Coronation Street

[Liz]

I really enjoyed the Easter Sunday episode. I knew that Bruno Langley (Todd) was making an appearance, but I wasn't expecting three other former characters to turn up. I'm wondering whether Todd and Jules may, at some point, join the cast. Corrie seems to have put some work into writing Jules' character, so it would be strange, to me, if he wasn't used again. I quite liked him.

ETA: I was expecting a scene between Todd and Nick. Shame that didn't materialise.

Edited April 29, 2011 by Liz

[alexx]

I must admit I've lost a lot of the interest I had in the show during the later part of last year and earlier this year; this happened last time I tried to get into Coronation Street. I cant really put my finger on why. Anyway I continue to watch because I have been enjoying a certain few storylines such as the adoption one - I actually thought Anna and Eddie were a great on screen couple so its annoying that he has gone (I presume for good the way it was written).

I thought Liz's exit was really well done. I thought that climax when she was trying to convince Jim not to kill himself was gritty and powerful. I enjoyed the audio flashbacks. Obviously they were all just random voices to me since I've only been watching a few months but it even gave me a sense of nostalgia and I definitely appreciated that.

I am also gripped by the John/Fiz storyline - this is my favorite. It is so complex, it has been black comedy and full of humor at times and yet now it has dived into a really tragic and serious plot, which needed to happen considering the content. Its great to watch and keeping me tuning in.

Edited May 1, 2011 by alexx

[MeganSaturday]

Was Todd only back for one episode? =/ I was reading a magazine article the other week that was hyping his return up so much that it sounded like he was coming back for a good while.

Bit disappointed now !

& completely agree about the John/Fiz storyline. I feel so sorry for John really because he's been responsible for 3 (?) deaths by just being ridiculously unlucky. But I can't help but think the whole thing is going to end tragically for poor little Hope now that Fiz has been using Joy's money.

[Red Ranger 1]

I must admit I've lost a lot of the interest I had in the show during the later part of last year and earlier this year; this happened last time I tried to get into Coronation Street. I cant really put my finger on why.

Do you think maybe you're not used to the large cast?Looking at Aussie soaps they seem to have a cast of around twenty who can be guaranteed to pop up fairly regularly.Corrie, on the other hand, has a cast of around sixty many of whom fade into the background or disappear completely for months before suddenly becoming prominent.I guess if you're not used to that it can be a bit disconcerting.

Anyway...this week.Steve seems to be doing a fairly good job of keeping Tracy at bay at the moment.I get that he's got to be civil...ish to her for Amy's sake but he'd be mad to go back there. He probably should have told Becky the truth about Blackpool so at least Tracy couldn't have used it, although she's unlikely to have been happy about it.He's kind of trapped between a rock and a hard place here:Becky joked last week that he shouldn't have married her if he didn't like bare knuckle rides but he seems to be coming to that conclusion for real.Why does he always go for the mad ones?

Probably a good idea to bring James back.Ken's unknown family was too important an idea to just be used as a throwaway storyline for the anniversary and he seems to be fitting in fairly well.(Sophie and Sian are probably glad not to be the only gays in the village anymore.Apart from Sean, who no-one takes seriously anyway.)Not sure about Tommy, I thought he was all right at first but his taunting of Mary went a bit too far and I'm not sure whether he'd have done the right thing if Tyrone hadn't caught him.Hayley turning down Frank's offer of PA and Sean and Gary guilt tripping Carla into giving Kirk his job back(and Kirk failing to understand what's happened)made me smile as well. Not sure about Maria going back to the salon, it seems a bit of a backwards step and I'm not sure why they put her in the factory.(To give her a storyline they'd written for Michelle, I guess...)

David's sudden desire to play dad to Max could upset an awful lot of apple carts, wonder how he'll react if he finds out what Kylie's up to?Wonder if he's doing it at least partly to prove he can do what Sarah did, he always did seem a bit annoyed at everyone thinking she was a good parent.Gail working as Nick's cleaner actually works quite well:She seems pleased to have a job and a bit of dignity and he seems to recognise that.

[alexx]

I must admit I've lost a lot of the interest I had in the show during the later part of last year and earlier this year; this happened last time I tried to get into Coronation Street. I cant really put my finger on why.

Do you think maybe you're not used to the large cast?Looking at Aussie soaps they seem to have a cast of around twenty who can be guaranteed to pop up fairly regularly.Corrie, on the other hand, has a cast of around sixty many of whom fade into the background or disappear completely for months before suddenly becoming prominent.I guess if you're not used to that it can be a bit disconcerting.

