Should she remain or leave?
The plotline of one significant character on EastEnders is being called out by viewers who allege that the show’s creators “ruined” it years ago. Just a few days before Christmas in 2013, Linda Carter was Kellie Bright’s first appearance on the Albert Square stage.
As show executives tried to increase ratings, she and her on-screen sidekick Mick (played by Danny Dyer) mixed up the cast in an unprecedented way. Linda relocated her family from her mother’s bar in Watford to The Queen Vic, where she would later become its illustrious landlady.
Since then, she has intermittently filled a regular role on the show while on maternity leave. After tumbling down the stairs and giving birth to a preterm baby, she also battled to accept the fact that her son Johnny is gay and was sexually raped by Matt Di Angelo’s character Dean Wicks. Many fans fell in love with her and watched as she dealt with these and other situations.
Danny Dyer eventually left the soap opera when Linda and Mick divorced earlier this year after Mick had an affair with Janine Butcher. After that, ardent fans of the programme debated whether Kellie Bright should follow in his footsteps on a DigitalSpy forum. The majority of those surveyed supported maintaining the character, while almost half of them wanted her gone.
A follower wrote: “To be quite honest, I believe that all of the Carters should depart. I’d like to learn more about Linda’s family if she decides to stay. We only know that her mother is Elaine Peacock and that her father, John, is deceased. Even if Elaine has other relatives, I don’t want her to come back.”
Added by a second “Although Linda’s character was destroyed by the Max scandal, Kellie Bright is a fantastic actress and one of the best on the show. I wish she were gone.” A third person added: “Since the first time Linda and Mick entered the square, I have detested them. I think the rest of their family is good.”
A fourth said that the long-running BBC soap drama needs new actors and stated that it is “time for the Carter family to leave.” Many fans demanded that the show’s plotline exclude her character, but many more came to her defence.
One person expressed interest in watching how she changes away from the nearly ten-year diet of marriage problems and every storyline she receives invariably focusing on Mick one more said: “Linda ought to stay now that Mick is leaving. She may make a compelling character on her own even though they are terrible together.”
