Bye Ravi!

So it's bye bye Ravi. Ravi was a hard guy not to like. But his best bits were his scenes with Diane Parish aka Denise Fox as they had great chemistry. After he was voted out of those scenes by the British public by a live vote, there was little left for him in terms of storylines. They typically write a looney storyline for characters that have nothing else left, and there's no way but to exit after that. (Look how they ruined Stacey Slater after the best storylines the show ever had. An absolute master class. But then they made her bi-polar and it all went pear shaped after that.)

Linda Carter is leaving too. But Linda, as lovely as she seems, is not an EastEnders icon and never managed to reach those lofty heights. She should have done what Shirley did and bowed out gracefully with Mick's exit. I take that back. She should have left instead of Shirley, because Shirley did reach iconic heights. And Mick was a legend. There was nowhere else for her to go after they removed her from the pub into that crazy B&B set that is more unbelievable than what the writers are currently producing.

Image via Wiki Commons Kelvin 101, CC BY-SA 4.0

But recently it has been one disaster after another and what I don't understand is that you almost have a complete classic cast to work with, yet the story lines have been banal at best. You've got Sharon back, Stacey, who recently took a break, Phil, Jack, Kat, Alfie (who has lost his mojo now), with Big Mo, Jean and Zoe rounding up the classic Slater family. You've got Jack and Denise. Ian and let's not forget Queen Kathy! Cindy, Max, the original teen Peter and Lauren. Billy and Honey. (But you give us characters like Bea Pollard?) You've even still got Tracey and Winston. Yet under the current guidance of Ben Wadey, it's laughable tripe. Just no to newborn producers that don't have a grasp of the history of the show.

Some of the best classic actors Phil, Max, Kathy, Sharon etc. right under your nose and you can't write a story to make use of their talents. I used to sit on the edge of my seat in anticipation, now I just do other things and use EastEnders as white background noise.

My fear is that Ben and his current writers (and yes, they are to blame), will grind this show so far into the ground that they will start to lose their real talent. That's not the way to go out after 40 years. We need a previous director to step in and clean up the damage. Bring back your strong writers, that would be the first step. Go back to your roots and write about real life, and fun stuff, like when Charlie Slater was rushed to the hospital after encountering a giant tarantula in the fruit and veg stall, turning orange in the process. What happened to the good old days?!