Neighbours: Family

(Monday 27^th April – Monday 4^th May 2020)

To make ends meet, Mackenzie advertised for a housemate and acquired none other than Mannix who turned out to be less than friendly, demanding that she ask permission to have guests and putting a lock on his bedroom door. She continued to try and hide her difficult situation but it wasn’t long until Harlow sprung her and it wasn’t long after that, that the police showed up and raided the house. After Sheila bought a necklace from the pawn shop, Yashvi recognised it as an item from the Kennedy robbery, leading them to Mannix being the perpetrator. Making things even more complicated, however, was the fact that he was robbing places to pay back his debt to Paul, further souring Paul and Harlow’s relationship. Now Mannix is in custody and Paul has dumped a load of dodgy electronics on poor Aaron who had nothing to do with anything! On a more positive note, Shane and Dipi invite Mackenzie to move in with her, declaring that she is family. Hooray!

So, to go back to the Kennedy Family… Susan had a bad week. Not only is she bereft with her own guilt over Finn, she overheard a conversation between Sheila and Karl that indicated that he also blames her. Upon challenging him, he admitted that he knew in his heart of hearts that things would end badly but reminded her that it was Elly that fought for Finn to live with them. The PTA are calling for Susan’s resignation.

Susan isn’t just overwhelmed with her own guilt…
(photo credit: Digital Spy)

Oh and the reason Sheila was in a pawn shop at all was because she has been saddled with Gary’s debts and has had to sell some of his things to begin paying them off. She has also begun to get visits from a particular pigeon. And thinks it’s Gary. Oh dear.

Meanwhile, Elly is persuaded to take Sky’s deal – they will downgrade the charge from murder to involuntary manslaughter if she pleads guilty, which will give her a much better chance of a non-custodial sentence (but with Jodi Anasta leaving the show, this just seems unlikely to me). While Bea objected to the idea of her sister pleading guilty to a crime she didn’t commit, Elly eventually realised that Sky was actually trying to help her and accepted the deal, not wanting to serve time and potentially be without her daughter. When she took the deal, Mark was finally able to come forward with his opinion – he knows she is innocent.

Unfortunately, the deal made Claudia step up her campaign to steal baby Aster. If Elly isn’t going to jail, she needs to find another way to find her unfit in order to gain custody. I mean, what court in the world is going to say that Claudia, a woman who abandoned her son to torture and potential death because she couldn’t be bothered to pay ransom money that she could have easily provided, would be a good option for a baby? She left her son to suffer to the point that he turned into a psychopathic serial killer! You’re looking at how to dress Elly up as an unfit mother? Why don’t you just lend her an outfit?! Ridiculous!

Speaking of parenting… Mark got the news he’s always wanted – he’s going to be a Dad! Paige is pregnant! Well, they must have really enjoyed their wedding night!!! He gave Pierce and Chloe first refusal when he told them he was selling the house. I still find this scenario hilarious. Pierce is meant to be a millionaire. He has all these businesses; he runs a hotel; he has his wine company; he owned an island before Finn burned it to the ground. And yet he lives in a little rented house in a cul-de-sac. Hilarious.

In today’s episode, Aaron and David decide upon fostering. In about ten seconds flat, they manage to fill in an application and get a home visit arranged for the next day. Who knew it was that quick and easy? But I am not going to complain. I love these two. They are the modern day Scott and Charlene of Neighbours as far as I am concerned. They absolutely have to be together forever and they have to be happy always. I am so excited at the idea of them fostering. It’s so much better than them having a ‘their own’ baby. The idea of this beautiful couple giving a safe home to children who need it is the most perfect idea for them. I love it. I just hope this stolen electronic storyline isn’t too much of a distraction.

Neighbours has resumed filming

There has been no break in schedule in Australia

In the UK, Channel 5 air episodes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, 1:45pm and 6pm

Next week, episodes will resume to five days a week

Emmerdale: The Job

(Monday 27^th April – Friday 1^st May 2020)

Having not had the reaction she wanted from Charity, Vanessa turned to Rhona over custody of Johnny, should she not be there to take care of her son. Charity was hurt by the move but… well, she did ask her first and she did balls up the answer! You should have just said yes, Charity instead of panicking!

