When the news came out that Phil Mitchell was going to be shot in EastEnders, you could have been excused a feeling of deja vu. The Who Shot Phil? scenario is a blatant attempt to emulate the Who Killed JR? furore 21 years ago when Larry Hagman's devious Texas oil man was on the receiving end of a bullet.

That particular episode of Dallas was watched by 300 million viewers in 56 countries. While numbers watching EastEnders won't reach that level, the mystery will help boost BBC1's soap in the on-going ratings battle with ITV.

No one can doubt that going public with Phil's fate a good two months in advance of the actual screening was part of a carefully-orchestrated publicity campaign to build up viewers' expectations before the fateful day.

It lets us in on the secret so that during the run-up to the shooting we can appreciate why Phil is going around making enemies of everyone he meets. This ensures every resident of Albert Square has a motive for pulling the trigger, even if it means that Phil has to undergo a complete change of character into Mr Mean And Very Nasty.

EastEnders producers are taking no chances by bringing back several old faces, Sharon and Dan, to add to the list of usual suspects.

Inevitably, bookmakers are taking bets on whodunit (my money, if I chose to donate it to the local betting shop, would be on Sharon) while the producers claim the identity of the gunman or woman is a closely-guarded secret, known only to a few people. What really matters is not whodunit but how long they can string out the story to keep viewers hooked.

The Who Shot Phil? incident also demonstrates that there aren't enough soap plots to go round. The situation is going to get worse as soaps are used increasingly to bolster the schedules. We already have Emmerdale five nights a week and the planned extra episode of EastEnders will bring it in line with four-times-a-week Coronation Street. And Crossroads returns to ITV next month, stripped five times across the week to replace Home And Away which has defected to Channel 5.

If Who Shot Phil? is only Who Shot JR? in another guise, then it's not the only copycat storyline. Neighbours has always induced a feeling that you're watching the same plots time and time again but with different characters. Now it's spreading to the primetime soaps. Bev will walk down the aisle in Channel 4's Brookside with Lance's gay foreign boyfriend so he can stay in this country. In return, camp Lance will provide her with another child, intending to do the dirty deed in person rather than use the turkey baster method favoured by Close resident and surrogate mother Jacqui Dixon. But that's another story...

It's hardly two minutes since Emmerdale's Tricia married Jason's gay Aussie boyfriend so he too could remain over here. Clearly the Government's new immigrants laws are badly needed in soapland.

When Sarah Louise gave birth in Coronation Street, she was billed as soap's first schoolgirl mum. She wasn't. Emmerdale had already been through all that. And then EastEnders' Sonia added to the under-age pregnancies figures by going into labour in Albert Square. The writers managed to wring a different twist on the tale by having Sonia give her baby away and getting engaged in a custody battle with grimacing grandmother Pauline The Cardigan Fowler.

Tug-of-love children are two a penny in soaps. Beppe is involved in a tussle with Sandra over young son Joe in EastEnders, while Coronation Street is pitting old sparring partners Ken Barlow and Mike Baldwin against each other for custody of Adam, the grandson/son (delete where applicable) they didn't know they had.

Long-lost or unknown relatives are essential tools of a soap scriptwriter so it's hardly surprising when series follow the same stories. Forgotten relatives are forever turning up on Bernice's doorstep in Emmerdale. Ken Barlow must dread a knock on the door. In recent months his long-lost son and daughter have both come calling with the aforementioned grandson.

Only Brookside remains aloof from the missing family syndrome, being too busy in recent months with its lesbian stalker. So far, no other soap has adopted this storyline but it can only be a matter of time.

Billy Elliot's failure to make the best picture Oscar list was probably more to do with the slickness of the Miramax publicity machine than the merits of the made-in-the-North-East feelgood drama.

Gladiator, Erin Brokovich, Traffic and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon were virtually guaranteed nominations leaving the likes of Billy Elliot, Almost Famous and Chocolat jostling for the final place. Chocolat comes from Miramax, a company with an enviable record of Oscar success. The English Patient, which won nine Oscars, was theirs. So was best picture winner Shakespeare In Love. Last year Miramax's The Cider House Rules received a number of nominations.

Miramax has the knack of finding the ideal Oscar movie and spending a lot of money promoting its merits come voting time. Such movies are commercial but with an art house feel. If they're period pieces with a few English theatre actors (preferably Judi Dench) in the cast so much the better. Poor old working class Billy Elliot didn't stand a chance, although Yorkshire folk can take heart that Chocolat is based on a book by a former teacher from Barnsley, Joanne Harris.

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