Coronation Street

Gullible Sean and Billy believe that Jade is sleeping rough when she comes to their soup kitchen and immediately inform Fiz who takes her in over Christmas.  Only Evelyn is smart enough to have the girl’s number.  Emma panics over the reappearance of Alina and prematurely breaks up with Seb, believing that he would never choose her, although he does eventually reassure her.  Tracey is annoyed with Steve for spending too much money on his new daughter for Christmas.  When Robert keeps quiet about what Michelle did to him, she persuades Vicky to agree to meet him.  Elated, he plans to start a new life in Ireland where he can be part of his baby’s life in what capacity he is allowed to be.  Max rebels yet again and informs Shona that he wishes she was dead.  Well, that doesn’t bode well for Christmas Day, does it…?

Rita is set for a sad and lonely Christmas when she feels that nobody has time for her and when Jenny tries, Rita ends up wishing she hadn’t bothered.  Subsequently, Rita lies to her friends about going away for Christmas, not wanting to be a burden to them but alone, she attempts to decorate the Christmas tree and has a fall.  She ends up injured, lying on the fall all night.  It’s only when Jenny ends up with a stab of conscious and a funny feeling that’s something is wrong (having spent weeks not bothered about Rita, the sole reason she even has a life on the Street at all) that she discovers her deception and rushes round to rescue her.

Gary reveals that he now owns the factory and is quick to throw his weight around with Nick and Sarah.  He then tackles Derek who has tried to demand money from him again, tying him up and holding him against his will overnight, ruining his one last chance to make things right with his wife and kids.

Christmas Day starts for Gary in a panic when he discovers that the gun and a packet of bullets that he locked away have gone missing.  Fiz brought them back from a house clearance with Jade and Hope, not realising what they were so he confiscated them, only for someone to break into the shop and take them.  He tackles Fiz, who tackles Hope, which causes a row but actually, Derek is the culprit and he has one target at the top of his list.

While Jenny brings Rita home to stay with her after her ordeal, she and Johnny hold a party for her in the pub to show her how much they and everyone love her.  I should think so too!  Subsequently, most of the Street are gathered in the pub for when drunk, vengeful Derek appears, demanding to know where Gary is (he’s in the toilets, demanding to know if Ali stole his gun.  He didn’t.  Obvs.)  I have to say, the siege scenes, were actually pretty exciting and surpassed Christmas Day expectations.  You know when a soap promises a lot for Christmas but it doesn’t deliver?  I would say, Coronation Street really did this year.  Of all the soaps, I would crown them the Christmas Winners.  The only thing I would say was a bit weird was Shona in a Box.  But I’ll get to that.

Derek calls Gary’s bluff about the gun being a dud and shoots the gun at the door, shooting poor Robert, who has been excitedly preparing to meet Vicky was just about to walk in.  He collapses alone in the street.  We all heard the rumours that Robert would be shot on Christmas Day and being that he was leaving, he would likely die but this was an awesome way of doing it.  Really unexpected.

There’s a huge cat and mouse chase through the Street and into the Winter Wonderland, Derek calling out Gary and the Platt family who had been doing some sort of hide and seek treasure hunt thing for David’s birthday.  This leads me to Shona in a Box.  Basically, the show just ran out of ways to hide Julia Goulding’s baby bump so they put her in a box, drinking beer, waiting for David to find her.  Instead, all the family are scattered, hiding from Derek until little Harry runs out and ‘brave’ Gary steps in to save him, getting shot in the process.  Sadly, he survives and Sarah thinks he’s a big hero, as do the rest of the Street by the end of the episode. 

While armed police descend on the Street but pretty much do absolutely nothing, Gary tackles Derek himself.  During their scuffle, a bullet goes astray and shoots directly into Shona’s box, rushing her off into maternity leave.  I mean, surgery.  Gary does attempt to save Derek at the last minute but he falls off the giant staircase anyway and dies.  Gary is hailed a hero by everyone.  Max is distraught, having treated Shona so badly before she was shot.  Oh and during all this, Adam and Sarah found the time to get engaged.

