Y&RWorldTurner

The Beale's have not been very central as a unit since 2007/2008. Though, that will probably change when the Lucy recast is introduced. Ian and Jane still have the face the problems resulting from Lucy's abortion, which can only be done when Lucy is back. Though, I suspect more is to come from Peter and Whitney.

Kirkwood apparently gave these spoilers to Inside Soap:

9.7 million tuned in last night. http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/soaps/s2/eastenders/news/a281599/billies-enders-death-seen-by-97m.html

It seems like she's more sad to see Devon go than Billie go...

It's funny that I tend not to associate Robbie and Sonia with the Jackson clan as much as I do with Bianca and Billie. I guess because of the time those characters spent on the show when all the other Jackson's were gone. I sometimes forget that Robbie and Sonia are even Carol's children since I associate them more with Jim and the Branning side of Carol's family than with Carol and Alan. Sonia in particular I associate most with Jim and the Fowler's. I always wondered why Sonia never reached out or thought about her Carol when she was going through a lot traumatic events in her life throughout most of the 00's. Out of all of Carol's relationships with her children, the one with Sonia is the least developed, and she's the kid that lasted the longest (unfortunately) on the show. I don't think Robbie and Sonia are needed for this story, but if the show ever decides to kill Jim, and I guess they eventually will with John Bardon's health, their absence would be too noticeable.

Devon Anderson has this pic of the Jackson's as his Twitter background. http://twitter.com/devonanderson87

Today's episode: It was so raw, and we got to see so many different dimensions of Carol today. It was almost painful to watch Carol trying to remain strong and hold her tears back. That scene where she rushed into the kitchen to vomit was really realistic, and then towards the end where she hovered over Billie's dead body and said, "Not my little one! Not my little one!" was really sad and crushing. There were some daring moves taken in this episode, like that 2-3 minutes of silence where Billie's body was being taken away. That was just perfect, they didn't need the dialogue to do any talking, the situation was too real in itself. The episode was in real-time too, which made it more powerful and realistic. The attention to detail was also very strong in this episode, like Carol fixing Billie's socks at the end. The real-time helped emphasize Carol's roller-coaster of emotions too. We got to see her laughing with Alfie and Patrick in the beginning, and then see her in shock, and then absolutely devastated by the end of the episode. Lindsey Coulson was incredible. She doesn't even need to speak, and I know there is better to come yet from her.

Diversity or no diversity, Billie sucked ass and dragged his entire family down when he was on, so off with his head! Bianca's [Ronnie Mitchell]litter[/Ronnie Mitchell] are annoying brats that I advocate death too in that situation!

Since they've tried to have Bianca's life mirror Carol's, can they please kill off Morgan or Tiffany, or all of Bianca's children now too?

Surprisingly he lasted until 2006. No. There was that awful relationship with Ruby that consumed most of his final year or so on the show.

Yeah, I think it was one of Berridge's last stories. Kathleen Hutchinson axed the entire Ferreira family. Juley Smith was one of Berridge's first creations when she took over in Summer 2002.

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Stacey wanted Mickey for a while, who was with Kareena. While Kareena was hooked on cocaine (a horrible story), she saw Stacey trying to seduce Mickey and things went off from there. Mickey dumped Kareena at one point for her cocaine habit supplied by Juley Smith. I haven't seen it yet, hope it's good.

I never liked Kareena, and then when they attempted to "sex-up" that character, it was just laughable.

One thing I've noticed about Blyth in interviews is that he often says that he wants people to think of Emmerdale as a hip, young, cool, and sexy show - not the mundane farming image the show has overall. I guess phasing out older characters, with few exceptions, is part of his overall strategy.

I really got sick of Nick when he kept on returning and Dot kept on falling for his latest act. That's another character I hope never returns.

Dot was a very different character in her early years, they seem to be going back to her roots these days, but she wasn't a very pleasant person, and was kind of overbearing and had some ignorant tendencies, which made her interesting. It was always heavily hinted that she might be a bit racist as well, and that's carried a bit onto today. Though, she's always had great comedic moments to balance everything out.

Dot outlived Lou though, and during Ethel's final years, Dot was really all she had. When Dot debuted, it seemed like the show placed more emphasis on Dot and Ethel than on Lou and Ethel, even though all three were close friends. It was Dot/Ethel that became the iconic double act.

I loved that cult story, LOL! Didn't someone on Emmerdale also play Mel's mother for a few episodes? The name escapes me.

And we can't forget that Bianca wanted to shag her own father (well, she didn't know, but still...)! <object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOXT-ycy5D0?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param'>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOXT-ycy5D0?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOXT-ycy5D0?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>

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Some behind the scenes pics of the tram crash: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/soaps/s3/coronation-street/news/a281246/behind-the-scenes-at-corrie-50th-explosion.html

I actually think that's the case more so with Ronnie than with Roxy. I kind of feel Ronnie may be all tapped out and there is no where else to go with her. Roxy seems to have taken on a new life in recent months, she;s supporting yes, but I feel like they can probably do more with her now than before, which I don't know if I can say for Ronnie. I think Max is a real asset to the show and Jake Wood can play a lot of diverse things. Forgot to mention during my Stacey/Kat analysis, the Stacey/Bradley relationship was almost entirely based on the template the show used for Kat/Alfie. You know, the tough Slater girl who feels unworthy of love falls for someone she normally wouldn't give a second look to that is goofy, slightly awkward, but an all-around nice guy, and then they're on and off for god knows how long.

I think it's much harder these days to find characters who take on a life of their own. Soaps either don't feel like investing in characters, or something gets lost in execution. I think what really helped Stacey was Kat leaving. Let's face it, Stacey was basically a take on Kat's character from a younger angle without the makeup and leopard print, Tony Jordan even admitted this. When Jessie and Kat left, the show used Stacey/Lacey a lot of fill that void. I noticed this a lot from the 2006 stuff and during the Stax affair. Stacey was very Kat-lite during this time. I think they just need something unique that the show doesn't offer and that the other shows aren't offering. I don't think Den and Angie, The Mitchell's, and Kat were like anything that were on soaps when they first debuted and during their peak years, they stood out.

I think there was a bit of a ratings bump during that time, but it could also be due to the overall Den murder plot, which involved so many characters and all of the show's big characters. Grant is probably the show's definitive iconic character of the 90's, just slightly edging out his brother Phil. The 80's definitive iconic characters were definitely Den and Angie. For the 00's, it's definitely Kat Slater, and then Stacey Slater. No other characters created in the past 10 years have had the impact of these two. Sharon is the character that links together all the popular eras of the show, more so than Ian and Dot really. It should be interesting to see what characters arise in this decade, and if any of the new characters will have any lasting impact. Every decade so far has had one or two really big and definitive characters of their respective eras.