So it's been all over the news - what do you think of the plot? Is it groundbreaking, boundary-pushing drama or sick sensationalism? (Or indeed somewhere in between?)
For those of you who don't watch, two women, Kat and Ronnie, both gave birth to boys on New Year's Eve. For Ronnie it's the end of a long wait - she was forced to give up her firstborn for adoption at the age of 14, was later reunited with her daughter only for her to die in her arms moments later, and then suffered a miscarriage.
Soon after going home Kat was rushed to hospital after bleeding heavily; meanwhile Ronnie is horrified to discover her baby is dead. Unable to accept what she already knows, she takes the baby out into the square telling him she'll fetch help. Ronnie then hears Kat's baby crying through the pub window. In her grief she instinctively follows the cry, finds Kat's baby alone and picks him up to comfort him. Ronnie then finds herself unable to put the live baby down and pick up her dead one. Convincing herself for a moment that Kat's baby is hers, she returns home.
After Ronnie's sister visits and, seeing the state she's in, thinks the baby has died, Ronnie realises what she's done and rushes to take the baby back. However, her husband, who was stuck abroad during the birth, arrives home at that moment, sees Ronnie with the baby and naturally assumes it's his son. Ronnie struggles to tell him and then hears a scream from the pub - Kat has found 'her' baby dead.
Of course the press are all over it and ignoring the context of the plot completely, going for a 'deranged woman steals baby in sickest soap twist ever' angle. The usual green ink brigade are up in arms, but it's gone much wider this time. While I understand the objections, what gets on my nerves is the number of people I've seen complaining about the timing of the plot - mostly along the lines of 'I don't want to watch something as upsetting as cot death at Christmas'. These same people then go to claim the plot trivialises cot death - so suggesting it should only be discussed at certain times of year doesn't?
