It's very disappointing for an iconic character like Kathy to be thrown on the scrap heap DTC really has damaged so many characters and SOC will either axe them or rebuild them. Kathy has an iconic place in the show and it's time he brought her back to the heart of it. The only other option is to kill her off but she still has a place in the show in my opinion and potential as a character.

Killing her off would be completely ridiculous after the fuss it caused last time.

I honestly don't know what they can do with her but then sharon endured a terrible comeback and it took what seemed like forever to sort her out, but they did, so I'm keeping the faith.

Her relationship with Ben has been the biggest dissapointment, quite often she stands back and let's sharon and Shirley mother him whereas she has concentrated on Ian. Maybe she should get her own place and Ben and Jay could go and live with her give her some purpose

They messed up Sharon comeback after she came back but they didn't mess up her backstory too much. It was so easy they could have just moved her in with Ian after his breakdown. She would have been staight back in Square and had a place. The mess up still exists that she is with Phil after his involvement in Dennis death. But hey.

Kathy is a spare part. Actually killing Jane off or her going gives her a place holding Ian together. He needs to crash to rock bottom to be redeemed.

I think we're all agreed her return story was crap but there's more to bringing a character back than a re-entry storyline.

I guess since Kathy was 'dead' this one should've been big - a real talking point for years to come - but I can't say I lament its failure too much, seeing Kathy again after the senseless decision to kill her off in 06 overrides any disappointment in how it was done for me.

The biggest issue is still that she gets so little to do. I mean she's in her fair share of episodes, but often does nothing of significance in them. And her scenes with Ben remain too few in number.

Unlike with Kat and Sharon, it's not what they are doing with Kathy that's damaging, it's what they aren't in terms of her relationship with Ben. It's inconsistent as well. Some eps we do see her trying with him but then that'll be it for another few weeks with Ben acting like the Mitchells are the only family he's got.

However, there's no basic writing problem here like there was with Kat and Sharon. Away from the Bobby fiasco, which compromised everyone, and the soon-to-end seedier aspects of her relationship with Buster, there's been some really solid episodes with Kathy and the writing for her rarely jars as it did often with the other problematic returnees. It's just in a lot of episodes she isn't used effectively in terms of popping up for just 1 or 2 scenes and not being around for Ben. She can be in every single episode but it makes no difference if she doesn't have a voice where it counts. I guess you could still call it a writing problem but not being in scenes she should be is different to having bad dialogue.

I don't know how much control individual ep writers have over who gets used and in what scenes. But they do need to look at this with Kathy and involve her more with Ben.


Ben went to Ian initially but then Phil got custody.

The worst of Phil happened after Kathy left the Square. I don't know where people are getting the idea he was constantly violent towards her from. They had a normal marriage for nearly two years. Then when he was drinking he lashed out at her on one occasion when she was in his personal space and threw a bottle against the wall on another. He was mostly a figure of pity as in subsequent drug/drink storylines. Phil's worst behaviour in the past 16 years has been when he's been sober. Both Kathy and Shirley were familiar with his boozing before Sharon, but Kathy didn't know him as someone capable of being cruel on an everyday level.

Kathy was coerced into giving up Ben by a manipulative psycho. The appalling way they handled Gavin's character doesn't change that. Gavin's manipulation of Kathy was touched upon briefly in that scene when they were on the private plane, and he reminded her she'd faked her death to protect her sons, this was obviously something he'd instilled into her prior to that.

None of her family can take the moral high ground over her anymore. If Kathy's an awful person for faking her death, Phil's an awful person also, as he knew and kept quiet about it for three years. If you're going to call Kathy out then you should call him out too. He's gotten off pretty lightly with that (and many other things).

I see the argument that Kathy faking her death isn't really her and that she's always going to be tainted by it but I also see it as a necessary evil as a result of the incompetence of TPTB in 2006.

Time to kill off Kathy "Background Character" Beale again this time on screen.

Kathy problem is simple. She was always the decent steady (ish) character who the more dysfunctional ones went to / relied on. She was a good mother to Ian and Ben. She just can't fulfil that role anymore. If she starts with any moral stance to anyone the viewer is sitting there thinking you left your bl..dy kids for a decade. Same with Ben really she can hardly go on and start getting involved too much in his life. Ian it is easier as she raised him to an adult.

You might have a point were we seeing Ben struggling to reconnect with Kathy but we're not. He's forgiven and accepted her and there's been nice moments between them. Some might argue that's unrealistic, although it's not impossible and after the way Phil has treated him, Ben being open to a different sort of a relationship with a parent isn't that hard to believe.

Kathy stayed away because she was in an abusive marriage with a man who chipped away at her character. Ben should actually relate to that given what Archie put his grandmother through. Phil willingly stayed away from Ben for years and has treated him like s**t for years... If Ben can still give him the time of day.

The issue is that the Ben and Kathy relationship is underutilised by the writers/TPTB, not Ben not wanting a relationship with Kathy. He does.

Nobody's saying she should smother Ben, there'd be issues if she tried, but we've seen the beginnings of a bond and the writers need to tap into it more.


And its long been time for you to be banned (again) from here but it hasn't happened.

What was really poor in my opinion was that Kathy and Gavin had no trial- I remember Kathy going to court off screen and coming back with just a fine!

Gillian Taylforth is not the strongest Actress but she has been let down by poor writing and character development.

They can't, and won't, kill Kathy off again. But she does need rescuing.

I actually thought she was settling back into the Square quite well earlier this year. She made friends with people on the market, she grew closer to Martin. She was making an effort to be welcomed back after abandoning her family. Now that's all been dropped for this stupid affair with Buster. Not only is this story absolutely gross, but it makes me wonder what on earth they're playing at. Why are they having Kathy pursue a taken man when she's already on such shaky ground after faking her death? Are they trying to destroy the character for good?

This version of Kathy is unrecognisable from the previous incarnation, but I don't think she is beyond repair. Get Kathy back with her family and give her some decent screen time with Ben.

Bryan Kirkwood brought back Sharon but then left. Lorraine Newman wrecked the character and Sharon was a spare part until DTC took over but what Newman did Sharon, DTC has done to Kathy.

Kathy & Sharon are both iconic characters who deserve so much better in my opinion- Kathy is in urgent need of work, Sharon just needs a new Business on the Square.

Kathy just needs a decent direction which I'm sure SOC will give her. I do find the amount of people who want every character axed a little bit tedious.

Kathy and Sharon should never be axed.