Michelle rushes to the hospital as soon as she hears what has happened to Robert and they manage to make peace before he dies.  There’s actually quite a sweet moment where she makes a pretend call to Vicky, allowing him to believe that she forgives him too.

While reporters descend on the Street in the wake of Christmas Day, the residents are attempting to pick up the pieces of their lives.  Furious that Gary is being hailed a hero, Ali goes to the police and informs them that he is a loan shark.  Shona takes a turn for the worse and ends up in a coma that she may never wake up from.  Still grieving for Robert and guilt ridden over how she treated him in the weeks before he died, Michelle is distraught to learn that she has sold the Bistro to Ray.  Unable to change anything, she leaves the Street for a new life.  Tyrone is furious with Fiz for bringing the gun to the Street in the first place.  Well, he does have a point.

Doctors

Doctors is on its Christmas Holidays!  Ho, ho, ho!

Eastenders

Phil and Ben’s query into Sharon’s acquaintances around the time of her pregnancy suddenly piques Louise’s suspicions.  The only person her step-mother was really spending time with was Keanu.  Lisa confirms to Phil that Mel told her that Sharon did cheat on him but she is too scared to tell him everything she knows.

Keanu and Louise bring baby Peggy home for Christmas but things go awry when Sharon and Keanu separately tell stories about a Santa themed stag party they saw at a hotel, accidentally confirming their affair.  It’s genuinely emotional when Phil confronts Sharon.  He cries!  He has really softened over these past few months and it was nice to see that remain during their showdown rather than it just being anger.  However, he has also started divorce proceedings and intends to keep custody of Denny.  He then physically throws her out onto the street.  Meanwhile, Louise also confronts Keanu who admits the truth and begs forgiveness and persuades her to run away with him, which she agrees to.  And of course, poor Lisa gets blamed for keeping the truth to herself.

When Sonia attempts to confront Martin about his behaviour, he physically shoves her out of the way, determined to complete the robbery he has planned with Tubbs.  The boys are successful but in their jubilation, Tubbs accidentally knocks someone over.  Having already run over and killed Jamie Mitchell many years before (is that why they’ve mentioned that so many times in recently months?), Martin is distraught and wants to get help but Tubbs insists they leave.  Martin begs Ben to help him get rid of the van but he refuses.  Distraught by his actions, Martin clings to gullible Sonia and they end up in bed together, although he is casual with her again the next day.

With Phil on the rampage, Ben takes the problem of Sheanu into his own hands.  He tells Martin that he will sort out the van on one condition: Martin must kill Keanu.  Well, that’s all very dramatic but there’s one problem, Eastenders.  How is it logical that Martin would solve the problem of a hit and run where he wasn’t even driving and even a robbery by actively murdering a human being?  How does that make it better?  Stupid, stupid storyline.  I mean, I as we didn’t actually see the murder, I am sure he didn’t actually do it but still, the premise of it, is ridiculous.

The most shocking part of it all comes when Keanu and Louise are about to run away and it turns out that Louise was setting him up!  My wife saw it coming but I didn’t.  Shame on me, really.  It’s not often I don’t guess these things.  I’d forgotten that Louise was a Mitchell, I think.  She has just been so in love with Keanu all this time.  I never thought she was capable of sentencing him to death.  But sentence him she does and then she and the rest of the clan set themselves up with alibis in the pub where they (including Denny) publicly reject Sharon who confesses all to everyone gathered.  Karen immediately panics at what may have become of her son.  Later, Martin shows Ben footage on his phone of him apparently shooting Keanu, confirming that he is dead and the deed is done.  Ben then gets rid of the van.

Linda dismisses Mick’s concerns about her drinking which soon spirals out of control during lunch with Max and Ruby.  It starts badly when Linda wears a sexy Santa outfit, thinking Ruby is going to as well.  Then Linda drinks more and more and becomes more and more abusive towards Ruby, thinking the younger woman is looking down on her.  The whole thing erupts into a huge row between Mick and Linda.  She storms out drunk, only to pass out in the middle of the Square.  Lee, who has returned as a surprise for Christmas, finds her and takes her to hospital, where Mick refuses to visit.  Broken and alone, Linda discharges herself and carries on drinking, remaining absent for the whole of Christmas Day.  Mick is beside himself, resulting in a panic attack.  When she does come home, she lies about her whereabouts and cleans blood off her shoe.  So… was she somehow involved in Keanu’s ‘death’?  And how on earth would that even have happened?  This is Eastenders though.  They enjoy the ridiculous even more that Hollyoaks these days.  She promises Mick that she will stop drinking.

