Coronation Street – Wedding Hell

Vicky barges onto the Street very loudly and very pregnant, shouting at Robert and making it clear that she is scared of him when he sends her away.  Once alone, she warns him that she is out to ruin his life, which I think she’s pretty much about to do.  At home, when Robert begins to fret about Vicky destroying him financially, Michelle comes up with the bright idea of him signing over the Bistro to her, as if it has only just popped into her mind.  When it looks like Michelle is going to confront Vicky herself, Robert goes to visit her and warns her to stay away from the wedding.  A huge row erupts, complete with Vicky hurling things at him and the neighbours coming out of their houses in concern.  He returns home and tells Michelle that Vicky is no longer a problem.

Despite how the wedding was always going to turn out, it’s quite a beautiful scene when Carla walks Michelle down the aisle.  But during the vows, Michelle outs Robert for his double life, reading texts messages that have been passed between Robert and Vicky and announces that he has got her pregnant and also proposed to her.  Tyler then bursts in demanding to know what Robert has done to Vicky – she is missing.  He knows there was a huge argument last night and now the house has been bleached clean.

While the police begin to suspect Robert of murder, as do the rest of the street, Michelle is devastated and plans to sell up and start afresh.  My personal opinion is that he is being set up by both Michelle and Vicky.  And it couldn’t happen to a nicer bloke!

Hope starts school again, meaning she and her family have to say goodbye to Jade.  Daniel gets his laptop back and quickly becomes obsessed with the videos that Sinead left behind.  Paul bravely tells his boss and colleagues about Kel’s abuse as he begins police proceedings.  Bernie ends up in trouble with the law herself when she confronts Kel at his place of work.  Derek does a deal with Nick and Sarah in a desperate bid for cash.  Rita begins to feel like a spare part.

Doctors – Clash of the Icons

Predictably, things become a little tense between Zara and Emma now that they are dating twins, Adam and Gareth, especially when Zara turns down Emma’s invitation for the four of them, plus Joe to all spend Christmas together.  Well, personally, I think Gareth is definitely shifty.  I mean, what on earth did he do with the money Emma gave him for decorations for The Icon?  He definitely didn’t use it all for its intended purpose!

Meanwhile, Adam attends a school career day with Joe only to have to talk him down when he is frightened of a clown.  But he and Zara fall out when he dismisses her worries about her son.

The new pool car, named Dwight, arrives at The Mill and immediately causes trouble when Karen is caught speeding with Valerie and Ayesha in the car.  With maximum points already on her licence and not wanting to lose it or embarrass Rob, Karen tries and fails to persuade Valerie to take the blame.

Bear is defensive over the suggestion that he may be dyslexic and distracts himself with decorating The Mill with some non-traditional decorations with Valerie.

Sid helps Al with the marketing of The Icon and invites locally famous Beer Vlogger to the

launch night of Al and Jimmi’s Beer.  After a lot of nerves, the night is a success and Al even helps the vlogger get together with his cameraman.  Jimmi has problems with his burglar alarm.

Eastenders – Honey Takes Her Power Back

The Wife Swaps draws to a close with a quiz rather drunkenly and hilariously hosted by Shirley and won by Mick and Ruby.  When Honey discovers Adam’s latest fling, enough is finally enough.  Propelled by the sense of self worth that Ash has given her over the previous few days, Honey stands up in front of the whole pub and calls Adam out for his abysmal treatment of her.  It’s a fantastic moment and worth the wait.  At home, she packs his things amid some cruel abuse.  When he pushes her too far, hits him in the mouth with a bin.  Hope you know a good dentist, Adam!  I also hope that Honey will pursue a friendship with Ash and Iqra.

Martin overhears Billy fretting about Karen’s money worries and drops Ben in it for being a loan shark.  When Billy manages to sort things with Ben, Karen is so grateful that the pair end up in bed together!  Honey turns to Billy for support and gets quite a shock!

