Why do I get this horrid feeling they're gonna go down the Stendan (HO) route and in order for Ben to conceal his 'secret' gay life he might start beating Johnny. I hope I'm wrong, don't want Johnny near Ben enough as it is.

Additionally and/or maybe something happened to Ben in prison - maybe homophobic bullying to the point where Ben doesn't want to be open about his sexuality.

Plus the writers (a lot of whom are gay themselves) aren't really painting the best picture for LGBT relationships if that did happen - we already have one gay domestic abuse storyline as it is. Would be nice to have a happy romance with Ben treating Johnny right if they do get together. In fact that has to be the case if they do happen (which looks likely at some point).

I doubt they will do that considering like you have mentioned Tina and Tosh, hopefully it is just Ben struggling to come to terms with his sexuality again.

Hopefully like you said they end up in a happy relationship!

I think Ben talking smack about Johnny comes before the attempted snog, Lee tells Johnny to stay away from Ben and Ben comes to visit Johnny and then gets knocked back.

Soaplife was an interesting (and annoying) read this week. Johnny and Ben almost kiss (though I think Johnny rejects him here as well) after Ben gets kicked out of Lee's birthday party (at daylight, and they are wearing different clothes to the trailer) - and then when Abi appears Ben says horrible things to Johnny, prompting the eavesdropping Lee to beat up Ben brutally. Ben then gets with Abi to hide his sexuality and feelings for Johnny.

In the interview it said Ben wouldn't rule out murder in the future (in regard to his sexuality even though he is supposed to be already out) - but its very unlikely - and the actor hopes that won't happen as he'll be out of a job haha. Still that worries me a lot. I just want Johnny to stay away from him.

I don't think they would go down a domestic violence route with Ben and Johnny. I did wonder if they'd dropped it at one point with Tina and Tosh so they could do it with Ben and Johnny instead, but now it's resumed again I really don't think they'd have two LGBT couples involved in domestic abuse scenarios.

With that said, I don't think the relationship between Ben and Johnny, when/if it happens, will ever be happy and lovey dovey. This is a soap, after all.

Thanks for the Soaplife information, Neu - sounds like it's got the potential to be an emotional week for Johnny. I wonder how he'll respond to Lee 'brutally' laying into Ben? Can't imagine he'll be happy. It's good that it gives Lee something a bit more interesting to do, and I love his relationship with Johnny so I'm really happy we'll see some meaningful interaction between them. It's possible the kiss comes at the end of the week, now that I've read these events, and not the beginning as I previously thought.

Just a random thought but I wonder if, given Sam doesn't seem to have been filming much at all recently, whether Johnny maybe goes off for a while as a result of all of this? He could easily go and stay with Elaine, and it means that if Sam needed a break for whatever reason (that motorcycle accident he had?), it won't look odd that Johnny has just disappeared off screen for ages when there's so much going on with the Carters at the moment.

It probably won't happen but it's something that crossed my mind. Also I wonder if he's back at work now? Danny-Boy posted a picture of Maddy yesterday in front of a Christmas tree, so they must be doing Christmas scenes at the moment, yet Sam was tweeting yesterday about getting a haircut and video editing... so it looks like he isn't back yet? If Johnny isn't around at Christmas I really won't be happy.

I hope if Ben and Johnny do get together it will be a happy relationship between them - but just controversial from their families and perhaps friends for the most part - hence the point of them not being all rosy. I guess that in itself would cause issues from Ben's side of things as well.

Yeah Ben has a lot of blood on him from the fight, so Lee properly lays into Ben, and Johnny and Nancy have to restrain Lee. The attempted kiss/fight happens on the Tuesday episode I think of that week.

Maybe that could happen? And then Johnny could return with Elaine at Christmas or something to gat away from all the Carter/Ben drama for a bit. Plus Ben's mixed signals might do Johnny's head in after a while. It would be odd if Johnny wasn't there at Christmas (and tbh I'd be sad if he weren't ) - but *maybe* there might be a Carter fallout regarding Ben which prompts Johnny to go away for a bit and clear his head. I say maybe.

EDIT: Also after the fight Abi warns Johnny to stay away from Ben - Johnny clearly wanting to apologise for what happened - or wanting to get to the bottom of the mixed signals.

Guys Sam Strike just tweeted that he now has Instagram - he's put some cool videos on there of him surfing, doing flips and and even a cool pic of him with a Spiderman mask. His obsession with Spiderman is so cute I love it

No problem as always Neu, I love my baby

Just been reading everything over the last few days, I've been a bit M.I.A due to my studies. I didn't think they'd go down this route for Ben's character but it could be clever. Prison obviously shook him about his sexuality. I'm glad Lee is getting something to do and he's such a wonderful big brother to Johnny.
I'm a bit worried about Sam's leave, I hope he's got a future on the show and will be featured at Christmas. I was just thinking, if he wanted to leave where would this leave Johnny? Would they recast or have him leave? Move out for uni? Move back to Elaine's in Watford? Get a job and emigrate? Kill him off? That seems unlikely as Am I panicking over nothing? I don't want him going just yet. There's so much more to tell

Does Sam smoke? I've seen a few pics of him smoking...

Doesn't that answer your own question?

Great to see Sam has finally joined Instagram.

