Torple

There are plenty of characters Hollyoaks could really do without, but I wouldn't have had at the top of that list.

I kind of wish they hadn't resurrected Silas. Although being pushed to the forefront may well go on to do wonders for the characters of Texas & Will, as it did Lynsey before, I'm not overly convinced at the moment. Unfortunately neither Bianca Hendricks-Spenlove or James Atherton are QUITE there in the terms of acting ability, and Will has been so unpleasant and secretive the past year, that at the moment it's hard to muster sympathy for him. Silas also seems to be on the verge of becoming a ridiculous caricature, and seems to be modelling himself on Pennywise the Dancing Clown ("I'll KILL YOU ALL!!!!") and Gollum ("Not my RIIIIIIIIIIIING!!!"). Having said that, anything that keeps Maddie and the teens in the background, is fine by me.

01. Groove Armada & Mutya Buena Song 4 Mutya 02. Bloc Party Flux 03. Nelly Furtado Say It Right 04. Robyn With Every Heartbeat 05. The Killers Read My Mind 06. Freemasons & Bailey Tzuke Uninvited 07. Peter, Bjorn & John Young Folks 08. Mark Ronson & Amy Winehouse Valerie 09. Rihanna Shut Up And Drive 10. Avril Lavigne When You're Gone 11. Leona Lewis Bleeding Love 12. Timbaland & OneRepublic Apologize 13. Rihanna & Jay-Z Umbrella 14. Manic Street Preachers Your Love Alone Is Not Enough 15. Take That Rule The World 16. Arcade Fire Keep The Car Running 17. Mason & Princess Superstar Perfect (Exceeder) 18. Amy Winehouse Tears Dry On Their Own 19. Calvin Harris Acceptable In The 80s 20. Sugababes About You Now

01. Snow Patrol & Martha Wainwright Set The Fire To The Third Bar 02. Chicane & Tom Jones Stoned In Love 03. Snow Patrol Chasing Cars 04. Nelly Furtado All Good Things (Come To An End) 05. Sigur Ros Hoppipolla 06. Jamelia Beware Of The Dog 07. Madonna Get Together 08. Gnarls Barkley Crazy 09. Pink Who Knew 10. Madonna Sorry 11. Jamelia Something About You 12. The Kooks Naive 13. Take That Patience 14. Nelly Furtado Maneater 15. Beyonce Irreplaceable 16. Rogue Traders Voodoo Child 17. Jose Gonzalez Heartbeats 18. The Pipettes Pull Shapes 19. Justin Timberlake SexyBack 20. Mary J Blige & U2 One

Is Buzzjack really only hitting 5k posts each week? Isn't that like a quarter of what it used to achieve? Good Lord...

Cheryl has been wonderful the last few episodes. It's easy to overlook her given she spends the vast majority of her time as a cartoon, but it's good to be reminded that Bronagh Waugh really can excel at the more dramatic material too. Really, for all the bad reputation Hollyoaks has, it's only partly deserved and for every pretty-but-vacant plank they employ (I cannot believe people genuinely consider Liberty a top 10 character), there's another genuinely very good star-in-the-making.

The only possible positive development from the continued employment of Joey Branning is that it may well render Tyler Moon NULL and VOID and he'll be shipped off quietly.

People like you are the reason otherwise good shows insist on casting TERRIBLE male actors with vaguely passable faces. Shame on you for ruining TV for us all.

01. Arcade Fire Rebellion (Lies) 02. Natalie Imbruglia Shiver 03. John Legend Ordinary People 04. KT Tunstall Suddenly I See 05. Stereophonics Dakota 06. Gorillaz Dare 07. Madonna Hung Up 08. Bloc Party Banquet 09. Chemical Brothers Galvanize 10. The Bravery An Honest Mistake 11. Royksopp What Else Is There? 12. Coldplay Speed Of Sound 13. The Killers Somebody Told Me 14. KT Tunstall Other Side Of The World 15. Sugababes Push The Button 16. Coldplay Fix You 17. Amerie 1 Thing 18. Eminem Like Toy Soldiers 19. Green Day Wake Me Up When September Ends 20. Kelly Clarkson Since U Been Gone

Good grief I've become JOSH. 01. Anastacia Left Outside Alone 02. Anastacia Sick And Tired 03. Avril Lavigne My Happy Ending 04. Snow Patrol Run 05. Sugababes Too Lost In You 06. The Killers Mr Brightside 07. Kelis & Andre 3000 Millionaire 08. Jamelia Thank You 09. Outkast Hey Ya! 10. Jamelia See It In A Boy's Eyes 11. Green Day Boulevard Of Broken Dreams 12. Keane Bedshaped 13. Keane Everybody's Changing 14. Blink-182 I Miss You 15. Kelis Milkshake 16. Keane Somewhere Only We Know 17. Alicia Keys If I Ain't Got You 18. Britney Spears Toxic 19. Damien Rice Cannonball 20. Enrique Iglesias & Kelis Not In Love

So they've cast

Good Lord what terrible results. db Boulevard, Doves and Aqualung out, and an utterly nondescript Atomic Kitten track in?

