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Do soap comebacks work?

Posted by Remote Control on April 8, 2008 12:05 AM | 

It's been written down the side of buses. It's been heard on radio and TV adverts across the BBC. And it's a voice which shatters the glass of the Queen Vic.

Yes, tonight, Bianca Jackson comes face-to-face with estranged husband Ricky Butcher and, we are assured, we'll once again hear the immortal phrase: "Rickaaaaaaay."

But, quick headlines apart, do soap comebacks ever work?

Dirty Den's comeback to Eastenders was a dismal failure, Bet Lynch's comeback to Coronation Street simply didn't work. Yet the return of Tracy Barlow to Coronation Street was a ratings winner, Sharon Watts seemed to settle back into Eastenders, and Paul Daniels is perfectly at home back on Ramsay Street.

On seconds thought, lets knock back the idea of Neighbours. After all, this is soap which welcomed home Harold Bishop after he'd been lost at sea for seven years. In other words, lets try and keep this one real.

But for the soaps which do try and keep it real - Eastenders, Coronation Street and, to a lesser extend, Emmerdale - there appears to be a key theme in returning characters: Make them a parody and they will fail.

Think about it. Bet Lynch comes back, all leopard skin and long-tipped cigerettes and what do we think? "She's not what she used to be." Den Watts comes back and we think "This is just daft, he died in a canal ten years ago." And when he tried to return to his gangster ways, we just thought: "Can't you come up with something new?"

Then take the return of Phil Mitchell to Eastenders. Yes, the whole gangster thing got a bit carried away from time to time, but his character is ultimately one which has slipped back into life in Walford, and moved on. The same applied to Tracy Barlow when she suddenly returned. And, crucially, the script writers slowly worked the character up to the big exit.

In other words, if a returning character is to work, they have to have travelled with Easyjet: With as little luggage as possible.

Ricky Butcher will quite probably do that. His character already seems at home on the Square, and not out of place. Bianca, on the other hand, I have less hope for. I don't remember her being some sort of uber-chav when she left the Square. Gobby, yes. Loud, yes. ASBO material? No.

So when we hear the Rickaaaaaaaaay echo around Albert Square, I'll be hoping a bit more work has gone into Bianca's return. Because time moves on, even for soap's biggest names.

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