Admiring Big Ben

Honestly, I'm the same because I think Wadey is actually the worst producer in the last 10 years and I don't want him getting his grubby little hands on Ben.

He's genuinely ruining everything and everyone on the show right now. Thank god he didn't have Ben for long enough to do any serious damage because I honestly think Ben himself was written fairly well during his stint (everyone else was written so shit though).

But I just KNOW Wadey would get him all wrong if he brought him back permanently. And then possibly even kill him off.

RIP Zoe. Show is in the trenches right now.

That said, I totally get what you mean about missing him a ton. And I miss Ballum too which makes it frustrating because I want Ben back to put them back together but not under Wadey.

Hmm, maybe. I don't know the exact timing.

All I've heard is they were expecting him back.

Personally, I think the vibes were off when he confirmed the second leg. That was the end of September and Tony left Twitter around that time. I was super pissed off then because the Jonno stuff went nowhere.

Even before that though, from what I heard, people had been to see him at Murder at Midnight and asked him if he was returning, but he said he wasn't. That the show had asked but he was too busy.

Almost all the post-Ben plots got dropped like hot potatoes after October. The whole thing with Lexi never got addressed. Phil had that one line in December that never went anywhere.

The Tim plot felt to me like it was being rewritten because it disappeared for months, had some weird discontinuity to it, and then only came back properly in February or March to be wrapped up in 3 weeks, which would have been 5-6 months after they filmed Ben's guest stint.

If Max turned down a full time return after he filmed in August, then they'd have had to change plans in September, writing would have taken place in October/November and filming in December/January to be aired February/March.

But, in fairness, some of the changes might have been because Jay didn't come back.

To save people watching, Kathy went to visit Ian in prison and said she'd called Ben for advice.

And then they destroyed them.

AFAIK it hasn't been confirmed but I think it's true. That's what I've heard anyway. I don't expect anyone to trust me on that.

But at this point the theory makes sense to me with the way the whole Callum/Lexi storyline has been written post-Ben's stint.

I don't think the plot was intended to go this way.

But off the top of my head, for what it's worth, I don't think you're an idiot about your prev ask. I just think it's not going to work.

They had chances and they dropped them. That's the writers making those decisions and I give them some credit them for that because at least I think they realised it wasn't working.

Ballum fans would never have been OK with the sl but if the GA hates it, that's a sign of the quality of the material. And they really haven't responded.

The motto of starting the way you mean to finish comes to mind.

I just don't think it will work. Sometimes storylines don't. There's no chemistry, there's no depth, there's no apparent interest from show or audience, the actors don't seem convinced, the writing has been bad, the drama has been a total letdown, etc. etc.

I don't see how it can be salvaged in any shape or form.

Well you're right that I don't want that.

I understand your point from a writing perspective but I don't want a love triangle. I have no interest in that. That's boring and we know the answer already.

So the stakes are already dead before we start.

I doubt it'll happen anyway. The writers have no interest in the characters in question. Otherwise they would have built it up already. There's a reason almost 90% of their storyline has been offscreen, nothing actually happens with them, and they seem to have no running plot right now.

The writers don't care and they can't make the audience care either. And the audience really don't care. It doesn't help the writing is so nonsensical.

Maybe if Ben was coming back in the near future they would build it up, but as that doesn't seem likely there's no point in continuing the relationship in my opinion.

Even if Ben were to return this year, I fully expect the development of Callum's relationship would be rushed over a few weeks or months. The affair was.

To be fair, I think relationships in general this era aren't well developed anyway.

But even in a different era, under a future, hopefully better, EP, there's only a slim chance Callum would be treated any differently than he is now. Callum has survived 6 different regimes at this point and the only one where Callum actually resembled a main character was the second under Oates.

If I were in charge I'd scrap the whole Callum plot, split him and Johnny up, and think of another storyline to bring Ben back to. This one, in my opinion, isn't going to work. Except for Ben, the characters are not strong enough, the writing isn't there, and I don't believe the show's heart is in it.

Callum is no longer a character who can handle being in the centre of a love triangle plot. Nor, frankly, is Johnny. They are too sidelined and underdeveloped to matter.

Maybe they intended at one point for Johnny to be a bigger character but I doubt that now. He's so irrelevant and the writing hasn't worked. Nor, frankly, has the acting.

Get rid of Johnny (or Callum, I'm flexible) and bring Ben back to another storyline in which Callum can play a supporting role that eventually leads back to a Ballum reunion.

