Friday 29 June 2012

State of the Street - June 2012


Why can't people just have a happy wedding day? Why is there always some problem? At the very least, one of the couple is late, at the worst, and this was the worst, someone is kidnapped. Will someone PLEASE just call the flamin' police! This must be breaking all the laws of storyline decency!

And with the more dire storyline! I liked the Tommy and Terry bits last month but the Rick thug storyline was just as bad this time around as it was last time when Rick was coming after Joe and then Tina for money. If there was any justice, Tina dumped Tommy for good and then took him back and she had to get involved and it (nearly) ruined Rita's wedding day. At least she dumped him again but will it stick? Of course not. It only lasted a few days. In real life, I think it would have been a tough one to forgive. It was bad enough what he did but with Rick, the man she's had prior tragic dealings with due to her father?

The wedding did happen, though and wasn't it lovely?


The custody battle was in full force. Leanne and Peter at each other's throats, Carla actually trying to be the peacemaker. Peter was willing to drag up all of Leanne's dirty past but he's no saint. On top of the alcoholism, and let's face it, he can't seem to keep off the booze for more than a few months at a time, he's got that fire he started while drunk, he confessed to a murder he didn't commit, effectively ready to abandon his child, and there's the whole bigamy thing where Lucy only gave him Simon back because she was dying.


Every time Simon kicks off or is caught stealing or whatever, Peter says he realizes what it's doing to Simon but then Leanne gets his dander up again and he gets stubborn all over again and Simon suffers some more. Was it any wonder Simon decided to drink a bottle of wine he'd found after the example he's been given? Finally, Peter's thick skull has been penetrated. Finally, he listened to Simon, and did the right thing. What powerful scenes they were, too, when he talked to the lad and gave him to Leanne later, collapsing in tears as Simon left. But the the problem is that Leanne let St. Ella pour poison in her ear and she wouldn't let Simon go out with Peter. Talk about being a hypocrite! She can't have it both ways.



I could see that one coming. Nick never lost that soft spot for Leanne. Since it looks like Leanne and Peter aren't going to get back together and Leanne's confidence has really taken a beating, I'm not surprised she reached out to him for comfort, at the very least. She's been the love of his life but I don't think it goes both ways. He's still head over heels but I think she's using him as a consolation prize. Or is it just leftover unclosed issues for her first love? Is she just looking for someone to take care of her? Nick is only too happy to comply.

Well at least that romance has a remote chance of getting somewhere. Possibly. Maria developing a crush on Marcus is understandable but it's a dead end. She knew it down deep but she's lonely and he's lovely. Sean's jealous radar had more to worry about with Marcus' coworker. I don't want to see Marcus and Sean split up because it might mean Marcus would leave the show but Sean's jealousy is going to push Marcus right out the door. It's happened before and it's happening again.


Sunita's lies caught up with her. It's one thing to sneak around and make excuses, but once she got caught with the wad of Karl's gambling proceeds and had to pretend it was hers, she scrambled and excused and bluffed but Dev was suspicious and rightly so. Nothing is going to make that go away now. He's going to be watching her like a hawk. What's her modus operandi? Leave him. Anyone with eyes can see her and Karl giving each other smouldering looks but the only one to catch on was Eva.

But Sunita's plan of camping out at the pub, hoping to persuade Karl to unreject her didn't work. He never loved her and really, I don't think she loves him, she just saw him as a way out of a dead end. That didn't work so she went back to the dead end and sealed her fate by asking Dev to marry her. As heartbroken as he was, and as much as his trust is crushed, he snapped it up and all is forgiven. But is it? You know the affair will be discovered. These things always are. Then we'll be in for some extremely painful emoting as Dev's heart breaks.

Stella has Karl out on his backside, binbags at the ready because xhe thinks the only problem is his gambling. He can't see the problem because after all, he won, didn't he? And he whined that he did it for her. Typical. He really can't see he's got a problem, can he, not if he can go around blaming everyone else for his decisions. But you know, St. Ella will take him back. She always does.

Eva and Nick broke up but let's face it, yet again, Nick had a girlfriend that he wasn't really that into. He was already shying away from her push for committment and her jealousy over Kylie gave him the excuse he needed. Now he's back with Leanne and Eva's feeling very betrayed. I can't really blame her there but that didn't stop Leanne.

Sister or no sister, she was re-bound and determined. I bet she wouldn't have done it had it been Toyah's ex, though. Leanne's going to break Nick's heart and he knows very well she's not in love with him but he'll do anything to be in her life. The fact that it winds up Peter is only a bonus and Peter's insecurities are not going to make it easy.

