Coronation Street

[Red Ranger 1]

After quite liking her for a bit, I am sliding right back with regards Eva.Her "revenge" on Nick(when he hadn't actually done anything)was petty and childish and I'm disappointed he didn't fire her for ruining a business deal out of spite.Her using Jason to try and make Nick jealous didn't impress either, glad he called her on it.And like Slade, I'm finding I don't really like Stella.She comes across as self-righteous, venomous and borderline misandristic.She was at least partly to blame for Eva's actions, stirring up her anger with Nick and encouraging her to punish him, and now she seems to be doing the same with Leanne with regards Peter.I've been on Leanne's side throughout this, Peter has handled the whole thing pretty badly, but my respect for him went shooting up when he allowed Simon to live with Leanne because he knew it would make him happy, I didn't expect him to be that selfless.I hope Leanne doesn't abuse it now the shoe's on the other foot and lets him be part of Simon's life, I wasn't too happy with the way she suddenly cancelled their plans together.And I really hope she doesn't go back to Nick...

I'm worried that the writers just view Kirsty as a villain because I think she's got the potential to be more than that but despite her helping Tina out(I'm assuming they arranged the police sting between them)I can't see it being plain sailing for her and Tyrone.I think it was possibly a mistake to cast David Lonsdale as her father, when he popped up as a private detective looking for Colin Fishwick only last year.One of my favourite moments recently was Lewis' reaction on realising he's going on a stag night with two men who like Roman aqueducts.

Oddly, although there's probably several reasons why I shouldn't like Sunita...I do.I kind of liked her and Karl together and I wasn't impressed with the way he suddenly turned nasty once it all got too serious. I kind of hope he comes a cropper and I think Stella was a mug for taking him back yet again, although I was amused by Steve playing peacemaker.They're probably setting it up for her to dump him when she finds out about the affair, with Leanne's comment about forgiving an addiction but not cheating.(Bigging herself up a bit there, she'd have taken Peter back straightaway if he'd wanted it.)I do like Dev though, so I hope now Sunita's gone back to him she sticks at it.Sadly, I can see this ending with him getting his heart broken.

[Inactive User]

Had watched the episode that aired in the UK on the 18th of November 2010, Thursday. Wow NZ is 19 months behind Austraila! We will probably get the tram crash/aftermath of the tram crash episodes coming up here in NZ in two weeks.

[Red Ranger 1]

Given that I wasn't expecting Lloyd to leave in the first place, I was equally surprised that he came back.It is good to see him and Steve together again, their friendship is relaxed and easy and the banter was there straightaway.("You bought a swamp?Didn't you notice the clues, like the crocodiles and having a neighbour called Shrek?")Shame that a second later they were at odds but at least they seem to have got over it now.And Lloyd chasing Steve around a school playing field, even if it wasn't executed very convincingly, was rather funny, mainly because of Dev's reactions which is one of those little touches the show seems to be good at.(I loved the little woman teacher coming up with inventive ways to start the races.)I do think Steve was a bit hard on Tracy, though:He was perfectly happy for her to sabotage Lloyd's business by messing up his pick-ups and poaching his contracts, so it seems a bit arbitrary for him to decide that wrecking his cars is going too far.

Up until the last few weeks, I've been on Leanne's side, but since Peter let Simon live with her and the boot's been on the other foot, she's been almost as bad as Peter was when Simon was with him:She hasn't quite banned them from seeing each other but she's been very restrictive about it and she seems quick to usher Simon away when they bump into each other.I'm annoyed she's gone back to Nick, seemingly for no other reason than that it's convenient.(Curious they both seem to have forgotten they could have been parents together once, if their marriage had been strong enough for them to deal with it, although I guess a lot of water's gone under the bridge since then.)Even more annoyed with Eva's tantrums and the way Stella just indulges her, forcing Leanne to move out to keep her happy.I do wonder how Leanne would have turned out if Stella had brought her up, she's not been a good influence on her so far and she's clearly made a mess of her other daughter.At least their run-in with the health inspector seems to have stopped Eva having a go at Sunita every five minutes.

Given how worried Izzy was about telling Gary of her pregnancy, he seems to be happier about it than her and I do wonder if it is just because she's worried about Owen's reaction.Faye's reaction to being bullied is surprisingly muted:I was kind of expecting her to go ballistic about Anna buying her the "wrong" trainers.Bullying her for being adopted seems a bit of a random thing to pick on but I suppose some kids just need any excuse.