I believe I know the kind of character Callum is and what the writers think of him. They just have absolutely no interest and he doesn't suit the storyline Wadey tried to give him.

Maybe Wadey overestimated Callum (and Johnny), I don't know. He did work on the show in 2019/2020 when Callum was much more prominent than he is now.

But you only have to look over the last 6 years to see this plot was doomed. Because time and again, opportunities have arisen for Callum to have a plot only for the writers to run away with the ball at the last minute.

Did Callum get to process the separation in 2022? Did he get a storyline out of Ben going to prison in 2024?

Did he get a storyline out of the affair and the fallout with the Mitchells and Lexi? Did he get to mourn or be angry about Jay leaving?

Remember when Johnny was buying presents for Lexi and Callum was going to talk to him about it and put his foot down?

It just doesn't happen. Even Callum's material after the Tim debacle has been nonexistent, whilst Johnny's has been extremely minimal.

In my view it's not going to work. They've tried and tried and it failed every time because the writers know the sort of character Callum is.

Yeah, totally appreciate this! I would love to see him in theatre and honestly I think it would be good for him to do another production. Maybe even panto if he's open to it, which he says he is so there's that.

Definitely think it would be nice to align a return with him feeling confident in his hair and appearance, Wadey getting gone after the NY, and after he's had time to do a little more work in theatre/finish his personal project.

I really, really don't want Max/Ben to return under Wadey.

In fairness, current EE may be shit but it's not like that's solely because of the Callum situation per se. He's barely in it anymore. So it's not like there's anything happening that's really irritating me beyond the fact the situation exists at all.

It's not like when watching I see them all the time and want to start throwing things at my TV. They mostly only turn up every month or so and hang around in the background, either individually or together. It's just the fact they exist at all that pisses me off.

If Wadey would just break Callum and Johnny up, or get rid of one of them, I would be able to focus. But I don't think he wants to for some reason. It's so nonsensical.

I don't know whether he's being stubborn, he's doing it to annoy us Ballum fans, he's too lazy to think of something else for them to do, or what.

My hope is that a new producer comes in and does some emergency work on the situation to rectify it. Which maybe will happen since I think a lot of what Wadey's done might get undone by whoever succeeds him.

Very reasonable. I also think realistically it isn't happening anytime soon. My instinct is that he really wants to keep going in theatre for the moment.

I wish I knew what happened last year. I also think he is open to a return at some point. I definitely think the show wants him back.

But the whole thing really feels like it's completely in limbo right now and that's such an irritating feeling for me.

I honestly don't mind Max taking his time if this whole situation with Callum resolves one way or another, but it's hard to read what they're thinking there.

If they want Max back but he doesn't want to come back just yet, then they need to find a way to tie up the loose ends from Ben's last visit.

Because they haven't in my opinion. It very much feels like something went wrong and they don't know what to do. Everybody is in the wrong place right now.

I really don't want the characters in the places they are right now for the next 2 years. That would be unbearable.

That is my fear.

Yup. I'm not surprised and I actually agree. Josh is terrible but Callum isn't much better right now.

Not that I put a lot of stock in that rating. I doubt it generally reflects the attitude of the show's audience. But in this case, you don't have to look far to see people generally don't enjoy Callum.

They've completely ruined him over the last year. I thought Clenshaw didn't like Callum but now I think that at least he understood who Callum was and preserved enough of him that he could plausibly stick around however long he wanted.

I don't think Wadey knows who Callum is at all and worse, he doesn't care one bit. He wrote Callum into a corner and he's never been more vulnerable to the axe than he is now.

It probably really is time for him to go. I don't think there's a place for him on the show anymore. Even if they get Ben back, I'm not sure what Callum would really contribute to any of that.

I'm sorry it took me a while to respond anon but I have been away and I didn't really know what to say.

I agree he's vulnerable to the axe. They clearly don't care about the character. Which is fine by me now.

They gave themselves every opportunity to develop Callum and ran in the opposite direction. The affair was shit and should never have happened.

The Mitchell vs Callum stuff went nowhere. Lexi acting out went nowhere. Nothing goes anywhere with Callum.

Callum's in the worst position in his entire 7 years on the show if you ask me. They don't want to address the stuff they've swept under the rug with Ben/Lexi/the Mitchells, and his relationship with Johnny is boring, pointless, and unpopular to boot, so where does that leave him?

If he gets axed, he gets axed. I'll probably be relieved, truth be told.

I can't tell you how little interest I have in Callum or his relationship with Johnny. I'd rather they both exploded in a gruesome fiery death than devote even a second more screentime to either of them.