Tuesday 26 June 2012

You didn't *always* want to be a dad, Nick


Everyone has been screaming all week about Nick telling Leanne he always wanted to be a dad, especially when he was the one that used emotional blackmail and pressured her into a termination when they were married.

But let's be fair about this.

They were kids. They weren't even 20 years old. Leanne was 16 when they got married, Nick 17 and the marraige ended just a year or two later. Nick buggered off to Canada and Leanne was left to pick up the pieces of her life.

It's something people say. "I always wanted..." or "I never wanted...." when they don't mean it literally. Not really. But they probably mean "For a long time" and Nick, once he finally grew up and gained a bit of maturity, probably does regret what he did back then, how he handled everything and how much he hurt Leanne. They did revisit some of that when they had an affair before the tram crash.

I'm taking the view that Nick didn't mean it literally and just wanted to make sure Leanne knew that he was willing to take the whole package, she and Simon. It's always been obvious that Leanne is the love of his life. I'm not so sure he's the love of her life. 

Having said that, Leanne really did seem to be talking herself into it. Stella was right about her not having Peter so she's settling for Nick and I think that's really the way it is. The word is "Rebound" and it's classically obvious that's what she's doing. The more Stella scolded her, the more Leanne made up her mind. Nick will take any piece of Leanne that he can get and he's going to get hurt again, sooner or later.
This isn't to say that I think it's a bad storyline because I do like it and it'll throw another wobbler into Peter and Carla's little world, too, because Peter will not like Nick playing daddy with Simon.

Saturday 16 June 2012

Peter does the right thing


For all that Corrie has had a habit of featuring overly sensationalized storylines in recent memory, it still presents us with good, old fashioned soap fodder like this recent custody case over Simon. Regardless of whether you think Leanne, who is not blood related or related by formal adoption, should have Simon, or not, the fact remains that Simon considers her his mother and she's mainly the only mother he has any clear memory of.

The whole divorce was filled with acrimony from start to finish. Carla had been a thorn in Leanne's side for over a year where Peter's concerned and Peter tried and tried but couldn't keep away from Carla. The way the affair came out, with a photo in court, couldn't have been any worse than if Leanne had walked in on them in bed. Because Simon steadfastly refused to give Carla any chance at all, Peter dug in his heels and he thought taking the hard line would have the desired effect.

Of course, it had the exact opposite effect and a little 8  year old boy was torn in bits in the middle of the slanging matches, the rages, the upset. He was forbidden to see his grandparents and his mother and his whole world was in tatters at his little feet. Every time he acted up, every time he cried, i thought for sure that would make Peter realize that he wasn't putting Simon's needs first. He'd say he was but would t hen dig his heels in further after yet another argument.

Carla, surprisingly, has been the most sympathetic character of the trio. She often tried to play peacemaker for Simon's sake, appealing to Peter, Leanne, Ken, anyone that she thought would help the situation even though Simon would reject her over and over. She was the only one that tried for the sake of the child to be reasonable. But her weakness for alcohol was the result it all blew up in the end. She bought the bottle of wine and hid it.

I don't blame Leanne for going for custody. Peter and Carla are on and off the booze regularly. Peter was ready to confess to a murder he didn't commit (after yet another alcoholic blackout) which would have abandoned his child. Peter put Carla first time and again. You have to sacrifice when you've got children and he hadn't got that through his hazy skull.

But finally, Simon reached out and found a bottle of wine (which must have had a screw top on it) and, seeing his father turn to the bottle over and over, thought that was the way to make your troubles disappear. And finally, Peter listened to his son and realized the example he'd shown and did the right thing. He gave Simon to Leanne's care and collapsed in tears in Carla's arms.

The whole storyline was interesting to watch, pretty realistic and true to the characters' personalities. It was painful to see Leanne and Peter taking chunks out of each other, with venom, jealousy, hate, hurt, exasperation and anger. People really do fight that way and there's every emotion under the sun in play. The final week in all of these ups and downs was classic Corrie and it goes to show you what they really can do when they try. Put soapy storylines, real life problems, cracking acting and spot on writing altogether and you get gold.

There's a really good interview with Jane Danson on this storyline here in the Daily Mail. 

Tuesday 12 June 2012

Leanne Anneke Battersby Tilsley Barlow



Leanne's life has always seemed to be one bad choice after another, with her lurching from disaster to disaster, and not just in her relationships though they've been the catalyst for a lot of her unpleasant situations. Today's character study looks at Leanne Anneke Battersby.

