Coronation Street
Tim is in trouble with Sally for agreeing to work over New Year’s Eve so Steve lies to Tracy in order to take on his shift. Tracy, who is desperate to go to an Evanescence gig (who knew Amy was conceived to ‘Bring Me to Life’?) in a bid to escape the horror of everything that has happened recently with Derek’s rampage and Robert’s death, is bitterly disappointed. She is also extremely upset when she catches Steve out in his lie. Tracy ends up spending the evening getting drunk with Paula, who Amy is doing work experience with, in the pub instead and it turns out that the women have a connection they didn’t expect. They lament over their broken relationships – Steve has let Tracy down and Sophie has gone off with a backpacker.
Tracy is shocked to wake up in bed with Paula on New Year’s Day and instantly regrets cheating on Steve, although Paula seems to find the whole thing amusing. Well, it is a bit funny, especially the scene where Tracy is running around looking for her pants and Paula remarks that the previous night, Tracy was showing off about how during her prison days, she had ‘bedded more women than Madonna’! And of course, during all of this, Amy pops round to give Paula some files and although Tracy hides, Amy knows that Paula has pulled.
When Tracy makes it home, Steve tries to make things up to his wife but Amy is mostly curious that her mother is wearing the same clothes from the night before and has brought home the wrong coat. Tracy also lets slip that she knows Amy went to Paula’s that morning. She meets Paula later to swap coats but things soon escalate into a row, Tracy claiming Paula took advantage of her and Paula insisting that Tracy initiated the whole thing. When their argument spills out onto the Street in front of Amy, it doesn’t take long for the kid to work out what has happened. She is horrified by her mother for cheating on her father, although Tracy tries to explain how hurt she has been feeling lately. Oblivious Steve buys Tracy a cat, still trying to make things up to her. Amy agrees to stay quiet but also decides to move out, citing Tracy ending her work experience with Paula due to apparent homophobia as the reason. Tracy is horrified and quickly denies it, nearly dropping herself in it with Steve and the couple have no choice but to let their daughter leave home.
Izzy bumps into Derek’s widow and is shocked to learn all about the trouble he was in, owing money to loan shark, Gary, prompting her to confront him in the pub in front of everyone. With no options left, Gary admits more or less everything to Maria, although he leaves out the part where he murdered Rick and buried him in the woods. Maria is horrified, holding him responsible for both the roof collapse and the events of Christmas Day and therefore Robert, Rana and Derek’s deaths. In a bid to fight his corner, Gary tells Maria about Ali’s drug addiction. When Maria witnesses a man begging Gary for money and Gary insisting that he is out of the business but then taking pity on him and giving him an item from the shop instead, telling him how much Maria means to him, the muppet forgives him and pledges her commitment to him. As if that whole thing wasn’t set up! But gullible Maria falls for it and then outs Ali for his addiction in the pub. Gary evicts Nick and Sarah from the factory building and changes the locks until they pay the full rent. Adam proposes to Sarah properly and in public. Gary is not impressed. Because not only is Gary lying to Maria about his criminality, he’s also using her to get over Sarah as well. You’d think with Maria’s history, she would have learnt a thing or two about bad men…
Ryan quits his job at the Bistro but Bethany and Faye are keen to impress their new boss, Ray. Abi just cannot get things right when it comes to starting off a relationship with Kevin and ends up getting it on with Ray. David remains by Shona’s bedside as she remains in a coma but eventually agrees to give evidence at Josh’s trial. He tells the court of his rape ordeal but escapes the stand as soon as possible, explaining that he needs to be with his wife. Hope accuses Ruby of hurting her arm but while her parents ignore her, Jade takes her to the hospital (via John Stape’s grave) for an x-ray as soon as possible. When she gets there, Fiz explains that she fell off a bench but Hope has already mentioned that she slammed her arm in a door. Now she has a very small fracture. I wonder if Jade is friends with Leo from Eastenders. I mean, they basically have the same storyline…
Doctors
Doctors is on its Christmas Holidays!
