Eastenders: The Curse of Queen Victoria

(Monday 10^th – Friday 14^th February 2020)

Callum’s day go drastically wrong when Keanu shows up and abducts him! Poor Callum. See, this is why Ben warned you to stay away from him… Keanu then tracks Ben down and informs him that he wants £100,000 or Callum is dead. Honestly, I don’t know how these soap characters ever expect (or manage) to get hold of these kind of sums or money. It’s just unreasonable. Set your sights a bit lower, mate.

Anyway, Ben spends most of the episode fart arsing around really. He’s certainly not in much of a hurry. He mostly looks after poorly Lexi and looks a bit tense. Oh and he has a go at Martin for not actually committing murder when surely the fact that Keanu is indeed alive would solve most of his problems. Phil could return from exile and Louise would have a father for her child, to name a few. Martin then warns Karen to tell Keanu to back off his stupid idea when she gets hold of him. Phil returns to help Ben so I’m sure this will end marvellously.

Keanu meanwhile, is keen to run off with Sharon and start a whole new life with her and the baby. She manages to talk Denny round. However, she makes a big mistake by lying to him that Phil and Ben did indeed kill Keanu. I mean, they meant to kill him. They fully intended to kill him. But they didn’t do it. And she knows that. And if they do run off together, presumably with Denny, even he’s not dumb enough not to work that out so he’ll kick off yet again when he realises she lied to him while they were making up. For once, he might actually be justified for being an absolute brat. Honestly, he didn’t get any of his lovely Dad’s genes. RIP Dennis Rickman.

Mick and Linda put on a united front for the social worker but still Linda can’t get through it without a few swing of alcohol. She gets the wrong end of the stick when she spots Mick and the social worker talking at the bottom of the stairs and doesn’t believe Mick when he tries to explain. The truth is that he was reassuring her that Linda has never been unsafe with Ollie, which is of course a lie. Unsatisfied, Linda tracks the social worker down and attempts to explain herself, revealing the whole story of Ollie going up on the roof. Mick is absolutely furious. Not only has she revealed herself to be an unfit parent, she has also shown him up to be untrustworthy.

Linda announces the end of her marriage…

Linda takes things further by drunkenly berating Mick in front of the whole pub. Everyone is uncomfortable when she tells them that the Mick they all love didn’t protect her from being raped by Dean or protect Tina from Stuart. She then lays into him about having panic attacks. He manages to get in there first when she is about to announce that they are getting divorced. The moment gets even worse when she falls face first on the floor. Mick doesn’t help her up. He is disappointed the next day to realise that Linda has already sought legal advice from Gray, before she even handed him divorce papers. He goes home and sadly signs away his marriage, unable to change his wife’s mind.

Mo tells Daniel off for being so grumpy with Jean who is doing her best to look after him since he has been told that time is running out. He then buys Mo’s entire Valentine’s stock in a bid to make things up to Jean, wanting them to enjoy the time they have left together. Suki continues to try and gleam as much information as possible from Jean about living with cancer.

Still hurt over her parents’ lies, Bex decides to get a job and move in with Ash, Iqra, Habiba and Bobby. She doesn’t manage the job part but she does move out and she’s welcomed into the open arms of her friends. Bobby tries to enjoy a social life with his friends but they awkwardly alert him to some trolling online. That night, Dotty offers drugs to him and Bex. After his previous experience, he turns her down but Bex goes for it and even wants some more the next day. Not a good idea! Kathy alerts Ian to the online trolling of his son but Bobby doesn’t want his help.

Leo continues to spy on Whitney from the loft. He watches a heart to heart between Whitney and Kush as she reveals that she kept a letter that Tony sent her shortly before he died. Whitney lets Sonia down about the trip away, not feeling it would be right to go and enjoy herself when she has let Kat and Kush down so badly. She does however, go and make things right with Kat. While the house is empty, Leo ransacks the place looking for Tony’s letter. Whitney is shaken to find that someone has been in the house. The police follow protocol but Kat insists that it’s obvious who is behind the robbery. It’s confirmed when Whitney discovers that Tony’s letter is missing.

Things come to a head the next day when Leo confronts Whitney alone in the house with a knife. Trapped, with no exit, Whitney desperately tries to get away from him but things become physical and Leo hits his head. He slips on some spilled water, landing on top of Whitney, the knife between them, the blade stabbing him. Ding dong, Leo’s dead.

Eastenders is on BBC1 on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays (7:30pm/8:00pm)

Doctors: Bring Your Own Bun

(Monday 3^rd – Friday 7^th February 2020)

It’s a very issue led week in Doctors this week with some big stand-alone episodes that are all particularly interesting. We have chronic illness, redemption for prisoners, post-partem psychosis. Different characters take centre stage in each episode such as Ayesha, Al, Daniel Ruhma and Rob.

Ayesha begins her Chronic Illness coffee morning (BYOB), which proves to be a big hit. I’m pretty sure a lot of people with chronic conditions who tune into Doctors wish their own surgeries ran like The Mill, myself included! Anyway, there’s drama galore when Ayesha discovers one of the ‘patients’ in the group is actually a fake. He spends his time at various groups, picking up women who are vulnerable and therefore he feels confident in talking to them. Unfortunately, in Ayesha’s group, a couple of his ‘girlfriends’ come face to face and obviously are not very happy when the truth comes out.

