Ashley... loser in life?

Don't get he wrong, I like the character of Ashley. He's a bit mild mannered and not very dynamic. But, while Eileen is the loser in love in residence, I very much believe that Ashley is turning into the loser in ... well, pretty much everything. How much bad stuff can happen to one man? When you think about it, it's been nearly non-stop! Early in our aquaintance with Ashley, he was accused of setting fire to Mike Baldwin's factory. It was actually set ablaze by Don Brennen with whom Ashley lodged. That got sorted out.

Then his world was rocked when he discovered Fred Elliott wasn't his uncle, but his father. He came to terms with it though, and they became very close. He took up with a runaway teenager, Zoe, and her baby but the baby then died of meningitis and Zoe left him to join a cult.

It all goes downhill from there.

He and Maxine got married... on the day that the wife of his best man, Gary Mallet, died in her back yard pegging out baby clothes. Great start to married life, eh wot? He discovered that his "swimmers" weren't performing suitable well enough for Max to get pregnant but one single night in a hospital with a quick operation fixed the problem. Only that one single night, his wife got very drunk and shagged her doctor and gave birth 9 months later to his baby! Ashley was crushed!

Not long after that, Maxine was bludgeoned to death by murderer Richard Hillman and Ashley had his world come down around his ears again. He hired a nanny to look after baby Josh, fell in love with her and then the trouble *really* started!

Little Josh's father came back into the picture and decided he wanted to be part of the boy's life. He took Ashley to court to get access to the boy and rather than lose Josh altogether to a custody suit, Ashley finally broke down and allowed Dr. Matt to spend time with him. That seems to have been forgotten as Matt is only mentioned on very rare occasions when Josh has to be out of the picture for storyline purposes.

Ashley's dad got into a rivalry with a fellow butcher whose son was a boxer. Ashley was coerced into competing in a grudge match but, while training, got a knock in the eye that threatened to blind him. It turned out ok, though, but it was a worry!

They had a baby, but Claire suffered from debillitating Post Natal Depression and even believed the baby was not hers. A couple of weeks in hospital and a good course of drugs got her back on an even keel, just in time for Ashley's father's wedding to Bev Unwin. Except his beloved dad keeled over and died on his wedding day! Six months after that, the lady Claire had made friends with turned psycho, tried to kill Claire by setting the house on fire and when that didn't work, broke up Ashley and Claire, got obsessed with Ash, lured him into bed and kidnapped the baby when Ashley firmly told her to bug off. She threatened to jump off the balcony of her flat high in the tower block but of course, it didn't happen and she was dragged off to a friendly neighbourhood psych ward.

Things have been quiet since then in the House of Peacock but it's about to start up again. That little cloud of doom following Ashley is about to pour torrential rain into his world again. Claire is taken suddenly ill with a blood clot and in the course of saving her life, she miscarries a baby. Then, feeling guilty that she didn't really want to be pregnant in the first place, she is going to contemplate jumping off the hospital roof.

How much more can one man take? One wife dies violently, the next one nearly dies in a fire and has severe depression, his oldest child was fathered by someone else, his father died. I know soaps thrive on conflict and drama but isn't this taking things a little too far?