Been finding Sean rather irritating.Someone once noted that he seems to get away with obnoxious or selfish behaviour by pulling a sad face and making people feel sorry for him and they've got a point.That said, Marcus did seem to be indulging Aiden a bit too much, including letting him intrude on his and Sean's date, although Sean turning up at Marcus' place of work just to hurl abuse at him was just plain wrong. Maria must be bonkers for getting Marcus to stay the way she did, she's just setting herself up for a massive fall.

[Slade]

I've been playing catchup with Corrie ever since the European championships and fell even further behind during the Olympics but anyway up to date now.

Firstly as someone who doesn't like Michelle, I absolutely loved the way Tracy was winding her up, particularly getting together with Ryan to purposely get a reaction out of her. I found some of the scenes so funny such as when Michelle came home and saw Tracy come out of Ryan's room and realised that they'd slept together. Also the way Tracy would stick her tongue down Ryan's throat whenever they were in the Rovers much to Michelle's dismay. Also when she moved in with Ryan and Michelle after claiming that she was pregnant and making snide remarks towards Michelle - OK the pregnancy part was cruel and Ryan definitely didn't deserve that as he was prepared to do the right thing so I was actually glad Ken took his side over Tracy's. It also indirectly led to Sophie being hit by the car and now having to learn to walk again. I find the relationship and scenes Tracy has with her parents quiet interesting. Ken barely seems to acknowledge her and when he does talk to her, he doesn't having anything good to say to her, is very cynical and generally has a low opinion of her. Quite understandably too. The thing that make me laugh the most about Ken's relationship with Tracy is that whenever she's at odds with anyone his default position will be to take anyone's side bar hers. Deidre on the other hand always seems forgive and forget regardless of how badly Tracy treats someone. Firstly when Tracy announced she was pregnant Ken quite correctly told her how ridiculous the whole thing was but Deidre seemed like she wanted to support them. Then when it came out in the pub that Tracy was only using Ryan to get back at Michelle for landing Steve and she lied about the pregnancy, Deidre seemed very disappointed but a couple of days later when Tracy was painting her toenails she commented on what a nice colour she was using completely bypassing any mention how how badly she behaved. I know I shouldn't be surprised by now but come on.

I recognised Wendy as soon as I saw her despite the affair with Ken being 20 odd years ago (I think). Whilst I didn't agree with Deidre following him, he really only had himself to blame for what happened. Still at least it's all good now. One thing I didn't like was Tracy sticking her oar in (of all people).

I know after what happened with Molly, Tyrone has got what he always wanted i.e. a baby but it's come at a huge price. I honestly wish that Kirsty had never gotten pregnant in the first place so Tyrone could have finished with her for good. Now he's trapped. He's lost most of his friends and his freedom. And as we can see, despite acknowledging she has a problem, she still treats Tyrone like dirt. She blackmailed him re the birth certificate and now he's had to give up his job and look after their baby even though he was earning a lot more money than she was at the factory purely to try and make her happy. I'm not sure how much longer they will be able to keep this up for but with Fiz constantly wanting to check up on him, I have a feeling that something major's going to happen at some point.

Funnily enough the person who's annoyed me the most regarding the Tina/Izzy surrogate thing is Gary. He's the person that wanted it the most and kept pushing and pushing even wanting Katie to be the surrogate at first then when Owen had the sense to object to it he was made out to be the bad guy. I don't think Tina should be doing it just to get Tommy out of trouble but irrespective she shouldn't have lied and it will only spell problems for her and Tommy in the long run. The sad thing is Rita was prepared to lend both of them the money to bail them out of their current predicament.

I never liked Gloria so to be honest I was glad to see the back of her. She did nothing but lie and for no good reason. Sad really because had she simply been honest about why she left Spain, I'm sure things would have worked out with Stella. Whilst I'm really not happy in Gail's role in trying to entrap Lewis and I think Gloria deserved Lewis setting her up, I don't think Gail necessarily does. And she does seem genuinely sorry about what happened and as a person she does appear to try and put other people before herself whereas Gloria is just selfish. Still I think we are starting to see Lewis's true colours which is disappointing as I quite liked him as a reformed character.

