became a vampire, but it went nowhere. I guess that would have involved writing for a minority character.

It wasn't as bad in execution as it seems on paper. Most of her return visits were lots of fun and full of delicious confrontations with other characters like Rachel or Felicia. When she was bad, she was never seriously bad, as the story was camp (like when she drugged Cass to give her an heir so she could be queen of Tanquir). In her 1989 return, she had bad ideas in mind, like embezzling a charity, but she changed her mind at the last minute. The only return I didn't care for was the 1996 one, which was very crass and like all of that era, lacking most humor. To me killing a character like Cecile is just tacky and a bit heavy. She wasn't that type of character.

I think one of the reasons Debbi left was they had started to mellow Ellen significantly. She did seem to enjoy some of this (there was some good comedy when she became friends with Lucy), but overall the character lost most of her purpose. She was probably right to go, as I don't think they had any real plans for Ellen. Poor Marie Alice Recasner never had much of a chance. Chris never had a lot to do on the show but did have his moments. I always loved his friendship with Eve (frankly that was one of the few times I found Eve tolerable) and he also had some very tender moments with Julie. Seeing his vendetta against that prig Matt was fun too. He was very funny. And Nolan North was very cute. To think that PC had a parade of boring Joes, and later, the awful Rafe and Jack, and never properly used Chris or Jamal.

Thanks, bellcurve. I had forgotten they finally used her briefly later on. I have heard good things about that nurses' strike story and Karen's tenure. At the time I wasn't watching because I was still annoyed by what LML had done to Lucy, by some of the material in the Hamner run (the DV/Lucy stuff when she had amnesia turned my stomach, and I thought he also went too far with how Courtney and Frank behaved in breaking up Karen and Joe, although I did get a kick out of their relationship/the actress who played Courtney), and by Kevin/Eve in general. By the time I tuned in for her run, she was already on the way out.

My memory isn't the best, but I actually don't remember ever seeing Audrey on PC after the primetime movie. At the time it was almost a joke, because she was in the credits every day but never around. I guess this was good practice for GH's opening credits of the past five years. Julie was great as early Eve but I lost interest when they tried to make her into a heroine. Julie, on the other hand, comes alive when they make her a bitch.

Yes, she was. She put all those actors around en masse. Jerry Lanning also showed up later on, although he didn't exactly have a great role.

They put Lisby and Bev together again as Calla and Alex, didn't they, on GL? I guess Calla didn't work out as a character.

They're not wasting any time! Usually transitions are longer. Even Kim Crowther, whose tenure at Corrie won't be remembered with fondness, is not actually leaving until mid-year. So the stories Allan had planned will be significantly changed then?

They need to have a Ghost of Eve Guthrie account.

I think she did. His manipulations and whining finally pushed her too far and she killed him before she could think through. I had expected a whodunit, but I'm glad they went another way.

For a while they suspected his father of killing her, but finally he came forward and was eventually found to be acting in self-defense and a state of fear. When he went back to the place where she'd drowned, her mother showed up and almost drowned him. Then they had a heart-to-heart, and she accepted what happened, but said she could never forgive him for leaving her daughter there. There's a long writeup here on the Murray family. http://www.brooksidesoapbox.co.uk/page61.htm The little boy who played him, Ray Quinn, was runner-up to Leona Lewis on the X Factor and won Dancing on Ice last year.

Thanks for the article. I didn't know Marquess worked with Brian Park at Corrie. The Deirdre in prison story was a huge national event at the time. I think some of these culls leave some long term damage. Eastenders has never been the same without Kathy, and a few other characters from that era could have stayed (like Sanjay and Gita). Overall it was probably a success. I do think they do a disservice to Thelma Barlow (Mavis on Corrie). They imply she was fired for being past it. She actually quit the show because she was upset when they wrote out her husband on the show, Derek. She's continued to act regularly since leaving the show -- just a few years ago she did well in a Doctor Who episode (she was in the one where her scientist husband did experiments to become young; he did, but he also became a monster, and killed her). These days new producers don't cull soaps as much, but there is so much dead weight at Hollyoaks, I won't be surprised if the axe falls, unless they don't have the budget. Can anyone tell me about Marquess's time at Family Affairs? I wish that show were available. It was on for 7 years yet I have almost never seen any of it. The closest you get is some of the clips of the lesbian stories on the show.

Marquess is known as someone who has no problem firing a lot of people, in front of and behind the camera. I guess Hollyoaks will get a big cull. That's needed, although I hope he leaves some of the better actors.

Should have happened months ago. Paul Marquess presided over some of the last years of Brookside. I believe he did a story about a young boy being bullied by a girl, and finally the girl drowned in a lake and the boy thought he'd killed her. He was also producer of The Bill. He was involved in their big gay storyline, involving two police officers and their secret affair.

Really great episodes last night, better than I'd expected, since the Mark Wylde/Daniel Lamb story has been dragging on. I think soaps at their best are about complex women and we got that in spades with Natasha. The men aren't that interesting in this story, although they're nice to look at. Maisie's pain was so raw and well expressed. The ending was a surprise too.

Poor Cecile

Zsa Zsa looks so much older than the part, and she's also very wooden.

I was catching up on 2009 episodes and was blown away by the work from Eileen Derbyshire, who has played Emily for almost 50 years. She rarely gets a storyline and is often sneered at by some fans as "boring" or as dead weight. Yet when she does get material, she more than delivers. This is a few moments from a story where Emily, who has basically been alone since her husband was murdered 30 years ago (she's had a few relationships but most of them were not happy), has fallen in love with Ramsay, recently arrived brother to her lodger, Norris. Norris hates Ramsay because of a past family conflict and refuses any efforts to get over the past. Finally he is so rude that Ramsay decides to return to Australia. He dies on the airplane trip, and they learn he had a brain tumor and he'd known he was dying the entire time he had been visiting them. She finally cannot take anymore and gives Norris a real dressing down. She talks with Rita afterward:

I can't stand Calvin, so perhaps they finally, after about 3 years, realized how awful he is. Some have said Louise should come back as the killer -- I hope they do that. I'm still disappointed they ruined Malachy/Mercedes so she could sleep with Calvin. I haven't watched a lot of it but the story with Anita causing Hannah to relapse sounds sick. Is it any better watching it?

Was that EdgeofLlanview? I think he took his clips down because of the quality of them, or something like that. Then he said he was going to start putting them back up.