Y&RWorldTurner

Here's an article I found that was first posted a decade ago this month. It's about the introduction of the Slater family in September 2000. It also confirms that it was John Yorke who thankfully got rid of the di Marco's (with the exception of Beppe). http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/903679.stm I will always love and have a special fondness for the Slater's. EastEnders, or soaps in general, have not introduced a family that fit in so seamlessly and successfully from the beginning since. I really can't believe it has been 10 years since their introduction. I found it interesting that John Yorke and Tony Jordan picked the best actors from an improvisation session for 30 actors and actresses to be apart of the family. For most of those in the family, this was their first real acting job. Also, the Slater's doing the karaoke to the Nolan's I'm In The Mood for Dancing was apart of the improvisation session, and later famously incorporated into the show. I didn't know Kat was originally created as a rival for that twit Mel. I don't remember any real big Kat/Mel moments to be honest, though I do remember them interacting. John Yorke and especially Tony Jordan poured so much love, care, and dedication into this family and into making them work as both a unit and individual characters, and I think it really showed on-screen. They really helped give the show a new lease on life and an added popularity in the early 00's. I've been looking up the end credits of a lot of Kat's major episodes, and it's not surprising that it was Tony Jordan who wrote most of her big episodes from 2000 to 2005. He really loved that character, and that's probably why she became so iconic and such a big presence so fast. Also, there was such an electricity about the show under John Yorke's reign from 2000 to 2002. The episodes were can't miss, there was so much excitement, heart, community, and complex and iconic characters interacting. Even when a lot of the issues were quite gritty and disturbing, like Trevor/Little Mo, you couldn't help but watch and be entertained. The day to day writing was so superb. I don't think the show, or soaps in general have come close to match this era since. I think this era remains the peak of British soap over the past 10 years. Now I feel like I've posted way too much on something that I probably shouldn't have.

Two more Peggy trailers from BBC1: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/soaps/s2/eastenders/scoop/a268040/more-peggy-mitchell-tribute-trailers.html

Well, at least Carley Stenson has found work fast and is achieving her dream of being in musicals. She's joining the cast of the West End production of Legally Blonde. http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/showbiz/s13/hollyoaks/news/a268599/stenson-joins-legally-blonde-musical.html

Today episode: I felt bad for Stacey when she was in the car and they were driving away to scatter Bradley's ashes, and then she started to get uncomfortable and cry because she wasn't ready. The scenes with Max and Stacey in the Slater kitchen talking about moments from Bradley's childhood was well done too. Becca is a damn controlling freak when it comes to Stacey. Oh shut up Heather. She always wants Shirley to interfere in her life, and when she does, like today with Minty, she's pissed and accuses Shirley of being a bad friend. Shirley will be right in the end, because Minty will never love Heather more than Sam. Poor Jane, she's right though. She's given up all of herself for Ian, their marriage, and Ian's kids, and at the end of the day she has nothing to really show for it and is very unappreciated. I liked seeing Denise support her. Melissa Suffield had a low key exit, but that's to be expected with Jane keeping the abortion lie to herself and wanting to stick it to Ian when he least expects it. I'm glad Lucy mentioned to Peter that they do have family on their mother's side and that she'll be staying with her Nana Williams. I'm assuming Lucy will be back around Christmas, maybe even on Christmas, like knocking on Ian's door that day. I think Lucy as a character can be interesting when she comes back. She demonstrates both Ian and Cindy's worst tendencies. Peter doesn't seem like any of his parents. I think he may be closest to his grandma Kathy, being a voice of reason type in his family.

Peggy's last episode will be 40 minutes, and BBC1 will spend the other 20 minutes of that hour doing a Revealed special on Peggy. http://www.tvtv.co.uk/tvtv/web/programdetails.vm?programmeId=45638633&lang=en&epgView=list&groupid=0&tref=Program I'm guessing it's only 20 minutes because it focuses on only Peggy, not in addition to other characters like other Revealed specials.

I'm really starting to hate the Becky character and her overexposure...

This show has always treated teens as secondary, and when they do feature them a lot, they seem to move them out of the teen group and write them as some quasi-adults. Bianca, Ricky, Tiffany, Sonia, Jamie, Martin, Janine, Zoe, Bradley, and Stacey, and many others were barely allowed to be teens before they written as more adult-like characters. I mean early on, you did get a strong indication that those characters were teens, but not for long. Santer seemed to be trying to forge a teen group earlier in the year with the E20 gang, but that in no way worked out, and they'll be losing Zsa Zsa and Leon soon, who he featured the most. I don't really care for teen storylines, so I hope the teens are just supporting (and the new ones are well-cast) until they can be featured more often.

Max/Vanessa's dynamic is interesting. At first, I thought they were both using each other to escape from their lives and it was strictly just a relationship based on sex. But as we get to know Vanessa more, she seems to be a catalyst for Max to open up about himself and his insecurities. I wonder how much longer Vanessa has on the show. There seems to be a lot to the character that we don't know yet, but they're hinting at.

