BetterForgotten

Gillian was also recently involved in a drunk driving incident I believe. But we know that's probably not the worst thing she regrets ever doing in a car.... Sorry, I couldn't resist.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/eastenders-nurse-sonia-fowler-barmaid-5292698 I am not here for this, Sonia should have never returned (I've always hated her, but she's extra annoying and judgmental these days), and Tina is a block of wood that's one massive waste of space.

And of course - Linda had to be involved somehow! DTC has no clear conscience on his his pet characters are being burnt out. It's bad enough that Linda has her own storyline with her overexposed family, she had to be shoehorned into stories for Sharon and Kat as well - all within the same damn week too. I don't care if we ever see Zoe again, and I think she could easily be recast (yeah she was part of two "iconic" stories, but she wasn't the lead in those).

After tonight's episode, I wonder if they're recasting Zoe or if Michelle Ryan is going to eat crow and return. Zoe was mentioned so many times and Kat texted her at the end. I wonder why Zoe hates Kat again these days when they left on good terms back in 2005. This was also the best Kat's been written in a long time, and obviously having no Alfie around and not making her a drunken mess helped.

The episode where The Fowler's and Ian and Kathy find out Pete died. There are no follow-up episodes though and we only find out during the cliffhanger. Was Peter Dean on break from the show when Pete was killed? I know he was hated by most of the cast and the producers, so I wonder if this was their way of getting back at him. Mandy and her pathethic-ness is hilarious in this episode.

I think the show had its best writing for minority characters in the 90's, it's actually said to see how they've regressed in that regard since then. Both Corrie and EE went though significant changes in the 1997-1999 era with massive changes in tone and cast culls. The changes seemed to help EE become more popular at the time, and Corrie seemed to lose its footing (it would take a while longer for them to get back into a groove). The late 90's seems like such an odd, yet interesting time for British soaps in retrospect.

I think this press hounding storyline was Sanjay and Gita's exit storyline: I always loved Sanjay and Gita when I watched the 90's episodes on PBS. They may have ran out of steam towards the end, but I always thought they were well integrated into the fabric of the show. They never felt like the "token Asian couple/family." They were of course part of Matthew Robinson's housecleaning, which was probably justified as they seemed to run of ideas for them. However, I do still think they could easily be written back in, but I doubt they'd be on the top of anyone's list of returns.

She was never a particularly great actress, I just think she was perfect for Cindy and just rode the wave of exposure she got from the role until it ran out. The same with Martine McCutcheon - not a particularly great actress, but great for Tiffany and she was able to score like two pop hits (including a UK #1 single) based off of that.

There's a new blog post from Matthew Robinson where he talks about Michelle Collins and the decision to kill Cindy. I love how transparent he is. http://walfordweb.com/blog/entry/4047849/597819/ The ego most of the cast had in the late 90's seemed out of control and exactly what led to both Michelle and Martine McCutcheon's downfalls.

I did think Tameka was doing some of her best work recently, but this storyline isn't working for me or the character. I doubt they will invest more than surface-level writing into it, and Kim will likely be ignored in a month or two.

I think Barbara herself may be the only person of colour to produce a UK soap, so she probably can speak to the issues of diversity with a more holistic view having worked from behind the cameras as well. Here's an interview she did last year:

Barbara Emile, who was one of the show's strongest producers/EP's in the 90's, clearly isn't fond of DTC's stance on diversity: Former EastEnders producer: TV industry must 'get real' on diversity

I wonder if Jan will appear in the Sarah Phelps episode, but I think that's airing this month as opposed to next month. I f.ucking hope they don't waste a one-off Sarah Phelps return on the Carter's. She should write for Sharon, Kat, and Stacey - three characters she wrote well for in her original stint on the show. I guess Whitfield will be connected to the new Harry storyline for Kat.

