Scrabbler's started a thread on Digital Spy fora wondering whether or not Shirley should leave. The poll stands virtually evenly divided, but I'm cynic enough to think that various people opened multiple accounts to try to convince the public of Shirley's relevance, when the character becomes more irrelevant with each day that passes.
Someone reminded me recently that Shirley survived as a stand-alone independent character when she first arrived. This is true, but when she showed up in Walford, her purpose was to re-connect with the children she abandoned when they were small. Her ex-husband lived in Walford. She worked in the pub, so she interacted with and got to know the locals. Shortly thereafter, her friend Heather showed up. She had a romance - first with a Polish builder, then with Vinnie Monks.
But all this has disappeared now. Her children have gone, and according to Lorraine Newman, there are no plans for either Kellie Shirley (Carly) or Matt di Angelo (Dean) to return, although scores of people (myself included) would love to see Dean Wicks back on the Square. Kevin is dead. So is Heather. In the aftermath of Vinnie's departure, since 2009, Shirley devoted herself entirely to Phil, and now that's destroyed too.
I'll be the first to admit, I'd love to see Shirley's children return to the Square. We've never seen her as a mother, and I'm sorry to dispel the horny old troll ...
who's pushing the meme that Shirley abandoned her children "for their betterment," recognising that she wasn't maternally inclined in the slightest; but that's a load of steaming horseshit.
Shirley left her kids because she was bored and selfish. She as good as admitted this to Carly last year - that she got pissed off at having to spend so much time with three small children, one of whom had special needs and as - in her words - clingy. She skipped off to party down the 80s with Heather, a sweet, malleable and simple-minded friend who was terminally locked in a fantasy adolescence. Shirley couldn't mother her own children, so she spent the rest of her life mothering Heather - except she recognised that Heather was an adult, which meant that whenever Shirl got the sniff of a man, she could swan off and leave Heather to wallow in it without compunction.
Still, she never returned to her children's lives until after they were adults, never returned when she heard her oldest had died. She left her husband to do the heavy work of bringing them up on his own - with two of them not even his own children; and she expected to be welcomed back into the family fold.
Shirley also encouraged the worst aspects of Phil's personality. Plainly put, she loved Phil, but he tolerated her. He was her key to power and influence, and to him, she was just a warm and willing body. She wasn't even his type. Knowing that Phil was a recovering alcoholic, when he fell off the wagon and slept with her the first time, she drank with and kept him drunk in order to further the relationship. When Phil sobered up, the only way he ended up in a relationship with Shirley was down to her contrived lie to Social Services to make them think she and Phil were engaged so Phil could get temporary custody of Louise, his daughter. After that, Shirley was just a housekeeper whom his son favoured and who slept with the boss. Phil was unfaithful to her and couldn't promise subsequent fidelity, even though they had somehow managed to get engaged.
After all of that, he chose to protect his son, who murdered Shirley's best friend. Even when Shirley discovered this, she still didn't shop Phil to the police for his part in the cover-up. Now that was a big betrayal of Heather.
There isn't even a reason for Shirley to stick around to tell Roxy about Phil scamming her last £25k - money Shirley helped to spend as well - because Phil planted £25k on Glenda and made Roxy believe her mum had scammed her money. So Roxy got the money Phil and Shirley stole returned to her, at her mother's expense.
Felixrex, on Digital Spy soaps forum, is correct in assessing that Shirley isn't being developed as a character because the current crop of writers are concentrating on their select favourites - reuniting Alfie and Kat (a year-long process), ensuring that Tanya and Jack (both Brannings) have sufficiently long and drawn-out leaving lines, making certain that Max and Kirsty go round and round in circles and "entertaining" us with that Alpha couple, Joey and Lauren.
I agree with what another poster said - we're being force-fed Bianca and Kat at the expense of Shirley, who has nothing and no one to redeem her, except a pithy job at a fast food joint. She's been relegated to a second-rate chorus figure who pops up here and there either to give sage advice in a one-off situation - to Kat about how win back a husband on whom she's cheated repeatedly (like Shirley really succeeded in that one in her situation) and parenting advice to Bianca regarding Liam's situation (because Shirley was such a great parent, right?). Otherwise, she's baiting Jack to kill Phil, something she's too cowardly to do, herself, basically because she's hating on herself for still loving Phil above everything else in her life. Why else would she have returned to Walford, leaving her daughter and grandson, for a place that harbours nothing but bad memories?