SK, I don't know what to make of Sam's break but I would hope that if he has left/is leaving it would be announced way before it happens on screen, even if Johnny is still a relatively new character. The only possible reason they might have kept it quiet is if a big shock twist was coming (say, Johnny getting murdered or something like that as part of the Lucy Beale story.) But I really don't think they would do that. I couldn't imagine that DTC would choose to axe him, and if he did then I'd be bitterly disappointed in his judgement. I guess if Sam himself wanted to leave at the end of his contract, which is probably coming up if he signed for a year, then they would probably write Johnny out in a way that could potentially let him return in the future, like maybe moving into halls at university or something like that.

But to be honest, unless Sam has had a really good offer elsewhere then I can't see him leaving the financial security of EE just yet. It's a massive deal for a young actor like him and hopefully he's got some good people advising him. I definitely can't see Sam sticking around ultra long term as I can't see him wanting to be type cast as a soap actor, but I think he'd be sensible enough to stay for a couple of years before trying other things.

I really just wish we could get some confirmation that he's back filming sometime soon. Him following all of those casting Twitter accounts a little while back made me a bit worried, I have to admit; hopefully it was just coincidence that he seemed to follow those around the time his break started.

Like you, SK, I'm panicking a little bit but hopefully it's just over nothing!

I realised that after I asked it But I meant if he smokes regularly? It would seem very un-Johnny like, if that makes sense

I think he does smoke regularly, yeah. Sam is a bit more of a bad boy than Johnny.

The break might well be nothing - or maybe a few weeks off later in November/early-mid December at most. The Halloween episodes were filmed around August 22 (10 weeks before transmission) - as thats the date Jacqueline Jossa posted that vid of Sam Strike doing his Bane impression in his cute vampire outfit. Thats just over 2 months.

If they're only filming Christmas episodes now (which is in 7 weeks or so) then maybe aside from a week or two Sam hasn't missed much - the only thing might be the hair continuity thing might crop again as Sam grew it long recently, then had a trim for the first time in 3 months according to his Twitter.

I hope he hasn't left! Maybe he got sick of having nowt to do so has gone looking for other stuff. He so obviously wants to be in an action film doing somersaults and stuff, but I'd much rather he stayed as little shy Johnny!

How do you know that he might be leaving and what blog x

That does sound like they were filming behind schedule when they did the Halloween scenes, then, as usually it's six-seven weeks in advance that they film (they seem to have caught up now if they're filming Christmas scenes.)

So Johnny could well disappear at the end of the week after next as I think his break has been for about a month, meaning he'd be back just before Christmas (provided he gets back to work soon!) Unless the Carters are all taking a break (which I doubt as Mick and Linda must feature quite heavily in the run up to Christmas) then I kind of hope that Johnny's absence is explained as him staying at Elaine's. Johnny being away from the square would also make sense for the Ben storyline as it will give Ben time to build up a relationship with Abi, without being distracted by Johnny.

I'm sure there is an innocent explanation to all of this but I couldn't help but worry.

The Christmas scenes have all been filmed. Christmas dinner in the vic was filmed around the middle of October according to Luisia( Tina)

Can't wait to see Johnny tomorrow night!

Well Danny-Boy definitely posted a picture of Maddy in front of a Christmas tree this week, so unless he took that a couple of weeks ago and is only posting it now, perhaps not all the Christmas scenes have been filmed?

I suppose the other possibility is that Sam has been going into set sporadically. Not too sure what he was up to the middle of October; was that when he was posting pictures of himself in London at the Shard? So he could have been doing a bit of filming then, possibly. All we know for certain was that last week he was in Cornwall so definitely wouldn't have been filming at all during that week, and there hasn't been any pictures of him outside or on set for ages now, suggesting he hasn't been going in much.

It would just be so horrible if Johnny wasn't around during the Christmas day scenes. I really hope that isn't the case.

I've just noticed your location, Andreas. Made me smile. Maybe that's where Johnny disappears to, Denmark.

Would so love that, so lets just say he really IS here

I saw that tweet from Danny-Boy too, the one with Maddy infront of Christmas tree/lights, but we don't know if they still film some Christmas stuff- or if Danny-Boy just forgot he had it and wanted to tweet it now...
As to why Sam hasn't been tweeting onset/outside pics for quite sometime is not something I would worry myself over. It's quite common for many actors now, in my opinion, that just because they've got twitter- it doesn't equal many pics from the set. But it really has to do with the actor/actress themselves. Some post everyday they are there, and some does not. It doesn't mean anything in my book

I think They've already filmed Christmas. Jake wood said on stricly about two weeks ago, how busy he was because they where getting ready to film Christmas scenes that week. Which was the week before sam went on holiday. I don't know how long it takes to film an episode though. I'd guess that they're filming new year scense around now and with sam being off last week and this week [unless he's in tomorrow] we probably won't be seeing much of johnny over new year episodes. But then again its tv, he can film his scenes anytime and they can just edited in.

Johnny said yes to the charity naked calendar Loved Lee and Johnny practising their poses

So which they were included in tomorrow episode when they show a few of them having their picture taken

Some cute Johnny scenes tonight as per norm. Bit gutted that he's not in tomorrow's cast list given

Seriously don't know where they keep all the decorations in the Vic. They must have a Big Yellow Storage tardis somewhere.