Tuesday 31 May 2011

State of the Street: May 2011

I was on holidays for a few weeks but luckily was in the UK so i could see Corrie. The only drawback is that I didn't get to make notes as I watched episodes so, using the lovely weekly updates that Glenda Young writes, I can refresh my memory and pick up where I left off.

The Graeme/Xin/Tina triangle is limping along quite painfully. Oh God is this ever going to end? Well yes, it's ending in June with the exit of two of the three. The inevitable is  happening, you could clearly see Xin had a thing for Graeme and he's becoming quite fond of her, torn between the two women at the moment but the more day to day living he and Xin spend, the more they get to know each other and the more he likes her. Makes a change from pouty, stroppy Tina who's really ruined, I think. She was great when she started but she's swanning around with her nose in the air and a God Given Right to be everyman's fantasy, it seems like.

The return of Dennis Tanner was lovely, especially to get the end story of his mother, the legendary Elsie Tanner who had a fabulous death, dying in a red convertable, fag in one hand, her fella's hand in the other, after speeding through the mountain roads of south Portugal. We haven't seen much more of Dennis yet but I suppose they're easing him into it. Norris is already apprehensive and I suppose we're going to get more of Mary's hissy fits as his attention can't be made to focus on her. She needs more story. She's getting to be a one-dimensional character and that's a shame.

Anyway, Dennis. He's apparently going to be featured with a relationship triangle between Rita and Emily, both of which are too old for him, by the way but at that age, it probably doesn't matter. He's still got that old Dennis Tanner spark, too. Cheeky and charming. He even flirts with Roy's mother! She won't have it, (though I bet she secretly loved it) but it would make for some funny stuff! Ken's grandson, James, was brought back to facilitate Dennis' arrival. I don't expect he'll be in the show long unless they're thinking of creating a triangle with Sean and Marcus. Have they met James yet? I can see either of them fancying James as he's a nice looking man.

Gail is taking apron strings to new heights, isn't she? That woman really needs a life! Poor Nicky is going to be burdened with his mother for life at this rate. David is making inroads and seems to be wanting his wife to have her son back. Kylie sure isn't comfortable with it, in fact, she's panicking. She probably figures if he finds out she sold him to Becky, he'd dump her but when he found out, he had no thoughts of it, just figured on using it for their own advantage. Classic David.  I didn't think he would because as bad as he has and can be, he was horrified that Tina aborted his baby and I think he'd love to be a dad, even a step-dad (He was always fond of little Bethany, remember) and he's figuring they can now make it happen.Watch Becky melt down again and David and Kylie picking up the pieces. Granny Gail gets another grandbaby!

I can never figure Kylie out. I'm sure she loves her son, but she was way too young and just couldn't handle it. In an ideal world, would she want Max back? She might now that she has David and a chance at a stable life. She doesn't seem to yearn to be with him or cast longing glances across the cobbles, much. She doesn't seem to snatch the opportunity to give him a hug when he runs to her on the street. But yet, somewhere down deep, I think she's just afraid to show her feelings.

Steve-Tracy-Becky... it's actually a bit boring, isn't it? I do sometimes get so tired of Steve's spineless act. He won't stand up to Tracy for fear of losing Amy and it's causing just as much trouble in his marraige as Becky's insecurity and hate for Tracy but he doesn't see that. He thinks Becky should just sit back and accept what he has to do to keep Amy living next door. Personally, I think he needs to take a good part of the blame for Becky's jealousy and acting up. That whole Blackpool business was stupid. They didn't have to stay over, he could have sent Tracy and Amy back on the train.

And now, after 8 years or so, Amy has developed an allergy to milk products. Where did that come from? The kid seems to have some of her mother's manipulative genes, too, because she's deliberately making herself ill by drinking milk so that her daddy can come round more. Will Tracy stop and realize what she's doing to the child? No. Of course not. She want to take the child away from her father and her family. Yes, that's going to help. It won't happen, of course, because Steve can find a way legally and Tracy, as he pointed out to Becky, really doesn't want to raise Amy all alone without the safety net her parents provide.

And that brings us to the final countdown for John Stape which is peaking as we speak. This last week of May into the beginning of June sees the end of his character's run on Coronation Street. I really didn't like him at first. He was dull and he ruined Fiz. He was a liar and a manipulator and narcissistic. The Rosie kidnapping thing was all part of that. But then.... along came Colin Fishwick and things started to turn around. There were more twists and turns than a twisty and turny thing and the farce and black humour were rampant. John got himself in deeper and deeper, all because he just wanted to teach! He nearly lost Fiz but then she got pregnant and decided to give him another chance.

People keep dying around him and he is always in the wrong place at the wrong time but he did actually kill Charlotte and probably contributed to Joy's death though it did seem an accident as he tried to stop her from calling out. Because he's not really criminally minded, the guilt did him in. He does desperate things like kidnapping folks and now he's about to go completely over the edge, quite literally as well as emotionally. I don't know if he's actually going to die but we'll find out in a few days. I don't like him any more than I used to but the story has held my attention.

