Oh I agree it can certainly happen in soap, and I think they're just saving it for when Alicia is back on the scene and finds David has taken up with Priya, to create some drama.

First ep. Under the new producer will hopefully be ashley waking up in the morning and laurel coming out of the shower!

From your lips to new producer's ears. That would be great.

I'm a semi-casual viewer of Emmerdale and have watched perhaps two thirds of episodes starting from a few years ago (as I find it's the hardest soap to jump on to of the big three) but even I've been struck by just how weird the whole Laurel/Marlon saga is... and where on Earth is it leading?

There's a comment someone posted earlier on that's gone mostly unnoticed but is actually a very good point - so much has been invested into this storyline that there is actually no way back for the foreseeable future. They've spent a good year building this relationship up and along the way they've cut pretty much all ties both characters had to their friends and families, and the whole thing has resulted in Laurel and Ashley having such a horrendous breakup that it isn't concievable that they'd ever get back together.

The upshot is that after writing themselves into such a narrow corner, there's no other option but to press on now. If they were to give up and split Marlon and Laurel up, it would be an unashamed admission that they messed up, and while I don't think anyone in this thread would mind if that was the case (in fact I think many of us would be grateful if the storyline was immediately halted), even within the show itself there's nothing to be done - they either stay together, exit, or stick around with no current ways back to the status quo.

A good comparison is Ronnie Mitchell and the baby swap saga. People misunderstood why there was such an uproar about it among the hardcore fanbase. It wasn't so much the subject matter - there have been more controversial storylines in the past and that was just hysteria from mostly non-viewers. The real problem was the fact that Eastenders basically gambled everything on it - once it started there was no way back for Ronnie, the clear lead character of the show in 2009/2010 - either the story was a success with the public, or the whole show falls to pieces... which it did. The story had to be cut short because the enormity of the leap of faith the show had taken had overtaken everything and wasn't working. There was no way out for Ronnie but a damp squib of an exit, and the whole thing is a huge and unforgettable misfire.

This story may only be a relationship/affair storyline, but its implications are just as big. The show is visibly investing so much into it character-wise that it's all or nothing... and at the moment, everyone watching is against it.

Bottom line - learn from soap stories of the past and sort it out fast. The head-in-the-sand approach of the cast and crew isn't changing anyone's mind, and the longer it goes on for, the more characters are being pushed past the point of no return.

It's sad, because I'd like to start being a properly regular viewer but there's just no incentive when it's all such a mess. DS tells me loud and clear that what I miss is just more of the same.

Sorry for the essay!

Great post Dr Linus, you've said it all beautifully.

As you say, the tragedy is that every ep takes them further away from any possible character redemption, which is a great pity as most of us had no problems with any of the individual characters involved until 'Maurel' started up. We now despise Maurel to the extent that many of us are now rooting for the father-abusing Ashley, which says a lot really.

I think Corrie is going to have the same problem with Sunita. She has behaved unforgivably and she won't be forgiven by many viewers, so where do they go with her from here?

I don't know if you have all seen this hut it looks like you have all got your wish

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/soaps/s3...-producer.html

EDIT: I see you have.

Fantastic post and I think you have really summed the whole mess up pretty well.

I have said that I'm resigned to Maurel at this point because too much has happened to engineeer it for the writers to abndon it now. I think her relationahip with Ashley has been destroyed and I don't want to see them get back together.

I hope a new producer will offer some damage limitation now, have the characters take some responsibilty for their actions and stop the overt manipulations to try to garner public support, that ship has sailed at this point.

Great post Dr Linus.


No way do I want Ashley and Laurel back together now, no way. She treated him abysmally when he left (even the character even admitted this last week). She was heartless and uncaring as to where Ashley was or how he was. In fact when he was at his very lowest she started talking about divorce. What was the hurry? (I don't think it's been mentioned much since by the way.) Yes Ashley had done a terrible thing but like I said at the time this was supposed to be the man she loved yet she never once (that I recall) asked him the basic question 'why?', never sat down with him to try and get to the bottom of it. She must have known that this behaviour was completely off the wall for Ashley - he couldn't have acted more out of character if they'd had him become a serial rapist FGS! But no, instead she used it as a very convenient excuse to get rid of a man she no longer loved or even cared for. She used it as a stick to hit him with then and she's still using it as a stick to hit him with now. Whose jaw didn't hit the floor last week when it was all 'This is YOUR fault, you sort it out!' to Ashley regarding Gabby and her insinuations against Marlon?