Eastenders
When Gray and Chantelle set off on their ‘honeymoon’ Karen is left to look after the house in their absence. Of course, the first thing she does is arrange a New Year’s Eve party to distract her from her fears for Keanu.
Linda promises Mick that she will stay sober but continues to lie about her whereabouts on Christmas Day and ignore calls from an unknown number. Clearly haunted by the events of Christmas Day, Linda escapes to Karen’s party in what is an absolutely fantastic episode (New Year’s Eve). A huge round of applause to Kellie Bright for leading the entire episode! Amazing! We follow Linda as she arrives at the party sober but Karen’s trauma over Keanu pushes her into drinking more and more. We see her partying with Kat and Denise. We see her comforting Honey, insulting her and then warning Billy that she isn’t happy (Honey and Billy have been caught kissing and of course, Honey is battling an eating disorder and has broken up with vile Adam). We see her locking herself in the bathroom, hiding from Mick. We see her arguing with Shirley. We see her losing time. We also see her trying to contact Martin, suggesting that she was definitely involved with Keanu. She has a horrible row with Sharon but she’s so drunk she can barely keep up with her own side.
It really was interesting to see her so drunk, knowing she has a drink problem, alongside characters who were equally drunk but who don’t have a drink problem and how you perceive the same actions but in different ways. It was clever to include the time lapses she has and to make us as viewers experience the confusion about conversations she can’t remember, making us try to keep up when we has the same fractured information that she does. It’s a very cleverly written episode and it’s brilliantly executed.
So, speaking of execution, on New Year’s Day, we have another great episode that finally fills in the blanks of Christmas Day. For starters, Martin drives Keanu down to an old warehouse in order to kill him. Of course, he struggles to do it. There’s a rather nasty fight – a little too nasty, actually, for 8pm. Poor, drunk Linda has fallen asleep in Martin’s van and the gunshots wake her. After much debate, Linda comes up with the idea that they fake Keanu’s death by shooting him in the shoulder and filming him on the floor, covered in blood as if he was dead. It doesn’t exactly go to plan. For starters, Linda shoots him in the shoulder before they’ve even got the camera out! But they manage it and off he goes, Linda and Martin promising never to speak of it again. Martin burns all of Keanu’s things, crying his eyes out.
Meanwhile, back on the Square, Daniel returns and helps the Panesar Brothers put the Slaters electricity back on. He also negotiates to pay the rent top up for them and decides to take the risk of revealing the truth to Jean that he is actually alive. They argue at first but then admit that they love each other and decide to spend the rest of Daniel’s life together.
We also discover who attempted to steal money from Dot. It was Sonia! Can you even believe that? I assume she did it because she is besotted with Martin and she was trying to help him. But in the Christmas Day flashback (on New Year’s Day), she decided to prove that it was some hacker in Russia but phoning the bank with the landline plug pulled out. Again though, there was a flaw in the plan, just like the idea of murdering someone to correct an accidental hit and run: Christmas Day is a BANK Holiday. She would be extremely unlikely to have been able to call them. They would very likely have been closed. And nobody, including the girl who should have been an Oxford student by now, was capable of figuring that out.
And as everyone already knew, this Isaac bloke that Sheree was talking to on the phone was her son. So what’s the big deal? Why didn’t she just tell Denise that instead of walking out on Patrick? Why does it matter if she has a son? Is it going to be an interesting reveal or something utterly boring? Time will tell, I suppose…
I have to say that although Coronation Street won Christmas for me, Eastenders were definitely on top when it came to strolling into 2020. Definitely. Emmerdale have yet to up their game. They haven’t been on top for a while.
Linda wakes up feeling absolutely shocking on New Year’s Day with no memory of throwing Sharon out at 3am or of the awful things she said to her husband, including that if he had been a real man, he would have sorted out Dean after what he had done to her. She also doesn’t remember physically attacking him. It’s a difficult day as Linda recovers and pledges to do dry January and rebuild her life and her relationship with Mick, who has to spend the day apologising to everyone she offended the night before.