Max is horrified when Ruby bluntly tells him about sleeping with Martin.  She makes it clear that she would prefer a more casual relationship.  Max confronts Martin, leading to what can only be described as a pissing contest between the men, which is much more about Stacey than Ruby.

Lisa and the Mitchells (minus Sharon and Phil) attend Mel’s funeral, which Sharon has paid for.  However, at the wake, Lisa loses her temper and labels Sharon a murderer in front of everyone as well as telling everyone that Phil isn’t the father of the baby.  Seeds of doubt finally begin to form in Phil’s mind, especially when he sees Sharon looking close with Jack.  Louise goes into labour!

Gray finally confesses to the counsellor that he is physically violent towards Chantelle.  He breaks down over the violence he lived with from his father but Chantelle won’t let the counsellor push him to deal with the violence between them.  Instead, she decides they should sweep it all under the carpet again and renew their wedding vows.  What a hideous plan.

Jags plants rat droppings at the salon.  Sheree calls his bluff but Denise insists the ‘problem’ needs dealing with, prompting another falling out between the pair.  Worried Mick suggests that he and Linda do an alcohol detox.  He puts together a ridiculous plan to try and persuade Ollie’s teacher to grant him Learner of the Week only to discover that he is going to be awarded Learner of the Term.  Cue a drunken announcement from Linda to the whole pub, which embarrasses and worries Mick.  He suggests that they go on an alcohol detox.  Yes, I am sure she’ll stick to that.

Emmerdale – Wendy House

Pete and Moira fall out when she drunkenly messes up a client meeting at the farm and loses their business.  Despite also being angry with Nate, Pete is then persuaded to ditch Moira and take up a job with him at the rival farm.  How fickle.  Although, I don’t think I’d want much to do with Moira right now either, to be honest.  Interestingly, Cain stands up for Moira.

Victoria, Diane, Liv and Aaron are horrified when Wendy, having secured a job with Liam and Manpreet, moves into the Village.  Even her own son, Luke cannot believe that she has made the decision to crowd Victoria in such a way.  In an emotionally charged scene, Chas almost gets through to Wendy who still stubbornly believes that Lee could never have raped Victoria and that Victoria is lying.  It’s clear that Luke believes Victoria over his brother and knows his better than his mother does.  But I do wonder if her move to the village and her growing friendship with Chas and Victoria’s own grace and compassion for her may lead Wendy to finally come to terms with the truth.  She’s clearly not a bad person.  She just loves her son and wants to believe in him above all else.

Unfortunately, Wendy is not made to feel welcome in the Village and on her first night, she gets a brick thrown through her window.  She also has ‘rapist’ sprayed across her house, which she discovers during the turning on of the Christmas lights, in front of the whole village, when she has just helped Victoria through a bout of Braxton Hicks.  Bob very kindly cleans up the graffiti for her.  Aaron’s loved ones beg him to leave Wendy alone, not wanting him to go down the same road as Robert.

Andrea is in bits, knowing that Kim is gunning for her and has ordered a DNA test to prove whether Jamie or Graham is the father of Millie.  She is soon rushed into hospital with a miscarriage where we see Kim’s rare compassionate side.  She is uncharacteristically kind to Andrea and totally looks after her at the hospital.  She then tears up the DNA results without looking at them, not wanting Jamie to lose another child or to destroy their family.  Kim then sets about paying Graham off and sending him away.  Something tells me that he will not go quietly…

Despite Jimmy’s willingness to forgive, things are difficult between Nicola and Laurel, although they all manage to work things through in the end.  However Laurel and Jai remain ignorant (emphasis on the word ignorant – it’s literally happening right in front of them) of Arthur’s bullying of Archie.  Personally, I hate this plot.  I understand that it happens and it’s good to shine a light on it but I think they’ve absolutely chosen the wrong characters.  Arthur is the epitome of a nice, good child.  He was a tower of strength to Laurel when Ashley died and he’s always doing the right thing.  There has been no lead up to this story whatsoever.  It’s like they’ve given him a personality transplant overnight.  It’s a horrible storyline and it’s destroyed a lovely character.  But then, Emmerdale hasn’t exactly been firing on all cylinders this year, I suppose.  It’s had some great moments but it’s had some real flops and this storyline, for me is a prime example.