Vanessa asks Rhona to be her son’s guardian if she dies…

Will has completely messed up by attempting to warn Lucas’s foster parents away from him and the family, wanting to let Dawn bond with her son. Unsurprisingly, this has backfired and they and Social Services want to be more involved than ever. Dawn then found out about the whole gun incident and also unsurprisingly, wasn’t very happy. I do hope Will is going to turn out to be a short-lived character. He’s very annoying. He’s like the new Daz but without the likeability factor.

So, the day of ‘the job’ came around and only Cain and Billy were sent off to do the deal; Malone kept Will at home. Cain and Billy were on edge, feeling that something wasn’t right. Well, duh! Will then discovered that they were being set up by Malone but of course, the idiots had obediently left their phones at home.

Jamie and Belle can’t keep away from each other…

On the Easter Egg Hunt, Belle gained a conscience and ended her relationship with Jamie for all of five minutes, not wanting to break up Millie’s family and be ‘the other woman’. Five minutes later, unbeknownst to them, Andrea spotted them kissing in the woods. She was heartbroken but has so far kept quiet.

Bear alerted Chas to how worried he was about Paddy whose anxiety over Eve is spinning out of control. Mandy reminded us that before he was paralysed, she was sort of interested in Dan. I am rooting for him and Kerry to get back together, personally. They were made for each other and she has been so good to him since his accident. Leanna and Gabby continued to give Liam a hard time over dating Leyla instead of pining for a woman who left the country without even bothering to break up with him. Hmm… perfectly reasonable. As if Bernice isn’t off with another bloke in Aus already!

Due to the Coronavirus, Emmerdale have had to suspend filming

Emmerdale will now air on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays on ITV1 at 7pm

Doctors: So Much For My Happy Ending

(Monday 27^th April – Friday 1^st May 2020)

It looks like we’re not quite free of Jimmi’s prison storyline, as Leon, the guy who stabbed him, requests a visit in prison. Al sensibly advises steering clear while Daniel understands his curiosity. Jimmi shows his strength by confronting Leon rather than pandering to him.

Good old Sid puts his foot in it when it comes to Bear’s potential relationship with Ayesha. Please can these two either just get on with it or get over it so we can all move on?

Zara and Daniel manage to manipulate the cultural diversity out of their son and tempt him into giving up fasting for Ramadan. Such good parenting!

Daniel gets involved with his friend (they do pull these character’s ‘old friends’ out of nowhere, never seen before and never to be seen again, don’t they?) who has unknowingly got a woman pregnant as she stuck a pin in the condom. However, what she doesn’t know is that his player attitude and not watching children is because of his genetics. I think this is a really interesting and important story to tell. What this woman has done is awful. As women, we have the right, 100%, to say what is okay to do with our bodies and there is a lot of coverage on that, as there should be. But why does this woman think there is nothing wrong with doing this to a man? Tricking him into fathering a child? Doing this to him without his permission? And then taking his choices away as to whether he should be allowed to be part of his child’s life. This sort of thing sets feminism back several paces.

Ruhma unwittingly sets up a Midwife Hotline to her old patients. Perhaps not the wisest choice, considering she is currently suspended… However, she does get a sort-of-nice visit from Valerie and Karen. I mean, I think it was nice. Kind of. Well, it was amusing to see Karen sat on an inflatable unicorn because her bottom is still sore. Then as part of Ramadan, Ruhma and Shak volunteer to work on a building project for the homeless. While Shak works with a rather annoying girl, Ruhma cannot resist helping out one of the decorators who has been secretly living in the property as he has nowhere else to go. Well, you just have to love Ruhma, don’t you? I just hope things go her way at her hearing. She’s the best midwife ever!

Wednesday brought us a particularly moving episode involving Ayesha tracking down the family of a homeless woman who died in her arms in the street over Christmas. It was informative to people who might not know much about the process and these kinds of funerals and also emotional as we journeyed through finding out about how this woman lived her life and ended up on the winter streets of Letherbridge. As I said in my last blog, this is one of the many reasons I really love Doctors. It can use an episode space so creatively and tells such intricate stories.

Thursday’s episode takes a very dark turn as Sid attempts to support a young, male escort who has been drugged and raped by a client and is being forced to work by his brutal employer who has clearly manipulated the situation so that he is actually in debt to her rather than earning money. It was one of those brilliantly devastating stories where your heart breaks at not having the happy conclusion, all neatly tied up at the end but your mind absolutely adores Doctors for having the balls to be honest about how the world really works. Not everyone gets a happy ending, no matter how much we wish that was true. Not everything can be sown up in a tidy, half hour episode. Not everyone can be saved, as devastating as that is. I do genuinely think this show is underrated because of its time slot (although I read a Tweet from Elisabeth Dermot Walsh this morning about gaining extra viewers due to the lockdown so that’s a plus). I do think it deserves so much more credit like the other soaps get for the subjects it tackles and the creativity it uses to tell the stories it does.

