Inside Soap UK 40 - 2016

As you read this, we’ll be nursing sore heads and swapping gossip, because we’ll just have completed this year’s Inside Soap Awards. You can see the full list of winners over on p34. But what I love about the world of soap is that it just keeps moving on, so the stories you read about this week will be the plots that will be fighting it out in next year’s Inside Soap Awards. In fact, I think I’ll hand out some of those trophies right now! The award for Best Steal From A Hit Movie goes to Emmerdale’s James and his new life of Misery (see over the page). The gong for Exit We Most Don’t Want To Happen goes to Les and Pam on p36 (please change your mind,…

“EMMA JUST WANTS TO KEEP JAMES EXACTLY WHERE SHE CAN SEE HIM!” Love rat James Barton is trapped in his own home by unhinged fianceé Emma this week – after she discovers that he cheated on her with Moira again! Emma overhears a bitter showdown between her husband-to-be and son Ross, and the violent altercation between the two men ends with James breaking his leg. At the hospital, Emma is distraught as she chances upon Ross berating his dad for the incident with Moira. So after James is discharged, Emma offers to nurse him at home – but her offer is a smokescreen for a much more sinister plan… “Emma wants to keep James where she can see him and so he can’t go anywhere near Moira,” explains Bill Ward,…

How was it filming this plot with Gillian Kearney, aka Emma? Oh, it was great fun! This writing was so enjoyable to act, as it’s such high drama, with James and Emma really going at each other. Emma has shown some disturbing behaviour over the years – are we finally seeing her turn into a full-blown villain? I think it’s more interesting than that. Emma is clearly in love with James, and everything she does comes from a place of love. And remember that James is not that good a man. He’d like to be, but he isn’t. He’s been unfaithful to Emma again with the same woman as before, Moira! So you don’t really have a baddy and a goody. You just have two flawed people trying to make…

“LEANNE AND NICK SUMMON STEVE TO THEIR FLAT AND ASK HIM TO TAKE THE TEST” Daddy fool Steve McDonald struggles to keep his baby bombshell under wraps this week, after he gets worrying news that could affect the health of his unborn kids! Upon receiving a phone call from his father, Jim, Steve finds out his dad has been diagnosed with myotonic dystrophy – a genetic disorder that can cause muscular problems for adults in later life. So as Steve deals with the possibility that he too carries the disease, there is a chance that his daughter, Amy, and the children that he is expecting with Michelle and Leanne are at risk as well… “As per usual, Steve reacts oddly and doesn’t want to know,” reveals actor Simon Gregson, who…

STEVE’S ON VERY THIN ICE… If Steve doesn’t keep to his word, there is nothing stopping Leanne from telling Michelle the whole sordid truth. And if that happens, will his marriage be over? “Yes, without a doubt!” declares Simon. “Maybe if Steve hadn’t run off with Becky [Granger] when he and Michelle were first together, he might have got away with it. But the fact he’s done it to her before means there wouldn’t be any coming back for them this time. “Unless Steve and Michelle choose to move away from Coronation Street, he will be at the mercy of Nick and Leanne for the rest of his life…”…

Our jaws hit the floor when Walford bosses confirmed that the Mitchell sisters would be bowing out of Albert Square in dramatic fashion. But the shock of that news is nothing compared with the latest bombshell to be dropped – with gossip in the press suggesting that Ronnie and Roxy are being sensationally killed off in a double death drama on New Year’s Eve! Viewers will have to wait to see whether the whispers are true. In the meantime, here’s Inside Soap’s own take on whether the siblings should live or die… SAVE THEM! …says Laura-Jayne Tyler, news editor As much as we love a dramatic soap death (or two), Ronnie and Roxy are characters who should be on EastEnders’ ‘Do Not Kill Ever’ list. They’re…