Eastenders Baby Death Storyline

[deemented]

Once again, no one can live happily ever after

Ronnie's baby James, dies and she puts his body in Kat and Alfies son's crib, and steals their baby boy, Tommy.

Why oh why oh why do scriptwriters insist on portraying bereaved parents - mothers especially - as mad and deranged??? Maybe it's because they can't begin to imagine how awful the death of a child is, but really, whilst we are mad with grief, it is our own child that we want back, not someone else's stolen child. When are scriptwriters ever going to understand that?

Still, it'll be a riveting watch, no doubt.

Any friends on FB who have commented on EE have got a reply from me stating why it is so awful, and how they can complain. I am spreading the message slowly but surely!

The Press Association have picked up the number of complaints to the BBC. Lots of stories will probably now appear in the press and online using the text from this. It re-inforces the false impression that FSID were supporting this . I wonder if they will complain themselves to OFCOM about some of this reporting which hasn't included their statement about the swap? Unfortunately, it's likely that lots of joe public will now use the apparent endorsement by an expert group as a reason to see this as believable .

What's the link for complaining again? Never thought of posting htat on FB as a comment when 'friends' are talking about facebook. I have been putting comments though about how it is wrong.

I've never seen this history of mental health that people keep saying Ronnie has. I've always seen her as a strong confident business woman, hard maybe because she's been through a lot and is protecting herself but no mental health issues.

I can't see anyone with anything less than puerperal psychosis would do this, I don't believe all people with it would and it's incredibly rare anyway.

dunno how you hadnt noticed, the last few yrs i watched it (quit about 5 weeks ago)her character had always been bought over as the show's flake.

its been a standing joke amongst everyone i know.

no. id diagnose her as a sensationlised trashy soap opera version of a fruit loop.

thats the point, its not real

she has been scripted and characterised as an unhinged flake.
just as phil has been scripted as a soap opera versh of a crackhead.
everyone knows that

everyone i know cannot be ignorant of reality which doesnt exist.
however, they can be knowledegeable of soap opera internal logic, as they watched it.

personally, i kicked the habit.
its like mcDonalds, short term gratification, long term stain on ones soul.

speaking as someone whom has incurred a mental illness, btw.

I didn't hear Victoria Derbyshire discuss EE but yesterday morning Radio Newcastle called me (they have my details as I was founder of a local Sands support group and have been interviewed by them a few times). I was asked what my opinion of the EE storyline was and I told them that it was unrealistic and perpetuated the myth that we bereaved mothers were not safe to be anywhere near unattended babies. Was then asked if I would be willing to be interviewed on radio 5 live by VD which I agreed to. Radio Newcastle told me I would be called around 10.30 that morning. I was at home til 11am and received no call.I then had to leave to take my daughter to nursery and get myself to work. After reading the above posts I now wonder if I was not contacted because my opinion was the opposite to that which they wanted to hear

the above posts do agree with you.

SAF - yes, she's not been 'diagnosed' with a mental illness on the show. Simply by the way the story has been written, some people assume she has a mental illness or is 'mad'.

Yet again, for 'Ronnie' the Happy Ever After is taken away from her.

Therefore, it's no wonder she swapped her dead son for another baby, is it?

thats the point im making

and thats the argument the Beeb will come up with and your average EE fan will swallow.

clutha - arr you replying to me? Sorry if I've just repeated what you said.

'are' - nor arr. I'm not a pirate

'not' FFS Mouse, more coffee!!

labtest tbh I doubt that it was because of your opinion that you were not contacted - several people called the show (one of them was from newcastle actually), and they all said the same - that they felt the storyline was inappropriate.

Daybreak touched on the storyline and the complaints briefly in their tv round-up this morning and they had had a mixture of responses.

I sent a link to the fb boycott group to Lorraine kelly/Ben Shepherd/Philip Schofield/this morning/loose women and asked them to retweet it but none of them has done so. Someone on my twitter sent the link to Victoria Derbyshire who replied "thanks for telling me" or something along those lines - she didn't rt either..

It appears that although the media is talking about this, no-one high profile wants to be seent to be speaking out against the storyline.

hi mouseface, i was.

but wasnt picking up on your repeat, picking up on your good point.

its that little leg thing, thats what E.T. is short for

Having looked on the internet at the reports about the outrage, it is pretty clear that there are plenty of people out there willing to swallow this storyline as feasible :(

Wherever there is an article about it there will be comments underneath saying Yeah but I read about this woman who snatched a baby' or 'Yeah but it could happen' etc etc. So people really are stupid enough to think that although this storyline is dramatic 'it could happen' and in fact they have heard about it happening in real life 'a few times'

Sad, but true. The public realy do believe what they see on TV.

I agree with SAF entirely I have a psychotic mental illness, I have been a childhood sexual abuse victim which resulted in a pg and a forced termination, which I didn't want.
I didn't want to get pg again and I certainly never wanted someone elses baby I wanted this termination to fail. So much so that even while hemmorraging and having labor pains I refused medical treatment and lay down ready to die at age 15. I would rather die than have them stop the bleeding and with it any thing that remanied of my pg.

When I was pg with my son at 17 I was told he was ectopic but yet again I would rather die than terminate luckily that was not the ccase had I lost him and gone pychotic I assure you just as I was willing to die rather than lose a pg, you would never have taken my son from me, and I certainly would not have switched him because it would have been him I wanted. The story itself is just stupid and unrealistic and has so many holes.

Hello SAF

i havent been arguing agaisnt what you are saying

i was arguing against the notion that the Ronnie mitchell chatacter hasnt been presented as a fruit loop

of course she has...its a soap, you dont expect diasgnostic precision, do you

after all, in walford, no one does their shopping in a supermarket, no one owns a washing machine, and no has any friends or has sex with anyone other than those that live in their street!

i know some people beleive this shit, but most people i know think its just fiction.
And they are the bigger problem really, as its fiction they enjoy, as they are ADDICTS, and know their are better ways to fill ones brain, but just cant help themselves.
i was one of these, its a hard habit to break.

these are the folk the Beeb will use as their defence.
"look at out viewing figure, m'lud".

Which may include many people on this thread?

Having said that, although most people i know are watching it and arent offended enough by the bad taste of this storyline to be put off, they mostly have noticed the sheer far fetched ludricrousness of the whole thing to not take the notion of the story seriously.

I think EE finally jumped the shark at the beginning of the stacey/ryan story leading to stacey fleeing as exposed killer storyline, and the whole phil recovers as crackhead and becomes sex magnet to glenda side bit.

at least, until those moments, EE did have some sense of internal logic.

CrawlingInMySkin thank you for sharing that with us. x

Thats ok compared to the pain and hurt I have read on this thread the pain I have suffered is relativly small.

I just wanted to show that being abused and having a pychotic mental illness does not make you dangerous to others, and certainly not a baby snatcher. I am so sorry for all those who have lost a child I cant even imagine how painful that is.

Still no response from EE, the Beeb or Ofcom about my complaints.

Not impressed. At all.

Why are EE or FSID still not prepared to come on here?

Either Bryan Kirkwood, Samantha Janus or Joyce Epstein should be asked to answer our questions.