I just found out about the massive cast culling that was announced a month or two ago ... I am depressed. Charlie Slater being fired seems vicious, a change just for a change.

I'm still excited about Kat and Alfie coming back, probably the only EastEnders characters ever to be mentioned in an Oscar winner for Best Picture haha.

Today's episode was two different episodes fused into one since there was no Monday episode because of the World Cup. That kind of showed and disrupted the flow of the overall episode a bit.

I did enjoy Glenda putting the screws on Danny and how she let it slip that he's not really Archie's son at the end. What a nasty little rat he is, and how abusive he was towards Glenda. I'm glad Danny's time is coming to an end.

Glenda's scenes with Ronnie and Roxy were very good, I thought.

The Lucas stuff is scattered because of the rewrite they had to pull. I did laugh when Patrick walked in on Denise in her lingerie though.

Why is Abi whorifying herself to impress Jordan?

I really liked Stacey and Jean's scene at the bench in the beginning of the episode when Stacey tells Jean that she isn't ready to be a mother.

Janine (to Lucas): I need cleansing!

I guess Janine stealing Charlie's money is going to be conflict between her and Ryan.

Mo was hilarious in this episode both at Stacey's baby shower and during that dinner with Ryan.

I hope this stuff with Lucas comes to a head soon, because the religious spiel makes me nauseous.

Janine/Ryan were the highlight again. Janine is my favourite so far.

Is it wrong that I find Danny really sexy? Yummy.

It's not wrong to find him sexy, I just think something with the shape of his face is off, like he's a Mr. Potato Head doll mixed up. He looks pretty good from the neck down.

Yesterday's episodes seemed like amateur hour, especially the first half. I thought the stuff with Janine and Ryan sitting around outside getting drunk was crazy -- there was no reason they would do that other than to have Stacey get riled up. And then Janine stealing Charlie's money, and doing her weird vamping in her floaty black dress. The stuff with Lucas and Janine was good (although I wish Denise had had more of a reaction) but the rest...

I wonder if Max is going to flip out with Abi and Jordan the way he did with Lauren and Peter. I also wonder if Abi WANTS him to flip out, so she can get the attention Lauren did.

The scenes with Denise and Lucas and that woman he inflicted his mental torture on were very good. That and the stuff with Ronnie/Glenda were the best parts of the episode. I hope we see more of that woman. I think it was very clever to have him not kill her. Apparently he didn't in the original scripts either.

Liam Bergin was SO awful in that speech about Glenda's abuse. It's a shame because that was obviously meant to make Danny look sympathetic. And why was he such an idiot with stealing the money from Roxy's room? This story never should have happened.

Bryan Kirkwood's Walford Web interview:

http://www.walfordweb.co.uk/item.php?id=2483

Any comments on it?

I guess he confirmed what you and I (you and me?) both suspected in making the Lucas story more about Denise, which is what has pretty much almost singlehandedly turned the storyline around.

Oh and I think he was 100% right about the show being its worst when it tries to be a sitcom (why do I think this is what got Minty the chop) and that Ian needs more dramatic stories. That's what the story about Steven SHOULD have been.

Edited June 17, 201015 yr by CarlD2

I thought it was a great interview, and I espcially liked the parts about what he wants to do with the show and the Beale family:

Every new Executive Producer has tried to make their stamp on EastEnders. Some have been more successful than others. What do you think you can bring to the show?

What I love about EastEnders, and what I think is its defining quality is its ability to tell big, blockbuster, head-line grabbing, award-winning storylines, and this is what I intend to continue over the next couple of years. The area I’d like to work on is removing the tag of EastEnders as the ’depressing’ soap. The gritty hard hitting stories will continue, but alongside that I think we need to work harder at bringing the East End’s natural wit, warmth and banter to the fore. Sometimes in the past the show has veered into sit com territory which is when the show is at its weakest. I want to see more of the natural joy that lies at the heart of communities like this.