Ian stands up to Ben who is absolutely livid to learn that he has taken in Sharon who has nowhere else to go. And when he sees just how broken Karen is over Keanu and also discovers that she knew all along about the affair but kept it secret, Martin tells her the truth – her son is alive but makes her swear to never tell. When she still cannot cope with the loss of her boy, Martin takes pity on her again and takes her to the airport for one final goodbye with Keanu before he sets off for a new life with a new identity far away from any Mitchells that want to kill him. Maybe. I mean, it depends on how long Danny Walters has left on his contract.
Ash is horrified to discover that her brothers are moving into Adam and Honey’s old flat. Iqra attempts to help Ash build bridges with her brothers but it all backfires when she discovers what Kheerat in particular is really like. Not only does he dislike Ash for being bisexual and now in a relationship with a woman, he is horrified to realise that Iqra is a Muslim when they are a Sikh family. Well, I take back what I said about him last week then… It’s a shame really because he’s the only one of the three that isn’t irritating.
Emmerdale
David and Jacob, as well as the rest of the family are struggling to look after the baby as they wait for the DNA results. The results reveal that David is the father. He admits to Victoria and Eric that although he wanted to be the Dad over Jacob for the sake of his son, he doesn’t now know if he can cope with the baby or if he can love it, after all that Maya has done to their family. They name the baby Theo Eric and he begins to come round to the idea of a new son.
Charity brings Noah home from hospital. The family pretend that they have forgotten Ryan’s New Year’s birthday but while Vanessa distracts him and the other organise the party, he and Vanessa end up getting drunk so he is sick by the time he arrives! Vanessa thinks Charity is hot when she’s angry! It seems like their brief breakup did them the world of good…
Jamie is desperate to oust Rhona from the vets and undermines her with her colleagues and friends, revealing her previous plans to up and move away without even telling anyone, including taking Leo away from Marlon and Paddy. Rhona tells Graham she still wants to leave.
Drunken Moira has a go at Wendy in the pub, when it has taken all of Bob’s charm to get her there in the first place. Even Victoria doesn’t object to be being there! Deciding to turn her life around, she arranges a work meeting but the drink starts flowing again and she then has to fight the client off when he hits on her and won’t take no for an answer. She turns to drink once more, falling asleep on the couch, oblivious to Isaac calling for her. It takes Vanessa arriving the day and physically having to shake her before she wakes up. With Moira still over the limit from last night and Isaac seeming to have a chest infection, Vanessa takes the little boy to the Doctors on her behalf. Moira and Chas end up in a huge argument about Moira’s behaviour but Chas finds compassion for her. Nate interrogates Vanessa over why she has Isaac but Vanessa will not be moved. Nate then raises his suspicions about Moira with Cain who bans Moira from seeing the kids until she has sorted herself out. She is quick to blame Nate for stirring the pot. Matty is horrified and embarrassed by his mother’s behaviour. Vengeful, Moira gets into touch with Nate’s mother. Things go wrong when Nate intercepts the meeting, leaving Moira a mess in front of Cain yet again. She turns back to the wine before angrily lobbing a bottle at poor Matty’s head. What a waste of wine!
Victoria goes into labour and Diane and Amy manage to get her to hospital without Wendy noticing. She has the baby and despite some initial anxiety, holds her son for the first time and falls in love with him. She changes her name back to Sugden. Welcome to the world, Harry Sugden.
Luke rescues Aaron when he is thrown out of a bar and when he takes him to the hospital, he spots Diane visiting Victoria, thus discovering that she has had the baby. He therefore tells his mother the news but forces her to hang back and not demand to see her grandson. Victoria brings baby Harry home to the Village but Wendy is heartbroken not to be allowed to meet him properly. She sends a hamper of gifts instead but Luke dissuades her from adding one of Lee’s old teddy bears to it. Aaron avoids spending time with the baby. Chas notices.
