All Soaps: Casting News - Who's In & Who's Out?

[DRW50]

The main problem with the British soaps is most of them have lost all heart, history, and continuity, just as US soaps did. It's all shock value. They don't know how to build anything. They are just slowly dying, utterly irrelevant and devoid of identity.

Even most of the people they fire tend to be the wrong people. EE can never truly improve until Phil Mitchell is gone, but he's as entrenched as ever, because of the delusion that he is an "icon" or a "legend." Fans say fire Alfie, fire Roxy, fire Tamwar and Dexter, but the basic rot will still be there.

I remember the same cheerleaders who acted like Phil Collinson was a genius for firing longtime characters like Claire and Ashley Peacock. This was so amazing. He was going to clear out the dross. (never mind that these were good characters who could have been an asset to the show with the proper writing) He hired Michelle Collins. The DS hordes taunted, "Look out EE! They got you, Kirkwood!" And what did Corrie viewers get? A fried slice of ham with a dodgy accent and rushed, insulting storylines (she's Leanne's mother for no apparent reason, Betty's death becomes all about her since they were so close, even though they never met oncamera). She goes, and other than the same few DS keyboard warriors, nobody gave a [!@#$%^&*]. She never added to the show, just as she likely won't add to the next show Phil Collinson sticks her in.

Now DTC is just as desperate to try to make his legacy by shoehorning in unpopular, uninteresting characters, played by actors who can't wait to get out the back door. And meanwhile nothing is done to actually improve the show. Nick's back...again. And nobody in Walford cares. Lucy Beale was killed and nobody in Walford cared. Walford is awash in murderers and nobody cares. It just shows how hollow EE is and how the characters are puppets on frayed strings. The show just hibernates until it's time for the next stunt, like Stacey breaking her leg in a failed Vic siege, or whatever. I don't care.

[NothinButAttitude]

Yaaasss, buddy! Let that frustration out! You're speaking nothing but the truth.

EE reminds me so much of GH with the Phil Mitchell thing. He's like Sonny--a thug that has long overstayed his welcome. Instead of him growing as a character, his story goes round and round in circles. I just hate that Sharon had to be sucked back into that vortex of suck. Instead of slowly laying the foundation for characters like Denise and Sharon to become the hearts of the square, both women are given scraps. In the case of Sharon, I always thought it was ass-backwards for her to get involved with Phil again. After the whole Dennis debacle, you'd think that Sharon would want a man that is legit and not a man that played a part in her husband's demise. That still does not sit well with me. And in the case of Denise, I feel like she's criminally underutilized. I LOVED her opposite Ian and felt she could be the one woman that sets Ian straight. I felt that she would be the perfect Beale matriarch, but of course she got tossed aside for Jane, who is a bore IMO. And EE has gotten too dark. I agree that they have not paid too much attention to Lucy's murder. IMO, Lucy's murder should've been climax and already coming to an end. There are too many dark characters [that these writers like to call 'grey characters' ] and not enough normal, flawed characters. There is also no real next generation on the Square. Lucy is dead. Peter and Lauren are leaving. And the rest of the young adults are too underdeveloped for people to even invest.

Now Corrie . . . I have not watched it in years. I keep abreast as to what is going on but I can't invest. 95% of that cast needs to get the boot IMO.

[DRW50]

There's no reason for Phil and Sharon to still be together, just as there was no reason for her to be beaten up, or to learn about Phil's part in Dennis' death. There's no point in anything. I have a feeling stories were either dropped for some backstage reason, or DTC has this fantasy where his gutter queen Shirley shows viewers her stuff by "winning" Phil from Sharon, who is supposed to be the spoiled princess compared to real and true Shirley.

The problem is that Shirley is not Pat, no matter how much some people want her to be. She's a drunken whore, and that's about the only thing she has in common with Pat. Pat's family was not shoehorned into Walford, whipped up out of thin air. Pat did not get horribly misguided sob stories where she tried to drown her son at birth and look at what a victim she is. The sad truth is Shirley has been on EE for nearly a decade and has nothing to show for it. They gave her an entire family and she could still vanish tomorrow without having made an impact.