I'm looking forward to this.

The Beales are a unique family in that they encompass both the show’s past (through Ian) and the show’s future (through the twins and Bobby). What are your plans for this family?

I think Adam Woodyatt is one of the most underrated actors on television, there really isn’t much he can’t do. But I’d like to see a subtle move away from Ian ’buffoon’ stories and give the Beales the epic, dramatic story that perhaps has been missing for the last couple of years. Melissa will be leaving us shortly, but Lucy Beale will be back towards the end of the year, so I’m excited to see where that takes us.

He confirms Lucy is being recast, which I think means she'll be more a hell-raiser and probably the show's main young vixen when she returns. I've always said the character has great potential, and I think Kirkwood will tap into that. I'm also glad he has plans for Ian instead of him being some kind of joke as a character.

I'm also looking forward to this:

The Slater’s celebrate their tenth anniversary this summer. With Charlie, Jean and Stacey all leaving as Kat and Alfie return, can you give us any more hints on what is in store for the family?

With Charlie, Stacey and Jean leaving it will be the end of an era for the Slater family, but with Kat and Aflie returning, and Mo sticking around, it’s far from the end for the family. We have a great story in store for these characters, and one that gives them momentum for a good while to come.

Edited June 17, 201015 yr by Y&RWorldTurner

I do love that he is bringing in new blood into EE. That is really what the show needs. New Interesting characters.

Its a shame that he isn`t bringing back old characters. I was hoping maybe for a few but hey Kirkwood was never a returnee person.

I don't think the show needs anymore returns for a long time, which is smart on Kirkwood's part. They already have too many characters and a lot of the returns during the Santer era have been pretty useless or the characters gradually became useless. Kirkwood is right to shift his priority to gradually developing new and hopefully interesting characters.

Edited June 17, 201015 yr by Y&RWorldTurner

It's hard to know what to say because I do think that returns are important for a show like Eastenders which has generally not built up a strong bench of new characters since somewhere around 2004 (Jane, Stacey, Chrissie). Every time they have brought in a new character with some promise they are emasculated or turned into a plot-driven headcase. In Santer's run I'd say the only new character he brought in who have had any real worth were Ronnie, Zainab, and Masood, and all three of them were badly damaged by the end of his run. Yet the returns weren't that great either, the latest being bringing back Carol when they obviously had no plans for her.

Kirkwood did a great job of creating new characters on Hollyoaks in 2006, so hopefully he will do the same here.

It doesn't sound like Kirkwood is rushing new characters, which is good, he said they're still in the workshop phase with actors and whatnot. I think he'll be taking his time introducing characters.

The show had a lot of returns under Santer, some short-term and some long-term, I think they need to give it a rest for a while after Kat and Alfie return, at least for a year or even the better part of a year.

There isn't a lot left to bring back anyway. I would say there would still be room for Sharon, but that's probably not going to happen. I do think since they brought back Billie they could have his father Alan return briefly, although that probably won't happen either.

I'd love for Sharon to return somewhere in the future. I've always said that EastEnders has the most heart when Sharon's on the show for some reason. Other characters (Ian, Dot) have ties to the beginning, but Sharon brings an extra finesse when she's on the show. She's by far the most popular and best heroine in EastEnders history, IMO.

Letitia Dean said last year she'd be open to returning, I hope it happens, may not now, but somewhere in the future.

But, oh wait, will they still be passing Ronnie off as the "New Sharon!"

Edited June 17, 201015 yr by Y&RWorldTurner

I think they could also consider bringing back some characters from the early years of the show who have some history but not so much that it overpowers them. That way you could have both past and future.

It would be good to see Sharon again, and possibly some new Fowlers or Beales. I'm sure Kenny or the other brother had kids (besides Pat's kids).

If they bring Sharon back, they might as well just cast a Dennis Jr. with a Cockney accent, we don't want another Vicky fiasco.