Michael plays on Janine's maternal instincts
Michael is desperate to persuade Janine to go ahead with the wedding. He books an appointment at a 3D scan clinic and gets Janine there under false pretences. Although initially resistant, when Janine sees the amazingly clear scan, she and Michael melt and find out that they're having a girl. Later, Janine asks Michael if he still wants to get married. Shirley decides to pack up Heather's flat at long last. Shirley visits Dot at the launderette and is surprised that she's not there. When Shirley finds a depressed Dot still at home in her nightie, she enlists Cora, Patrick and Rose to help cheer her up, but their efforts fall flat. After Ian suggests to Dot that she takes time out, she arranges to have a long break visiting her granddaughter Kirsty. Ian buys Mandy and Lucy gifts, desperately trying to distract himself from the horror of Ben's secret. Ian wants to throw Mandy a party at the Vic and says he'll put it on his new credit card. Ian takes Mandy to Argee Bhajee, but is disgusted to see the Mitchells, Jay included, laughing and joking over a meal. Ian stumbles out into the night and when Mandy finds him, sobbing, he insists they leave Walford as soon as they're married.
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Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.
An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.