[Redway]

I enjoyed 2009 pretty much from the minute Lucas raked Trina and the highlights in the period between then and the live episode are technically EastEnders at its finest (in as much as I hated what the Archie story did to Stacey). I think the lines are blurred between that mini-period and the core bulk of 2009 and most of the latter wasn’t good at all (Nick/Dotty/Dot, Phil/Dawn, Heather and George Michael, Ronnie and Jack going round in circles and the lack of the macho presence after Terry Bates and Jase had left).

I get people getting sentimental about some of the moments in the last quarter of the year but 2007 was Santer’s best year from an objective view if nothing else. That clunky block storytelling that defined the late noughties wasn’t there in 2007 and everything happened for a reason plot-wise. His last two years all in all were like a bad hangover and I’d take 2004 over 2008/09 any day.