We've seen Rebecca at the house looking after the kids before last week. I couldn't tell you an exact date but we have certainly seen it.

I know that Kat is pregnant and of course Alfie will put them first but as there a reason he couldn't be helping out on the stall in Kat's place or have I missed a mention that she needs somebody with her all the time to nurse her? If that is the case, wouldn't it make sense for Mo to stay with her or even for Kat to go and stay with Charlie or Lynne? Then Alfie could be working on the stall which would be of help to Kat and Bianca.

No idea kitkat. I don't find it strange that Alfie would be overprotective though...these are his much longed for babies, ones he thought he would never have.

Because if Bianca could cope or did more we wouldn't have St Sonia the Super Nurse.

For some reason the writers seemed to have forgotten that Bianca went off to do a Fashion course not once but twice and yet she is still acting like an idiot who doesn't have a brain cell let alone two to rub together!

This entire family is just odd. Carol tells the love of her life to leave, even though he''s just proven he's there for her. Bianca goes off to a fashion course & never uses it for anything. The children just wait around like monkeys waiting for someone to throw them a Chicken McNugget. Sonia doesn't know which side of the bed to sleep on. A sorry lot, all of 'em, and Bianca leaving can't happen too soon for me.

I didn't know that monkeys like chicken nuggets and if so which species?

I can think of 2 scenarios re David:
1. Carol & family will eventually receive news that David died due to heart attack and a closure to David Butcher character.
2. With Bianca leaving she will join David in Miami with David's new family.

Hard to disagree with any of that. Can somebody remind me how old Tiffany is? 10 or 11? I'm not suggesting child labour (obviously she's too young to be working) but iu do think she is old enough to be helping round the house a bit. I certainly was at that age due to both my parents working and also them spending pretty much all their spare time helping my Grandfather nurse my Grandmother who had Dementia. I was certainly making basic meals for myself, doing the washing up, hoovering, dusting etc.

Well she is a soap character.....

I doubt when they write the script they think about stuff like this, to be honest seeing Tiffany hoover or dust isn't my idea of entertainment. I don't care about her pulling her weight that much when it could be used to show a more interesting story.


Perhaps they could do an E20 type spin-off show on BBC3 to see which one is the most domesticated, it could be a soap meets How Clean is Your House?

Are the Albert Square homes privately owned? If so, that is indeed completely unbelievable. Victorian terraces like those in East London would be around the £1 million mark.

Another inexplicable fountain of cash is Ronnie Mitchell.

True. I'm not saying they should actually make a feature of it but perhaps we could just see her doing the dishes in the background of one of those endless kitchen scenes or maybe a throw away reference from Carol when Bianca gets in from work as to her having made her a sandwich when she's had a bad day following chaemo. Anything so that she doesn't come across as the annoying brat just sitting there expecting everything to be done for her as she does now. It would just hep make the pint that the whole family is pulling together and those not old enough to make money are doing their bit to ease the burden of the wage earners at home.

They vary. Some are rented from the Council so will be subsidized - both Dots and the Slaters (where Kat and Alfie currently are) fall into that category. Most of the others are privately owned. Ian's was bought off the Council by Pauline at a reduced rate and then he inherited it so the mortgage for that will be minimal or non existant. Janine owns the Butchers and they rent it from her at very reduced 'mate's rates'. Ronnie has just taken out a mortgage on Janine's old house. Max bought his from Jack last year - I assume he has a mortgage. The Masoods def have a mortgage - it's mentioned quite often. Phil owns his. The carter's own the Vic - cash sale I think. The Spraggens rent privately, as do Aleks etc.

Well maybe she is a brat? They do exist in life, Janine was a massive brat when she was young.

I just can't get annoyed about this sort of stuff in a soap. Soap characters aren't there to live up to our moral/behaviourial standards, Christ if we expected that we'd never watch them.

Of course yes, She can't spend her lunchtime in the pub if she dares leave the square for the day. Pathetic that every single person who lives in the square works somewhere there. I doubt there is a place on earth like that

Walford is caught in a time warp, societies like this don't exist nowadays.

In many ways it's like the 1950s, I mean where are the supermarkets?

Oh I agree. Indeed soap characters would be very boring to watch if they all behaved well. It was more in response to the specific question as to why Sonia seems to (from what we see on screen) shouldering the majority of the burden of taking over Carol's work shilst she is sick and what the whole family (including the children) could do to help.

Maybe she is just a brat, yes but it would be nice if they made that a little clearer. The couldn't have made it more obvious that Janine was a nightmare of they'd had her wear a tee-shirt with 'trouble' emblazoned in it. Same with Dotty. However I get the distinct impression we're still supposed to find tiffany cute. Maybe some viewers do but I'm not one of them.

I'd say she is sometimes cheeky and mischievous, but nowhere as badly behaved as Janine. And then there is Denny who is a bully, a liar and a thief...I'd say (sadly) that the lad is heading for trouble when he is older. Tiffany's saving grace could be her intelligence, with Masood's coaching she was soon top of her class. The rest of her family are far from bright. Maybe she's inherited David's brains.

Thats Eastenders for you totally unrealistic theres no way Biance can pay all the bills and feed the kids with selling tatty clothes on the stall

Oh Denny is certainly a bully and set to get worst with Sharon constantly molly coddling him and Phil as a role model. Without wishing to sound too Victorian about this (I don't for the record advocate slapping or anything) the main trouble with most soap kids (Poeter Barlow, Jacob Metcalfe, Denny Rickman and Tiffany Butcher in particular) is that the parents all think far too much of them, will always take their side against anybody else (including adults - witness Sharon with Ava and Whitney and Bianca with Zainab) without ascertaining the facts (an automatic "my child wouldn't do that") and set no boundaries re behaviour. No womder they're invariably brats that think they run their homes rather than the adults.

Now when I was a kid, if somebody accused you of something, especially if it was by an adult, the automatic assumption was that the adult was telling the truth and you would be disciplined. Now maybe that wasn't right but it seems to have swung too far he other way.

I'm not taking about accusations of abuse by the way, just general "I saw your kid stealing apples, they scratched my car when they fell off their bike, they're kicking their football against my wall and won't stop when I ask, they ran across the road" type things.

I do agree wbout tiffany being intelligent as well. She certainly seems to have got the best of the Harris/Beale/Butcher genes there. (Pat, Frank, Janine, David and Ian are (or were) all fairly bright) and that could be her saving grace. She probably will be able to make something or herself if she wants.

Or, she will use her intelligence to evil ends and become even more of a brat so she ends up being a criminal mastermind to rival Janine. Especially as she is shaping up to be a real beauty and we know she can be quite nasty and vengeful when she wants to be.

True.

I was a child in the 50s and absolutely everyone was free to give you a good smack...teachers, shopkeepers, neighbours, bus conductors. It certainly wasn't right but the pendulum has certainly swung the other way.

.She can , but she can also be very loving. She loved nana Pat, her dad and David, all sadly lost to her now. She always adored Whitney and had that sweet friendship with Bobby. She does care about Carol. Janine was incapable of letting her guard down except with Frank.

I'd say Janine always loved her siblings as well) especially Ricky) and showed affection (it only after the fact) for her Gran, Mo. And as an adult she has been okay with her other Gran, Ricky's kids and Billy and of course Pat but her biggest problem is a tendancy to lash out if she feels slighted.

You are right about Tiffany showing love to people though - she's certainly not a sociopath or anything. I'm not sure Denny feels any affection or likes anybody - even Sharon!

As soon as David leaves they are poor, what happened to their wages when David was still around. Bianca's money problems bore me, it's the same thing all the time.

Would anyone on here recruit B, having met her at interview?