Lydia is struggling with her mother trying to be more involved in her life than she is ready for.  Charity and Vanessa are at it all over the place, although Charity calms things down, aware that Vanessa is avoiding grieving for Frank.  Sarah lies to Charity about spending time with Danny.  Worried Noah tells Danny the truth about Sarah’s illness.

Hollyoaks – Brody and Liberty, Too Stupid for Words

Brody, like the rest of the audience cannot believe that Liberty would even suggest that they sleep together and pass of their baby as Sienna’s.  Even by Hollyoaks standards this plot is insane and horrific.  As if her boyfriend cheating on her with her sister wouldn’t be more upsetting than not getting pregnant.  Nonsense!  However, after some misguided advice from Damon, Brody decides to go for it.  I mean, even if they decided to conceive a child and pass it off as Sienna’s, they didn’t have to do it the ‘natural way’ and actually cheat on her, did they?  Of course they did.  This is Hollyoaks.

In hospital, Mercedes wakes up in fright, believing that the shooter has just been in her room.  Well, Sylver is locked up.  So who has been in her room?  None other than Diane!  So… was it her?  She has been acting very shifty recently…  Feeling helpless, she discharges herself from hospital.

Brave Tony gives Breda a piece of his mind, blaming her for Sylver’s crime and the state of his and Mercedes marriage.  In response, creepy Breda befriends Mercedes and denounces her beloved son.  When Bobby returns home, Breda pledges her commitment to the family and moves into the pub to help Mercedes look after them both.  The police drop the investigation into the hit and run.

Yazz helps Finn get a job delivering Christmas trees.  However, things go wrong on his first day when he has to deliver to the school and finds himself in the very classroom where he raped John Paul – and is discovered by horrified Nancy.  He is quickly sacked by his boss upon discovering the full truth of his crimes.  Encouraged by nasty Edward, Finn attempts to make a public apology but it goes drastically wrong, ruining Marnie’s grand opening of the café.  In response, Yazz and Finn delve into Edward’s own past and discover that he was once accused of murdering his wife.  Wiley Edward is easily able to explain it all away.  Edward and Sally conspire to bring John Paul back to sort Finn out once and for all.

Sienna worries Luke when she notices his shaky hand and mentions her Dad had MND.  Darren goes to the hospital with him where he is diagnosed with Frontal Temporal Dementia, a progressive condition and yet another destruction of a once amazing character.  Let’s face it, Luke is basically unrecognisable from his original self, one of those situations where you dream of Luke Morgan returning to the show but when he does the writers mess him up so much you wish they hadn’t bothered.  And now there’s this horrifically sad story to deal with.  In the meantime, Cindy mistakenly believes that Luke is about to propose.  Instead, he breaks up with her rather harshly in a bid to set her free from having to watch him fade away.  Well, let’s hope this condition is treated a little more realistically than Duffy’s in Casualty.

Home and Away: The Morgans

Home and Away is on its Christmas Break until January 2020.  Instead, on My5, there is a Christmas themed behind the scenes episode every Monday, hosted by Jason Smith who played Robbie Hunter between 2003 and 2006.

This week we are with the Morgan Family, who started off as a four (Tori, Justin, Brody and Mason), added a fifth with Raffy, lost two (Brody and Raffy who moved away with Brody’s girlfriend Simone) and are now more of a blended family with Justin dating Leah and also having a daughter called Ava plus Tori having had baby Grace with Robbo who is married to Jasmine.  So they’re pretty much as complicated as any other Home and Away family.