Felixrex is dead-on in his reckoning that Shirley is being abandoned to a background status by lazy writers. I'd also call them shallow, because in the world of beauty and hotness that EastEnders has become these days, Shirley simply isn't interesting because she's not pretty enough. Just like Phil and Max are often dissed, even when they are in the right as opposed to others because they are bald and ordinary.
Someone reminded me recently that Shirley survived as a stand-alone independent character when she first arrived. This is true, but when she showed up in Walford, her purpose was to re-connect with the children she abandoned when they were small. Her ex-husband lived in Walford. She worked in the pub, so she interacted with and got to know the locals. Shortly thereafter, her friend Heather showed up. She had a romance - first with a Polish builder, then with Vinnie Monks.
But all this has disappeared now. Her children have gone, and according to Lorraine Newman, there are no plans for either Kellie Shirley (Carly) or Matt di Angelo (Dean) to return, although scores of people (myself included) would love to see Dean Wicks back on the Square. Kevin is dead. So is Heather. In the aftermath of Vinnie's departure, since 2009, Shirley devoted herself entirely to Phil, and now that's destroyed too.
I'll be the first to admit, I'd love to see Shirley's children return to the Square. We've never seen her as a mother, and I'm sorry to dispel the horny old troll ...
Shirley left her kids because she was bored and selfish. She as good as admitted this to Carly last year - that she got pissed off at having to spend so much time with three small children, one of whom had special needs and as - in her words - clingy. She skipped off to party down the 80s with Heather, a sweet, malleable and simple-minded friend who was terminally locked in a fantasy adolescence. Shirley couldn't mother her own children, so she spent the rest of her life mothering Heather - except she recognised that Heather was an adult, which meant that whenever Shirl got the sniff of a man, she could swan off and leave Heather to wallow in it without compunction.
Still, she never returned to her children's lives until after they were adults, never returned when she heard her oldest had died. She left her husband to do the heavy work of bringing them up on his own - with two of them not even his own children; and she expected to be welcomed back into the family fold.
Shirley also encouraged the worst aspects of Phil's personality. Plainly put, she loved Phil, but he tolerated her. He was her key to power and influence, and to him, she was just a warm and willing body. She wasn't even his type. Knowing that Phil was a recovering alcoholic, when he fell off the wagon and slept with her the first time, she drank with and kept him drunk in order to further the relationship. When Phil sobered up, the only way he ended up in a relationship with Shirley was down to her contrived lie to Social Services to make them think she and Phil were engaged so Phil could get temporary custody of Louise, his daughter. After that, Shirley was just a housekeeper whom his son favoured and who slept with the boss. Phil was unfaithful to her and couldn't promise subsequent fidelity, even though they had somehow managed to get engaged.
After all of that, he chose to protect his son, who murdered Shirley's best friend. Even when Shirley discovered this, she still didn't shop Phil to the police for his part in the cover-up. Now that was a big betrayal of Heather.
There isn't even a reason for Shirley to stick around to tell Roxy about Phil scamming her last £25k - money Shirley helped to spend as well - because Phil planted £25k on Glenda and made Roxy believe her mum had scammed her money. So Roxy got the money Phil and Shirley stole returned to her, at her mother's expense.
Felixrex, on Digital Spy soaps forum, is correct in assessing that Shirley isn't being developed as a character because the current crop of writers are concentrating on their select favourites - reuniting Alfie and Kat (a year-long process), ensuring that Tanya and Jack (both Brannings) have sufficiently long and drawn-out leaving lines, making certain that Max and Kirsty go round and round in circles and "entertaining" us with that Alpha couple, Joey and Lauren.
I agree with what another poster said - we're being force-fed Bianca and Kat at the expense of Shirley, who has nothing and no one to redeem her, except a pithy job at a fast food joint. She's been relegated to a second-rate chorus figure who pops up here and there either to give sage advice in a one-off situation - to Kat about how win back a husband on whom she's cheated repeatedly (like Shirley really succeeded in that one in her situation) and parenting advice to Bianca regarding Liam's situation (because Shirley was such a great parent, right?). Otherwise, she's baiting Jack to kill Phil, something she's too cowardly to do, herself, basically because she's hating on herself for still loving Phil above everything else in her life. Why else would she have returned to Walford, leaving her daughter and grandson, for a place that harbours nothing but bad memories?
Felixrex is dead-on in his reckoning that Shirley is being abandoned to a background status by lazy writers. I'd also call them shallow, because in the world of beauty and hotness that EastEnders has become these days, Shirley simply isn't interesting because she's not pretty enough. Just like Phil and Max are often dissed, even when they are in the right as opposed to others because they are bald and ordinary.
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