Having said that, I did post a somewhat lazy tweet this week, where I am a little worried I may have sounded like I was criticising rather than complimenting, which caught the attention of the writer of this particular episode, Dale Overton, one of their Story Producers, Naz Ahmed and also Matthew Chambers who plays Daniel Granger. So, should this blog also come to anyone’s attention (unlikely!), I was definitely complimenting the episode! Just to clarify!!!

Moving on… Rob and Karen get a new teenage boy to foster. I do like these stories. They bring a really interesting and often very moving element to the show.

Next week, despite Doctors ceasing filming due to the Coronavirus, the show does appear to still be airing every weekday on BBC1 at 1:45pm

Coronation Street: Yasmeen’s Darkest Day

(Monday 27^th April – Friday 1^st May 2020)

Dev showed what a lovely Dad he is, taking back the words he unthinkingly said in anger, pledging his support to his daughter, offering to retract his statement to the school and begging Asha to go back to her education at the end of the holidays. Kelly tried and failed to apologise, having been taken in by Billy and Summer.

Tracy proposed that Ken allow her and Steve to delay buying the house, in the meantime he pay for the broken boiler and that he let them keep the master bedroom. Ken declined. He is no longer selling the house at all, he will indeed pay for the broken boiler and he wants his bedroom back! Well, at least all will soon be as it should be in the Barlow House! Oh and Daniel returned with a slightly improved beard and a much better attitude.

Things are getting seriously dark in the Geoff and Yasmeen abuse storyline, which is quite frankly saying something. The guy has taken away her freedom, her money, her dignity, her confidence, he locked her in a box and left her in it and he killed her chicken and fed it to her. And now, thanks to his frequenting of ‘escorts’, he has given her chlamydia. Of course, has taken no responsibility for it, even blaming it on her, accusing her of cheating on him and even suggesting she caught it from her ex-husband long before she met him.

The scenes of sheer verbal, mental and emotional abuse are horrifying to watch as Geoff called Yasmeen all the vile names he could think of. It’s truly uncomfortable and upsetting to watch. Shelley King and Ian Bartholomew have given everything they have to this story and are absolutely faultless. Yasmeen is heartbreaking and Geoff’s character is utterly hideous. Knowing full well that he is responsible for the STI, he even phones the escort agency demanding a refund! All the while, he continues to blame his wife for the situation. With the last vestiges of energy that she has left, she contacts the woman Sharif was having an affair with. She had an STI test at the time the truth came tumbling out and it all came back clear. Yasmeen cannot be the source of the chlamydia – it has to be Geoff.

Geoff destroyed Yasmeen’s last hope
(photo credit: Digital Spy)

Wednesday was a particularly harrowing episode as Geoff’s accusations continued. Then at the shop, he spotted her on her phone with her bag, hidden in the cupboard. Returning home, he bullied her into giving up the key before snatching the bag and taking it into the garden, locking her in the house where she could only watch him send her hope up in flames, burning the contents of her escape plan. By the end of the episode, I confess I was nearly in tears as Geoff forced Yasmeen to get onto her knees and swear she would stay. He told her he would rather see her dead than with someone else.

Geoff continued to humiliate Yasmeen…
(photo credit: Digital Spy)

Things have most definitely taken an even more sinister turn now. There is no pretending anymore than he is looking out for her or doing any of this because he loves her. He has shown all his cards. He doesn’t need to lie to keep her. Now it’s about force. He has made her believe that she is completely isolated and that nobody would want her. He has eradicated any sense of self worth in order to destroy her. All we can hope is that in the coming days, Sally will remember what she saw through her conservatory windows, Yasmeen standing over the fire looking devastated. She also mentioned to others in the pub that it was a strange time to have a bonfire.

