Emmerdale

Am I alone in the fact that I intensely dislike this ridiculous "panto" storyline currenly padding out at least 10 minutes of every episode?

Apart from the fact that the child actress is irritating beyond belief, the plot is too surreal even for a bad episode of Doctor Who in the 1970s. If they don't have decent storylines then they should cut the number of episodes (and regular characters).

I hope they are not going to spin this stupidity out to be part of their Christmas Day or Boxing Day episode because no amount of brandy drenched christmas pudding would make me stay awake for it!

Emmerdale is always OTT - more so in recent years. More predictable over-dramatic storylines than any other of the main soaps.

That said, it does try to keep its continuity...well..most of the time.

It's getting a new producer soon who might turn it round.

I'm going to leap to Eden Taylor-Draper's defence here. Agreed that there are many irritating child actors in soaps and many of them girls, but Eden is certainly not one of them. Her performance is amazingly articulate but natural for someone of her age; you only have to look at her enthusiasm to see it's all one big adventure for her and any youngster that can upstage a seasoned pro like Patrick Mower as she did last night and has such great comic timing is a valued member of the cast.

As for the plot - yes it's more like Bad Girls in the country these days. No wonder the producer got the bullet!

Recently the whole show's been like a panto, with the Bionic Bears at the Christening, and Laurel's parents. IMO, the quality of the episodes needs to be more consistent, rather than just having one 'big' episode (e.g. Sadie and Cain's exit, Tom's murder, Carl's confession) every couple of months.

Also, the Sugden's are so annoying!!

I'm gonna jump to Belle Dingles defence too, and the girl who plays Abbey Branning in Enders. They are fantastic little actresses who are destined for big things. I hope they don't stay in soaps forever, their talent would be wasted.

I'm not gonna get into the whole plotline debate as i take Emmerdale for what it is. Just a bit of fun light entertainment.

Apparently the new producer already works on the soap.

Shame on you Miss H.

She reminds me of the young Bonnie Langford. Irritatingly precocious beyond belief, and someone who needed a good slap far beyond that initially provided by the midwife at birth (about 15 years slapping would've been a good start!)

Your going to have to shame me too.. I agree she's probably the best young actress in soap, she blows Ben straight out of the water, she always comes out with funny one-liners with perfect timing.

Shame on you too then dbl. The fact that this actress is given cringeworthy lines to deliver doesn't make her special. They are in no way "funny" and I wish her timing was so "off" that they were delivered after the episode had finished.

I'm going to find myself fast-forwarding through so many scenes in Emmerdale that the episodes will last little more than 15mins. Probably time to stop watching altogether methinks!

What confirmed her talent with me was the scene a while back where Belle punched Val. Brilliant comedy timing.

Another Belle fan here. Fantastic young actress.

Don't watch Hollyoaks in that case, Bonnie's cousin has just joined the cast...