Enraged by Leo still hanging around and heartbroken over losing Ben, Callum attacks Leo, forcing Jack to have to arrest him, putting Callum’s future career in danger.  However, when Whitney agrees to meet up with Leo, he tells her he loves her and believes her about Tony and agrees not to press charges against Callum.  Ben lets Callum leave Walford for Christmas utterly heartbroken.

Locked in their house with no electricity, the Slaters are set for a miserable Christmas.  At breaking point, Kat, Kush and Big Mo all go out searching for someone to take them in and all of them are successful, meaning that they end up going to the Taylors, the Beales and to Honey and Billy.  The eldest Panesar brother, Kheerat (I’ve learnt his name as I’ve actually started to come round to him) overhears Kat breaking down on Kathy about Jean and cancels their rent increase, bonding the two families.  It’s a Christmas miracle!

Things go wrong when Chantelle and Gray’s wedding vow renewal venue falls through.  When Chantelle is unable to find another, Gray scares her by losing his temper, making her unsure as to whether she wants to go through with the renewal at all.  So when a venue comes through after all, she turns them down.  Realising that his wife is having doubts, Gray manipulates Karen into setting up a renewal at the house and pretending it was all her idea, although the truth quickly comes out.  At the ‘altar’ Chantelle almost doesn’t go through with it.  Afterwards, Gray is short tempered and demanding, resulting in him dragging Chantelle upstairs, claiming that they need to start trying for a baby immediately.  She has no choice in the matter.  A horrific ending to that particular episode.

Denise becomes more suspicious of Sheree when she believes she is dating a man named Isaac.  She gives her no choice but to walk away from Patrick.  She doesn’t say goodbye, prompting Patrick to blame Denise for her departure but some helpful words from Lola make him forgive her.

Emmerdale

The Villagers turn out for the Panto which is a roaring success, with Kim Tate of all people ending up as the surprise star of the show.  Liam takes a call from Bernice during the show, ending their relationship and cancelling the wedding, resulting in a particularly emotional climax to the show.  He remains oblivious to Leyla growing feelings for him.

Noah lies unconscious in the woods while Sarah harasses him for the drugs he took from her and Danny harasses her for the drugs she has been looking after for him.  When Charity realises that her son is actually missing, she and Vanessa become frantic but thankfully, a dog walker finds him and rushes him to hospital.  They are told that thanks to the drugs he took and the hypothermia, his kidneys are damaged.  Sarah pressures Noah at the first available opportunity not to tell anyone anything.  Graham steps up immediately to tell Charity about the drugs he took away from Noah but her response is just to be furious that he didn’t warn her at the time.  While I do agree that he should have said something, I also agree with Graham that she has been oblivious to her son’s unhappiness for too long.  Danny and Sarah throw Noah some hush money for his ordeal.  Noah tries to explain to Charity that he took the drugs because he felt alone.  He had had a huge row with Sarah, Graham had reminded him of Joe and Charity was always too busy to talk to him.  Unfortunately, all Charity hears is that Graham upset him (and didn’t alert anyone about the drugs).

On Christmas Day, David, Jacob, Leyla and Eric get a shock when they discover that Maya has left a baby on their doorstep and David or Jacob are the father of the child.  Leyla realises that should Jacob be the father, it would prove that Maya abused him.  David asks Liam to fiddle the DNA results in order to make it that he is the father, not wanting to traumatise his son further.  Yes, dishonesty has worked out so well in your lives so far, David.  Liam and Leyla attempt to track Maya down at her mother’s house but find that she has left the country.  Her mother also appears to hate her anyway.  This doesn’t appear to be solely related to her being a paedophile.

