The Three Musketeers

or the three not so wise monkies, whichever you prefer .

What can be done about Garry, Minty and Heather, at the moment they are just so irritating and get awful storylines. They've had the terrible wedding competition, Minty had the 'posh bird who breaks down' storyline again! Heather had the fat and not so bright sidekick to Shirley stories.

Garry has an occasional storyline that takes him out of the dumb and dumber role, but even then his fixation with Dawn is down right creepy, and during his scenes at the registry office and the cafe he came across so slimy he must have left a trail behind him.

I'm not sure what they can do with them though. Perhaps Garry could actually find a woman that could pull him out of the mire, after all he was fine when he was with Lynne, so the actor can manage decent scenes and its not like Garry can't manage in a stable relationship.

Maybe Minty could buy the garage off Phil and we could see him go through the stress and worries of running his own business, maybe getting Claudia to help out with the books, which would also give him a love interest as well.

It's a mystery to me why so many characters with potential are binned while these three clowns go on ad infinitum. I could actually think of some good storylines for the three of them but the writers don't seem to be able to manage it at all. Last week's scenes of Minty blushing and looking gormless at the idea of being seduced by "the posh old bird" were just embarrassing. The man's closer to 50 than 15, it just made me cringe to see it. It's now been years since either Garry or Minty had a decent storyline so obviously the writers are at a loss and think chucking in a bit of so-called comedy is all that's necessary to make these people interesting. Same with Heather. Her back story about her relationship with her mum is the only interesting thing about her, without that she's just another fat clown we can laugh at every time we see her stuffing her face.

I think Bobby Davro shares our opinion, that's why he's getting out. It could have been an excellent career move for him if he hadn't been lumped in with the most useless boring characters in the programme.

I dont know why EE tries to force comedy, it either happens or it doesn't. Take Blanche in Corrie, she's bitter and twisted by hysterical at the same time, and its not because they put her in comic situations.

I cant think of any off the top of my head, but I'm sure Roxy and Christian have had the occasional comic moment, and Sean certainly had perfect comic timing. They dont need to foist fools onto us to lighten the mood.

Blanche is a natural comedian. When EE tries to be funny it's almost like they're setting somebody up with pratfalls instead of letting the humour be part of the storyline. I think Garry Minty and Heather have been done a big disservice by the writers. The actors can only work with what they're given and it's a shame they're not given better stories.