Leyla continues to flirt with Liam, who persuades her to help him at the beauty salon when Kerry doesn’t show up. Leyla finally makes her move and kisses him. Gabby gives Liam a Christmas present from Bernice, apparently telling him that Bernice still loves him. However, when Liam confesses all to Bernice, she ends their relationship. To be fair, it was wrong of her to dangle the poor bloke on a shoestring in the first place. She is clearly using the kiss an excuse not to be the bad guy! Anyway, Nicola, Leanna and Gabby are full of pity for Liam when they learn of the breakup. Then they learn of the kiss. In the world’s worst timing, Leyla tells Liam that she has feelings for him but all he wants to do is make things right with the kids.
Kim and Al get it on, only to be caught out by Jai. He also catches Al taking money from the petty cash but Al talks his way out of it. I’m sure all this will lead to a bigger story but I just don’t care enough to pay much attention to it. I don’t care about Al. I don’t care about his money. I don’t care about his shenanigans, either business or pleasure. I just don’t care. It is so, so boring. Harriet worrying about the possible closure of the church is more interesting than this and I can literally only write one sentence about it.
Hollyoaks
Cindy and Leela take Mandy out to cheer her up over her breakup with Darren, having also sent Luke out to talk some sense into Darren. While out, Mandy tells Juliet off for being in a club underage, a decision she will live to regret as vengeful Juliet decides to spike Mandy’s drink with ketamine. With Mandy off her face, Cindy walks her home but she somehow ends up waking up in the middle of the village in a fur coat she doesn’t recognise with absolutely no memory of the events of the night before. Damon fills in some of the blanks but Juliet feels extremely guilty when she discovers what kind of state she put Mandy in by spiking her. Mandy is even more scared when she finds a wad of cash in her bag with a note that says ‘you saw nothing, keep it shut’. We then cut to a flashback of the night before where Mandy accidentally wanders into Toby and Celeste’s flat. They are worried about her seeing something she shouldn’t and let her have the coat she has picked up by accident, hoping she’ll just think she walked into her own flat. Then they bundle her out the door.
Darren also appears to have changed his tune, presumably due to Nancy getting engaged to Kyle and is keen to make things work between him and Mandy. She is reluctant after he, you know, slept with Nancy behind her back and told her their whole relationship was mistake. And now of course she is dealing with a whole night that is missing from her memory.
Juliet also has a rough night on ketamine, as Sid has to drag her home for help from Peri to look after her, where Juliet promptly wets herself. Seriously? Peri ends up in love with this girl?
Breda is acting creepier and weirder than ever as she comes under pressure to move to Portugal with Jack but of course, she has Tony locked away at the pig farm and she has big plans in place for Mercedes. John Paul and Matthew arrive back in Hollyoaks Village only to walk in on Breda hiding her murderous souvenirs under the floorboards. However, the next episode doesn’t carry on directly and we see John Paul curiously about to look under the rug only to be interrupted by Mercedes and Breda preparing to go to Portugal. He tells Sally that it’s all over between himself and Craig, who is now dating a personal trainer.
Meanwhile, Sylver is annoyed that Sally took Bobby to see Mercedes but she explains that the little boy is worried about his mother. He listens and holds an olive branch out to Mercedes. Breda overhears the whole conversation. She leaves a picture Bobby has drawn with a confession written on the back on DS Cohen’s car. The prints on the picture belong to Mercedes.
Jack is frustrated with his son, as are we all but takes pity on him when Darren explains that he has nobody and is terrified that Mandy will throw him out and block access to DJ. Breda is utterly furious and even threatening when Jack has to cancel the trip to look after Darren. She had planned to go forever. Later, Darren is in The Hutch when he is stabbed from behind by Breda, who is then trapped there by unwitting Nancy who has come to end their marriage for good. Now, it’s shocking but we at least know from the Flash Forward episode that Darren survives (even if he was in a rather sorry state) so that’s at least a relief. We’re due for a Hollyoaks Later episode on Monday so it looks like Breda is stepping up her reign of terror for the big climax!
Breda manages to slip out of The Hutch and return to the pub where the McQueens are hosting a second Christmas. This is promptly interrupted by the arrival of the police, ready to ransack the place and arrest poor Mercedes on suspicion of being the serial killer. However, they don’t find Breda’s secret little box, previously hidden under the floorboards as John Paul has already found it and taken it. Is someone onto Nanny Breda at last?
