Yahoo News EastEnders has axed the wrong characters
No-one likes it when their favourite character leaves a soap, but there have been so many departures from EastEnders recently that Walford is starting to resemble Heathrow Airport. And with so many of the characters leaving Albert Square seeming to be under the age of 30, has the soap made a mistake axing the next generation of cast members?
There's always a huge cast shake-up any time a new producer joins a soap, but even legacy characters like Ben Mitchell weren't safe from John Yorke's axe when he rejoined the show at the end of last year.
Lauren and Abi Branning were also given their marching orders from Walford, but with their departures coming soon after the likes of Paul Coker, Lola Pearce and Cindy Williams, will EastEnders regret getting rid of the younger members of the cast?
Ben's exit (which even sparked a petition for him to be reinstated) has left everyone a bit baffled to say the least. There was all that build-up about his departure – added to the fact that he's a Mitchell, so he was bound to have a good send off, right? Um, wrong. After all that, he just disappeared off a ferry with a suitcase full of old copies of the Walford Gazette.
Did Ciara catch up with him? Is he dead? Or did he escape and is he now enjoying a life of mussels and chips somewhere in France? Who knows. But wasn't his exit something of a waste? EastEnders fans certainly thought so.
With Abi and Lauren also going – another two stalwarts of the younger EastEnders generation – it seems that the likes of Whitney and Jay had better have their wits about them if they want to stay in a job. Even the Beale household, which was once brimming with bright young things, now just has Ian and Kathy kicking about since Ben Hardy quit as Peter, and Lucy and Steven were written out.
The younger half of the Carter clan are also suffering something of a demise. First Nancy went off around the world with Tamwar Masood, only for Lee to leave Albert Square less than a year later.
It's also been announced that Ted Reilly will be leaving his role as Johnny Carter early this year – poor Mick and Linda must be wondering if it was something they said. Ted's departure has been reported as being his decision, but still a loss to the show nonetheless – especially as his exit means there will be no gay male characters left in Walford.
Even Ronnie and Roxy's deaths early last year seemed to be a bit brutal. There's no doubt that the sisters had lost a little of that spark that they arrived in Walford with back in 2007, but was killing the pair off something that EastEnders' writers are likely to live to regret? Characters like that don't come round very often – something tells us such a permanent exit for the siblings might come back to haunt EastEnders.
While John Yorke might not be afraid to use his powers to cull cast, it has to be said that he's also reintroducing a lot of characters – the likes of Masood, Mel Owen, Kat, Big Mo and Jean Slater coming back is his doing.
He also signed up Patrick Bergin as Aidan Maguire, Hannah Spearritt as Kandice Taylor, and brought in Masood's aunt and uncle – Arshad and Mariam Ahmed. But apart from Tiffany Butcher (okay, and Mel's son Hunter Owen, we'll give him that!) none of those characters can fill the void the recently departed twenty-somethings have left.
So despite the praise for the show getting its mojo back and delivering fantastic Christmas episodes, has EastEnders axed the wrong people? We think so. Without Harry Reid, Jacqueline Jossa, Lorna Fitzgerald and Ted Reilly, who is left to engage with the show's younger viewers? Who will be taking to social media to share behind-the-scenes Instagram posts or tweet about interviews and big episodes? Maybe someone should sign June Brown up to Snapchat.
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Digital Spy Soap Scoop video – hit play below for all the latest EastEnders spoilers, as Stacey returns to the Square, and the Carters could be about to lose the Queen Vic for good.
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