Yeah that could have something to do with it I suppose. I think my interest started drifting when Tracy, Becky and Steve became the main focus and they have featured rather heavily since.

...Anyway I'm still watching, at the moment for the John Stape plot which I do enjoy and I've also liked a few of the other subplots going on. I must say I was particularly impressed with the way a character who used to be in the show over 30 years ago was reintroduced and then they had that whole scene just talking about one of the original characters, Elsie Tanner. After that episode I did a bit of a YouTube search and I now feel like know the character - a very 'old time' type of a character with a silver screen feel to her. Anyway I just thought that was impressive to take the time within the episode to pay tribute to a character who left in the mid-80's let alone reintroduce one that hadn't been seen since the 60's (?!).

[Red Ranger 1]

You know, last year I randomly wondered to myself if there were any original characters they could bring back, where both actor and character were still alive, and realised Dennis Tanner was the obvious choice.And here he is, I think for the first time since 1968.I thought it was handled really well:His telling Rita about Elsie leaving Weatherfield as if she didn't know about it, even though she was around at the time, was a bit weird but I guess Dennis might not know she was there.It wasn't until I sat down and thought about it that I realised just how many connections the family still has to the current characters:Gail lodged with Elsie for a while, the Websters bought the family's house and Bill Webster had a fling with Dennis' sister!

I have officially stopped liking John Stape.It reminds me a bit of Richard Hillman where he crossed the line for me when he moved from killing people we didn't know and/or didn't like to trying to kill Audrey.John did the same when he tied Chesney up in a cellar and told Katy he'd abandoned her.(Interestingly, he seems to have made the same mistake:Targetting a member of his wife's family and expecting her not to care.)The fact that it's pretty much the first time one of his serious crimes has been premeditated didn't help.Having said that, while I understand he was worried about Fiz and Hope and arguably with good reason, I did find Chesney neglecting Katy to investigate it all a bit annoying, he should have remembered he's got a family of his own to look after.

Glad Tyrone has recognised being bitter isn't doing him any favours and agreed he and Kevin need to be able to work together.I wonder if his words had an affect on Sally.(Wasn't too happy about Eileen's mini-rant to her about looking after someone else's baby, I have to say.)We've seen where Izzy and Gary live!His sudden attitude does seem to have come out of nowhere a bit though.And, although I know it's hard on Tina, I must admit I was cheering when Graeme and Xin kiss, I think they're really cute together.

[Slade]

I don’t have much sympathy for Tina to be honest. She was the one who pressurised Graeme into marrying Xin even though he wasn’t that keen and it appears to have back fired on her.

Not quite sure why Steve called social services. There doesn’t really appear to be anything to gain from doing that other than lashing out from being psyched up by Dev whilst he was drunk (although he had enough presence of mind to phone the actual number). OK so Becky is more worried about Max and focuses on him more than he does Amy but I don’t think it makes any difference to the situation with Tracy. Even if Steve and Becky weren’t together there would still be a problem. Tracy’s issue is that Steve doesn’t want her. She wants Steve, her and Amy to all be one happy family. Not sure if Tracy is planning to move to London. At the very least she is doing this to punish Steve but I agree with what Becky said in that things are pretty comfortable for her staying at Deidre’s. I also agree with what Dev said to Steve regarding his wife. Becky has been the root of all of his problems. If you think about it, she stole from Dev and Sunita ruining Steve’s friendship with them. He also had to remortgage the Rovers so he could pay Kylie off after being blackmailed by her, leaving him in trouble financially - which eventually led to the armed Robbery Jim committed as he wanted to raise the cash to help Liz buy Steve out so they could use the money to escape to Spain. The situation with Kylie is an interesting one. She obviously wants Max back but doesn’t want to be exposed as someone who sold her own child purely for financial gain then extorted more money from her own sister. She’s going to have to come clean and tell David because he isn’t going to give up. When Gail finds out she’s going to have a field day.

I started off thinking “Damn you Chesney” for ruining things with John but the way John’s acted has made it hard to defend him. Although he’s been directly/indirectly responsible for the deaths of three people at least the character was written to be sympathetic and have remorse. And even though John’s always been like this in particular over the last 3 episodes has been completely selfish, only worrying about himself and not really thinking about Fizz or Hope. I do still think it’s a shame Chesney uncovered what he was up to as I really liked the scenes with John and Charlotte’s parents. It really does seem now like the net’s closing in John, almost like the beginning of the end.