Aaron, who is continuing to hook up with random men in secret, actually says thank you to Wendy for helping Liv.  Things get tense at the Dingles when Nate and Cain are forced to spend Christmas Day together.  Moira spends Christmas Day alone and by Boxing Day it’s apparent that her drinking is spiralling out of control.  Perhaps she and Linda from Eastenders should become Facebook friends.  Nicola and Laurel start meeting up in secret.

Kim and Marlon bond when he caters Home Farm’s Christmas Dinner.  Millie reveals to Kim that Rhona took five of her hairs in a ‘game’ and when Kim confronts Graham about it, he reveals the results of the DNA test – Jamie is the father.  They have an extremely bitter row and Kim says some unforgiveable things.  Subsequently, Graham interrupts Christmas Dinner and announces that he and Andrea had an affair and that Kim has been aware for months that he could have been (but isn’t) Millie’s father, leaving Jamie utterly devastated.  Marlon is then left furious when he discovers Graham’s plans to move to France with Rhona and Leo, which Kim confirms were all down to her.  He tells Rhona under no uncertain terms that she will not take his son away from him.  Despite being angry with Graham, Rhona blindly sticks with him and assures Marlon that France is cancelled.  Meanwhile, Jamie has lost all faith in his mother and his wife.  He remains in the family home for the sake of his daughter but his relationships are dead.  Perhaps a potential relationship with Belle is on the cards?  She was certainly the first person he turned to (after he punched Graham).  He also cannot forgive Rhona for her part in everything.

Hollyoaks

Plagued by her discovery that Brody and Liberty have betrayed her, Sienna locks them in the flat together and spies on them from next door with anxious Martine.  However, Sienna is heartbroken to listen in and discover that the last of her eggs was found to not be viable and actually, they only slept together once and it was a misguided attempt to provide her with the baby she so desperately desires.

Word begins to spread about Luke’s diagnosis so in order to cheer him up, Nancy decides to throw a New Year’s Eve party in his honour.  Also in response to his news, Cindy pledges her commitment to him, in sickness and in health; she still wants them to get married.

While Nancy wants to divorce Darren, her ex has other ideas.  He has finally realised that he and Nancy belong together!  Unfortunately, Charlie has got wind of what happened in the tunnels and he isn’t very happy about Darren and Nancy confusing the family situation all over again.  Then while Leela tries to get her head around the fact that Nancy, Mandy and Cindy have all slept with all the same men, Mandy is uncharacteristically defensive of Nancy and what a good person she is.  Feeling guilty, Nancy admits that she and Darren cheated on her and Kyle.  Excellent.  Mandy is devastated and Kyle punches Darren and breaks up with Nancy.  Darren admits that he feels they were a mistake.  Lovely!  However, Nancy doesn’t feel the same way and persuades Kyle to give her another chance, revealing to him that she is pregnant.  They decide to get engaged, announcing their news (not the baby) to the party.  Darren is devastated.

The younger kids, Charlie, Leah and Ella are all spending New Year’s together and play a game of truth or dare when Charlie has to sneak into the adults’ party and steal something.  He bags a tub of ice cream and Darren’s wallet.

Ollie persuades Brooke to make friends with Juliet after all the upset between them.  Juliet’s day gets even better when she and Sid, who is being fostered by Leela, decide to be a proper couple.  At their party, Imran feels like a fifth wheel until Sid storms out completely, having been turned down for sex by Juliet.  When Imran and Ollie catch up with Sid, they find him buying drugs, prompting Luke to give him a firm but kind talking to, asking him not to blame himself for his Dad’s death and imagine a future of happiness and success.  He draws on enough of his own experience that Sid hands the drugs over.  Inspired and impressed, Ollie decides to start playing football again and move on with his life.  Luke backs out of telling him about his diagnosis.

