Which characters have been un/successfully recast?

[Ryan]

I think its perhaps clouded by the fact that Judy Nunn played Ailsa for 13 years and Nancye Hayes about 13 days.

[Perry]

I think when you see how well Michala did when she played Libby on Neighbours for that short amount of time it just goes to show that it could have worked had they chose the right person for the role. However in saying that I do realize Nancye had huge shoes to fill in a such a short amount of time for a massive story arc.

[beau_t]

Remember when Selina was temporarily recast right in the middle of the Chloe rape storyline? I thought the replacement actress did an excellent job. My only complaint is that the new actress was too well-spoken whereas Tempany's Selina spoke very "common". However after a few episodes I started to forget that she was recast and completely accepted the other actress in the role. I guess that's how it should always be but it rarely is.

Natalie Nash #2 brought a new lease of life to the character. The first one was rather forgettable. I can't remember whether this can be put down to the actress only or if the storylines/writing changed for the character.

As mentioned before, other characters just can't be recast. Morag has such a distinctive voice and facial expressions, it wouldn't be fair on another actress trying to take over that role (not that Cornelia would ever willingly give up the role anyway, from what I've read).

I must be one of the few who don't have a problem with Nancy Hayes' portrayal as Ailsa. She was certainly very different, but you can't say she didn't try hard or play the role sympathetically. I remember there was a point in the storyline where Ailsa shuns Shauna and says she wants nothing to do with her. I thought this was quite reminiscent of Morag/Bobby but they never mentioned that on screen.

[Red Ranger 1]

I'm not a fan of recasts, although sometimes they work.Maybe if I'd been watching in 1990 I'd have objected but Debra Lawrence played Pippa for so long, about three times longer than Vanessa Downing not including guest appearances, that it's hard not to have her as the default image.The new Natalie was good enough to quickly erase all my memories that there'd been one before her, although it was odd that she never seemed as physically affectionate towards Joel as the original, I think they kissed about twice in two years whereas the originals did it all the time.Maybe it was because, despite seeming younger, she also seemed to be more of a earth mother.(In fact, they seemed to be setting her up for that role from the recast, what with them moving into the caravan park.)

Didn't mind the new Flynn, Replacement Mitch kind of passed me by.I really liked Louise Crawford as Selina and it's a shame they wasted her on a temporary stand in job.I remember at the time there were rumours the producers were going to create a new character for her or maybe Tempany was going to leave and Louise was going to take over permanently but it never happened.(Instead she ended up on Breakers, which got buried on BBC Choice, a channel only about 10% of the country were receiving, just as I was getting into it...)Ditto Ella Scott Lynch, who I liked and always felt sorry for, given she was basically brought in for three months to finish off someone else's storyline.(Would it really have been a tragedy if Hayley hadn't gone off into the sunset with Scott?Really?)

There are times though when I think it's the wrong way to go and Ailsa's a case in point, where it would have been a lot better to rewrite the scripts and put the storyline on hold until Judy came back. Ailsa went away for a bit and came back looking like Nancye Hayes anyway and Shauna didn't even find out she was adopted until after Judy left.

One thing that I remember drawing comment:At pretty much exactly the same time, they recast Natalie(Tom's mum)and Terri(Tom's girlfriend)with actresses who looked alike.Not Freudian at all, then...

[ajm]

Dexter Make II is a lot more idiosyncratic

[beau_t]

Dexter Make II is a lot more idiosyncratic

This is more due to the writing as they changed the character.

[dncllpyk]

Rory in my opinion was an unsuccessful recast and not just because he aged five years in five months it was because the first Rory was adorable.

They did the same thing with Duncan when the recast him they aged him 4 years in a space of five months. Although on the American soaps Bold and The Beautiful for one its not uncommon for kids to grow up fast to be kids one week then an adult/teen the next. The Rachel McGregor recast worked in my opinion a) because her recast was the same age and b) she was only like five years old.

[Perry]

I don't mind Soras but I just really liked little rory plus Duncan was only aged 2 years same with VJ.

[Red Ranger 1]

I have to admit I didn't notice Rory had been recast because by the time he came back I'd forgotten what he looked like, so to me that wasn't a problem.

Duncan was born on screen in 1989 but was suddenly starting high school in 1998, so yes, he was aged up four years.VJ was born in very late 2001 but started high school in 2011, so was also aged up about three or four years.Rachel being recast did actually disappoint me a bit:Unlike VJ and arguably Rory she'd featured prominently so I found it a lot more noticeable than either of them and the original was rather cute, although sometimes these things are unavoidable when young actors decide they don't want to do it anymore.(Although the stock excuse "We want to do more adult storylines with them", which seems to be a favourite of the EastEnders production team, is supremely irritating.)I remember there were actually a few complaints about the new Rachel at the time, with one person even going as far as asking if it had been explained.

[Perry]

Duncan was born on screen in 1989 but was suddenly starting high school in 1998, so yes, he was aged up four years.

No he went from being 10 to being 12 he started year 7 in 1999 I know because I was the same age.