The show is terrified of real change. I actually laughed out loud when I saw that Ian's big secret was that he'd been with a hooker around the time of Lucy's murder. How many times have they done this with Ian? Who cares? They had a chance to change Ian, as a child's murder should change him, but they don't have the guts. Same with Ben. This is the third lookalike actor who is there to wear glasses and play out "Ben wants to be tough but he isn't" stories. We are also in our second or third variation of, "Ben doesn't want to be gay." Where is the story in this? Does anyone really care about Ben's endless self-loathing, or on whether Phil is going to wheeze out his disapproval yet again? Is this just so that DTC can try to "fix" the coming out story, since he wasn't a part of it? DTC did a terrible job with Syed and Christian (Christian written as preying on teenage boys, Syed one day being written as closeted and the next as having hot sex with his wife, Christian being a homewrecker who was so unsympathetic they had to keep having him beaten up to make viewers care), he did a crap job with Johnny and with Steven - I doubt the fifth time will be any better.

EE needs self-awareness. In its best years it had self-awareness. You had characters like Michelle Fowler who would often call out absurdities that were taken as normal. If Michelle was on there now, she'd just be like Sonia - a sour lump.

I used to write down all these things I would do if I had the chance, but I just don't have the heart now, because it feels like the show is in permanent disarray and has suffocated from the very bad camp and stodgy Mitchell fetishization that made up the worst of Santer/DTC and is back again, only now with less of a glossy, failed-1984-primetime-soap veneer.

I do think there needs to be a long break from stunts, an end to mob stories, a massive pruning, a ban on money woe stories (which are always unrealistic, insulting, and repetitive), and a look into the past that hasn't been explored, like the Osmans, or the Carpenters, or Sharon's biological family.

They should genuinely rehabilitate Nick, because we've seen all the rest before. Fake death, money schemes. It's boring. And it's not cute or a nod to history to repeat the same things they've been doing for 30 years. It's just lazy.

They need to start effectively using the Masoods and get Zainab back ASAP, or write them out once and for all. Ditto for Billy, Jay, Cora and Lola. They also need to sort out Stacey. She's just there because she's played by Lacey Turner and she was once important. That's not good enough. The character is ridiculous and has no business being back in Walford.

Get rid of:

- Phil and Ben

- Kat and Alfie

- Shirley, Lee, Dean, Tina and Tosh

- Whitney (an awful character who should have been written out 3-4 years ago)

Frankly I'm at the point where I will also say if they can't do anything new with Ian, he needs to go too. He's embarrassing to watch and the show should be ashamed.

[NothinButAttitude]

Yes to all these characters going.

Whitney is definitely at the top of my list of someone that needs to exit. She should've left when Ryan did. I'm just tired of them trying to make her work. She doesn't. Every pairing she's been in has been a flop and that says something.

Stacey can go.

Lauren can stay gone.

And Cindy. I'm sure they are trying to pass her off as some surrogate Lucy but she'll never replace Lucy.

And slapping Ian back with Jane will make me want him to exit stage left too. His romance with Denise breathed new life in him. Going back to Jane will revert Ian back to being the same immature dullard he has been for the past few years. Ian needs to be paired with someone who has spunk and challenges him. Jane doesn't do that. She is dry as a biscuit.

[DRW50]

Dodger is getting out of Dodge.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/soaps/s13/hollyoaks/news/a611506/hollyoaks-actor-danny-mac-to-leave-dodger-savage-role.html

[Bright Eyes]

I'll miss him. God knows I've gone on about the perfection of Dodger and Texas enough times. However, his pairing with Maxine never worked for me as their chemistry was barely audible from the get go. Maxine had more chemistry with Freddie when they had that one night stand. Nikki Sanderson and Jeremy Sheffield will most likely leave when their contracts are up as well. I love the Blakes, but the storyline has gone on long enough and has been much too beneficial to the villains, which is a big problem in Kirkwood stories. He doesn't even out the wins/losses between heroes and villains, like in the rape story with John Paul. Plus, the fact that Patrick never got even a mild comeuppance after it was revealed that he was a wife beater was ridiculous. We didn't even get a much needed Dirk reaction to realizing what Patrick had done to Anna. Horribly missed beat. Another being that Cindy never expressed gratitude for not being in Maxine's place, since Patrick could have easily chosen her instead.

