Well, there's also this:

Thanks. I'd never seen that. I wonder if they got into any hot water over that - I can see some old pious woman writing a strong letter from her armchair. It's very pretty.

Sometimes I imagine the show giving Ricky a reggae music career to match Sid Owen's own...career. It makes me laugh. But it would have been better than most of Ricky's later stories.

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.

I know a lot of people praised the Tony story with Whitney. Something about it never quite worked for me.

I'd say Patrick's story has been OK, but not after that random, quickly forgotten segueway of Denise abusing him.

Understated is the right word for how these stories should go. These days they believe viewers need to see trash and shock value, so you get them patting themselves on the back for things like Stacey's bipolar, only to then very quickly say that it's OK if you commit murder as long as you have bipolar disorder.

I know a lot of people praised the Tony story with Whitney. Something about it never quite worked for me.

I'd say Patrick's story has been OK, but not after that random, quickly forgotten segueway of Denise abusing him.

Understated is the right word for how these stories should go. These days they believe viewers need to see trash and shock value, so you get them patting themselves on the back for things like Stacey's bipolar, only to then very quickly say that it's OK if you commit murder as long as you have bipolar disorder.

IMO, Whitney & Tony's pedophilia story was the last decent topical story IMO. This story set Whitney up to go on and be a EE legend but she's flopped ever since. Now most people just want her gone.

I think it is criminal how they've handled Patrick's stroke story. And Denise abusing him came out of nowhere and ended just as fast. I feel bad that Diane and Rudolph continue to get scraps when they are damn capable of carrying a meaty story.

And has Stacey's bipolar illness been brought up since she's been back? I feel like it was an insta-illness to justify her crimes.

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.

Edited March 1, 201510 yr by BetterForgotten

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.

And it's been sadly torn down since. Kat is a joke now and so have the Slater clan as a whole now. Zoe, Mo, and Lynne couldn't even come back and salvage this mess.

Edited March 1, 201510 yr by Nothin'ButAttitude

I thought Billie's death episode was incredibly strong and could have been used to talk more about binge drinking - too bad about some of the aftermath...

Ellen Thomas, probably best known to EE fans for her work as Mercy's grandmother, is returning in a different role. Some fans are already shouting that she has to be Ada Fox, but someone else said will be called Claudette. Who knows. If she's related to Vincent, I already don't care, although I will give it a chance.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/soaps/s2/eastenders/news/a632269/eastenders-ellen-thomas-cast-as-new-albert-square-matriarch.html

Apparently EE accidentally aired a different Peter/Bobby scene for the omnibus.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/soaps/s2/eastenders/news/a632215/eastenders-omnibus-airs-different-bobby-and-peter-beale-scene.html#~p5EL9HOPs4585u

Edited March 1, 201510 yr by DRW50

And it's been sadly torn down since. Kat is a joke now and so have the Slater clan as a whole now. Zoe, Mo, and Lynne couldn't even come back and salvage this mess.

I don't think it would be that hard to salvage the Slaters - bring in Belinda, have Little Mo pop in sometimes or move back for good with her daughter. Elaine Lordan seems to be having problems again (?) and Michelle Ryan will never return (no big loss), but they could easily recast Zoe. There's also Jean, and Charlie for visits.

Kat needs to be matured and Alfie desperately needs to go, but the main problems aren't that hard to fix IMO. But I don't think the Slaters will ever be treated as a major family again.

Ironically the Carters, who are barely a year old, are already far more broken and unfixable as characters.

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.

And it's been sadly torn down since. Kat is a joke now and so have the Slater clan as a whole now. Zoe, Mo, and Lynne couldn't even come back and salvage this mess.

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.

Edited March 1, 201510 yr by BetterForgotten

I don't see them separating Kat and Alfie. Ever. Unless one leaves and the other stays. Those two are stuck together unfortunately.

They've cut out most of Alfie's ties to the Square and any relevance to the point where I almost wonder if they're hoping Shane will quit so they won't get flack for firing him.

At this point I don't care if he stays but I just don't want him back with Kat. It's a degrading, unpleasant relationship. They could put him with Donna or whoever.

I'm waiting for the shoe to drop when Kathy returns and when Phil returns, but I really have been happy to see a better focus on Sharon recently, especially since her stories last year (like the "revenge") were so off in tone. Sharon feels more character-driven now, and is more of a person in her own right, and Letitia's work has improved markedly. I wish she wasn't tied so closely to the Mitchells, but at least it isn't Phil-dominated and at least Shirley is not involved that much right now. I wonder sometimes if Sam Womack's part-time status with the show is a factor - if both Roxy and Ronnie were around full time, I wonder if that would distract DTC, as they always seemed like Sharon cut in two.

Thanks for reading the articles. I don't have many of those magazines but I've had that one for a few years and it's only been the last month or so that I could look at it without thinking what might have been in terms of the wasted potential for Sharon (and EE as a whole). I'm not as down on the show at the moment so I figured why not.

I'm not sure if this is the full clip of the other Bobby/Peter scene, but:

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.

That's how I first saw those. I really do need to go back and try to find/watch the full ones. I watched some...I think they were taken down of course.

Natalie Cassidy offering her sympathies to the Green Party.

As if they haven't already suffered enough...

Has the omnibus stopped running over there? I gather that the fact that there will no longer be an omnibus affects the earnings of the cast and they're NOT happy. Also apparently they'll now be paid by the week, not by episode. Anybody know anything more about this?

I think it stops in April.