There have been some really amusing storylines as of late i.e. Tracy as mentioned above, Mary's very inventive theme nights re Roy's cafe to name a few but this storyline with Maria and Marcus has been absolutely hilarious. I was expecting them to do some sort of love triangle with Marcus and Aiden but I was expecting the third party to be Sean. Never in a millions years would I have imagined the writers would have used Maria. Not sure how believable it is. You hear of men in relationships, some married for 15-20 years with kids realising that they are gay but I don't think I have EVER heard of a gay man suddenly deciding he's in love and attracted to a woman. I'm actually over the moon that they slept together purely in terms of the storyline. Have to admit I felt a bit sorry for Aiden. And Marcus using Sean like that further complicates matters as Sean now thinks Marcus is still in love with him. Regardless I'm really looking forward to seeing how this storyline pans out. And I'm really hoping this comes out pretty soon and if it does I can't wait to see how some of the other characters react. In particular Sean and Jason who I imagine will be gobsmacked.

Oh and one final thing to say - RIP Bill Tarmey.

[~Zoe~]

R.I.P Bill Tarmey. Thoughts go out to all his family, friends and also the cast and crew of Coronation Street.

[Red Ranger 1]

Bill Tarmey's death was another one of those where I didn't know about it until the caption came up at the end of the episode and I went "Oh no."

Glad to see the back of Gloria, who I found massively irritating.I was worried they were going to bring her back but the postcard about her falling on her feet in Turkey suggests otherwise.I was surprised that Gail was so quick to drop her in it with Lewis and then Leanne by revealing the truth about her antics in Spain, especially since they'd just been partners in crime.(Incidentally, the guy that played Gloria's old flame Cliff was Brian Miller, known to Doctor Who afficiandos as Mr.Elisabeth Sladen.With his roles in Corrie, Casualty and Wizards Vs Aliens, it seems like everyone who worked with her is giving him a job, which is quite nice really...although Casualty casting him as a man who lost his wife was possibly a bit near the bone.)Lewis seems to have discovered a sinister side during this whole business, which is a shame since I'd rather hoped he'd turned over a new leaf.

I think it's gone past the point where Tyrone and Kirsty could have a happy ending, which is a shame but she's obviously crazy and he really should get as far away as possible.I can understand him staying for Ruby's sake but it seems like he's given up any hope of putting distance between them and is back to deluding himself.

The one I feel sorry for in this Maria/Marcus mess is Jason:He asked Maria not to hurt him when they first got together and seemed committed to their relationship but she always treated him like he was her second choice.Don't really feel any sympathy for Sean, who should have got over Marcus a long time ago.Admittedly Marcus got his hopes up by letting Aiden think he still liked him but he was arrogant enough to believe it in the first place.I do think Eileen's right that Maria and Marcus is a disaster waiting to happen though.

I've actually been really annoyed by Tommy lately and I get the feeling the show wants me to be on his side.I can kind of see why he'd have a problem with Tina's plan but whining about it all the time doesn't help.I'm disappointed in Rita as well, I always thought she was more broad-minded than that.Surrogacy isn't really the moral abhorrance that they seem to be making out.Gary has possibly crossed the line a few times but when he's got Izzy trying to break up with him every five minutes because she can't give him children, I can't really blame him.

I like Steve but his paranoia about Rob has been getting a bit much.I was surprised Michelle forgave him so quickly for storming into the hotel and accusing them of sleeping together but I'm glad she did because I rather like them as a couple.Loved his double take when she suddenly appeared next to him when he thought she was in the bathroom.

[~Zoe~]

Poor Tyrone in tonights Coronation Street. Well done to the writers and the actors Alan Halsall and Natalie Gumede for potraying this storyline very realistically. At least they're showing that its not just women who are effected by domestic volience, men are too.

Great episode.

[Homeandawayfan.]

I saw Kevin Kennedy (who used to play curly watts from 1983 to 2003) in We Will rock You at the Dominion Theatre on Thursday night and stood at the stage door at the back and met him and he posed for a photo with me. My first face to face encounter with a Corrie star.

[Red Ranger 1]

I agree that the Tyrone/Kirsty storyline has been portrayed well.Corrie has a tendency to do these slow burn "real time" stories:I remember the emotional abuse storyline with Charlie and Shelley bored everyone to tears because it was dragged out so long but I think they've hit the right balance with this one and made Tyrone's reactions believable without giving him too much of a victim mentality, although there is obviously a degree of that too.Kirsty has now reached the point where she veers between vile and crazy and sometimes both at the same time so I hope we're heading towards endgame.I can see why Tyrone would accept that marrying her is the only way he can keep Ruby safe but I'm hoping there's some way he can get her out of their lives without that happening, if only to avoid him having another failed marriage.Shame Fiz has ended up a casualty but it's nice that she almost seems to think it's worth it, with that little smile with Tyrone at the end.