Meanwhile, Nancy and Mandy rush Darren to hospital where thankfully he will be just fine. He and Mandy reunite and Mandy and Nancy become friends again at last. Nancy and Darren sign their divorce papers.
Sienna is uncomfortable around Brody and Liberty. She finally breaks and pretty much tells them she knows the truth and then storms out. When she returns, she gives them the opportunity to tell her the truth but they refuse to take it. I suspect this is a big mistake.
Home and Away
Home and Away is on its Christmas Holidays!
Neighbours
The Rebecchi Family welcome Kirsha home for New Year and then barely even speak to her. No wonder she left in the first place, quite frankly. Toadie receives an email from Piper – a video of Sonya from a year ago, full of her hopes and dreams for the future. Heartbreaking. But lovely to include Sonya in the New Year celebrations. He takes the video as inspiration to be more like Sonya and include her values and ethics in their daily lives, to keep reminding the children of who she really was.
Yasvhi and Hendrix reluctantly attend the New Year’s Eve party together. Jealous over Ned chatting up another girl, Yashvi finally takes the plunge and she and Ned get back together. This is not met happily by Shane, although he doesn’t his best to keep his feelings from his daughter.
David’s infection has almost gone. Yep. Just like that. He was half dead about two days ago. Now he’s sat up and chatting away! But that’s Neighbours for you. With Roxy keeping visiting him, he easily works out that the other successful donor he was told about is her. She feels terrible but he completely understands. Paul does not. Harlow and Paul fall out as she continues to defend Robert and is upset to learn that he was right all along – Paul would never have gone ahead with the deal they made.
Toadie looks after Kyle in the wake of his breakup with Amy. Paul is distraught to learn that Amy is moving to New York. While Kyle refuses to say a proper goodbye to the woman he loves, he looks on from a distance as she bids farewell to her family and friends. Then she heads off with Jimmy and Leo. Well, I think it’s a rubbish end. Fine, she needs to go and look after Jimmy. Give Kyle a reason to stay behind. But did you have to absolutely destroy them like that? Really?
Kyle and Roxy end up getting drunk together and upset over Amy, Kyle hits on Roxy who is hurt that Kyle just assumes that she would be up for it. She rejects him and runs off to seek support from Shane, who she growing rather close to at the moment. Shane is very kind and supportive, backing up that it’s her life and her body to make decisions about. Nobody should ever assume that she is just available because they want her. He reiterates this to Kyle the next day, as does Roxy. Kyle is aghast that Roxy believes he was trying to use her. Which he was. But probably not intentionally. It’s a genuinely interesting story. Roxy has a persona. She dresses a particular way. She has a particular attitude. Mark Brennan used her horribly and completely forgot that she was a real person with real feelings. (Well, not actually a real person, she’s a soap character but you get what I mean!) But just because of Roxy’s style and attitude and just because she may choose to have one night stands or flings, doesn’t mean she should be expected to have them.
Meanwhile, Elly is struggling to settle the baby but Finn seems to have the magic touch and helps her out in the middle of the night. With a house full, including Hendrix crashing on the couch, Finn upgrades his commitment to Bea by moving into her room so Hendrix can have his room. Elly doesn’t look thrilled. When Elly struggles again with baby Aster, Finn returns home to help (only for Elly to literally put the baby down and she goes quiet) but it creates a conveniently charged moment of comfort for Susan to walk in on. Elly then has no choice but to confess to Susan that she has started to have feelings for Finn. You know, that Elly just cannot stop having inappropriate romantic feelings, can she? She may want to see someone about that. I believe David went to the Karl Kennedy School of Medicine and qualified to be a psychiatrist in the course of about a day. Maybe when he’s back on his feet? As for Elly, she slept with boyfriend’s sister. She got pregnant by her stalker’s brother when she was married and then tried to pass the baby off as her husband’s. And now she fancies her stalker again who just so happens to be in a relationship with her sister. And that doesn’t even cover the things she got up to when she used to be called Martha Mackenzie and she lived in Summer Bay…
The Soap Dish 