We then have the most incredible episode on Friday, focussing solely on Yasmeen and Geoff, covering the course of an entire day. It’s heartbreaking and harrowing in equal measure as we witness Geoff humiliating, bullying and traumatising Yasmeen to the point that she can hardly stand. One of the worst moments in the whole episode is the sheer obliviousness of her neighbours and friends, as he allows her to go for a drink with him, Tim and Sally but dresses her up in this awful red dress he has bought for one of his escorts. Not one person in the pub seems to realise the depth of the horror that’s going on in front of their very eyes. When he eventually drags her out of the pub, they even laugh at her for her outfit. It’s awful. Eileen, who has previously had her suspicions of Geoff even sees him locking her in the house but rather than raising the alarm, merely comments that they were having a row.

Things became very tense in The Rovers…
(photo credit: Digital Spy)

Inside the house, Geoff taunts and torments Yasmeen, holding a knife, threatening to kill her. Having not eaten in days, utterly traumatised, on medication for the chlamydia he has passed onto her, out of her mind with grief and fear, she lashes out. Now, we don’t know if he will survive. It doesn’t currently look likely. And I’m in two minds over whether it would be better for Yasmeen if he lived or died. On the one hand, if he died, she would at least be physically free of him and the police would have a much better chance of discovering the phone evidence of his abuse – the video he recorded of him tormenting her and the camera he has of the house, which will have recorded so much of what has transpired over the past few months. On the other hand, she has been through enough without having a murder or manslaughter charge against her and she is trapped in such a cycle of abuse that she will blame herself for what she has done when it was not her fault.

And things spiralled out of control at home…
(photo credit: Digital Spy)

This episode was so incredible. It was perfectly written and directed and if Shelley King and Ian Bartholomew don’t get awards for their performances, there is something wrong with the Soap Awards. This storyline is so frustrating in all the right ways. All I want is for someone to rescue Yasmeen but the truth is, she has to save herself. This episode was so sad in so many ways but hopefully, whatever the outcome, she will find love and support in Alya when she returns and even those who laughed at her and gossiped (Cathy, Eileen – shame on you) and those who were concerned but not enough to respond (Sally and Peter, I’m talking to you), will be there to help her through these dark days. Well done, Coronation Street. You have excelled yourself.

Due to the Coronavirus, Coronation Street has had to cease filming

For the foreseeable, Coronation Street will air on ITV on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 7:30pm

Home and Away: She’s Gone. It’s Over.

(Friday 24^th April – Friday 1^st May 2020)

Bratty Bella calmed down a bit this week when she made friends with Nikau and also got a telling off from Dean for the way she has been behaving. She decided that rather than repeating Year Eleven at school, she is going to study Photography at TAFE. Sounds positive but I am sure she will be stropping about something else by next week…

Speaking of strops, John has seriously got his knickers in a twist when it comes to the Parata family. He made it his mission to dig up some dirt on them. And he succeeded. He discovered that Ari has a criminal past and his brother (Gemma’s husband and Nik’s father) was killed in an armed robbery in which an innocent woman also died. Or something. It’s quite complicated. Convinced that the family are a bunch of crooks, he presented his evidence to Marilyn, determined to rid them from his house. Unfortunately for John, Marilyn stood by them, resulting in him sleeping at the caravan park!

John digs up dirt on Ari…
(photo credit: Digital Spy)

Against her better judgement, Alex cleared Ari for work so he can start bringing in a wage for the family again and help them get back on their feet at last. I do like these new guys. I think. They have potential anyway. And Marilyn clearly does too. After John rushed to tell tales after seeing Ari accusing Dean of telling his family’s secret, Marilyn still wouldn’t listen. She then lost it with her husband after he attempted to bribe Ari into leaving the Bay. Oh, John, you just don’t understand what your wife has been through, do you? Or why she is so desperate to help this family. Also, if you judged everyone in Summer Bay by their past, I don’t think you’d have any friends. I’m not sure you’d even be friends with yourself, for that matter. Maybe that’s why he loves Marilyn. She’s always been pretty amazing, dating way back to the eighties…

It’s a sad week for Willex fans as Alex the Super Doctor packs up her office, including a framed photo of her and Willow and finishes her last shift at the hospital. The next day, she tries and fails to meet up with her ex to say goodbye as Willow is too heartbroken to face up to the fact that Alex is actually leaving for good. I think you can tell a lot about how someone handles a breakup and sadly, as much as I wanted them to work out, they probably are in different stages in their lives. If Willow can’t even reply to a text message or say goodbye to Alex (when they haven’t parted on bad terms), it doesn’t exactly reek of emotional maturity, does it? Possibly not someone to settle down and sign mortgage papers with.