In a way, I can understand why Abi and Ben are drawn to each other and want to use one another to cover up their insecurities. They're both incredibly pathetic and needy characters. I think Lorna and Harry Reid are playing the hell out of the pathetic aspects of the characters. I am actually really surprised by Harry Reid, he brings a lot of vulnerability to the role - sometimes I want Ben to die, but other times I want to give him a hug. He's been a great recast, IMO. I just wish they knew how to write for this type of character.

The seemed to update the Sharon clip a lot compared to the others from the 25th anniversary version on the recent cliffhanger special.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPS0YtJdhRk There's also this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0N79S_JFoXU

The scriptwriters need hell for that. Den and Angie are her "real father and "real mother." Gavin and Carol are her "birth parents." I wonder if Sharon's Gavin is the same Gavin Kathy was/is married to. It seems like her birth father has been searching for her for years too...

The Sharon and Shirley scenes were the only thing worth watching, even if I hate Shirley. Sharon's finally being treated like a core character again, and it really works.

God, all the Carter crap was just terrible in today's episode. This family is really a massive failure, and the next EP really needs to give them the di Marco treatment. This one family weights the entire show down. No one cares and they are so badly fleshed out.

I'm always surprised they never did anything more with Mark and Mandy. I think this is one of my favourite uses of Julia's Theme - just the celebratory and welcoming environment in the Fowler house. I guess this was the trailer the BBC ran for the Christmas Eve episode that year: I think the 1990-1995 period is kinda underrated in retrospect. Yeah, even if the Mitchell's sort of changed the DNA of the show a bit, I think the producers for most of the 90's did a wonderful job of carrying on Tony Holland and Julia Smith's vision, while updating it a bit to match a more 90's sensibility. I really wish there was some place we could see these years again. So much is available from the 80's, late 90's, 00's, and present, but this era should be remembered more, from everything I've seen and read, it looked consistently good.

I had forgotten just how badly BBC America edited the sh!t out of the classic episodes when they aired them. Nearly half of the episodes were edited out and it makes it really hard to even understand some of them. I also forgot they aired them under the name, EastEnders: The Early Years. Thankfully, I was able to download a lot of the early episodes non-edited a few years ago.

This is Ellen's 4th role on the show, the most times someone has appeared on the show as this many different characters. I don't have faith in this, so we'll see how it turns out. that omnibus mistake is f.ucking hilarious. I hope it gets posted soon. I hope this Harry revisitation story can move Kat forward as a character again. I hope that they write Alfie out, I think Kat can function better away from him, and obviously there was a Kat before and after Alfie. But I don't know if they see these two character separately anymore, sadly. Sharon's improved a lot character-wise recently, I guess I can still hold out hope for Kat again.

I think the Kat/Zoe story was the last one that had any longterm impact. It drove 5 years worth of story, and they worked so hard to establish those characters and their relationship after the shocking revelation. It wasn't all about the shocking revelation - they cared enough to explore it with those characters for a long time afterwards.

When was the last time they did a topical issue with any integrity? Probably during the John Yorke era? I have to say though, I think a good deal of the 90's are underrated. There's this great understated quality of the 1990-1996 era where they tackled a lot of stuff, and a lot of of it never felt contrived or sensationalized. I also thought the show had its best writing for people of color in the 90's.

Well, there's also this: How many theme songs have been this versatile? Simon May never has to work again thanks to the theme song and the various iterations he's written and produced. Strangely, songs from the show have had great success on the UK pop singles charts. Anita's vocal version of the theme peaked at #4, Letitia and Paul's Something Outa Nothing peaked at #12, and Nick Berry's Every Loser Wins hit #1 (for three weeks in 1986 and was the #2 best selling single of the year in the UK). Simon May wrote and produced all these songs, by the way. The last time a song inspired by the show or character from the show crossed over the pop charts is probably Shane Ritchie's cover of Wham's I'm Your Man, part of the show's 2003 Children in Need contribution, which peaked at #2 on the UK singles chart in 2003. RE - the transgender story, I hope DTC and team takes this seriously and doesn't sensationalize it. We'll see...

Hmm, I didn't know they made a video for this: