EastEnders July 21st- July 27th 2012

Another week in soap has passed but what has been happening?

EastEnders- The week’s BIG story

This week was a very exciting week for EastEnders.

Walford played host to the Olympic torch as it made its journey through London and to the Olympic Stadium before last Friday’s Opening Ceremony. We were treated to two episodes on Monday and the 9pm episode had a special live eight minute segment as Billy Mitchell carried the torch through Walford to the delight of the cast and crew and of course the viewers at home. The live segment also included Lola giving birth on the floor of McKlunkey’s chicken shop. Yes it wasn’t a glamorous birth and it is hard to feel sympathy for Lola, but it was a touching moment as Lola gave birth, with the help of Cora, to little Lexi Billie. Of course, the birth didn’t go smoothly and we were left pondering why an ambulance wasn’t called, but these oversights can be forgiven as the live segment was fantastically done by all the cast and crew. It was brilliant to see the Olympic torch being carried by Perry Fenwick (Billy Mitchell) and the obvious delight of everyone involved. Indeed, Shirley Carter was happy and smiling which is unusual considering her continuing grief for Heather.

Of course Billy’s role as torch bearer didn’t run smoothly. He arrived with minutes to spare after becoming trapped on the tube thanks to Anthony Moon pulling the emergency cord. The laddish banter between Max, Jack and Derek was fun to watch as a) Derek wasn’t being repulsive (which makes a change), and b) it was nice to watch three brothers genuinely having fun together. This fun led to a minor scuffle which was of course not dangerous to anyone, but Anthony pulled the cord and ensured the tube ground to a halt. To be honest, this was the most interesting thing Anthony has done whilst being on the square and I for one won’t miss him when he leaves in the next few months.

All in all, the week started happy and remained this way for the rest of the week. EastEnders is the soap which causes the most excitement for me personally and the spectacle of the procession on Monday was what sets EastEnders apart from the other soaps...

In other news....

Tanya discovered a shock family secret whilst searching through Cora’s belongings this week. Eager to replace her mum’s lost bracelet and make up for embarrassing her in front of Patrick, Tanya and Lauren lied to Poppy about why they needed her keys and then let themselves into Dot’s house. It wasn’t long before Tanya found a mystery birth certificate and realised that she has a long lost sister. Keeping the birth certificate, she later confronted Cora about it who implored that she was to never ask her about it again. Will Tanya listen to Cora?

Joey once again scammed Derek this week by agreeing to drink with him. The agreement was that if Joey was the last man standing then Derek would pay out. Seeing as it was Joey ordering the drinks he was actually drinking water and not vodka.  Of course the £500 went straight to a struggling Lucy. Lucy was pleased, Joey was pleased and Derek was most definitely NOT pleased after Kat told him his son had been downing water all night. Will Derek take revenge on his son?

EastEnders July 14th- July 20th 2012

Another week in soap has passed but what has been happening?

EastEnders- The week’s BIG story

I have been very busy recently so this blog is going to be a short one...

The main story this week was Janine’s increasing uneasiness round her new husband. She ripped up the all important pre-nuptial arrangement and this was clearly a mistake as she began to doubt Michael all over again. This was because he was never at the hospital with her and was seemingly always on ‘business’. We saw him buying flowers for Janine while she was left thinking that he was somehow conning her. It is clear that Janine’s isolation at the hospital is increasing her paranoia. Indeed, she left Whitney watching over baby Scarlett whilst she went home. And what did she find? Michael rifling around in the safe. But he wasn’t conning her (we don’t think.) Instead, he was taking some money to buy them a new family car. Michael was furious that she doubted him already while Janine argued that he can’t blame her- after all he is rarely in the hospital where he should be. Both have a valid point and Janine seemed to calm down long enough for her husband to reassure her that she had no reason not to trust him. Janine seemed to buy this, but of course as soon as he was gone she was on the phone to Billy and told him to change the combination code on the safe urgently. So of course Janine still doesn’t trust her husband despite him urging her to take a chance on him. Will Janine ditch Michael? Or will Michael ditch Janine? I reckon that we will find out the answer to these questions within the next few months...

In other news...

The ‘Who Shagged Kat’ storyline continued with a vengeance. I’m not going to go into great detail here as it was more of the same. The only real development this week was the mystery man sending Kat a key to a flat. As Alfie continued to be distracted by football formations, Kat sneaked off to the ‘love nest’ to meet her mystery man. I did begin to wonder if Max was the mystery man as he pulled the trick when having affairs with Stacey and Tanya....

I suppose some people may say Lola’s storyline was the main storyline this week. But it involved her being utterly vile and thinking she was entitled to free food just because she is pregnant. And to be honest Lola is pretty vile regardless of pregnancy. So it was no surprise that she broke her curfew and ended up in the cells for the night. Of course it wasn’t her fault. Instead, she blamed everybody else for her reckless actions. Lola is a character that doesn’t really interest me in the slightest so I’m not going into great detail here.