Anyway, it’s a poor turnout for Alex’s goodbye considering she’s saved the lives of half the residents in Summer Bay or their loved ones. This woman has done so much good during her time in the Bay – she’s helped Ben, Bella, the Morgan Family, not to mention everyone affected by the siege (so, everyone) – and she made friends with all of Willow’s ‘family’ and only Jasmine could be bothered to have lunch with her, say goodbye or even acknowledge that she was leaving. I mean, where the hell was Irene? Or… anyone? Summer Bay is a fickle place sometimes.

Willow and Alex spend one last night together…
(photo credit: Digital Spy)

However, one person that does turn up is Willow! Right at the last minute, she races towards Alex and tells her that she’s changed her mind and wants the whole relationship, future, house, mortgage and everything. Hooray! And they celebrate with a passionate… hug. Right. Short lived joy rings throughout the Willex fan based as for a moment, it looks like Alex’s exit is going to be granted a reprieve but sadly, she is too sensible and realises that nothing has actually changed. They still love each other, they still want to be together but in the long term, Willow still doesn’t want to move away or to settle down. They have one last night together before Alex slips away, leaving Willow to wake up to a goodbye note. She is heartbroken, turning to bestie Dean for support.

Willow wakes up with nothing but a note…
(photo credit: Digital Spy)

I am very sad that this story has ended, although very glad that it happened. It was a really lovely relationship and rectified a lot of the mistakes that happened ten years ago with Charlie and Joey, the last time Home and Away made an attempt at a lesbian relationship (which ultimately ended with one of them cheating on the other with a man and involved a hell of a lot of homophobia despite the best intentions from the actresses). But this one was genuinely a very positive story. It was received well, the actresses, Sarah Roberts and Zoe Ventoura were amazing. The ending was a bit rushed and they could easily have found a better reason for them to have to part ways as Zoe was only a guest star. Also, I seriously hope that now they have seen just how popular their romance really is, they’re fighting like hell to get her back! But overall, I would say, this has been a really positive story. I certainly enjoyed it.

Meanwhile, Tori was unsure whether she is doing the right thing about returning to work. Well, it’s a shame she didn’t have these doubts earlier, quite frankly, before Alex had to leave town! You’ve ruined a wonderful relationship, you know!!! Anyway, she did go back to work and to everyone’s surprise, so did Jasmine.

Tori and Jasmine both start back at work
(photo credit: Digital Spy)

Leah continued to struggle but when Justin broke the news that although Douglas has been charged with attacking Colby, he can’t be charged for kidnap as she won’t make a statement, she bravely sat down with Justin and a policeman and told them everything that happened to her. His ex-wife has also made a statement that Douglas was physically and mentally abusive and it was Leah’s website that gave her the courage to escape. She confided in Justin that she knew when Douglas was planning the wedding that she had to escape.

Just as an aside, has Leah not noticed Mason has vanished…?

Due to the Coronavirus, Home and Away has had to suspend filming

Home and Away will now air on Channel 5 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 1.15

There is a sneak peek episode on 5Star at 6:30pm on the same days

These reviews are based on the Channel 5 episodes

Eastenders: Locked Up

(Monday 27^th and Tuesday 28^th April 2020)

Gray’s case and career are in big trouble when Whitney disappears and of course, thanks to Jean finding goodbye letters in the bin (the clue is that they have been thrown away, guys!!!), everyone assumes she has done a runner when actually, she has been abducted by Leo’s psychotic mother. On the plus side, at least she’s been locked up in a room with kitchen facilities. Not a lot of prisoners get that! Now I’m just worried about poor Chantelle bearing the brunt of Gray’s anger. She was clearly already irritating him early on in Monday’s episode when she was trying to big him up to his boss.

Max phoned Whitney on the burner phone he gave her (she didn’t think to call anyone for help on it, like um… the police?) but was caught out by crazy Michaela – not before Whitney hollered to Max that she had been abducted. After Max connected the dots for Gray and the family, Gray attempted to get hold of his wife for help. Unfortunately, she has become trapped in the new call centre with Kheerat. Well, that can only go one of three ways, can’t it? Positively, she could crack and open up to him about the abuse she suffers at home or negatively, she could suffer even more abuse when she gets home or of course there is always the third option which is a bit of both. We’ll see.

