Impaled by a rake, electrocuted by a hairdryer, tumbling into a bin & murder by car boot… soap’s most ridiculous deaths
BEING killed off is a hazard of appearing on a soap, and the best you can hope for is a memorable exit.
Corrie fans were left baffled and bemused after Monday’s episode, with Rob’s life on the line when he bounced off a wall and somersaulted over a balcony after his sister Carla pushed him down some stairs.
Though we have since found out Rob survived the fall, fans took to social media straight away in disbelief: “It’s like a Harry Hilly TV burp sketch,” one person wrote, while others called it a “farce”.
EastEnders has been rocked this week by an explosion at the Queen Vic, leaving fans fearing who might have died.
And Emmerdale is showing a limo crash storyline that has left at least one person dead and more characters lives hanging in the balance.
While they are both plausible ways for someone to be killed off, not every soap death is.
From being killed by garden tools to landing in a bin, The Sun looks at soap land’s strangest deaths over the years.
Car Boot killing
Families are known for having secrets, and Ronnie Mitchell (Samantha Womack) spent time hiding that she killed sister Roxy’s ex-boyfriend Carl White (Daniel Coonan).
EastEnders’ bosses decided against a classic murder with a knife or a gun.
Instead, they had Ronnie slam Carl’s head with a car boot which, somehow, killed him.
The killer blow came after Carl attacked Ronnie on New Year’s Eve.
She then put his body into the car boot before taking it to be crushed.
It’s certainly a memorable way to go.
Fancy dress faux pas
Hollyoaks has been lauded for dealing with serious issues like eating disorders and abusive relationships.
But when it came to their serial killer storyline in 2011 with Silas Blissett (Jeff Rawle) things took a turn for the absurd.
During his killing spree, he accidentally strangled his daughter Heidi Costello (Kim Tiddy) to death while she was dressed as cat woman after mistaking her for Lynsey Nolan (Karen Hassan).
Silas grabbed Heidi as she was walking in the skintight catsuit, high heels and mask to The Loft club.
She took her final breath just under the balcony to the venue as friends were unaware of what was happening just below them.
Shed shocker
In another ridiculous death, EastEnders’ bosses decided to kill off Trina Johnson (Sharon Duncan Brewster) using a gardening tool.
During an argument with ex-husband Lucas Johnson (Don Gilet), he shoves her off him when she tried to kiss him – behind the back of his current partner Denise Fox (Diane Parish).
The shove saw her forced onto the prongs of a rake, which punctured her throat, and she collapsed to the floor before dying.
To cover up his murder, Lucas used her drug addiction and set it up to look like an overdose.
Unbelievably, it worked and police later ruled her death as accidental due to her use of recreational drugs.
Bin drama
The most you can hope for on Coronation Street is a dignified death if you’re chosen to be killed off.
But Leo Thompkins (Joe Frost) got one of the most undignified murders possible, as it saw him land directly into a large bin.
The civil engineer placed himself in Stephen Reid’s sites after realising he was telling lies and planning to steal a large sum of cash from Audrey (Sue Nicholls).
During a heated argument outside Underworld, Stephen (Todd Boyce) whacked Leo in the head causing the civil engineer to plummet to his death and land in an industrial waste bin.
To add to the indignity of being bumped off, Leo’s body was then hauled out of the trash and moved to another location while Stephen attempted to cover up his crime.
Suicide plan
What’s the best way to take out resentment on your nearest and dearest? According to Chris Tate (Peter Amory) it’s to commit suicide and then frame them for it.
In one of the strangest plots in the dale, partially paralysed Chris decided to get back at his cheating wife Charity Dingle (Emma Atkins) by framing her for murder.
First, he spent all of his money to make sure the scheming spouse would be left with nothing.
Then, he invited his estranged wife over, having poisoned his glass of champagne. In an odd exchange, he toasts to the death of their marriage before collapsing and dying in the same spot as his dad six years earlier.
His final words to Charity were “whore”. Charity is arrested and eventually sent down for his murder – although in an even more bizarre twist she gives birth to Chris’s baby in jail and is then released in return for handing the newborn to his younger sister Zoe (Leah Bracknell).
Chris will likely have turned in his grave after seeing Charity get off the charges.
Hairdryer fire
Before Ken (William Roache) and Deirdre Barlow (Anne Kirkbride), there was Ken and Valerie Barlow (Anne Reid) who were happily married.
In 1971, the couple were planning to relocate to Jamaica with their children, Peter and Susan, but tragedy struck.
After attempting to fix her hairdryer’s dodgy plug by tightening it with a screwdriver, she plugged it in and was electrocuted.
As she fell to the floor, she knocked over an electric heater into a packing crate causing a fire – which was a full blaze by the time help arrived.
Thankfully, she was the only family member killed in the blaze, but after her death Ken sent their children away to live with their grandparents as they couldn’t cope.
While it’s a pretty odd way to die, it did allow one of soaps longest marriages to happen with Deidre and Ken.
Pub brawl
EastEnders has produced yet another ridiculous death, this time with the help of an ashtray.
In 1998 villainous Saskia Duncan (Brooke Harman) attempts to kill her ex-boyfriend Steve Owen (Martin Kemp) in a fit of range after stalking him.
While the former couple are fighting, the young club DJ Matthew Rose (Joe Absolom) walks in and is also embroiled in the fight.
During the physical fight in the back of a nightclub, Saskia attempted to strangle her former lover with his own tie.
As Steve chokes, he manages to grab a stone ashtray and then smack Saskia in the temple with the ashtray, killing her instantly.
Steve then forced Matthew to help bury the body in order to cover up the killing.
Incredibly, Steve gets away scot-free as Matthew is found guilty of manslaughter.
Stuck ring
It’s not just British soaps that have a flare for the ridiculous when it comes to character deaths.
US soap Falcon Crest, which ran from 1981 until 1990, managed to make having a large engagement ring look like a bad idea.
After suffering a brain tumour, alcoholism and amnesia, Maggie Gioberti Channing’s final end was drowning in a pool after her massive diamond ring got stuck in a grate.
She became trapped after swimming to the bottom of the pool to collect toys that had been left behind by the children.
Between flashes to other characters, Maggie (Susan Sullivan) is shown struggling to free herself before her body goes limp, and she is shown floating in the water, in the 1989 scene.
Wedding woe
Yet another bizarre death from EastEnders for sisters Ronnie and Roxy Mitchell (Rita Simons) in 2017’s New Year’s Day episode.
Fans had tuned in to see Ronnie have her happy ending by marrying Jack Branning (Scott Maslen), but things took a much darker turn.
The sisters separated off from the wedding party to booze and reminisce together, leading them to the pool, where a drunk Roxy decides to take a swim.
After she jumps into the water, she failed to resurface, leading Ronnie to hurl herself into the pool still in her wedding dress to save her younger sister.
The weight of the wedding dress, thanks to the water, caused Ronnie to drown. It was later revealed that Ronnie had suffered a heart attack after jumping into the pool.
Fans were devastated at the sisters leaving, and many hoped the deaths had been faked to allow them to return in the future.