Eastenders July 7th- July 13th 2012

Another week in soap has passed but what has been happening?

EastEnders- The week’s BIG story

I know I have said this before, but when I learnt that Heather had been axed from EastEnders I was shocked and disappointed for reasons I have already discussed on this blog. This week saw the Heather murder plot take another fantastic turn.  The key to this week was the photo frame which Ben killed Heather with. Indeed, Ben said that he taken it down to the canal and disposed of it. Instead he had wrapped it in a tea towel and stuffed it under his bed. Why? Well apart from being an absolute psycho, the frame is a trophy and a reminder of what he has done. Indeed, it is wrapped in a tea towel stained with Heather’s blood.

The discovery by Jay of the weapon is quite ironic considering Ben and Jay have being getting on better than ever recently. It seemed like both had managed to put the ordeal behind them and move on. This may sound bad considering they are covering up a murder, but you can’t please everyone. In fact, their brotherly relationship was cemented by the stock car race down at the race track. Of course Jay was the better driver and the faster one, but Shirley and Jay, knowing that Ben needed a confidence boost, lied and declared him the winner. Phil was overjoyed at his families’ show of togetherness and gave Ben and Jay £200 each from the sale of the stock car. So far, so good. However this show of unity was shattered when Jay went upstairs to the boys’ bedroom in order to find a safe place for the money. Reaching under a bed, he felt his hand brush against something. This something just happened to be the murder weapon. Of course, the lad was horrified and later confronted Ben in the garage, but only after quizzing Ben on what he did with the murder weapon. After Ben confirmed his story of dumping it in the canal, Jay implored that he knew the truth. Ben being Ben continued to make excuses for his behaviour and insisted that it wasn’t his fault (!). Their very loud row about Ben killing Heather and keeping the murder weapon as a trophy was taking place in the Arches garage with the shutters wide open. Essentially they were rowing about the long kept secret in public. This was a stupid thing to do but it seemed like Jay didn’t care any more. Indeed, he headed down to the police station and said that he was going to tell the truth about what really happened on March 19. As he made his way down to the police station Ben appeared at the wheel of a car whilst revving the engine. For a second me (and most of the people I have spoken to) thought that Jay was going to become Ben’s next victim. Ben’s revving of the engine became louder as Jay pushed him to go on and run him over if he dared. Of course Ben being the coward he is braked at the last minute. Instead he persuaded Jay to give him the murder weapon and said that he was going straight to the police station to hand himself in. Did he stay true to his word? Does Kat ever keep her knickers on? You know the answer to that...

Instead Ben ran home and took the picture out of the frame. The picture in question showed Heather and Shirley at their happiest together. This was especially cruel considering his next action which was ripping the picture up after he had managed to persuade little Amy to give him it back.  Meanwhile, the picture frame was pushed under the coffee table in a bag of rubbish which had later disappeared whilst Ben went to find Jay, who in his absence had lost it and trashed Andrew’s burger stall and shoved a heavily pregnant Lola. After Ben persuaded Jay to come home, Ben was horrified to see that the bag of rubbish containing the murder weapon had gone.  Shirley had given it to Jean as Jean is a keen environmentalist apparently.  Ben and Jay invented a story about Ben’s hearing aid going missing so they could go over to the Vic to rifle through the bags in order to get it back. This was after a furious Phil demanded that they go and relieve Shirley who bought their lies and who had gone to the Vic in order to ask Jean if she could go through a bag of rubbish! Ben and Jay finding the picture frame before Shirley was of course paramount as if Shirley found the frame first she would recognise it as the murder weapon that killed her best friend. In true EastEnders style they got the Vic just as Shirley was about to discover the weapon. In fact she had the bloodied tea towel in her hand but wasn’t looking at it. After the two lads told Shirley that they had found the hearing aid and that they could clear the mess up, she cast it aside. Throughout this scene my heart, and no doubt every viewer’s, was beating in anticipation of Shirley finding out the truth. Ben and Jay’s ‘clean up’ was thwarted by Jean who seeing the mess, demand they leave. Ben gave Jean a killer stare on his way out, whilst Phil was furious to discover that they had failed to retrieve the weapon. After deciding to go do the dirty work himself, Phil, Ben and Jay saw Jean giving all the rubbish to the bin men. Relieved, they all thought the whole saga was over for good. Unfortunately for them, we next saw the picture frame on the floor of the charity shop with Cora about to discover it. Of course she won’t realise what it is, but how long before Shirley stumbles across it whilst doing her shopping?!