However, the big shock of Tuesday’s episode was when Michaela confessed that Tony didn’t leave her – she took Leo away from him when she discovered that he was abusing Whitney. She knew and she did nothing. She left him and kept her son safe but she did nothing to protect the vulnerable young girl that she was aware was in danger.

The girls went out for lunch time drinks for Sheree’s birthday, sending Linda to an AA meeting. The poor lamb has already changed locations so she doesn’t run into Stuart but who should show up to this one but Phil? She politely asked him to not come to the meeting she is attending but he turned her down flat, basically telling her that if she’s going to recover, she has to be able to deal with talking about her addiction in front of people she knows; she can’t control who walks through the door. Fair point.

While she told her family that she needs to find a new meeting, Shirley pointed out that she could do a lot worse than learning from someone who has successfully stayed sober for so many years (more or less). Also a fair point. When Phil wanted to buy the pub for himself and Sharon, Linda objected but Phil was certain that she was using his presence at meetings as an excuse. He then sat down with her at home, prepared to actually to talk to her about his own battle with addiction to try and help her with hers. I haven’t never been a Phil Mitchell fan but I do like this ‘nice Phil’ we’ve had over the past year or so.

While the girls enjoyed their drinks, Patrick and Isaac went for a drink themselves where Patrick accidently hinted that he is indeed Isaac’s father. While Isaac went off to confront his mother and Denise demanded answers from Patrick, I found myself wondering if anyone actually cares?

Callum passed his police exam/interview thing (I’ve lost track – it’s taking ever such a long time) and celebrated by telling Lola. Presumably his boyfriend doesn’t really care. She responded by confessing to have slept with Peter who is suddenly very pally-pally with Jay.

Speaking of Peter, things are getting a little awkward now that he clearly likes Dotty and his little brother, Bobby, with whom there is no love lost, also has a crush on her. Poor Bobby got all dressed up for Vinny and Dotty’s club night at Ruby’s but Dotty clearly only sees him as a friend. When she refused to sell him drugs, he got hold of some himself, collapsing in the middle of the dance floor. Oh, Bobby, didn’t you learn last time?

Due to the Coronavirus, Eastenders has had to suspend filming

It will air from now on only on Mondays (8pm) and Tuesdays (7:30pm) on BBC1

Hollyoaks: Under Pressure

(Monday 27th & Tuesday 28th April 2020)

Celeste springs into action when Toby confesses that he attacked Felix. The pair of them head to the hospital where Mitchell admits that it might be a blessing if he never woke up. He expresses his upset that he wasn’t even worth selling and that although she kept him, his mother didn’t actually bother to raise him, swanning off to become a flight attendant and leaving him to be raised by his grandfather. Unfortunately, this speech gives Celeste an in to turn the heat for the attack on Mitchell when she speaks to the police. I would usually say here something like, what a witch, had it not been for an earlier scene between her and Toby when you can clearly see how desperately worried she is about her brother and how much they have been through together. Her need to protect him far outweighs any concern she has for anyone else. Framing Mitchell isn’t okay but you can kind of understand it. Plus I’m not that fussed on Mitchell anyway.

When Scott is called in for questioning, he loyally provides his boyfriend with a false alibi and Mitchell is released. However, all is not well on the romance front as Scott admits that he doesn’t know if Mitchell is telling him the truth. He is clearly haunted by the violence he has witnessed from him in the past. Are Scott and Mitchell in big trouble?

Mitchell and Scott could be at breaking point… again.
(photo credit: Digital Spy)

Meanwhile, Martine makes it clear to Toby that she knows he was the real culprit and he promises that he would have drawn the line at allowing Mitchell to take the blame. I’m not sure I believe him. Felix also recovers with the same rapidity as Phil Mitchell recovered from his drug addiction that time. At the beginning of the episode, he was still unconscious, after the adverts, he was being discharged. That Misbah must be a miracle worker. God bless the NHS indeed.

Sami joins forces with Verity and James at the law firm – what a shocker! The plan is to take over the salon premises, which Courtney agrees to on the promise that they take on Maxine as a member of staff. Verity agrees. Then she asks who Maxine is.

Sally and Matthew do some random meddling in John Paul’s love life and set the wheels in motion for a potential romance with PC Kiss. I don’t think I even noticed them meeting each other. I am also thrilled that when he first arrived, everyone assumed he would be breaking the ladies’ hearts and now it turns out he is gay. Excellent! However, my big question is, does this mean the lovely policeman’s days are numbered? We saw on the flashforward that John Paul was distraught over a dead body. PC Kiss is clearly going to be involved in bringing down the drug gang. Will he lose his life in the process, breaking John Paul’s heart yet again?