Anyway Corrie’s on every day this week and from the preview looks really good.

[Red Ranger 1]

I did feel really sorry for Xin when Graeme went running off to Tina right after they'd slept together. Whilst I do think Tina went into this with good intentions and a lot of naivety, I still don't have a lot of sympathy for her but it's beginning to look like everyone's going to end up on their own.

I never for one second thought Steve would be the one to ring social services.I suspected when he did it that it was a desperate move to stop Tracy having power over them and the last episode seemed to bear that out.It's a smart idea but I can see it backfiring enormously as a result of a number of wild cards in the pack, most notably David.Although Kylie does seem to have some maternal feelings in there, I don't think she really wants custody of Max, she never showed much interest in looking after him before, I think she'd probably be happy with access.It was obvious at the time that Becky should have left Max in foster care rather than dragging him off to live with them and doing so is what's basically caused all their problems.

John's actions are becoming ever more dark as is the situation.It's interesting how his once long-suffering affability in the face of what he's doing seems to have turned into a complete inability to cope with reality, contrasting with Fiz's more human reaction.I really didn't like the way he used both emotional and literal blackmail to force her into helping him and I can't wait to see it all unravel, the only problem being Fiz is probably going to suffer too.Even if no-one finds out she helped hide Colin's body, she's probably going to get into trouble for taking Joy's money.

[alexx]

This weeks run of episodes and 'conclusion' (?) to the John Stape storyline have been great TV, espeically Friday. Very gritty and bold writing at times and some brilliant acting from those who play John and Fiz on the roof of the hospital.

Edited June 5, 2011 by alexx

[Slade]

Thought that was a really good week.

So we had two secrets revealed regarding two characters to their respective spouses. Firstly Steve telling David about Kylie extorting money from him and Becky for Max and Fiz subsequently finding out about John’s murders.

I think what completely threw me off about Steve’s motivation for calling social services was the fact that he was drunk.

Looks like you were right about David being one of the “wild cards” Red Ranger. Even after he found out about Kylie he still immediately forgave her and persisted in fighting her corner and it backfired on Steve spectacularly. Earlier on in the week I was in two minds about Becky. Whilst I felt sorry for her that Max was taken away (as it was clear she loves him) it annoyed me how she was gloating after firing Tracy although you could argue that Tracy deserved it – Especially after threatening to take Amy away. However the way she’s acted since has changed my opinion and I’m slowly edging towards the stance that she deserves everything she gets. First she grabs Kylie by the throat and then she gets a sledgehammer smashes her way into Ken and Deidre’s home, tears up the living room. Again after what Tracy did to Charlie it is debatable if she deserved that but I don’t think Tracy’s been that bad since she came out of hospital and it still makes Becky no better than her (As an aside considering how Owen was with John for not locking up when they were working at Carla’s it was surprising that the van was unlocked in the first place allowing Becky to find the sledgehammer). Then the was the way she spat in Steve’s face before leaving in Friday’s episode. Although I found the whole thing quite entertaining and I defended her when she pushed past Gail several weeks ago and attacked Kylie it does make you wonder whether she is simply a mindless thug. When things are going well for her for the most part she’s OK but when things are going badly for her she is nothing but trouble and you wonder why Steve would even want to stay married to her. In saying that even though Becky acted of her own free will Steve has to take some of the responsibility for what happened. He shouldn’t have waited until Ken bravely dived in and they managed to restrain Becky. He should have told her the truth the minute she picked up the sledgehammer. She’s completely blown it now as David was recording the whole thing which makes any chance of getting Max back extremely unlikely even if Kylie does agree to joint custody. Also I thought Ken was quite critical of Tracy and his was sympathetic towards Steve and Becky regarding Amy now he will almost certainly have a change of tune and I will be surprised if he doesn't call the police.

Surely there is no way back for John now either. In all honest I think most viewers knew it wasn’t a case of 'if' but rather 'when' but I think the thing with this storyline is in spite of what John’s done for me the character very often came across as quite likeable and I wanted to see the whole family thing and double life go on for as long as possible. It’s funny because John himself knew that the net was closing in but part of him still believed that he and Fiz could have another life somewhere else. I have to say how could he possibly survive from falling from that height and walk away? Unless of course someone quickly moved the body which is unlikely.