When first we met the Battersbys, Les, Janice, Leanne and Toyah, they rumbled into Weatherfield with their worldly goods in a clapped out old car and pull-trailer in July 1997. Leanne was 16 and fresh out of school. No A-levels for our Miss, she'd had enough of that and she was ready to get on with her life. The Battersbys as we knew them were a blended family. Les's biological daughter was Leanne and Toyah was Janice's but the two girls had grown up together and were mates as well as sisters. From what we know, Les and Janice had lived together for a few years before they got married, which was shortly before they moved into Number 5 (depending on which source you use, otherwise, they married in 1994...it's a bit murky).

We know that Leanne's mother left her to be raised by Les, and knowing what we do about Les, he probably made a botch job of it before Janice came along. We know that Janice has always been gobby, common and aggressive when she's had to be though she loves her daughter and grew to love Leanne as a daughter as well. She probably did provide some semblance of family stability for Leanne but family life at the Battersbys' is bound to have been fraught with loud arguments fueled by booze. Leanne and Toyah do not seem to have been brought up with a lot of discipline or responsibility and by the time we met them, they pretty much did what they wanted to and when.

Janice wasn't one for letting Leanne off the financial hook, however, and insisted that if she wasn't going to school, she would have to get a job. If Janice is nothing else, she's a worker (when she has to be). She managed to get Leanne a job as cleaner at Underworld but that didn't last long when Leanne was caught having a crafty fag in the Ladies' loo.

Even though the new family started off on the wrong foot, and as much as the residents viewed this family with suspicion, one person decided to take a chance on Leanne. Rita gave her a trial run in the Kabin after Mavis moved away and oddly enough, the two rubbed on quite well together for a time even if Leanne continued on rubbing other neighbours the wrong way, particularly Gail Platt. Leanne wasted no time giving young Nick Tilsley the glad eye and he was more than happy to return it. Gail was horrified that her son was attached to someone from such a common family.

Leanne was happy to wind up Gail and when she and Nick ran off to Scotland to get married, her job was complete. They weren't going to live under the Platt roof for long so eventually they rented a room from Ashley who was living in Number 4 which his "Uncle" Fred had purchased for Maureen, the bride who got away. Ashley was dating Maxine Heavey but runaway Zoe usurped her place. Zoe Tattersal and Leanne had made friends and Leanne is loyal to her friends and family in the "we all stick together" mode of thinking. In fact, it was Leanne that pursuaded Zoe to return and claim her baby from the Mallets.

The marraige didn't really go on that well. Leanne was holding down a job but Nick was going to school and was a bit wet behind the ears (or maybe, he was just a bit wet full stop). He and Leanne went to Canada for a holiday and when they returned, Leanne discovered she was pregnant. Nick insisted he was not ready to be a father and pushed her into having a termination. This irretrievably broke the marraige. Nick scarpered back off to Canada and Leanne took what financial offer she could get from Gail as a divorce settlement.

Single and ready to party, she dated Vikram Desai. Too many late nights and missed mornings at the Kabin meant she and Rita parted ways but she soon got a job in the Rovers behind the bar working for Natalie Horrocks. The party girl continued to have a good time but unfortunately, she soon made friends with cocaine and Jez Quigley. This went badly wrong when he used her for sex when she couldn't pay the piper and eventually, he wanted her to allow his boys to rob the Rovers. She put her foot down and fought back that time but Jez kept coming back. She became friends with Mike Baldwin's son, Mark Redman and finally, in order to escape Jez, she left town with Mark to travel to Amsterdam, just as friends.


Over the next few years, we'd get the occasional mention of her via one of the Battersbys and it seemed like she'd made it all the way to Australia. But in 2004, Les discovered her dressed as a belly dancer in a back street local bar, serving beer. She returned to the street and moved in with Janice. She discovered Nick was back from Canada and dating a local hairdresser, who also happened to be the woman that stole her sister's boyfriend from her. Leanne had just enough ammunition to give them both a hard time (remember that loyalty thing) and after a while, Maria and Nick's relationship showed the strain.

Leanne worked in a variety of jobs including a short term in the corner shop where her flirting with Dev resulted in her getting the sack. Rushing in without thinking, yet again, she decided to sue Dev for sexual harassment. Leanne never did figure out that "scream and leap" was not usually a successful method of planning. She used solicitor Maya Sharma who in turn used Leanne since Maya had a grudge to settle with Dev. The case was lost and Leanne was back to square one which is familiar territory to her.

In another relationship that was due for disaster, she dated Jamie Baldwin though she and Jamie's mother, Frankie, did not get along (too much alike?). She flirted with Danny who then ramped it up and pursued Leanne romantically. They decided to go for it and had an affair. Nothing serious, you understand, it was all just a laugh... until it was discovered. You see, Frankie found out and threw Danny out. Jamie was heartbroken at the betrayal of not only Leanne whom he'd wanted to marry, but of his father as well. Since neither of them had any better ideas, Danny and Leanne moved in together. Neither of them were in love with the other but they did like each other at least.