For this episode, Jason Smith is joined by Ada Nicodemou (Leah Patterson-Baker), James Stewart (Justin), Penny McNamee (Tori), Orpheus Pledger (Mason), Sam Frost (Jasmine) and Jake Ryan (Robbo).

Tori, Justin, Brody and Mason arrived under false names, living in witness protection, which was probably a silly idea considering what a dangerous place the Bay is!  They then found out they had another sister, Raffy.  Robbo also arrived under a cloud of confusion, amnesia and in the thick of a criminal investigation (he worked as a Federal Police Officer) and his whole family having been murdered.  Jasmine arrived on the run from an abusive boyfriend and was taken under Leah’s wing.  In a similar way, Sam explains that Ada looked after her on set.

The episode looks at Jasmine and Robbo’s complicated relationship and the current investigation involving Dylan Carter.  We take a look back at the arrival of the original Morgan family and take a moment to appreciate Orpheus’s perm.  The actors discuss their hopes for Leah and Justin’s future and laugh about their inability to keep their hands off each other.  They wonder if Mason will ever find love.  I think it’s unlikely.  Penny discusses being pregnant in real life alongside her pregnancy storyline on the show – James was very impressed with how she handled things.  Jake has also just become a new father.  Ada discusses her Ryan Kwanten (Vinnie Patterson) and how successful he has become.  Sam jokes about how obsessed she is with Christmas.  Olivia Debble (Raffy) sends her Home and Away family a Christmas message.

Sam Frost takes the camera into the make-up room and introduces us to none other than Laura Vasquez, who any true Home and Away fan will know played Sarah Thompson in the nineties!  Awesome!  She reveals that the person who takes the longest in makeup is Emily Symons (Marilyn) as she looks nothing like her character in real life (she looked completely different in Emmerdale) and the person who takes the least time is Ray Meagher (Alf).

What do the cast want for their character for the New Year?

Penny/Tori:     More making out and making jokes!

Ada/Leah:        Happiness and laughter

Jake/Robbo:    Love and good times with Jasmine & telling her he loves her

Neighbours – Unrequited Love

David’s loved ones, including Kyle all rush to be tested to be a kidney donor, all to no avail.  They also attempt to contact Leo, who would presumably be the obvious option.

Paul nearly comes to blows with Kyle during their mediation session.  He then sells Pierce a bigger share of Lassiters in order to settle the lawsuit and put the whole thing to bed, so to speak.  With his new powers, Pierce promotes Chloe to permanent General Manager, at least for as long as their relationship lasts.  Hendrix and Roxy meanwhile, conspire to make Pierce miss his wedding rehearsal.  Cue, Hendrix stepping in and awkwardly confessing his feelings for Chloe, except she doesn’t really get what he’s trying to tell her.  However, later, he decides to make it clearer by actually attempting to kiss her.  She is horrified and makes it clear that she’s not interested but she misunderstands his genuine feelings for her and thinks he is just out to cause trouble for Pierce.  Chloe tells Pierce what has happened and it slowly dawns on her that Hendrix’s feelings for her are actually real.  He moves into the Kennedy’s House of Never Ending Bedrooms.

Ned continues to freak out over Scarlett and reluctantly begins counselling.  Worried about him, Bea follows Ned to the fight club and steps up to fight in a bid to shock him out of the state he’s in.  It’s a huge risk and it makes both Ned and Finn very angry but essentially, it works.  He steps in and pulls her out of the fight, which makes the guy running the club angry.  But it stops him from fighting, gets him back to work and brings him and Yashvi closer again.

Harlow forgives Terese for handing her over to Prue in order to cover up her drinking.  Susan becomes concerned that Finn may be harbouring feelings for Elly when she finds the photo album of their past relationship in his bag.  Finn’s mother arrives and is ready to play nice but there is clearly more going on beneath the surface.  Dipi and Shane’s marriage is in trouble.