Stephanie Davis (Sinead O'Connor) interview: Page 1: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/soaps/s13/hollyoaks/interviews/a263126/stephanie-davis-sinead-oconnor-hollyoaks.html Page 2: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/soaps/s13/hollyoaks/scoop/a268122/more-from-hollyoaks-star-stephanie-davis.html

I wonder if the show will remember that Ian and Alfie were really good friends (and it was with Ian's help that Alfie got to tell Kat he loved her and stopped her wedding to Andy Hunter). Ian is probably going to be needing a good friend soon. And I hope that Shirley and Kat become good friends, I think they would get along fabulously as friends. Kat and Bianca could go either way, they'd either really hate each other, or take a liking to one another. Kat probably won't be amused by the Mitchell sisters either. Though maybe she could eventually bond with Ronnie regarding their childhood traumas.

Today's episode: Again, I think I choked on my vomit seeing Minty and Heather half-naked. I think Vanessa and Max work very well together. Her tough love act and not being overbearing with Max, like Tanya would have probably been, is a nice contrast. Using Darren's worries over George was a cleaver way to get Max to open about about Bradley and his parenting. Dot was right, Max was generally an awful father to Bradley, and that shouldn't be forgotten and is something that will probably haunt Max forever. Heather better not get too comfortable, the minute Sam finally decides to settle for someone like Minty because she has no one else, Heather's ass is history. At least Syed finally got a taste of what Christian was really like when he stumbled in drunk off his ass with Roxy. Christian and Syed haven't dealt with their differences as people yet, so showing this side of Christian and seeing Syed's reaction was important. I did feel sorry for Jane tonight. She is really doing most of the heavy lifting when it comes to parenting Ian's children, yet she's also genuinely gullible towards them to her own fault. Normally, I would find the way Jane found out about the abortion from Zsa Zsa too contrived, but I think it worked here. Zsa Zsa got the wrong idea as to why Jane was so visibly hurt and when Jane mentioned being lied to and how it had nothing to do with the exams, she figured it had to be about the abortion. She was no great actress, but I am going to miss Melissa as Lucy. She had a nice rapport with the rest of the Beale family, and I think today's episode showed that. however, I'm looking forward to the recast and hope she looks a bit more mature, yet also has chemistry with her on-screen family.

First pic of the O'Connors, who will debut on September 1st. They look very Brookside, and not only because of Alex Fletcher...

Thanks for posting, Jessie actually looks a lot like Pat Phoenix when she's dolled up like that. What do you make of her Manchester-based accent? I'm at work and can't really listen to that brief segment... Yeah, I figured they would do this to bring in more casual viewers and keep diehard fans guessing whether or not Peggy will be killed off. I'm glad they're doing that, it helps build suspense.

Bombhead will be on the Freshers spin-off with Lee. http://www.e4.com/blog/hollyoaks/post/qlmq19r2jb2p84znphvbpr/view.e4?cntsrc=sn_hollyoaks_facebook Maybe he'll eventually transition to the main show as well. I hate these types of silly "comedic characters." I'm not watching right now, but I hope he doesn't make it to the show show, the show already has too many useless and annoying "comedic characters."

Daran Little is writing the Monday episode to that week, right? When was the last time someone wrote that many consecutive episodes? I know that was being planned for a while, as Dominic Treadwell-Collinns said Simon Ashdown was writing all of Barbara Windsor's final episodes. I guess this is how Ryan will find out about Lily, and it's also a Vic Fire spoiler:

Not sure I agree with all the positions on this list (Dot, for example should be in the top 10), but I found it interesting: http://whatsontv.co.uk/blogs/soaplife/category/top-100-eastenders-characters/

Apparently, Sam's last episode and Minty's is at the end of September. I guess they go off happily together, even though I suspect Sam will always treat him as her last resort, since she has no one else in her life to look forward to. Even if the baby isn't his, I can see Minty still wanting to raise it with Sam. Maybe they'll still have Sam occasionally make visits from time to time. Phil doesn't have any immediate family anymore, yes he has Ronnie, Roxy, and Billy, but they're not his siblings.

Letitia sounds like a second-rate Kylie Minogue.

I'm guessing it's a Holby City audition, those actresses are way too Northern for the show, unless the show is adding a Northern family, which I kind of doubt. I know Rigby recently said she didn't want to do another soap so soon.

I've also heard that Lacey requested a lighter work load this year, especially coming off the bipolar story. Though, she's allegedly featured a lot throughout the fall leading up to her exit at the end of the year.

