Round up of all the weeks soap news

Mark gives up the ghost; Cilla sails close to the wind; Marlon has his heart set on Carrie; and Mandy cuts and runs.

06:00 17 April 2004

EastEnders

This week in Albert Square young love was not running smoothly as Sonia failed to turn up for Martin's romantic "diet-friendly" dinner. Who'd blame her? They broke up until a thunderbolt struck and Martin sought Sonia for comfort following the news that brother Mark was dead (odd, we thought he was in Sun Hill). Martin was inconsolable and travelled to the coast to tell miserable mum Pauline the terrible news. Martin's grief turned to anger as he discovered that his mother had kept the family's secret to herself. Secret? Half of London knew of Mark's plight. Then again Martin never was the sharpest tool in the box.

In a welcome respite from the Watts faaamily affair, the spotlight shifted to the old crooners of the Square who escaped to a holiday camp on the coast. Pimpy Patrick proposed to his yummy Yolande - only for her to turn him down after he fudged the romantic moment. As ever, he sought solace in Jim and a few strong drinks and inadvertently climbed into bed with a dozing Dot. They do say she's irresistible by night.

Derek recognised a long lost love at the camp and they rekindled their romance much to the chagrin of Pauline. The promise of port was enough to woo Derek back to ex-lover Robert's flat following frank exchanges about their feelings. However, an emotional farewell is in store for the courting couple.



Coronation Street

Resident callous cow Cilla has been up to no good again by cheating on lame lover Les with the aptly named "Uncle Ronnie". Son Chesney overheard her tantalising conversations and threatened to tell his surrogate dad of her deceit. The caring, sharing, sensitive mother threatened her beloved offspring into silence by menacing him with the thought of being taken into care. There's just too much love in that household.

Todd continued his lust for gay friend nurse Karl, as they shared a kiss at the latter's birthday bash. The father-to-be was left reeling by the appearance of fiance Sarah and left to contemplate his, or perhaps Karl's, close shave. As the week progressed, Todd wrestled with his conscience, balancing his feelings for his eager lover Karl with his responsibilities to his serial teen-mom girlfriend and soon-to-be stepdaughter Bethany. Will he come clean and reveal all to our Sarah?

Maya continued to raise a few eyebrows this week as her bizarre behaviour led to suspicions of disposing of poor pooch Monica. Dodgy Dev was left pondering over the stability of his future wife. Stop pondering and get out quick.



Emmerdale

Mad Marlon continued to lose the plot this week as he stalked Carrie, who received his dead wife Tricia's heart. The widower, desperate to be closer to his lost love, descended into delirium as his obsession escalated out of control. Cue the men in white coats. And about time too.

Victoria was still stunned into silence following her discovery of roving randy Robert and kinky Katie canoodling and frolicking in bed together. The fact that she never spoke anyway has not seemed to rouse cause for concern, but father Jack decided to take the little tyke to a specialist to get to the bottom of the "mystery". Whilst the philanders panicked over the possible exposure of their sordid clandestine affair, poor ugly brother and husband farmer Andy attempted to coax her into speech by taking her feed the lambs. That's enough to send anyone mute.

Elsewhere, dastardly daughter Debbie was horrified to discover that Charity had sold Noah for her freedom. What's the surprise - did she expect her scheming ex-prostitute, gold-digging femme fatale mother to do any different. Anything for a quick buck. The heartless hussy has dumped her child before, so at least she's just keeping true to form. The yappy youngster sought revenge by burning the 10,000 as the scrubber scrambled to salvage some of it for her future. Dejected, she landed a job with local gangster Tom King.



Hollyoaks

It's been a grinding week for Dan as he found it hard coping with life inside, as resident prison bully Kev taunted the defenceless innocent.

Mandy was still struggling to take care of surrogate son/half-brother Tom and enlisted Max to look after him for a few days whilst she organised a break for herself. Such a selfless soul, that one.

Ben continued to fret over the increasing fragility of his marriage following the revelation that his wife, irritating Izzy, was pregnant.