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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment

Ridiculous plots are killing off our soaps

June Brown and Leonard Fenton, who played Dot Cotton and Dr Legg in EastEnders’ heyday.
Happier times: June Brown and Leonard Fenton, who played Dot Cotton and Dr Legg in EastEnders’ heyday. Photograph: BBC/PA

As a former EastEnders fan, I can tell you that it is just as bad in Albert Square as in Weatherfield (‘People are getting murdered in knicker factories!’: how Coronation Street lost the plot, 2 April). I gave up watching around last November, tired of stories that have people doing things out of character, to fit a ridiculous – supposedly shocking – narrative. And yes, more and more murders. Oh, for some intelligent, thought-provoking continuing drama.
Cathy Elder
Cardiff

• I find it so comforting to read the paper; much better than reading it online. The problem I had was folding it neatly, but after decades of trying, I’ve solved it. At the top and bottom of each pair of pages, in the centre, are two black marks about 3mm long. I pinch these between thumb and forefinger, stretch the paper across my stomach and – hey presto – I’ve a perfectly folded paper.
Keith Bomber
Ballyfrenis, County Down

• I see the current Wisden Almanack editor is one away from his half-century (Birthdays, print edition, 2 April). As a former Wisden editor over two innings and now in my 80s, I’m thinking that decades of being “cancelled” by the Guardian must be some achievement (but I’m not cancelling my subscription yet).
Graeme Wright
Editor, Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack 1987-92, 2001-02

• What I love about this headline (Andrew Bridgen must pay Matt Hancock legal fees of £40,000 in libel claim, theguardian.com, 28 March) is that it would be just as funny the other way round.
Mark Walford
London

• Every year on 1 April it is a challenge how quickly one can find the April fool article. In Monday’s Guardian there seemed to be about six of them. Tory inflation?
Alf Dubs
Labour, House of Lords

• Re Arwa Mahdawi on “the best time to have a shower” (26 March), my late father said Thursdays were best, whether he needed it or not.
Guy Smith
Langport, Somerset

• Do you have a photograph you’d like to share with Guardian readers? If so, please click here to upload it. A selection will be published in our Readers’ best photographs galleries and in the print edition on Saturdays.

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