I think when Bradley basically pressured Stacey into having an abortion, it screwed up Stacey forever, and she was never quite the same after that fiasco. I never understood why she would want to be with him after that. That whole thing basically killed Stacey's spirit and I don't know if it's ever really recovered, despite Lacey acting the hell out of some very tough writing. I'm kind of sad Stacey is leaving just as Kat is coming back. Jessie and Lacey are very believable as family and had a great dynamic towards the end of Kat's first run. Kat and Stacey had very similar, yet uniquely different sensibilities about things. Apparently, one fan who recently visited Elstreet and spoke with Jessie said that Kat had a lot of scenes with Stacey coming up before Stacey leaves. I'm looking forward to that. Yeah, they lost Kat, Alfie, Sharon, and Dennis within days each other. Those characters carried the show through some very rough patches. I really do think that wasn't supposed to be a final exit and she was supposed to be back at some point, but maybe plans fell through. That exit didn't really have a "final goodbye" sensibility to it.

Stacey and Nana Moon get arrested, and Kat's top matches her hair. <object width="480" height="360"><param name="movie" value="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/video/xclpm5?additionalInfos=0"></param><param'>http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/video/xclpm5?additionalInfos=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/video/xclpm5?additionalInfos=0" width="480" height="360" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always"></embed></object><br /><b><a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xclpm5_eastenders-stacey-and-nana-get-arre_shortfilms">EastEnders - Stacey and Nana get arrested</a></b><br /><i>Uploaded by <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/Ryanlcfc2">Ryanlcfc2</a>. - <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/us/channel/shortfilms">Watch feature films and entire TV shows.</a></i> You know, watching a lot of stuff from 2005 over again, while the show had seen better eras, I don't think 2005 was that bad of a year. I think I prefer it to 2007/2008, which was supposed to be a "comeback" era. I also think pairing Stacey with Bradley killed some of her spunk in the long run.

Ohh, Sharon's last episode (well, at least part of it) from 2006 is up: <object width="480" height="360"><param name="movie" value="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/video/x90sbu_eastenders-sharon-s-exit-13-01-06-p_shortfilms?additionalInfos=0"></param><param'>http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/video/x90sbu_eastenders-sharon-s-exit-13-01-06-p_shortfilms?additionalInfos=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/video/x90sbu_eastenders-sharon-s-exit-13-01-06-p_shortfilms?additionalInfos=0" width="480" height="360" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always"></embed></object><br /><b><a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x90sbu_eastenders-sharon-s-exit-13-01-06-p_shortfilms">Eastenders - Sharon's exit 13.01.06 part 1</a></b><br /><i>Uploaded by <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/Ryanlcfc2">Ryanlcfc2</a>. - <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/us/channel/shortfilms">Watch feature films and entire TV shows.</a></i> <object width="480" height="360"><param name="movie" value="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/video/x90x2d_eastenders-sharon-s-exit-13-01-06-p_shortfilms?additionalInfos=0"></param><param'>http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/video/x90x2d_eastenders-sharon-s-exit-13-01-06-p_shortfilms?additionalInfos=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/video/x90x2d_eastenders-sharon-s-exit-13-01-06-p_shortfilms?additionalInfos=0" width="480" height="360" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always"></embed></object><br /><b><a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x90x2d_eastenders-sharon-s-exit-13-01-06-p_shortfilms">Eastenders - Sharon's exit 13.01.06 part 2</a></b><br /><i>Uploaded by <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/Ryanlcfc2">Ryanlcfc2</a>. - <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/us/channel/shortfilms">Full seasons and entire episodes online.</a></i>

Today's episode: I think I threw up in my mouth a little bit when Minty and Heather started shagging towards the end of the episode. But Minty should have known what he was getting himself into with Sam. She'll never think of him in that way. Is it me or has Sid Owen (Ricky) been looking kind of cute lately? I enjoyed those scenes between Max and Vanessa when Vanessa wanted Max to open up more about himself. He's obviously not gotten over Bradley's death, and it's nice to see some real and bonding moments between Max and Vanessa. Vanessa obviously has some type of OCD disorder, with her obsessiveness in having a very clean house. It's a good thing Mercy's grandmother is just a recurring supporting character. I don't think I could stand her in large doses. I really enjoyed the Beale family moments. That scene where Jane helped Ian with the tape was so simple, yet so real and tender. This is all obviously the build up to the upcoming drama between them. Looks like Lucy's in hot sh!t now... It looks like Ian's insecurities this time around was showing his kids that he thought he was "cool" at one point in his life. I'm really enjoying Dot a lot more lately. She seems more like her old self again, and her friendship with Fatboy has made him come into his own and more tolerable. I had to laugh when she barged into Max's house after he and Vanessa had just screwed. There were a lot of references to past history in this episode I noticed.

Hollyoaks Freshers Promo and Sneak Peek: <object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcPZG1dtrhE?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param'>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcPZG1dtrhE?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=tcPZG1dtrhE?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object> <object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VD6fLN-cWcw?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param'>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VD6fLN-cWcw?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=VD6fLN-cWcw?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>