I just don't want Lucy's death to be a complete accident. For once I'd like a character to be killled intentionally. Anything else looks like a cop out.

Edited February 15, 201511 yr by TimWil

I think it could be Cindy because, like Steven (a pseudo child of Ian's), DTC probably finds her dispensable. But I also strongly think it could be Peter because 1) Ben Hardy is leaving and 2) in the promo picture with the main suspects, he's in the middle.

That was a good assessment of the young women on the show. What bothers me most is that the caliber of actresses are there. Danielle Harold is a powerhouse actress. Lola was one of the best things about Kirkwood's tenure and actually made Billy relevant again, too.

It's funny (well, funny and pretty damn sad), because I always see people calling for Harold's firing, and one of the reasons is because Kirkwood created her, so that means she must go.

These types of fans don't give a care about Eastenders. It's all about soap wars and producer wars and showing what good little soldiers they are. You can always spot them because they give long PR-type responses in praise of the show that rarely seem to be what a human being would say (Collinson got the same reaction on Corrie).

I'd just like to ask people exactly what DTC has done to help maintain Eastenders long-term? Buzz and a slight ratings uptick are good, yes, and important for the show's future, but what about characters or structure or something to build on?

The flop Carters, who are a vanity project based on his own life, populated by actors who are already fleeing, do not count.

What else is there? What has he done exactly? The fans who are eager to chase off Lola and whoever else he didn't create - what are they watching for? His name in the credits?

Looks like we'll be seeing some of Sharon's biological family sooner than I thought. The credits for the episode airing on the 26th lists a character named Kristopher Hanley, and Hanley of course is the last name of Sharon's bio mother.

He's played by someone named Jonathan Broadbent.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0546rp0

Good. It's way past time we met more of Sharon's bio family. I've found the hardcore resistance of some fans at the idea of bringing them on to be quite tiresome. New family members will generate new storylines. It's stupid to insist that Sharon's only "family" was Den, Angie, Dennis and Vicki. Families are much more complex than that. These are blood relatives we'll be meeting over the course of the year. I'm looking forward to it.

Edited February 16, 201511 yr by TimWil

I know some fans thought Andrew Sachs would be related to her.

And no matter what, it's not like this bio family is going to automatically replace Den and Angie. She was raised by Den and Angie and they are who she considers her parents. She was rejected by Carol Hanley when she reached out in the early 90's.

The only family Sharon has living are Vicki and Dennis, Jr. I don't see the harm in her connecting with her (albeit half) blood relatives. Now, if 15 of them moved in and started to dominate the show, I would have issues, but I doubt that's going to be the case.

I don't think that'll be the case, either. It will just be interesting to have a few of them around for a while.

For the record Carol didn't exactly reject Sharon, did she? I think what happened was Carol wanted the relationship to be like that of friends and Sharon didn't warm to that idea so she walked away.

Steve Wright in the Afternoon on BBC Radio 2 will be live from Albert Square tomorrow for 3 hours from 2 pm their time. I'll be recording it on my TuneIn app.

Edited February 16, 201511 yr by TimWil

Yes, she only wanted to be friends with Sharon and didn't want to acknowledge her as her daughter. Sharon decided it was best to just walk away. It was a very short story, and I don't understand why they never delved into it more at the time.

I suspect that if a stronger, more charismatic actress had played Carol then they would have kept her around longer. It would have been interesting if Lindsay Coulson had played THAT Carol although she was probably too young.

Carl, on the Graham Norton special tonight, Mary gets some love with Linda Davidson in the audience where he speaks to her for a bit.

I'm happy to hear it. I hope he treated her respectfully. He often treats people in the audience like garbage just to show what a big man he is.

If he didn't treat her respectfully I would hope she would have done a certain something with her middle finger like Mary did as she boarded that bus...

She mentioned she's in marketing now and designed the website for his Channel 4 series, which he made a sarcastic remark about. It was harmless though, and she looked lovely and has aged very well.

The episode itself really made me miss Pat and Pam St. Clement, I'm glad they included her. Letitia Dean and June Brown were the funniest, I'd love to get drunk with those two.

I did like when Letitia randomly mentioned at the end that Pam discovered a pig's foreskin in a jar during a scene with Pat and Sharon, lol.

Edited February 17, 201511 yr by BetterForgotten

Thanks.

June always looks so youthful for 88.

Just watched it and Linda Davidson looked adorable. It was a fun hour. Two good clip montages, even though June Brown's gorgeous "Yeah" before "Yeah, I will" when Jim proposed to Dot was not included.

Shane Richie told a fib when he claimed that Alfie wasn't intended for Kat. I know for a fact that Tony Jordan wrote in Alfie to be, amongst other things, Kat's love interest.

Edited February 17, 201511 yr by TimWil