I'm sure that back in the day the cast had to remain pasty except when there was a storyline featuring a trip abroad. Now nearly all of them are beautifully tanned year round...Kathy and Tina are particularly noticeable.

It's just unrealistic in December.

Probably because these days people love going to tanning studios because they want to be tanned. I don't get it myself tbh but I know it's popular.

Just shows how shallow and vain they all are.

Oh now, that's hardly fair. Some of them may be shallow and vain but it's still shallow to write anyone off who may "appear" that way despite they fact might be much more than their looks. I don't entirely understand the concept of vanity myself. A girl or woman who worries about her appearance isn't necessarily vain as they are insecure.

Even so, vanity to me seems a self contained flaw - harmless to anyone else so long as they don't project it onto anyone. Shallowness is quite another thing altogether - to be shallow often means overlooking others who are deemed inferior or insignificant in some way.

Personally, I don't like fake tans and I've never had one, but I understand there are different reasons why women might get them. I know some girls might be in environments where their mum's encourage it. We do tend to get some of our beauty influences from our immediate family. We think young people get all their influences from peers, but it's more complicated than that.

Paler skin is a little more in style these days anyways. The 00's were pretty tan obsessed from what I remember. I think it's easier to be pale in the UK than it is in Canada in the summer. We have hot, sunny summers and pretty much no one is pale. Except for me, lol.

The truth is quite often not fair.

Tans have become a lot more popular in recent years ans some of the cast work 10+ hour days indoors with no / little natural light.

I thought Jeannie looked a little bit overdone on her colour in Weds episode ( (I have not been able to watch last nights episode yet) and sometimes it does not fit in with the storyline at all.....after all, Joanne is supposed to have no money, her and Zach could not get the deposit together for the flat/house they were going to rent in Leeds.

It's not unrealistic, people wear fake tan all-year round. What is unrealistic is when a character comes back from hospital/prison/being on-the-run with a very non-fake, holiday tan and a new haircut

Is fake tan any different from any other measure people take to look good?

But you have to admit that some of the measures that some people take to make themselves look good actually make them look ridiculous.

It looks awful. When you get a few of the cast sitting together you get a whole colour chart from orange to mahogany. One character was sitting with her chin on her hand the other day and her face was mahogany while her hand and arm were lily white. I was so bemused that I didn't hear a word she was saying.

My Dad said this last night. There are some characters who just couldn't afford a spray tan but are permatanned all year round. Also you sometimes get a character who just wouldn't but the actor looks like they've been mahogany stained.

Yeah, there are a few realistic characters. I'm sure Lacey Turner for instance hates her wardrobe and how dowdy she looks for playing Stacey but its realistic considering her and Martin's money issues, compared to overdone Whitney who has the same issues but affords so much more.

They'll use stuff from a bottle

This is the problem for me. I understand that many of the younger and (sorry, chavvier) types will spend half their lives overdoing it in tanning salons and looking frankly ridiculous afterwards, but irl most older people don't - particularly those who don't have a pot to pee in, eg ED's Joanie.

They really need to learn how to apply the 'Ronseal' better that's for sure.

People use over the counter tans, although admittedly you never really see anyone in soapland looking streaky or patchy doing their own.

The one that always drew my attention was permanently impoverished Janice Battersby perched at the bar in the Rovers with her always perfectly applied acrylic nail extensions and highlights

I'm not sure that it's anything to do with money because Ronnie is the same. Most of the time she dresses like Carol Jackson on a bad day. Ditto Jane, who admittedly was never the sharpest dresser. The message seems to be that motherhood turns you into a drab.

Is it just me or do Ronnie and Stacey, in particular, look a right mess, lately? Their hair looks unbrushed and they now seem to wear clothes that just hang off them. Not that they need to be dolled up to the nine, but they look like they've just rolled out of bed.

would you like to elaborate

I think the minute mart must have run out of conditioner because even Denise has been sporting the tatty haired look. One day someone will let the residents into the secret that there is a high street round the corner.

I'm pretty sure that a lot of cast members nip up to Luton Airport Parkway on Thameslink (it's only 20 mins from the station that's ten mins walk from Clarendon Road) and then a quick hop on a transfer bus). From there they can board any number of budget airlines and spend the weekend in sunnier climes. Obviously a weekend in Mallorca is going to cost a few hundred and the characters are supposed to be living virtually hand to mouth. Kathy Beale, Tina, Mick and Shirley have perfect dark tans in late Dec and it does look unrealistic. Even on Towie they are sometimes pale and crack open the spray tans for evenings out.

Ronnie and Roxy's super gloss high definition hair is also out of place. I'm sure the actors can afford the upkeep but the characters (esp Roxy) ? I doubt it.

Tyler's haircut after his hospital stint was one if the worse. Ge went from that sexy hairnstyle to a skin head.

I agree, and I know people ( both male and female) who love a good spray tan but are far from shallow. It's one of those small things , that if you're into it, can make this miserable world a slightly cheerier place. What harm is there in that?

I want to know their secret. They always carry wads of cash around with them, drink endless tea/coffee in the caff, drink in the pub every night, and regular trips to the tanning salon.