In other news

Kat’s affair with her mystery man continued this week as she received a mobile phone especially for their liaisons. Disgusted with herself, she hid it in her makeup box only to later discover that it was missing. As Jean informed her that Alfie was looking for her and that he was furious with her, Kat braced herself for the truth to come out. As it turned out it was Shenice (remember her?) who had taken the mobile phone to school and gotten into trouble for it. Kat was about to confess until Alfie informed her of this. Meanwhile for the rest of the week we had Kat giving all of the suspects shifty looks from behind the bar. Let’s hope Alfie finds out the truth soon and kicks her sorry arse out of the pub!

Masood’s brother AJ turned up and immediately caused trouble by unintentionally damaging Derek’s car. A punch in the face later and £200 down, AJ’s mini feud with Derek was resolved. AJ’s presence infuriated Zainab who clearly didn’t get along with her brother in law. God knows why as AJ seemed entirely harmless and instantly accepted Syed’s life with Christian.  If only everybody could be that tolerant.

Denise (rather meanly) informed AJ of Mas and Zee’s life on the square. This shocked AJ who later apologised to Zee for offending her. The week ended with AJ leaving to win back his estranged wife. Even Zainab looked quite sad to see the back of him but refused a goodbye hug- typical Zainab. Of course AJ will be back and I think he will be accompanied by the wife that he mentioned. Wait and see....

EastEnders June 30th- July 6th 2012

Another week in soap has passed but what has been happening?

EastEnders- The week’s BIG story

This week saw a rare treat for fans of EastEnders- a five episode week. These occasions are rarer than Kat keeping her knickers on, so are usually something to look forward to. However, this week was an exception for many reasons and the main reason was that the week centred on the storyline “Who Shagged Kat”.  I used to be a Kat fan; she was after all an iconic character during her 2000-2005 stint. She arrived a damaged woman who had suffered years of abuse at the hands of her uncle Harry and which had resulted in the birth of her secret daughter Zoe. This resulted in the infamous storyline of Kat/Zoe the truth revealed. These episodes were when the iconic lines were screeched: Zoe: “You can’t tell me what to do, you aint my mother!”

Kat: “Yes I am!”

A two-hander followed (an episode where only two characters appear) and the result was the nation took Kat to their hearts. She was ballsy; feisty; defensive and was the original ‘tart with a heart’.  The love story with Alfie followed and their 2005 Christmas day exit was a huge ratings winner for the beeb. And this is what is so frustrating. Since her 2010 return Kat is essentially a different character. She is cold; distant and abusive. Part of her change could be put down to the damaging baby swap storyline- this would change anyone. However, before this even happened Kat returned to the square and was vile. We learnt that she had cheated on Alfie with his cousin Michael which had resulted in Tommy and that she was on the run for some criminals. Along with these misdemeanours she actively encouraged Stacey to wreck another woman’s marriage. And she punched Alfie in the face in full view of the square. Obviously this is assault but because it’s Kat nothing was said. Imagine the controversy if it was the other way around…

So the regression had already started and this week it came full circle with Kat’s latest antics. Kat decided to manage the Vic’s football team (because Alfie was having trouble recruiting players apparently) .EastEnders couldn’t have Kat cheating without giving us reasons to feel sorry for her. Firstly, her relationship with Alfie was mocked. This started via his missed penalty at the football match. Alfie was shown to be rubbish at football and so emasculated.  Meanwhile Kat was openly flirting with all of the male players and her speech was ridiculed with innuendos about the lads’ ball skills. She then awarded Jack Branning ‘legs of the match’ and gave him a cheeky wink. Then she flirted with Max and said that he needed more stamina. Cue Max looking at Kat’s arse as she walked away from him. Then there was Kat accidentally touching a hot plate and being comforted by Ray who immediately placed her hand under the cold tap. This was meant to show sizzling chemistry but to be honest that wasn’t really accomplished here- instead we had Kat looking ridiculous in her Mrs Moon tracksuit being fawned over by men that she barely acknowledged a week ago. I mean she barely spoke to Max before and now she was hinting about a lack of stamina. The whole plot is poorly thought of and with no real build up. Anyway, I digress somewhat…

To cut a long story short, Kat was visited in the Vic kitchen by her mystery man. “Aren’t you coming in then?” she purred. Thankfully we were spared any gory details but the next scene did cut to Kat panting and with her back to the cooker. Shagging your mystery man against a cooker- very classy Kat and not entirely hygienic either! Of course she felt guilty but this didn’t stop her meeting up with the man again on Friday as she received a text saying “Alley Kat. 11pm” This led to Kat talking to a shadow and imploring that as a mother and wife she wouldn’t be making the mistake again. Her mystery man accepted this and walked away, only to be called back as Kat once again dropped her knickers. Meanwhile, Alfie was asleep in bed and completely oblivious to Kat’s betrayal. Only time will tell whether Alfie finds out, but let’s hope he kicks Kat’s cheating ass out once the truth is out…

In other news…

This week saw scheming Joey Branning set out to show Alice what their dad was really like. After agreeing to Derek’s invitation of dinner, Joey turned up late and with Fat Boy, Lucy, Lauren, Whitney, Tyler and Anthony in tow. This infuriated Derek who had banked on the meal being quality time between them. Losing his cool, Derek lashed out and tried to attack Joey.  Alice is visibly horrified but is this enough for her to abandon Derek?