I'm not sure about Nick and Leanne.While part of me is still annoyed that Nick's basically done what Peter feared and taken his family(not that Peter hasn't got himself to blame), I'm kind of sympathising with him and think he's on a hiding to nothing.It does seem like everyone's forgotten they got married before though with exchanges like "I've only just got divorced"/"Not from me!".While I basically like Leanne, I do think she's been throwing her weight around a bit at the Bistro so I almost wanted Eva and Kylie's plan to succeed, except I don't really like Eva so I'm not keen on her coming out on top.

Stella and Eva getting soaked with water was...oddly enjoyable.Owen showed his nasty side again with his treatment of Jason, I kind of wish Stella had reported him and hadn't just been bluffing.I'm finding Lewis' manipulation of Gail quite amusing despite my disappointment that he's sunk to this but I can see it turning serious eventually.

[Slade]

I'm not really sure what to make of Corrie over the last couple of weeks. I think most of the characters that have been involved in any significant storylines have come across quite badly.

Regarding this whole storyline with Tyrone/Kirsty and now Fiz, we all know how vile Kirsty has been and I really don't care if Tyrone wishes to have an affair with Fiz but what I don't like is (even though it it's been entirely of her own doing) it only serves to prove that Kirsty was right with regards to her paranoia about them in the first place. I have to admit I found the Tyrone's reaction when he realised Tina saw him and Fiz and the way he tried to talk to her afterwards quite amusing though Tina proved that she really is a good mate. Not only did she agree to keep quiet despite Tyrone turning on her and Tommy previously but she even let him and Fiz use her place as some love shack.

This whole thing with Leanne, Nick, Peter is such a mess. I had a feeling when Leanne smirked after hearing Carla went back to the US that she was still into him and then after the scenes at the ice-rink thought it was reciprocated. Then it appears as though briefly Peter starts getting a little fixated, plays with her mind with regards to wanting to get back with her and all of a sudden Leanne wants to go back to him. Then on the day of her wedding literally before, she goes to see Peter, realises Carla is back and Peter has changed his mind about them then she decides to settle for second best i.e. marry Nick. Then at the wedding Leanne's sister decides to sabotage it out of sheer spite, malice and jealousy. And later on that day Nick then sleeps with his brother's wife. The whole thing beggars belief.

While I thoroughly dislike Eva as a person and really hope one day she gets what's coming to her (I loved Stella slapping her across the face and chucking her out but that wasn't enough for me) I can't help thinking (as I recently mentioned in the Neighbours thread with regards to Rhys) that in a warped sort of way she did everyone involved a favour. It wouldn't have been fair on Nick if Leanne had married him as she doesn't love him and was only doing it for security. On the other hand irrespective of how badly he was treated and how he found out about Leanne's actions up to the wedding how could he sleep with own brother's wife? I didn't like him before (mainly because of how he used tried to use Peter's alcoholism to destroy his marriage with Leanne) but was impressed with him a while back how he looked after Kylie without taking advantage and he goes and does this. The only positive thing I can say about them sleeping together is that at least Eva didn't get him. Then there's Peter who I was initially impressed with when he decided to sacrifice his relationship with Carla and put his son first, but instead of letting Leanne move on he decides to try and get back with her even though she was getting married and then changes his mind simply because he doesn't have the guts to tell Carla the truth.

Mixed feelings about Kylie returning in general. There are a lot of times where I haven't been keen on her but quite like how the relationship has developed with Gail so initially I was disappointed the way she left David without telling him the truth as it just seemed like a very cowardly thing to do. I have to stress that David's behaviour towards her has been pretty deplorable. On the other hand if this comes out this could wreck the whole family.

Can't believe Rob would shaft his own sister like that - Don't any of the characters in this show have any kind of loyalty? Can't really blame Michelle for keeping quiet as if she'd said something Rob would go to jail for sure not to mention what would happen to the other factory workers.

Can't really say I'm too fussed about the stuff with Sophie and Jenna although I did find it funny when Kevin tried it on with her.

Something else that's been quite amusing is the relationship with Stella and Jason. Eileen's reaction and Gail winding her up was brilliant and I love the way Stella stood Karl up and told him how much better in bed Jason was than him. He must be pretty miserable with Sunita but there's really no other option for him as can't afford a place of his own. Still he's only got himself to blame.