I quite like Nancy when she's in Squeaky/Uppity Mode, but for me Jessica Fox shines at the emotional plots. Both she and Ashley Taylor Dawson were tremendous during the all-too brief miscarriage storyline, utterly heartbreaking. Cindy is great when she's on form, but she badly needs to be given something to do. It does very much feel like she and Tony have now been booted into the appear-once-a-month-as-supporting-characters-only corner with the over other-30s.

I took a while to come around to Brendan, but now I'm pretty much on the same page as Jark; I'm not so fussed over the gangland nonsense, but Brendan shines at the oddball sociopathic material. He just doesn't GET people, he doesn't get social etiquette or rules, and neither does he want to. TOP TEN 01. Lynsey (for I am still in denial) 02. Brendan 03. Jacqui 04. Nancy 05. Darren 06. Barney (it's strange how sympathetic I find a walking talking caricature) 07. Mercedes (much more watchable as a psycho than a $l*t) 08. Mitzeee 09. Carmel 10. Dodger (Danny Mac is coming on in leaps and bounds, and has managed to build a fair amount to depth to a character who to all intents and purposes was supposed to just be an incredibly shallow Jack the Lad) HONOURABLE MENTIONS: Cheryl, Riley, Ash

As an aside, it's quite incredible to think that at the point of her death, Lynsey was probably the show's most popular character behind only Brendan. Not bad at all for a girl who started out as nothing more than a mousy bit-part player with a couple of lines in Hollyoaks Later, hankering after Kris the town transvestite. Girl's come a long way, and I'd say much of that is down to the likeability and acting of Karen Hassan. I hope she does well for herself outside of Hollyoaks.

She should have been true to herself, and gone with FAT PAT instead.

I think you're right on that score and he'll be the first to be fingered for the crime, but I think the idea that us viewers should consider him a genuine suspect is a little ludicrous given there's no motive whatsoever.

It was an excellent episode (and indeed an excellent week), and it shows just how good Hollyoaks can be when they put their teen focus aside for a few minutes and pay some attention to their best cast members. I'm still sorry to see Lynsey go, but from what I've read she was leaving anyway regardless of this storyline, so may as well get some drama out of it. I'm not sure why they bumped her off before Silas' return though. At the moment, my money is on the shady Dr Browning. Either Silas or Brendan's random, faceless enemies would be too obvious, Mercedes would surely be too weak from the stabbing to go out and strangle anybody (and I also like to think even she would draw the line at cold murder), Ally makes no sense because if he wanted to keep his secret (whatever it is quiet) he'd also have to go out and murder both Ste and Brendan as well, Walker would surely have more pressing matters on his mind at that particular time, and Will just makes no sense whatsoever. http://i1.cdnds.net/12/26/618x769/lynsey-shot.jpg

NOOOOOO way, they did not just do that! Gutted though I am about that, , I have to say big kudos to Hollyoaks for managing to keep that quiet. I don't think anybody was expecting at that at all, and certainly in this day and age it's nearly always IMPOSSIBLE for soaps to keep a major development like that a secret.

They should have gone with Mikeu's suggestion. Bloody hopeless, and oh so predictable. Sloppy, very sloppy.

I have to say much as I want England to go through, Italy definitely deserve it tonight. That second half of extra time was utterly appalling.

That was a quite painful 45 minutes. It comes to something when England's best hope is penalties.

01. Johnny Cash Hurt 02. Delta Goodrem Lost Without You 03. Kelly Rowland Stole 04. Coldplay Clocks 05. Evanescence My Immortal 06. Dido White Flag 07. Delta Goodrem Innocent Eyes 08. Electric Six Danger! High Voltage 09. t.A.T.u. All The Things She Said 10. The Darkness I Believe In A Thing Called Love 11. White Stripes Seven Nation Army 12. Emma Bunton Maybe 13. Black Eyed Peas Shut Up 14. Royksopp Eple 15. Will Young Leave Right Now 16. Beyonce & Jay-Z Crazy In Love 17. Michael Andrews & Gary Jules Mad World 18. R Kelly Ignition (Remix) 19. Sugababes Hole In The Head 20. Evanescence Going Under

01. Pink Just Like A Pill 02. Vanessa Carlton A Thousand Miles 03. db Boulvard Point Of View 04. Doves Pounding 05. Sugababes Stronger 06. Sugababes Freak Like Me 07. Robbie Williams Feel 08. Aaliyah More Than A Woman 09. Aqualung Strange And Beautiful 10. Coldplay The Scientist 11. Pink Don't Let Me Get Me 12. Nelly & Kelly Rowland Dilemma 13. Sophie Ellis-Bextor Murder On The Dancefloor 14. Lasgo Something 15. Justin Timberlake Like I Love You 16. Oasis Stop Crying Your Heart Out 17. Coldplay In My Place 18. Sugababes Round Round 19. Liberty X Just A Little 20. Eminem Lose Yourself

HUZZAH for Shuffle and Young Blood. And HUZZAH at Pixie Lott. Much better than 2010's result anyway.