Yes Thanks I do know that fact ! I do it all the time .
I didnt mean they dont know each other as adults but they didnt share a childhood and it seems to have been portrayed like they did .They had no shared memories of being kids together as they were 16 years apart .I am 14 years younger than my sister and we just dont have the same childhood memories .

" Mum used to boil the sheets and towels or me and Martin would come out in hives " sounded like they were two kids snuggled on the couch after their bath ! Which didnt happen !

From what I remember of Pauline having her for a mother would be enough to bring anyone out in hives, never mind the state of the sheets.

Also didn't she used to do the washing in the laundrette where she used to work doing the service washes so unlikely to have boiled the towels and sheets.

Yes ! I mentioned this above too .She certainly was not slaving over a hot washing machine in the house !!

It's a shame that it's coming across as so forced. They are conversations that you'd expect between Michelle and Mark but obviously that can't happen. Martin is near enough a different generation.

It does feel a little forced but what is getting me is that Stacey is just standing by pulling faces. A few years ago she'd have told Michelle that it's not her house and to put up or move out.

You're spot on. I don't often post here but came back after the new years episodes and felt like I wanted to join in and discuss what's going on. Last night I see the exact same thing you're talking about with Mick though. Slagging him off and making points that make absolutely no logical or realistic sense just because they don't like the character or actor.

This is bugging me. She left when he was 9 I think. Martin was too young to remememver a lot of what Michelle and hin are talking about atleast clearly.

I like Martin. This Michelle is getting on my nerves. I don't blame Stacey for getting annoyed at all. It's her home, not Michelles. Who is she to tell them what to have or make her feel like her house is a mess. We have a family friend like that. She tells me what to do in our own house and it drives my mum mad.

I think it may be difficult with them as Martin was a baby/child and Michelle was a teenager/adult and she was close to Mark, whilst Martin spent a lot of time with Vicki. Mark was more a father figure to Martin following Arthur's death and we've never seen Michelle interact with an older Martin-when he was young, he was treated in the same way as Vicki by Michelle, and the other family.

Didn't Martin, Sonia and Bex have an extended visit to Michelle when they originally left Walford following Pauline's death. I'm sure that was the plan.

Maybe they were a massive pain in the arse and now Michelle's come for her revenge.

The new actress playing Michelle doesn't seem to fit the character at all and is giving not a bad performance, but a very irritating one. I am rarely annoyed by soap characters, but feel aggravated every time she is on-screen. It seems a poor recast to me.

It's strange, I was looking forward to the idea of a recast, but the way new Michelle is coming off is too annoying. It's strange that Stacey hasn't told her to shut her mouth yet either.

I think the new lady playing Michelle is a good enough actress, but she seems miscast. They really need to tone down the annoying house-guest 'story' and get to the crux of why she's back after all these years.

I was actually enjoying the Martin/Michelle scenes though.

I love Martin, & I am ready to accept the new lady as Michelle, but she is the house guest from hell. Fiddling with the heating, inviting guests for dinner & then expecting you to prep the food, & complaining about towels, I would have told her to sod off, long before now. And I would be asking why Martin hands over the money for new towels. Although maybe he is doing it to get the towels & being passive mad towards Stace.

The thing is, Michelle always was a bit of a know it all, somwhat interfering and as such annoying. Just ask Grant re her sticking her bib into his and Sharon's marriage!

That combined the tendency, especially is soaps, to have people become more like their Mothers as they age, this Michelle feels real to me. Couldn't you imagine Pauline making comments about the house, what you need to do to get towels soft, inviting the family round and taking over the kitchen to make meals the way Mum used to and Martin reLly likes rather than how his wife does? And Martin falling into line?

They will have a slightly different dynamic to many siblings because of the age gap and their oarents dying when they were relatively young. Given that he is much the same age as her own daughter, Chelle is bound to have a slightly maternal edge to her treatment of him which will come across as bossy and judgemental. Especially since bossy and judgemental is part of her ontrinsic personality anyway.

Yeah, I very rarely post here, but sometimes a post just catches your eye when skimming vaguely through a thread and it's like...what on earth are they talking about? I mean I'm all for people disliking characters, actors, or even recasts - bash away, it is a forum after all - but to have phantom reasons for disliking them is weird, and it's especially odd when a bunch of people jump on board with the same idea.

In regards to the new Michelle, I didn't know the previous one so I can't really compare but looking at this one as a stand-alone I would say that she's more or less inoffensive - idiosyncratic and a tad neurotic, sure - but not deeply annoying at all. Also the actress playing her seems bloody good and is very natural with the script.

Good insights.

Yes, my mum boiled the white cottons in a white enamel bucket on the gas cooker!!

I also remember Mum boiling certain items on the stove top. No washing machine back then.

The Robinson siblings were vile in every way but, oddly, believable as the spoiled children of the self-infatuated Scott and Charlene.

I've tried, I promise I have. I detest, loathe and cannot stand this incarnation of Michelle.

She cannot redeem herself now.

All that rubbish about Pauline having special towels for them and boil washing sheets!! As if!!

Pauline would have told them to just get on with it. It was a different time and children were not as "precious" as they are now. And I say that as a mother of three!!

I like what I've seen of Michelle so far and I was vehemently against her being recast

If the kids had hives Pauline would have told them to go scratch it !!

How did Martin and Stacey go from being forever skint to splashing out on stuff at the drop of a hat? Belinda and Kyle are gone so how are they flush all of a sudden?

Exactly

I'm waiting for Stacy to hit her with a fruit bowl or frying pan .