Al takes it upon himself to cure Bear of his fear of blood but ends up making him extremely unwell. He earns himself a telling off from Emma as he utterly traumatises Bear. At the end of the working day, he frightens Bear so much that he faints, knocking Al out in the process. But when Bear comes to and finds Al injured, his Manager/rescuer mode takes over, despite the blood and rushes Al to the hospital. He is extremely grateful and of course Al takes credit for the cure!

There’s a moment of jealousy when Daniel spots Zara (who has become extremely patronising every single time she opens her mouth at the moment – have you noticed?) complimenting Sid. However, he takes her to lunch and tells her that he forgives her for everything, he’s learning to forgive himself and he thinks she needs to forgive herself too. She accepts what he says but finds the whole thing awkward and uncomfortable, as do we.

There’s an interesting episode completely set in the prison, although nothing to do with Jimmi. I suppose there are limited scenes they can film with him just sitting there looking miserable. This time, Daniel spends the evening attending a dinner completely run by the prisoners, as they attempt to open a restaurant within the prison. Daniel dines with the grumpiest, least compassionate pastor ever. She has no faith in the redemption of any of the prisoners and is convinced they will fail. She seems to actually want them to fail. Comments from her actually lead to tensions exploding in the kitchen and the chef burns his hand. Daniel helps to sort things out and the chaplain unexpectedly mends her ways, helping the men out while Daniel fixes the chef’s hand.

Rob is on a stakeout for a drug raid and spots a couple of lads from the talk he did recently. He bumps into one of them who turns out to be completely innocent and oblivious to what is going on. Dragging him into the room he is spying from, he manages to keep him safe while he and his team bring the other lad and the other drug dealers down.

Ruhma is under pressure when one of her new Mums becomes convinced that she was given the wrong baby to take home. It’s not completely impossible as she had the same name as the woman in the bed next to her. However, Ruhma investigates and they didn’t give birth at the same time and one had gone before the other had even gone into labour. However, Ashley is convinced, to the point that she tracks the other woman down at her home and attempts to take her baby. Ruhma and the woman’s husband race to the house to stop her and I have to say, the woman whose baby is nearly stolen must be a saint or something. Ruhma explains that Ashley is suffering from postnatal psychosis and it’s causing delusions. She is perfectly within her rights to call the police but she doesn’t. She is so kind to her and so understanding. It’s a genuinely lovely moment.

Meanwhile, Al is horrified when Zara dismisses a school invitation to a course on protecting children online. Zara and Daniel are certain that their parental controls are enough but Al thinks they are being very ignorant. And typically, that night, while Daniel is right there in the house with him, Joe starts talking to a random ‘girl’ online and invites her to his birthday party. He even gives her his address.

Doctors is on BBC1, weekdays at 1:45pm

Doctors: The Search for Truth

(Monday 20^th – Friday 24^th 2020)

Jimmi is struggling in the wake of the death of the inmate he so desperately tried to save last week. He is then told by Al that he is struggling to keep The Icon going. On top of that, he is landed with a new, less friendly cellmate. Not a great start to the week. His problems get worse when Rob comes to visit him, making him even more of a target for his bully cellmate.

Emma and Rob team up to figure out just who might have a grudge against Jimmi and want to set him up. They receive a call from Jimmi himself who tells them more about his childhood and confesses that he assaulted his Dad the last time he saw him. Could that be enough of a motive? They are also intrigued as to whether the mugging last year is connected to this. Well, it did seem a bit random and they didn’t revisit it so quite possibly. But Bear is not yet on the list and I remain convinced that he has something to do with all of this… He’s acting shadier and shadier by the day. However, he has problems of his own when a disgruntled woman causes mayhem in the waiting room!

Jimmi takes matters into his own hands by meeting up with his father who is shocked to find him in prison. He was on holiday at the time of his arrest, which checks out with Rob and denies having anything to do with setting him up. He is deeply unkind to Jimmi and still denies child abuse. Jimmi meanwhile, is struggling with other prisoners needing him to be their Doctor and his vile cellmate harassing him and getting off his face on spice each day. Life behind bars is getting harder as each day passes and he is beginning to lose hope. Feeling like he has no options left, Jimmi turns to spice to get him through. An inmate he refused to help gets badly assaulted, although by this point, I think he has actually stopped caring.

Valerie meets up with Rabbi David to learn more about her ‘Jewish Heritage’ and I am possibly about to eat the words from my previous blog about it being an annoying, daft Valerie storyline as it looks like there a genuine spark between them. And I am all for Valerie finding some love in her life! They even meet up a second time and go for lunch where they continue to bond. But alas, Valerie and I both have our hearts broken when David decides it’s too soon after the breakdown of his marriage to start another relationship and he doesn’t want to hurt her (or me, of course) by making false promises. I really do hope they return to this storyline at some point. There was a genuine connection here.

Ruhma decides to learn BSL after struggling to communicate with a deaf patient in labour the previous week and also being that she too is losing her hearing. After a misunderstanding, Zara decides to join her on the course. This could be a potential disaster or a new friendship. The first lesson doesn’t get off to a great start for their friendship though when the teacher points Ruhma out as a gifted student, putting Zara’s nose right out of joint!

I don’t often report the ‘side stories’ but I liked this one: Rob teams up with a junior police officer who is intent on solving a spate of burglaries on a particular estate. She shows a particular interest in a known criminal who has been recently released from prison and is dating a young, single mother who she is also particularly interested in. Rob digs a little deeper and the police officer admits that the young woman, Paige is actually her daughter, who she gave up when she was a baby. She eventually admits it to Paige herself and the pair begin to bond.

Doctors is on BBC1, weekdays at 1:45pm