Not every Christmas has to be about a huge 'reveal' in the Vic, or car crashes, or "lives hanging in the balance" or people shouting at each other in the street. EastEnders was heading for burn out under the constant OTT drama of DTC and his immediate predecessors. I thought tonight was a refreshing change; a genuinely heartwarming and funny episode.

And what's this rubbish about "nothing happened"? Lee was arrested, Phil has gone in for surgery, and Max Branning returned. It wasn't as if everybody sat around twiddling their thumbs for an hour.

Fab episode.

Indeed - ask Lee if nothing happened!

I liked it. If you don't like it, don't watch it.

A change from the norm, maybe. But at what price? EE has conflict and drama embedded in its dna and for the last few weeks it seems to have undergone some kind of genetic transplant.

One of the main issues I have with tonights ep is that those story outcomes listed above were arrived at with no invention, conflict or ingenuity in the storylining. The storylining in tonights ep was shockingly bad. GCSE level Media Studies first term assignment bad.

Phil's op was on the cards and ending on his surgery was somewhat inevitable.

Lee's arrest, while slightly surprising was delivered without any build-up or counterbalance (for instance it would have been much more affecting and emotionally involving if he had been working hard to move past his internal problems, possibly saving the square in a more believable and involved way and then getting arrested with Mick seeing him get collared, bringing his world crashing down).

Max's return was also inevitable and where was the pay-off from the Lucy message to Ian? Basic screenwriting insists you leave the clue and pay it off. Max finishing the ep while cornering Ian in a dark staredown would therefore have made much better sense than his lame 'Alright Stace' announcing his return.

One cheeky line couldn't save what was a stinking episode of non-drama.

So you missed Lee being arrested? Phil going in for his transplant? Max returning to the Square? The hints that there's more to Michelle's return than meets the eye?

And aside from that the humour was on point. Honey's line about Dot's pussy is already a classic.


Well the BBC had a lot to fit in on Christmas Day. Call The Midwife was longer this year.

Clearly this had more to do with it than EE's content being deemed unsuitable for a pre-watershed slot.

This is meant to be a one hour Christmas special on a Sunday, but wouldn't have been out of place if it was on any other usual episode. In fact EE shouldn't have bothered and should have just stuck to the usual Monday episode.

A two second clip of Lee being arrested for something, is hardly anything, but it is the closest thing to any actual progressive drama, which says more about the state of the show. Phil going in for a transplant, yet again isn't a story line, it is more of the same that would have happened in any episode, and just the other day he went in for a liver.

Max returning or "more to Michelle" isn't a story line. It's just characters returning.

In comparison with other Christmas episodes, this was well and truly bang average.

In your opinion. I loved it!

It was pointless, but enjoyable. Lately I have not been feeling satisfied with the show lately, but I loved the community feel of the Christmas episodes this week, and especially liked Dot and her cat. Calling it Ethel (even though it's a male) is very sweet.