Give Irene a decent storyline!

[Foxy]

I've thought for a while it might be a good idea for Irene to fall off the wagon.....mainly to bring the character back to her roots. Over the past couple of years Irene as a character has been a bit all over the place, she has become far less of the "aussie battler" that she was for so long. Whilst character development is natural I believe with Irene she has basically been recently whatever she needs to be within ascene, without thought for who she is. It would be a good story for the 20th anniversary to my mind as it could bring back Fin and Damien, and through it we could also explore in greater depths her relationship with Belle and perhaps to a greater extent Annie as we explore Annie's strict religious upbringing in relation to such a disease. Incidentally, it would also be very interesting to see how Damien would interract with Annie (and Geoff) given his current occupation. As much as I don't want the show to repeat itself I think an alcoholic falling off the wagon isn't beyond the realms of possibility and would certainly ground Irene back to being who she was.

Edit: And I wasn't even whipped! *is offended*

[Frankie]

I dont think I would like to see her fall off the wagon... but I think it would be good to see her tempted and battling the temptation. To see her fall off the wagon would be too much of a retrograde step for someone who has come so far. I am in agreement with John and others that Irene is the natural heir to the Pippa role. They just need to work out a way for it to happen which makes it uniquely Irene.

[ter06]

We've had a couple of falling off the wagon moments with Irene down through the years so I wouldn't like that to happen again as it's just like a cheap shot at a story.

Irene's 2005 poisoning story was original, well thought out and brilliantly acted. But at the end of the day, this was Martha's story, not Irene's. I've said this heaps of times on this forum and I'll say it again. We had absolutely no fallout after this story. Irene had taken Hayley in 7 years earlier and had looked after her through thick and thin. Hayley had Irene committed and wouldn't listen to her pleas for help. Instead of having a big dramatic showdown when she was released Lynne had her two episodes off and the next time we saw Irene was at the races, whole incident forgotton and never again mentioned.

Lynne McGranger is a fantastic actress, an absolute credit to the show and she should be treasured even more now

once Kate leaves

. There is too much screen time given to bland characters like Jack, Drew and Belle when we have criminally underused characters like Irene and Leah who have been around a long time.

[John]

Actually to develop the Irene as surrogate parent/mentor a bit we have agreat set up for potential storylines at the moment. We have Irene with all her background and down to earth life wisdom in the same house as the feisty, rebellious ex street kid Belle and the Annie who is the product of an extreme, over the top isolated religious up bringing. The potential interractions between the three have real dramatic potential.

[alexx]

Well shes never actually fallen off the wagon, but shes been tempted a couple of times since giving up.

I agree she’s kinda gone away from her roots, and whilst shes ‘\matured’ I’d love for her to go threw a mid life crises and end up wearing short skirts and lime green eye shadow again!

Id also love it, and think it’s a long time coming, for Damo, Fin, Selina, Joey all came back for a while. There’s so much more to be done with Irene, she’s such a well written character, but all that work that went into creating her all those years has been wasted in the Diner kitchen over the past few years and it’s a real shame.

[chatter box]

My family love Irene, my husband adores her, and my little daughter wants "Weenie" to be her Mummy. (What am I doing wrong?) Lynne is a wonderful actress, and is greatly under used and under rated in my view.

What I like about Irene is that she is fallible, she was never perfect and has faults like the rest of us. She always picks herself up no matter what happens and gets on with things. That is an admirable quality. I would hate to see her go back to the booze, but I could see her being tested. A return to the bottle would be insulting to the characters progress so far. She needs new challenges, not old ones. I also agree that the current set up at The Beach House has enormous potential. I may be wrong but I think Belle's adoptive parents were quite religious and Belle rejected that. Annie was brought up in a religious household and has embraced it. We know that Irene has faith, though she is not a regular church goer, so the potential for conflicts and exploring issues in that set up is enormous. I would also like to see Geoff in that household as well. I have always liked Irene's relationships with the boys in her care, she is great Mum to teenage boys, and Geoff is very different from all of the others.