Due to the Coronavirus, Hollyoaks has had to suspend filming

Hollyoaks will now air Mondays and Tuesdays at 6:30pm on Channel 4 with a sneak peek on E4 at 7pm

These reviews are based on the E4 episodes

In place of normal episodes, Hollyoaks will air ‘Hollyoaks Favourites’, Wednesdays-Fridays, 7pm on E4

Emmerdale: Drink From the Welly!

(Monday 6^th – Friday 22^nd April 2020)

The thing with Emmerdale at the moment is that parts of it are excellent and parts of it are really dragging and where we are understandably only getting three episodes a week at the moment, the dragging parts are going to be dragging for a long time. However, the fantastic parts, are really shining so hooray for that.

Charity causes a commotion at the hospital…

For example, Charity and Vanessa’s story is so incredibly engaging. My heart is breaking for them both. I am desperate for Vanessa to get well and I am desperate for their relationship to survive. Things get pretty awkward on Vanessa’s chemo day when she has to go alone and Kerry, who turns out to be a hospital volunteer, comes to sit with her. There are some fantastic scenes between them and you can’t help but love Kerry who remains by Vanessa’s side despite her being horrible to her, not wanting her to be by herself. By the end, even Vanessa is grateful that she stayed. I love that Kerry has clearly turned her guilt over Frank’s death into something positive by volunteering at the hospital and also not shouted about it. It’s just something she does quietly, trying to make amends any way she can. Unfortunately, Charity barges in and lays into Kerry, causing a terrible scene, upsetting Vanessa, the other patients and the staff.

The next episode shows some heartbreaking scenes where Vanessa decides to rebel, dragging Rhona out for drinks for her birthday, trying to recapture their youth. She gets into an argument with some arrogant student and ends up going viral by pouring a pint over his head. In another situation, it would be hilarious but the whole time, you can just see how broken Vanessa is and you’re just terribly worried that something bad is going to happen to her.

Charity is livid when she comes home utterly wasted but when they make up the next day, things go quickly wrong again as Vanessa senses hesitation when she asks Charity to look after Johnny if the worst happens. I mean, it seems a silly argument to me. They were about to get married, for goodness sake! Why wouldn’t Charity have expected to look after Johnny is something ever happened to Vanessa? It’s just so sad that at this awful time, they can’t seem to pull together.

Vanessa and Charity are in crisis… #Vanity

A fabulous moment came when Sam and Lydia finally got married. The girls had a somewhat raucous hen night, resulting in Mandy and Lydia ending up in the middle of nowhere (Lydia found her way to safety, Mandy ended up getting picked up by her ex in a very convenient plot device). But eventually, Sam and Lydia tied the knot in a lovely ceremony. They had a fabulous party in The Woolpack afterwards where both Lydia and Vinny were welcomed into the Dingle Family by the traditional means: drink from the welly!

However, all this murky gangster stuff with Will, Cain, Billy and DI Malone is so boring. I’m not sure I’m even following it properly anymore. Burnt out cars in the middle of the village, false arrests, all the coppers under this guy’s control, soldering drugs into cars… come on. It’s all a bit far-fetched, isn’t it? It’s turning into an episode of Mad Dogs (or something a little more up to date and trendy).

Another disappointing moment over the last few weeks has been Jamie Tate’s personality transplant. He joined the show as such a moral character, in complete contrast to his wicked mother. Now, he has strung both Andrea and Belle along, settled on Andrea, sacked Belle and now he has taken up with Belle again behind Andrea’s back. It completely goes against the character he started out as. For once, it would just be nice if a good person in the Village could stay good!

Due to the Coronavirus, Emmerdale have had to suspend filming

Emmerdale will now air on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays on ITV1 at 7pm

Doctors: Coming Out

(Monday 20^th – Friday 24^th April 2020)

I love Doctors. I always feel that because it’s a daytime soap, it’s rather underrated when actually, it’s probably one of the best. It covers a huge range of subjects, some of them very tough, which must not be easy in its timeslot. It’s also very quirky and is often extremely creative in its storytelling. If you’ve never watched Doctors, I highly recommend it. I started watching it by accident some years ago and now I absolutely never miss it. It’s clever, it’s thought provoking, it’s funny, creative and it uses its platform with a genuine sense of responsibility.