The article says he's leaving early next year, so maybe he's the regular character that will be offed by the gloved hand? Most importantly, this will leave the Sexiest Male awards up for grabs.

[Ben]

Peter will be more of a loss to EE than what the show (and fans) realize. They should never have killed Lucy off, purely b/c she was a young legacy character, who, along with Peter, should be leading the way of the next gen Beales. Bobby is too young to carry story, and while Mimi Keane is awesome as Cindy, she's not Ian's bio daughter, and her links to the family only worked when Peter/Lucy are/were around. I guess this explains why they've recast Martin, as he'll be needed to replace Peter on the market stall - absolutely nothing to do with Sonia, otherwise they would have recast months ago. I think Ben Hardy is a capable actor, and I think his departure, along with Johnny and Lauren will leave a hole in their respective families.

The Carters are a mess, and I've explained my reasons why many times in the EE thread. Johnny is the one character who nicely links all the family together. There hasn't been enough development of Nancy/Mick/Linda/Lee to give them the same bond that Johnny has with Mick/Linda and his siblings.

I think with the right writing and the correct creative direction, Dean could still be salvageable. I think he has the potential to be the new Kane Phillips from Home & Away, who raped a character on the show, but still managed to survive for many years after; this was quite controversial at the time, but due to the writing, it eventually kinda worked. Sadly, I think Dean's days are numbered.

As for Denise and Ian, they were a doomed couple from the start. The only decent thing to come from their pairing was Denise finally being a leading lady. Diane Parish has been against the pairing from the beginning (and quite vocal about it), so they were never really going to last; she's always believed Denise can do better than Ian, and ITA with her, especially when Ian started treating her like the maid.

I think the BBC made a mistake hiring DTC (or at the very least, DTC should have been a 1 year, interim Exec Producer, designed to stabilize the show), just like they did hiring Bryan Kirkwood. DTC has made some massive miscalculations with how he's handled storyline pacing and plotting, and absent actors, not to mention the lack of character development. I think having Alexander Lamb as his Story Producer has compounded the issues, as he apparently sucked on Waterloo Road. For once, I think the ratings reflect the current quality of the show.

Carl is right: the show is hollow in many ways, and that's purely b/c it's plot driven; they refuse to address the underlining issues that have plagued the show for years: continuity, pacing, plotting and development - not to mention a clear understanding of the tone of what the show should be like. Also, I hate that they're doing another Live episode for the 30th anniversary, considering they already did this for the 25th anniversary - it's so passé to say the least. And that's one of their current problems: they're doing stunts like this to generate heat, just like how they killed off Lucy à la Broadchurch.

The UK soaps are where the US soaps were, and Home & Away is there, too. I think Emmerdale and Neighbours are the only two soaps that are really trying - they're not perfect, but they have identity and some heart.

Meanwhile, over in Hollyoaks, Dodger is leaving! My favourite character on the show will probably be killed off in the stupid Gloved Hand serial killer story. Boo! Hiss!

[Bright Eyes]

EastEnders

Khali Best l Dexter Hartman l Exits December - http://www.digitalspy.ca/soaps/s2/eastenders/news/a611892/eastenders-khali-best-leaving-role-as-dexter-hartman.html#~oWt2NJPAvS6pOI

Good riddance. The pipsqueak is gone!

[NothinButAttitude]

Dexter really didn't bother me as he did others. Yes, he did talk too fast and his words jumbled together, but he wasn't the worst IMO. I feel like they went wrong with him when they took him out of Cora and Abi's orbits. I wish that they would've spent time building bonds between Dexter and those two as he had chemistry with them. He never meshed well with the Brannings because they had him scattered all over the canvas. Practically throwing darts at a wall and hoping it would stick.