Of course, if I had a magic wand, I would also like to see Barry come back, as that relationship was another one which worked wonderfully but was virtually ignored by the writers for some reason. I often wonder if the writers actually noticed how magical they were and if not why they did not. (Something like the story in the winning entry by Eduardo Bearo in the script writing competition would be excellent way to bring him back).

I always felt that Daniel Bennett never "got" Irene, although the poisoning story line was one of my all time favourites. He missed a lot of opportunities in that by making the fall out about Martha and not about Irene. She is far too good to be confined to doling out cups of tea and the odd bit of sage advice. It was so nice to see her going into bat for Annie last week, and I hope that this was the beginning of the comeback. As Bevan is now returning I am hopeful that he will recognise what he has in Irene and that we will see some really gutsy and meaty stories for her. It is long over due.

[MissCongeniality]

You will get absolutely no argument from me as far as this thread goes. Irene needs a huge story line, and I am more than happy to kick off the BRING BACK BARRY campaign !!!

[Skykat]

Couldn't agree more with everything that has been said. She's such a great character and actress that she deserves the chance to shine. While I can see the potential for her interraction with Geoff and Annie I'd also like to see her have a storyline in her own right. Was I the only one who thought there was something really nice between her and Tony after Beth died? Not necessarily a relationship but a really strong friendship at least? I'd love to see more happen with that.

*And I was whipped Nick *

[John]

Couldn't agree more with everything that has been said. She's such a great character and actress that she deserves the chance to shine. While I can see the potential for her interraction with Geoff and Annie I'd also like to see her have a storyline in her own right. Was I the only one who thought there was something really nice between her and Tony after Beth died? Not necessarily a relationship but a really strong friendship at least? I'd love to see more happen with that.

*And I was whipped Nick *

The Tony/Irene friendship would be an interesting one. I think if it was to develop romantically it would have to be a long term story arc. Perhaps Tony could turn to alcohol gradually becoming worse and worse until he starts to fail in his job, at home etc. Irene could be the one he turned to to cope with the problem and through that interraction a friendship and eventually a relationship would develop.

It's no secret I guess that I'm much more a fan of longer term relationship storylines rather than the "g'day, where's the bedroom, thanks I'm outa here!!" ones we get so often.

[*Maggie*]

You will get absolutely no argument from me as far as this thread goes. Irene needs a huge story line, and I am more than happy to kick off the BRING BACK BARRY campaign !!!

I knew it could not be long before the Barry and Irene fans crept out of the woodwork in this thread. I wholeheartedly agree with you.

The Tony/Irene friendship would be an interesting one. I think if it was to develop romantically it would have to be a long term story arc. Perhaps Tony could turn to alcohol gradually becoming worse and worse until he starts to fail in his job, at home etc. Irene could be the one he turned to to cope with the problem and through that interraction a friendship and eventually a relationship would develop.

It's no secret I guess that I'm much more a fan of longer term relationship story lines rather than the "g'day, where's the bedroom, thanks I'm outa here!!" ones we get so often.

I am in agreement that the jump into bed on the first date type of story line is not my cup of tea. It makes sex and love seem cheap and tacky. However, I do not think Irene and Tony in a relationship which is based on anything but that of friends will work. Like Irene and Alf, Irene and Tony are firm friends. To introduce romance and or sex into the equation would be to devalue these friendships and to imply that men and women can not be simply that, great friends. Friendship is a form of love, and one which is undervalued today. I do however, like the idea that Irene would help her friend through an experience like becoming alcohol dependent.

I am very fond of Irene as a character and she has so much to offer. Lynne is fantastic as Irene, and brings such fun and likability to the role. Like others I see her as the person who could take on the central Mum role and do so with style and originality. My fear is that they will try to pair her off with Alf for example and that would leave them both with little else to do but argue, as they surely would, and to hand out advice and cups of tea in the diner, or drinks in Noah's bar. Apart from that I am still waiting for lovable Barry to return, so Alf is a no no as far as this fan is concerned!

The bottom line is this though. Irene/Lynne needs, and deserves, a much bigger role in the week to week proceedings and some really strong story lines.

Query: What are all the whip references?