Whitney always enjoys a big tasty sausage surprise.

And she has seen a hell of a lot of them over the years...

Somebody posted a comment on the scene where Archie rapes Stacey in the launderette "The title should have been Archie gives Stacey sausage surprise".

Bloody hell!

Whitney does have two really big things going for her.

Ahem.

Her big hooped earrings?

Looks a bit Vicky Pollard.

Yes indeed her big juicy 'earrings'...

And on that note I am going offline for something to eat.

I agree....all the meal times together is ridiculous and does not reflect real life. People who run pubs trust me, hardly ever get to sit down and have a meal with their families as they are so busy. Besides, "a family that eats together stays together" is the adage but from the way this family behaves you'd think they'd never been apart for more than an hour or two in their lives! Just the other day when Tina got caught about the hash cakes; Mick is there confessing his (brotherly) undying love for her yet a few months ago none of his family had been in his life for years! I understand they're back together and it's maybe nice for them, but this kind of crap is hard to watch....for me anyway, but then again I am so not a carters fan.

Exactly. For me it's not the fact that a family are having a meal together, this is normal. What annoys me is the background, the unlikeliness of everybody magically being available at short notice, the cliche of them going on about family as if we can't take that message ourselves without them actually saying it and just how often Eastenders uses big family meals as plot devices.

Agree with both of these and couldn't have put it better myself.

For me the decline in viewers and the general show is little things like this.
We've seen this type of thing time and time again and its about time EE tried something new and a different approach.

They have no sense of family or working lives in 2014 and the way familes interact. You will never see large families getting together or living together or helping each other out like Charlie with Bianca and her kids.

LN got slated for her time when DTC episodes are very similar with the love and warmth we saw at the Butcher's yesterday, even if there was a slightly sinister reason for Charlie's behaviour.

Come on EE move with the times, too often its like watching a show from the 80s or 90's that just hasn't realised things have moved on.

Completely disagree although eloquently put. Some families even I know have big family dinners at the drop of a hat. Just different for some.

not always the case, I used to live in a pub with a great family and we always sat down together on a sunday and had a meal together - the landlord got extra staff in to allow him, his wife, kids and me to sit down together and enjoy a home cooked family meal

I like to see the families sat having a meals together, this is when families can have proper discussions.

They were eating shepherd's pie and lasagne I think and discussing meals for the pub menu but Lee had given the trifle to Liam for the Butcher family meal because Liam burnt their dinner.

Awww, just be happy for the family's meal.

I like the big meal time scenes, it's an easy way to get lots of characters interacting at the same time instead of the usual 2 or 3 a scene. And I don't think it's unrealistic in the slightest, though maybe that's because I'm from a large Cypriot family and that's just how us Greeks roll.

I went to Crete a few years ago and it was nice to see all generations sitting down in the evening eating, I saw the same thing when I went to Cyprus on a family holiday years before that. I think the family meal has become less common in the UK and other northern European countries but it seems as common as ever in the Mediterranean.
Maybe it's the different daily routine.

I don't think it's necessarily to do with the daily routine although I'm sure that helps. I'd basically class myself as British (mum is Cypriot, dad from the UK) and my mum's extended family all moved to England before I was born, where she met my dad. So I was born and raised in the UK and we've always had a UK lifestyle in the sense of the 9-5 working day, UK school etc. But we still always found time to eat together in the evening when I was younger, and when I go round to my parents' house (usually once a week) we still sit together to eat. I think it's just down to the individual family's attitudes.

The way that the Carters set up the table in their living room really makes me nostalgic as that's what my Yia Yia (Greek for nan) used to do when we went round her tiny little flat; she took such pride in us all eating together, my family as well as my auntie and uncle's families all squeezed together eating her delicious home-cooked Cypriot food. It's just a tradition we've always had and I don't believe for one second that we're ridiculously unusual. Yes, people lead busy lives and don't always do it every day, but family meals at least once a week really shouldn't be seen as unrealistic, IMO, when soaps like EE show them.

True but looking at my extended family we were unusual, much of my family didn't have family meals (or maybe my family are weird). I think perhaps people of Greek and Italian ancestry often keep their close family bonds even if they settle in other countries and they remain there even after several generations. I remember meeting an Australian of Greek ancestry who said that family was so much more important in their culture (as he put it) compared with many other Australians.

However family meals did used to be a lot more common in the UK.

David would have loved all those lovely family meals in last nights episode *sigh*

He preferred to eat in front of his family constantly rather than with them.

Yeah, I do agree that it's very typical for Greeks and Italians to keep their family close together. I mean, I'm still living within a 15 minute drive of my parents, my older sister who is 33 and has downs syndrome still lives at home - because in my parent's own words, why would they put her into supported living when they're still healthy and able to give her the support she needs, and even my older brother has moved back home for a while to save for a deposit on a house. When my Yia Yia got dementia she moved into my mum and dad's home for a while until my parents were unfortunately no longer able to safely support her, and then she moved into a care home, but that absolutely broke my mum's heart - she still hasn't forgiven herself to this day. Family is definitely important to us.

But I agree that it's not always usual for UK families, and I wouldn't class yours as weird for not eating together. I just think it's different for everyone, but I can't understand why some people on here get het up at the thought of families like the Carters making time to sit down for meals. It just seems odd to me that it would even cross someone's mind that it's unrealistic.

BIB Me too. In my family the telly went off and we all sat down at the table to eat....time to catch up on everyone's news, make plans or just have a laugh together. How anyone can enjoy a meal that's balanced on their lap sitting in front of the telly is beyond me.

Well my family (including extended if they want to come over) generally eat together properly at the dining table away from the tv at the weekend(Saturday lunch and Sunday dinner) but do their own thing during the week unless it is a special occasion such as a birthday. So I don't think the EE meals are unrealistic - it isn't as though they happen every day but everyone is different.

My immediate family ate together but wider family not so much.