This week is the Carter steals Fish storyline which ends up with Johnny in danger of losing the chance to complete his law course. Ahead of the Peggy storyline a little bit of light relief with the Carters is maybe not a bad idea.

Johnny is on the cast list for most of w/b 16 May but it is all about Peggy Mitchell that week so assume a low profile for the Carter family other than the odd scenes in the Vic..

I'm still waiting for a Sharon/Johnny scene, or have I missed that? ☺

Nice to see you back on the thread, andreas! No, you haven't missed a Sharon/Johnny scene but I'm not sure they'll particularly make a 'thing' of it it or go out of their way to write one; as much as we loved their friendship, it seemed to be all but forgotten in the second part of the year during Johnny's first era, despite the wonderful chemistry that Sam and Letitia had. So I can't see them making a thing of it now.

I really miss Johnny in The Albert, I have to admit.

Hi there elly!! ☺ good to be here again!

I miss Johnny in The Albert too. He fitted so perfectly in there..
You're right, they glanced over it and just forgot about it. Really sad in my book. Loved their scenes.

The Carter "court" scene and fish storyline last night just did not work for me. I thought it felt too silly and contrived

I know we will have to patient as it might be months before Johnny gets a big storyline but I hope they can find better things for him to do in the meantime. Also they need to stop going about the studying, Johnny studying in the pub etc as they have now overplayed it and it is becoming a bit tedious

Just generally I feel the quality of EE has been pretty poor recently. I guess where DTC would usually have been overseeing these scenes, all of his attention would have been on the Mitchell reunion and winding up the end of his tenure. Poor Ted has joined at a very difficult time and I hope that the new producer sees the value in Johnny's character.

I don't mind the studying too much but there isn't really much to discuss with it. Hopefully he'll have a more exciting summer or at least something in the autumn/winter.

Everything has been set up for the Ben/Johnny storyline including Paul leaving which I assume the new producer has been consulted on. I would assume the storylines until Christmas have been agreed and the new producer won't have that much scope to change big storylines. What sort of storyline the new producer might want for Ben/Johnny and how different it is to DTC vision I guess is the key question.

As you say difficult time for Ted to be starting but hopefully the new producer will see his value within the carter family especially with Nancy gone.

Yes, I think we'll see Ben and Johnny get together over the next few months but how well it's written and how Johnny will come out of it looking to viewers is something I'm a bit worried about. Paul and Ben are very lovey dovey at the moment so Johnny coming between them may reflect badly on his character. I think I'm generally feeling a bit despondent about EE recently, it all feels a bit stale, so I'm hope that SOC injects some freshness and unpredictability into it.

On a happier note, if anybody didn't get to see the pictures from GT, someone posted them on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/tedreillyfans/st...77688075554816
https://twitter.com/tedreillyfans/st...77512430678020

He really is very cute though I'm still struggling to see him as 24 years old. Such a baby face on him. He does look older here though.

Ted looks amazing in those photos! Wow. Why can't they have Johnny dress like that? And have wax in his hair? Oh well, hopefully down the line ☺

When is Tom coming back? Johnny needs a break from his studies. What did he do with Tom's phone number?

Maybe we'll see Johnny gradually transform into the hottie in those pictures as he grows in confidence. Not that he looks bad at the moment, just not nearly as sexy.

I know that Tristam Summers who plays Tom was on set a few weeks ago, on the 22nd April, judging by his Twitter, so we should see Tom again in June sometime. Whether or not he's there to take Johnny out on a date, or if he's there in his paramedic role, is another question, but you can guess which one I'd prefer.

Enjoyed the Johnny stuff a bit more tonight, he was very cute when he was worrying about his law career, and good to see he thought his exam went well, although it doesn't look like he's out of the woods yet considering Belinda and Neville's intentions with Mick and Linda! Those scenes were hilarious.

I enjoyed Johnny's scenes too. Thinking that his exam went well was sweet. Very nice played by Ted ☺

The scenes at Belinda's house was very funny!

It was much better tonight. Hopefully with the final exam done and Tom back we get to see Johnny having a bit of fun. Looks like they have put back Olly's brain injury storyline until after Peggy's death storyline which makes sense.

Did anyone notice that Johnny referred to Lee as "bruv" like Ben and Jay do I don't think Sam did that when he played Johnny. Not sure whether it works or not!

I didn't notice that, no. I always find it a bit cringey when Ben says it (I've never actually heard Jay say it back), so I'm not sure whether I want Johnny saying it now as well. To be honest, I don't think it really fits Johnny's character to talk like that, but I can't really explain why!