And don't even get me started on her 'I've done nothing wrong!' stance I better move on quickly or I'll be here all day!

TPTB did Laurel a helluva lot of damage at this time which I don't know if the character can ever come back from - not for us viewers with long memories anyway. Even now she's convinced that Ashley has taken Gabby out of spite, to make her 'pay' and seemed amazed that he's putting his daughter first and not stooping to her own levels. Rubbish writing IMO. Unless she's got no mind of her own and has been brainwashed by Marlon and his 'Ashley is a monster', 'Ashley is controlling' mantra then she knows the man she was married to wouldn't do that to his child. He's proven time and time again lately that his kids are coming first. Laurel on the other hand is proving the opposite dumping Marlon on them whether they like it or not.

I don't for one minute think that this was TPTB's intention. They must have misread their audience believing we'd all be pro-Laurel. Boy oh boy, did THEY forget the old British trait of being for the underdog and they inadvertently made Ashley an underdog and a half!!! Shot themselves in the foot there methinks


It differs from episode to episode who I hate the most between Laurel and Marlon, it must depend on how heavily each one is featured. I've even posted somewhere on DS that I dislike Laurel more but today I've just got to think of Marlon's stupid phizog and I want to puke!

I sincerely hope that the new producer whoever they may be has the guts to split up the gruesome twosome.

I never thought of it like that but your spot on with the Ronnie Mitchell comparison but Laurel will never be as great and mezmerising as Ronnie Mitchell! But with Ronnie and that horrendous baby swap story the writers got so desperate and obsessed with making her the ultimate tragic heroine they did backed her into the deepest corner ever the forgivness that she got from Kat was just pityful and there is no way a mother could forgive someone for what she did and that is no way to put a storyline to bed and redeem a character!

Laurel has suffered the same way as Ronnie in that the writers in this case are so desperate and obsessed with making her made up love with Marlon so warm and romantic and trying to her look like the tragic victim that Marlon has to save! But in the end the writers again just screwed it up by ending up making her look vile, spiteful, and for this viewer the actions of the writers obsession have left this once lovely character no chance at being redeemed even with Ashley forgiving her!

Viewers just havnt seen this storyline from the angle they were trying to tell and the more and more they play with that manipulative fire the more they are gonna get burned!

Another point i keep on reading that they hope the new producer will split these two up knowing our luck the new producer will the person who suggested to Stuart Blackburn that these two should be the next golden couple!

Some great posts there from Dr/ Linus, Lotty and JR. Brilliant views.

I am just wondering what Laurel's dramatic scenes are going to be like now she is paired with Marlon.

Drama is something that John Middleton and Charlotte Bellamy got spot on. Their scenes together were so intense etc. Daniel's death, Mad Sally, Ashley abusing his Dad.

There was a fantastic scene between Ashley and Laurel at the end of the episode where Laurel found out about Ashley hitting Sandy. The scene was intense and fantastically acted by John and Charlotte where Ashley was pleading with Laurel not to leave him. It was superb.

But now Charlotte has been paired with Mark Charnock will it be of the same quality? Imagine if it was Marlon and Laurel doing the baby's death storyline?

It's something I will particularly miss about Ashley and Laurel. Their dramatic scenes. Even when they were shouting and screaming at each other the chemistry was electric between them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8boZg3C9QI - the scene that starts at around 3.39 is one scene where they are brilliant. Can you imagine Laurel and Marlon doing a scene like that? I can't see it working.

I hate Marlon more everytime I see him and I almost pity Laurel for landing herself a drip like him.

I don't mind Marlon and his comedy scenes with Paddy it's just as a dramatic "actor" he sucks and so no I don't think him and Laurel could do a baby storyline as he can't actually act he's sorta the Anthony Cotton of ED.

Throw in Leyla in the mix and all hell breaks loose

wounder if we get to see this amazing chemistry in the live show & will it be even more amazing live

Yeah, they might fairly sizzle and we might all totally get it .......




then again perhaps not