Meanwhile, back at the party, Brooke is consoling Juliet who admits that she is a virgin and then tries to kiss Brooke.  Well, I didn’t see that coming.  Oh wait, yes I did.  Brooke is really kind as she tries to persuade Juliet to explore how she feels and whether she might be gay or bisexual and offers her full support (while making it clear that she is straight).  Juliet closes up, denying that she is interested in Brooke or any other female.  We’ll see.  Unfortunately, Juliet decides to sleep with Sid to prove her heterosexuality.  I’m sure that will end well.  Peri interrupts and after a spat between the girls, Juliet almost has second thoughts but Sid’s promises that he is committed to her persuade her otherwise.

Tom changes plans to go clubbing for his birthday so that Yazz can join in.  His kindness and thoughtfulness prompt the two of them to get together!  Well, he’s definitely a better catch than Finn!

Nancy gives a speech to all the party goers as they count down to midnight, bringing in 2020, unaware as we are of what is to come, as during the New Year episode, we see several ‘flash forward’ clips (I really do love Hollyoaks for their unique creativity in this way).  So, we see:

Someone dramatically asking Charlie what he has done, later revealing Nancy in shock at the police find drugs hidden in his games controller.  Leela on the phone, presumably waiting for Sid and finding a guitar smashed on the ground.  Ollie sat in a toilet cubicle, clearly hooked on drugs and missing someone so much.  Has Luke died?  Mandy horrified to find wads of cash in Ella’s bag.  This is all to do with the county lines/drug running storyline one would assume.

Marnie and Misbah are apparently the best of friends and Marnie couldn’t have got through the last year without Misbah.  Their families are also now joined in marriage.  Who?!?!?  In wedding suits, Tom tells Romeo to get a grip or he’ll ruin the wedding.  Romeo is in tears as he tells Tom he ‘still loves her’.

We also see Darren in tears.  Peri and Juliet are in a relationship (and attending this mystery wedding).  John Paul breaks down over a mystery dead body outside The Hutch.  Who’s dead?!  Apart from (presumably) Luke?!

Home and Away

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 is the last episode, a Home and Away Christmas with a large portion of the cast: Ray Meagher (Alf Stewart), Lynne McGranger (Irene Roberts), Emily Symons (Marilyn Chambers), Ada Nicodemou (Leah Patterson-Baker), Georgie Porter (Roo Stewart), Belinda Giblin (Martha Stewart), Shane Withington (John Palmer), Sophie Dillman (Ziggy Astoni), Patrick O’Connor (Dean Thompson), Tim Franklin (Colby Thorne), Sam Frost (Jasmine Delaney), James Stewart (Justin Morgan), Emily Weir (Mackenzie Booth), Penny McNamee (Tori Morgan), Lukas Radivich (Ryder Jackson) and Rohan Nichol (Ben Astoni).

They discuss their first scenes with Ray, showing Jason’s own first scene with him, a clip that also includes Chris Hemsworth as Kim Hyde.  Rohan discusses the arrival of the Astoni family and how a scene with Ray felt like they had truly arrived.  Their car broke down and Alf told them they happened to have broken down in Summer Bay, the best place on earth to which Ziggy responded she had had never heard of it.  Ray has mutual admiration for Rohan.

Talking about highlights of the year, James immediately mentions marrying the love of his life, Sarah Roberts (who plays Willow Harris).  Lynne talks about the abuse storyline and Tim discusses Colby’s on-off relationship with Mac.  Sam jokes that her highlight has been chasing Irene around the Bay complaining about her relationship problems!  Georgie tells Ray that her genuine highlight of the year was him returning to work after his triple heart bypass.  And so say all of us!

Shane and Ryder share some funny stories and playing jokes on each other.  Sophie admits that she once accidentally sprayed herself with shaving cream instead of deodorant just as a crew member walked in.  Emily W reveals that during a surfing scene she one lost the entirety of her bikini!

Jason separates the cast into Team Ray (Ray, Ada, Emily S, Patrick, Penny, Georgie, Rohan and Belinda) and Team Lynne (Lynne, James, Lukas, Emily W, Tim, Shane, Sophie and Sam) to answer questions, some of which reveal some spoilers for 2020:

So, we will see:

• Two wedding dresses
• A new family of four
• A new love interest for Ryder
• Leah goes missing
• Roo will receive some life changing happy news

Team Lynne are the winners!