Also, I think that bringing Ava to the Square too soon and ushering her off just as fast didn't help either. And bringing his father, Sam, back and getting rid of him in the same breath too. Had this been done correctly, Dexter's arc should've unraveled under a two year period. By then, we'd love him as he'd have built relationship with Cora, Abi, and possibly Tanya & Lauren. We would've seen him work bring Cora and Ava back together. Then Sam could've been brought on the end of year two, going into Dex's third year for his next arc.

Dex had potential. Just incapable writers to make him stick, which is the problem with the Carters now. You can't stick a new character on the canvas and not flesh them. We won't care for them and that's what happened with Dexter.

I wish Khalil the best. I feel like Dex could've been a good young lead in time had the writer taken the time to flesh him out with the Brannings before unleashing him on the Square to find potential love interests.

[DRW50]

Well, NBA, according to some fans, Dexter is the only thing wrong with the show (other than Fatboy and Tamwar of course...funny how POC always get this label), so now EE can be perfect!!111!11!

[Bright Eyes]

Neighbours

Damien Fotiou l Nick Patrides (Terese's brother) l Debuts 2015 - http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/soaps/s14/neighbours/news/a611999/neighbours-damien-fotiou-to-play-terese-williss-brother-nick.html

[NothinButAttitude]

IMO, Fatboy, Tamwar, and Dex were some of the least of EE's problems. As you aforementioned [and I totally agree with] some of the biggest problems with EE is Phil Mitchell--a veteran that has sucked the life out of the show for years.

Dex, Fats, and Tam could easily be great characters if writers invested in them. And I agree with you about it being funny how it's the POC that get this label.

Diverse character, though treated slightly better on UK soaps, get the same treatment as US soap characters. Writers, who are most likely white, don't invest in them because they can't connect with them or fear offending someone. Sad thing is that they have the same ambitions and dreams as white characters. Humans are all the same despite their hues. Yeah, our slang might be different amongst races but at the end of the day, we all face the same demons.

[Bright Eyes]

Neighbours

Delta Goodrem l Nina Tucker l Returns March (G) - http://www.digitalspy.ca/soaps/s14/neighbours/news/a612267/neighbours-delta-goodrem-returning-for-shows-30th-anniversary.html#~oWENvQkZgxe7FH

[Ben]

I think Dexter had potential, too, but only when Ava was around. Once they shipped her out, he lost all sense of direction, becoming a spare part. They never beefed up his connection to the Brannings, and he had less scenes with Cora, but I feel some of blame should be laid at Khali Best's door for getting a 3 month suspension. This didn't help with his development, either, and I feel in the end, the character was doomed.

While I think your last paragraph is true, I don't think it's as simple as that. I think there are numerous examples of characters of colour who have been successfully written for, and many that haven't. I think EE have had more successes than failures (or about even). It isn't just Dexter, Fatboy, and Tamwar that get singled out, but also Lee Carter, too. And when Fatboy was introduced with his teen gang, fans wanted Leon and Zsa Zsa gone, too (and they were white), while Mercy and her grandmother Grace, received a relatively positive reception.

In this case, I really don't think it has anything to do with skin colour, and more to do with age. EE viewers don't like it when the show becomes too teen/20 something focused. You notice that no-one is saying that Denise/Patrick/Shabnam/Masood/Kush should go. Also, Fatboy seems to be better received when he's given meatier material, like his involvement with Dot/Charlie/Nick.

[DRW50]

Zsa Zsa actually was popular at DS, for whatever reason (I guess because she fit their type).

Lee gets some mention, but I've rarely seen endless threads devoted specifically to his firing, which I have seen over and over for Fatboy and Dexter. These fans actually believe that Fatboy or Dexter (Tamwar doesn't get threads as much but is mentioned) are such burdens that the show is perfect without them. Lee doesn't get that type of singling out.