A great example of this platform came this past week during Emma’s radio interview to discuss LGBTQ+ issues and advice. At first, she was very reluctant to get personal but when one particular caller phoned in and told her that he had been attacked, Emma finally opened up about the attack on her and Jasmine. It was such a genuinely emotional moment that my Mum phoned me to talk about it afterwards! Emma was so brave and so was the caller. The whole storyline has been so powerful, from crafting a lovely relationship, to the awful attack, to how Emma and Jasmine reacted in such different ways, to beautiful friendship from Zara and now Emma’s bravery to come out about what happened to her.

Meanwhile, Ruhma’s mood plummets further when she goes to see the most useless advocate ever to discuss her case. I mean, the woman is just completely unhelpful. What is the actual point of her? Also, they break for lunch and yet she opts to bring her lunch back and eat it in front of Ruhma who is fasting for Ramadan. I think Ruhma needs someone else to fight for her…

Speaking of Ramadan, Joe’s new friend turns out not to be imaginary at all. He’s a lovely little boy called Ozzy who is fasting for the first time this year. Besotted with his new mate, Joe decided that he too wants to fast, throwing Zara and Daniel into a bit of a spin. Of course, Zara being Zara decided to ruin Joe’s fast by tempting him with donuts – which Ozzy ate, ruining his fast instead. I mean, why? Why give Joe donuts when his friend was there? That’s just irresponsible. I mean, what mother would give their kid a treat and not their visiting friend anyway? That’s just mean. But now she has ruined Ozzy’s fast on day one and also ruined her blossoming friendship with his mother. Oh, Zara…

Thursday last week was one of those very odd Doctors episodes. We started with a drunk couple, hooking up after a night out and heading back to her place. Then they heard an intruder upstairs. Calling the police, they knocked the guy out. And who was it? None other than Bear Sylvester, Business Manager of The Mill! And this is what is brilliant about this show. It can be so incredibly random and make you sit and work out for an entire episode what on earth is going on. Bear was of course innocent after all (although I still don’t trust him) but it led to quite the sad story as the episode played out.

Then, the next day, there was a saga about chairs and Sid had to remove splinters from Karen’s bottom. Yes, really.

Next week, despite Doctors ceasing filming due to the Coronavirus, the show does appear to still be airing every weekday on BBC1 at 1:45pm

Coronation Street: Behind Closed Doors

(Friday 17^th – Friday 24^th April 2020)

It’s great to see the younger cast taking centre stage in Corrie right now and Tanisha Gorey, is showing what she is made of as she portrays Asha, caught up in the most terrible ordeal of having posed nude during a video call with her boyfriend, not realising he was recording the call. Now, her spiteful friend, Kelly has spread the video around and within moments, it has found its way onto a dodgy porn site and Asha’s image has become global. Such is the power of the Internet.

Asha’s world has come crashing down around her…

It’s such a hideous but important storyline, hopefully showing kids (and adults) the awful dangers of this kind of thing. As her brother tells her, nothing is private. It’s so hard to see how broken she is. It’s lovely to see her protective her best friend, Amy is. There’s a wonderful scene between David and Dev as David is faced with telling him about the video, having found it on his son’s phone. You cannot help but feel for Dev as he charges through so many different emotions but overwhelmingly, all he wants to do is protect his daughter.

Across the street, Yasmeen is an utterly broken woman. Last Friday’s episode was one of the worst in a different way to other episodes. Geoff seems to have beaten her down to a point that she is now the shadow of her former self. And without Alya, she really is cut off from the rest of the world.

An argument with Cathy left Yasmeen more trapped than ever…

Hope arrived in the form of Cathy but while Geoff was overly nice to her, Yasmeen ended up losing her temper and pushed her away, possibly severing their friendship. I am so worried that Geoff has full control of Yasmeen now. All I can cling to is that she does have that bag locked away in the cupboard and that he hasn’t looked at the camera footage and doesn’t know it’s there. She has also reached out the police already. Please muster the strength to leave him, Yasmeen! I know you can!

In other news… Leanne and Steve continued to argue over their son; Johnny ran away from his new B&B guest, taking Jenny to France and leaving Carla and Peter in charge of The Rovers; Ken won the election at Stillwaters, handed it over to Norris, broke up with Claudia and moved back to The Street!