The vision of John frantically digging and uncovering Colin's body in that dusty old carpet, the look of horror on Fiz's face as she's discovered it. John musing over the moonlight while Fiz is shaking beside him, a dead body in the trunk... Everything hitting the fan at once. Graeme Hawley has been amazing in this whole storyline and will be missed, but Stape can't get away with the things he's done, it's soap law. He must die or be put away and pay for his crimes.

Wedged into this is Katy and Chesney, barely able to afford to eat, yet planning a baby. Silly children. Owen is trying to bully her into a termination and since she thought Chesney has run off, she nearly did it. I can understand Owen being horrified at a teenage pregnancy and given his history, not surprising that he was aggressively pushing her to get rid. He's another control freak and I don't like him very much. I think Eileen had a lucky escape there, as did Liz though she does like men with an edge. It's possible they're going to thrown him at Anna going by the few scenes we've seen of them already and that might be good for him, perhaps, if she can find a softer side to him. Maybe that's all he needs is the love of a good woman? They appear to have reformed Chris though that still might rear its ugly head but as it stands now, if they don't soften him, I think Owen has far more chance of being violent towards a wife/girlfriend.

Maria is back in the salon, and that whole factory debacle is done. Mostly. Frank is still around, has dumped Tracy, so who's next? I don't like him, not that we're supposed to, but he doesn't seem to be a fit, does he? I've enjoyed the Audrey/Claudia/Marc stuff, too. Some people haven't but I always like the older cast members to have a storyline of their own. I still say Marc and Claudia look like twins, especially with her deep voice! I doubt either of them are going to be around long.

Tommy Duckworth. Dull. Kevin and Tyrone's feud. Dull. Totally unrealistic that they'd keep on working together. Unfortunately, it makes Tyrone into a spare part. Anna is now a spare part. As is Owen. It's inevitable and it remains to be seen whether it will work. Jeff and Sally are getting dull too. She needs to dump him. Maybe now she's turned down his proposal we won't see much more of him. She can't get back with Kevin though. So totally wrong after all he's done.

Thursday 26 May 2011

Die, John, Die

I want John Stape to die.

That sounds harsh, I know. But he has crimes to atone for. He has to pay one way or another. He didn't kill Colin Fishwick but he did steal his identity and hide the body when Colin dropped dead. He did kill Charlotte and he most certainly killed Joy even if that was an accident. She was having a heart attack or something similar and he held his hand over her mouth so she wouldn't call out to the neighbour at the door. I don't think he intended to kill her but it happened.

Now he's kidnapped the Hoyles and Chesney and has them tied in the cellar and the circle is complete. It started with a kidnapping and has ended with one. The body is going to be dug up from under the floor at the factory and John's going to lose the plot completely. All his misdeeds will come out because he won't be able to keep his mouth shut. And the rug that Colin is wrapped will probably be full of John's DNA as well so he'd get found out anyway.

The spoilers tell us he's going to take off with baby Hope. Fiz, chasing him will get hit by a car and end up in hospital where John and Fiz and the baby will be on the roof. Apparently he is going over the edge but some spoilers say he will survive and escape and go on the run.

NO! I really hope this isn't going to happen. He won't have paid for his crimes and that's just wrong in the world of soaps and is too much like a plot from the American soaps. Fiz will never be able to move on with her life if she knows he's out there somewhere. If he does survive, he has to be taken into custody and either jailed or locked in a hospital for the criminally insane. Unfortunately, with the kinds of things Phil Collinson is throwing at us these days, we could be in for just what I fear.

We're going to find out next week as the storyline plays out. The spoilers I've read are still circumspect, not letting out the secret which is a good thing. I like to be surprised now and then!

Tuesday 24 May 2011

You find Coronation Street in the most unexpected places

 Don't you just love seeing Corrie references when you least expect it?

On my recent holiday to the U.K., I stayed in Manchester for a week and also visited London for a weekend. You would probably expect to see Coronation Street references around Manchester but it's still pretty cool when you come across one.

This photo is in the upper level of a pub on the main city centre street, Deansgate. The pub is called Moon Under Water and the building used to be a cinema which first opened in 1914. You can find it when you go up the stairs to the toilets, it's on the wall there along with some other photos, one of which is Emmeline Pankhurst, one of the early Suffragettes who was from Manchester. I assume the photos are homages to famous Mancunians or Manchester culture.

The next Coronation Street reference may not really be a Corrie reference in fact but whenever there are three flying ducks, what Corrie fan doesn't think about Hilda Ogden?

We went to London to see a Doctor Who exhibition in the Olympia Two exhibition centre on Hammersmith Road. One of the costumes displayed was the one that Tom Baker's Doctor wore in the 1970s and looky what I saw on the lapel of the coat!

Finding little touches like that always makes me smile. Have you come across anything similar?

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