The whole cast gather round the table and exchange their Secret Santa gifts, which also may reveal some spoilers for 2020:

Ray:                 A new hat for a ‘special event’

Ada:                 A veil

Martha:           A CD of Alf and Martha’s favourite songs

Emily W:          A Magic 8 Ball (she asks if Mac’s love life will get easier – it says Not Likely!)

Emily S:           A really creepy looking dog handbag

Sam:                A Motherhood Survival Kit

Lukas:              Boxing Gloves

Sophie:            Car Dice

Tim:                 A Moon Boot

Jason:              Glasses (like Robbie used to wear)

Ray then asks the cast to go round the table and say the word that they associate with Home and Away:

Lynne:              Friends

Shane:             Sunsets

Sam:                Romance

Tim:                 Surf

Emily W:          Relationships

Penny:             Peaceful

Lukas:              Grumps!

Martha:           Forgiveness

Rohan:             Beginnings

Sophie:            Family

James:             Mates

Ada:                 Love

Patrick:            Laughter

Emily S:           Happiness

Georgie:          Home

Ray’s word is Community, explaining that although things change all the time, the one thing that’s consistent is the community and Summer Bay spirit.  He thanks viewers for support this year and the past thirty years asking us to keep watching and wishing us as Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.  Then they all sing a very merry ‘Walking in a Winter Wonderland’.  Lovely!

Neighbours

Amy begins to suspect that Jimmy could be using drugs.  However, when she confronts him, the real truth comes out.  He has brought his girlfriend, Maya home with him from New York, having wanted to protect her from her violent father.  With Liam not interested in helping them, Jimmy has brought her to the one person he knew would take care of them: his Mum.  Amy talks to Maya’s mother, also a victim of the domestic violence and arranges for Maya to go home and begin to sort out the situation.  She agrees to return to New York to help Jimmy but her son doesn’t feel it’s enough.  He doesn’t have the right support from Liam and begs Amy to move to New York permanently.  Amy agrees but while Kyle offers to come with her, she turns him down.  Kyle isn’t someone she can now see a future with.  It’s over.

Robert is brought to the hospital for his transplant and is allowed to meet members of the Robinson family for the first time.  Harlow breaks to rules to see her father before he and David are prepped for surgery and she is the only one who cares whether he too survives.  Of course, his apparent kindness has all been a lie and he sneakily refuses the sedative which is conveniently given to him as a tablet rather than intravenously like it would in any other hospital situation.  He removes the tablet from his mouth as soon as his handcuffs are removed.  He knocks out his guard and escapes the hospital.

Robert stalks Paul back to Ramsay Street but is distracted when he spots Elly from a distance.  To prevent her from contacting the police, he chases her back into her house, threatening her with a knife.  She promptly goes into labour (well, it is Christmas Day) and he refuses to call for any help.  Thankfully, heroic Finn pops back from the concert (guess who’s performing?!) to check on her and miraculously turns into a midwife and delivers baby Aster, named after Shaun’s favour flower.  Once the baby is born, Robert trots off.  As Elly settles into her new life as a mother, the growing attraction between her and Finn is now visibly clear.  He anxiously admits his feelings for Elly.  She dismisses her own as confusion over the feelings she had for Shaun and both promise they would never betray Bea.  We’ll see how long that lasts, shall we?

Guilty Roxy seeks Shane’s advice and he admits that if he was a match, he would donate.  Frantic Paul tracks a kidney down on the black market but time is fast running out.  David gathers his family together, one by one in a bid to say goodbye.  Watching David and Aaron attempt to say their goodbyes breaks Roxy who admits to Terese that Harlow has arranged to see Robert.  She is about to admit that she is a match when Harlow walks through the door with Robert and the police.  Faced with the ultimatum of weekly visits while he is in prison or never seeing his daughter again on the run, Robert has relented and handed himself in as well as agreeing to go through with the transplant which looks to be a success.

Toadie and the kids face their first Christmas without Sonya.  Yashvi and Ned make peace.  Hendrix continues to battle his feelings for Chloe.