I think Johnny could be saved but he needs a lot of work. Tina is awful and surely must be next.

Did Bradshaw-White only get the job because she is friends with DTC?

Nail on head.

I would love it if SOC surprised us with a return no one see's coming. Such as Wicksy returning and buying the pub. Although I'm not sure if Nick Berry still even acts.

Sharon and Phil would be a disaster. Phil has never suited the Vic and I can't see Ben and Jay as barmen. They suit being mechanics.

Carters: Mick, Johnny, Tina, Shirley and Whitney.

Mitchells: Sharon, Phil, Ben, Jay, Denny, Louise, Billy, Honey & kids.

Fox/Hubbards: Patrick, Denise, Kim, Vincent and Donna.

Kazemis: Carmel, Kush and Shakil.

Beales: Ian, Jane, Kathy and Steven.

Brannings: Dot, Max, Lauren, Abi, Jack and Cora.

Fowlers: Stacey, Martin, Bex, Belinda and Lily.

Sharon on her own would be ok, maybe she will grow a brain and divorce him, then buy and live in the vic, would really like the carters to remain there though.

Without the Mitchell's she is nothing. They've already tried her as a single mother and with Jack and neither worked.

Mick, Shirley, Whitney and Johnny will be fine. Even Tina is bearable away from Sonia. She just needs to re-think her wardrobe.

bib1 back in 2001 she ran the vic and the Club on her own and it was brilliant, they could also give her a new man or bring back Grant.

bib2 No she isnt

Belinda would be great and needs more exposure but she has her salon now.

Janine, I hope

She only had the Vic for a year before they put it back in the hands of the Mitchells. It needs a family living there.

I would like some non-Carters behind the bar like Sharon and Honey. The pub doesn't need to be solely dominated by one family. The Carters can still run it but they don't have to be defined by the pub.

It's also high time SOC spoke to the press and give us a glimpse of his plans. I also hope he has put the remaining cast at ease. I don't want anymore axings. He should build on what is left.

I'd like to see some young bar staff. Steven and a returned Courtney would be my choice. The family is too insular as they are. Even Martin could work.

I don't see this as the beginning of the end for the Carters at all. It's just reflective of real life. Children don't live with their parents forever so it's perfectly natural for any of the Carter kids to move on. Babe is a brilliantly twisted and complex character but she has always had a shelf life, due to her storylines, and I'm sure she'll be back.

I don't see anybody describing the departure of Roxy and Ronnie as the end of the Mitchells, so why are the Carters different? The core characters in the family are Mick, Linda and Shirley and the rest of the family come and go, much more realistic than generations living together for years.

Agree that Johnny needs something to do though - he was on screen the other day and for a moment I couldn't figure out who it was!

Johnny Belinda Steven all need to feature more. Like the Carter's but maybe give them a new direction.

Agree, even with the Mitchells they had other bar staff like Mel, Kat etc it wasn't just them behind the bar.

Vas said there a press even in October

Until we hear that at least one of Mick, Linda and Shirley are leaving, I think it's too early to speculate about the future of the Vic. They are the main Carters. Even Shirley going wouldn't necessarily be an indication that the Carters are leaving the Vic as she does less behind the bar than Mick and Linda.

There's nobody who could take over in the current cast. I could see Sharon helping out alongside Mick whilst Linda is away but not taking over the whole shebang.

She'd either be in there on her own (as Denny is a child contracted to limited appearances, wouldn't be seen in the bar) or in there with the Mitchells and that would technically be no different. The Vic has never been Phil's full-time focus/occupation and it would be absurd to make it so after his liver disease.

Half the time Phil seems mildly annoyed by even having Sharon in the same room. The same is true vice versa. In one scene Phil brought up the fact he's dying and Sharon barely flinched. Outside of these scenes they barely interact. Her interaction with Ben, Jay and Louise has also been limited/token at best. I'm not saying the Vic needs a family who get on but it needs one who at least interact beyond looking awkward in each other's presence.

The Vic usually needs at least a strong partnership to work. To be fair pretty much anyone on there own in there wouldn't work. It only did for Chrissie because of the Den storyline. I think even Janine on her own would get old eventually. Peggy and Grant were the Mitchells who worked well behind the bar and Sharon's best years in the pub were with Grant.

I don't think Mick and Linda would work all that well outside of the pub but they've been in the pub game all their lives and it's all we've known as them as characters. I don't see that as a bad thing. Peggy only became a landlady in her 50s but was heavily associated with the Vic and she was lost when they took her out in 2001. June Brown said that Barbara asked for Peggy to be killed off because she didn't have the Vic to come back to. Alfie was lost when they took him out of the Vic. Sometimes characters work best in a particular role/location. It therefore makes sense to keep them there. If SOC took the Carters out of the pub he'd not only have the headache of finding someone to take over but he'd have the headache of finding the Carters something else to do that suits them as characters.

The actors might quit eventually anyway. So they might as well get as much use as possible out of some good characters in the meanwhile than pre-empt that. After their day I'd like another new family to take it on or for Janine to come back with her own family. Without either Peggy or Grant (if Ross Kemp came back full-time, I'd be all for Grant and Sharon running the pub together) I think the Mitchells have had their day in there.

can we set EastEnders in The Purge universe, that would make for at least one good episode once a year.

If she gets back with Grant she'll have a family

And no it doesn't necessarily need a family running it plenty of single people have run soap pubs before.

Yes, the same family she has with Phil ?

I disagree, there are several. All it takes is a bit of imagination. The pub does not belong to Danny Dyer. People used to say the same about Alfie 'he cannot work without The Vic' bah bah. He could and he did. As someone said earlier, if the Carter's need to pub to survive then they are not very strong characters to begin with so should be let go from the show to make way for one's who are.

Yep. Same thing happened to Peggy when they took her out of the Vic and it didn't work. It showed up the limitations of the character. Without the Vic Peggy was nothing. If the Carters can't survive without the Vic they shouldn't be in the show. Keeping them there because 'they wouldn't work elsewhere' is an admission that they've flopped.


Sharon worked fine as an independent character in 2001-02. The relationship with Jack flopped because it was forced (and because Jack has never had chemistry with any woman) just like the forced friendship with Tanya. They used Sharon to elevate the status of the scummy Brannings. The single mother thing also didn't work because they had her picking fights with everyone. She was like a different person entirely.

I like her with the Mitchells but it's a myth that she can't survive without them. Sharon is one of the few truly dynamic characters left.

Completely agree. If they wanted Sharon in The Vic away from the Mitchell's all they need to do is bring back Mark and recast Vicki, Sharon has her family there.

I would like to see her half brother Kris again.

Like who though?

Aside from the Mitchells, I know some have mooted the idea of Martin and Stacey but they're not flashy characters and have their hands full with two small kids. They would also need a windfall of some sort to be able to afford it. Martin's cousin, Ian, who has had money to splash over the years hasn't even had the Vic yet.


Alfie was like a spare part without the Vic and the impression one gets from interviews is that it wasn't Shane and Jessie's own choice to leave the soap.