Lola’s vandalism resulted in her wearing an electronic tag with a strict curfew. This curfew was nearly broken as Lola and Jay got locked inside the barrel store at the Vic after finding the keys on the pavement (Kat had earlier dropped them). After hiding from Derek who was having a nosey, Lola and Jay had to run to Billy’s in order for Lola to make her curfew. With just seconds to spare, she arrived home and cheekily planted a kiss on Jay’s lips. Is the start of something beautiful between the pair?

EastEnders June 23rd- June 29th 2012

Another week in soap has passed but what has been happening?

EastEnders- Theweek’s BIG story

This week mainly focused on the aftermath of Janine’s premature labour which saw the birth of Scarlett Moon. My sympathy for Janine was there, despite all the despicable things she has done. It was hard not to feel sympathy- after all her tiny baby was fighting for her life in an incubator. This image frightened Michael to death and he decided that he couldn’t cope. Just as Scarlett’s machines were going off and indicating that something was seriously wrong, Michael got up and walked out of both their lives. Of course, this being soap he just had to bump into Jean who knew what he was planning and told him that if he left he would regret it for the rest of his life. All this was happening after Jean locked them both in Butchers’ Joints and threw the set of keys into the mess Michael had made. Michael had a change of heart and went straight to the hospital. It is funny how Jean can read Michael like a book and knows what he is feeling. This is mostly down to her knowing a damaged man when she sees one. After all, her own son Sean Slater was a damaged soul.

Just as I suspected (I did, honest) Jean hadn’t really flushed Michael’s St Christopher’s charm down the toilet. She wasn’t that cruel. She later gave him the charm back and said that she forgave him for his treatment of her, she just wanted little Scarlett to get better. Now this is what I love about Jean Slater- she is kind, compassionate and forgiving (with the exception of Janine who tried to frame her daughter Stacey Slater for attempted murder). So this week St Jean saved the day- she persuaded Michael not to run away as she knew that deep down he was capable of love and should make the effort for the sake of Janine who needed him.  So Michael and Janine are together and as happy as they can be considering they have a seriously premature new-born baby. I don’t think they will be too happy for too long as a) this is EastEnders, and b) Charlie Brooks, who plays Janine, is going on a six month break shortly...

In other news...

In and amongst the rather depressing hospital scenes we had some nice light relief with Zainab and Denise. I’m just glad to see either character on screen; Denise is woefully underused and last had a proper storyline about two years ago, whereas Zainab has also been quiet coming after a jam-packed 2011 which saw her marry Yusef despite him previously trying to kill her!

This week saw Denise play a prank and tell Zee that the Minute Mart was sending out an anonymous inspector to inspect them. Obviously this would mean that their customer service would be in the spotlight. This was the whole point of Denise’s scam as she knew how short Zee could be with the customers. This was immediately evident when Zee refused to let Alfie have something for free as he didn’t have quite enough change. However realising that she was meant to be on her best behaviour, Zee forced a smile and said Alfie could have the item for free just this once, after all he was a well valued customer at the Minute Mart.

An inspector did later call announced and this is when Zee realised that she had been tricked. This may not sound very entertaining, but Nina Wadia (Zee) and Diane Parish (Denise) have such great chemistry together that the make even the silliest situations come across as genuinely funny. Both ladies should be given praise for this, and I hope Denise has a proper storyline soon as Diane Parish’s talents are being wasted at the moment in favour of the ‘Who Shagged Kat’ storyline. More on this in my next blog...

Lola Pearce has never taken an insult lying down and this week she got in more trouble after Lucy sacked her for being late and because she could no longer afford to employ her.  Lola responded by throwing chip fat over a car on the forecourt at Branning Brothers.  Obviously Max and Phil instantly suspected Lucy and went around to confront her, telling her that she was going to have to pay them back. This scared Lucy to death as she had no way of raising hundreds of pounds overnight. Realising how desperate she was, Jay confessed his ‘guilt’ to Max. Max instantly realises that Jay is covering for someone and quickly realises that the vandal was Lola. Jay confesses that the vandal was Lola after Max demands the truth and Max promptly responds  by threatening to dial 999. Jay manages to persuade him not to call the police but a furious Lucy later does as Max hints that Jay is covering for someone.  Lucy is well within her rights to call the police as she has been a victim of crime but something tells me that Lola is going to be absolutely furious...