Looks like Tristam is filming again today, so that's at least two June appearances for the lovely Tom. Hopefully at least one of those will be pleasure with our favourite law student rather than business.

Johnny is in every episode the next two weeks apart from next Friday. However with so much happening with the Mitchells, the Stacey & Martin wedding and the Beales, it's very likely it will be more as a background character.

Tom is back for Monday and Tuesday next week, so there is a chance of interaction there, though I think it's more likely he's there as a result of his job this time.

Not expecting much which is fair enough with the big storylines going on in the next couple of weeks with the Mitchells/Beales

I expect the Carter family will be more in focus in June with the results of Olly's tests

Nice to see Tom back hopefully to see Johnny and not another medical emergency in the square

Kellie has announced on Twitter she's pregnant, which is lovely news. I wonder how it might affect the Carters in terms of screentime and storylines? Linda is such a prominent figure in the family, after all.

After a relatively quiet year so far for the Carters, apart from the Ollie storyline and Nancy's exit, it would be nice to see Johnny and Lee get a bit more in the way of screen time but I fear they may just rest the whole family over the winter months instead.

There is no doubt this will have an impact on planned storylines. It is a big problem for EE as Kelly's absence will probably cover the autumn and Christmas period when they would have big storylines running.

I just wonder what will happen with the Christmas show where the Carter family would be centre stage at the Vic. I assume Kelly won't be around for the filming which is a shame as it was going to be Johnny's first Christmas in the Vic. It may not be too bad for the possible Johnny/Ben storyline as they can build it up slowly after Paul leaves until Kelly returns

I just wonder how they are going to write Linda out for several months

It's hard to see what would make Linda leave her family for any lengthy period of time. It could be that she needs to go and look after a sick Elaine, or Nancy needs her help overseas with something, but neither of those things would usually take months and months to resolve. Perhaps if they ever revisit the rape trial (has Dean still not been sentenced?) and if Ollie is diagnosed with a brain injury, Linda could be diagnosed with some form of PTSD stemming from the rape, and what's happened to Ollie, and needs to get away from the square to deal with it all. We could then see the impact on the rest of her family and it wouldn't feel too jarring that she's been away for months.

I agree that it wouldn't really affect the Johnny/Ben storyline, if they are planning to do that. If anything, Linda being away and not seeing Johnny falling for Ben (and obviously worrying about him doing so) would help the storyline along. My main concern is that most of the Carter drama revolves around Linda and Mick, and the new producer just may not be that interested in doing anything significant with any of the family members with Linda MIA. Hopefully I'm wrong, as it would be really good to see Johnny get a chance to shine at some point in the not-too-distant future.

Johnny is on run of 4 appearance lasting about 1 second per episode. It is a blink and you miss him moment these days.

Surely he's setting some kind of record for the most episodes appeared in without actually saying any lines?!

I know they get paid per episode, I wonder if he gets paid the same for those kind of scenes? This is what happened old Johnny. He spent his last few months just hanging around doing very little.

To be fair this week was all about Peggy Mitchell, Fowler wedding and next week is the Beales with the Vic as the backdrop. That said is seemed excessive to have all of Lee, Whitney, Babe and Johnny standing in the background.

I would assume the Carter family with be centre stage in 2-3 weeks time with the Olly stuff and Paul's departure storyline should be starting soon both of which should include some involvement by Johnny. Hopefully a sub storyline for Johnny will also emerge maybe another job or romance just to get him out of the Vic would be good

I do hope by Christmas or early next year EE will prove Sam Strike wrong by creating a really strong storyline for Johnny which puts him in centre stage (maybe one of the big Christmas storyline?) and show Sam what he was missing. Will they do that I remain unsure at this moment.

There is a lot of uncertainty at EE with a new producer, writers leaving and now Kellie's maternity leave to know what the future of Johnny will be in the next six months to a year.

Sam is kind of being proved correct at the moment, though, that's the problem. I agree that I'd like to see Johnny at the centre of a good, character-driven storyline, but at the moment Johnny's return has been a bit pointless. I hope he gets something decent under SOC. I'm surprised DTC didn't want to do more with him before he left.

Speaking of Sam, he's posted a picture of himself with very short hair on his Twitter. I do think it might be for a role, maybe some sort of military thing? That's where my mind went to anyway, maybe that's just what I associate buzzcuts with.