Unfortunately, Mike Baldwin, Danny's father, had health problems and was suffering from Alzheimer's. Danny and Leanne moved in with Mike and Leanne got the brunt of caring for Mike. Danny had managed to manipulate Mike into making a will giving it all to him, and cutting out his other sons, Mark and Adam but shortly after Mike's death, Leanne discovered a will that post-dated this one and in it, Mike left Adam his fair share. Janice advised her to make a copy of it and let Danny know (but not that the original was still safely with Leanne herself). Another bad choice. Leanne worked with Danny in the factory that he thought was all his now and they got engaged but when Danny thought that Frankie wanted him back, he dumped Leanne. She used the will and blackmailed him. She got half of the money she wanted and gave the will to Adam to do with what he ...er...will. She took the money and ran.

50,000 pounds should have been enough to give her a new start in life but this is Leanne "half baked idea" Battersby. When she returned to Weatherfield in March 2007, she did still have a bit of it left but was adding to it in an more traditional way, as a paid "escort". She thought that was ok since it wasn't as if she was walking the streets. Yet, Janice pointed out, bitterly disappointed in her stepdaughter. It seemed Leanne may have hit rock bottom and was yearning for a bit of respectability, especially since she'd quickly found a handsome new boyfriend in Liam Connor, now owner of Underworld.

She quit the business but Liam's sister-in-law, Carla, proposed that they start up a restaurant, buying out the local Italian. To get her share of the investment, Leanne went back to providing her services but was soon busted by Carla. Because Carla's husband, Paul, was almost one of her customers, Paul stood to lose everything and kidnapped Leanne by stuffing her in the boot of his car. He was drunk at the time and crashed his car. He was killed but Leanne was only shaken up but the secret was out. Shunned by Liam, outcast by most of the neighbours, Leanne was determined to show them all.

She borrowed the rest of the down payment she needed from Janice's new boyfriend, Roger. She hired the Duckies' grandson, Paul, who was a pretty good chef though he was a bit on the dodgy side too. She let him invest in order to pay back Roger and didn't mind that he obtained the money by pretending to be Jack at a bank and using Number 9 as collateral. Paul developed feelings for Leanne but she didn't return them. However, she used them.

The restaurant was not making money and eventually, after a joking suggestion by potential new boyfriend, Dan Mason who was the local bookie, she hinted to Paul that he should burn it all down and they could collect the insurance money and start over. He would do anything for her and he did the deed only to discover that she wasn't returning his affections as she led him to believe. Having nothing to lose, he's going to turn her in but alas, he is the only one that's going to pay for the fire, because it's his word against hers.

She got nothing, though, because the insurance didn't pay out after all. Janice turned on her and threw her out but they made up eventually. She went on nicely with bookie Dan Mason but her involvement in a lottery scam with Janice offended even his somewhat-dented sensibilities and that was over and done with. She was beginning to warm up to newly returned Peter Barlow and fell for his sweet little boy Simon but didn't cope well with  Peter's drinking and she went off to Leeds working. While she was gone, Peter stopped drinking and she's back in his bed once more. Unfortunately, her ex-husband Nick has returned and he still loves her.

Leanne agreed to Nick's proposition that they open up a bar together and The Joinery opened it's doors in November 2010. Along with the opening, Leanne also succumbed to Nick's amorous advances, a throwback to the past it seems. All the old attractions, unresolved feelings and nerves about her upcoming marraige to Peter seemed to have her throw a wobbler and she and Nick had an affair that lasted several weeks. She admitted it to her friend Carla who had fallen in love with Peter herself. Peter gently rejected Carla who continued to subtly push Nick and Leanne together so she could make inroads with Peter.

It all came crashing down, literally. Leanne gave Nick the push once and for all but the tram crash in December 2010 nearly cost Peter his life. Leanne married him in hospital, thinking he might not live and asked Nick to leave her be. She realized she did love Peter and Nick agreed to back down. Peter survived but has not dealt well with paralysis and is drinking again, with Carla egging him on.

Naturally, affairs don't stay secret for long and Peter found out about Leanne and Nick's affair. After he recovered from the crash, he had to learn to walk again and Nick, still determined to have Leanne, schemed to lure Peter back to the bottle. Leanne stuck with Peter though the recovery process was difficult and just before the wedding, Peter found out about the affair when Tracy overheard Carla and Leanne in the ladies' loo. Peter walked down the aisle for the wedding vow renewal they had planned and blasted her at the altar, serving Leanne with divorce papers. In a matter of days, though, Peter was persuaded by Ken to take her back and work through it and they plodded on. But there was more to come.

Leanne's long lost mother, Stella, showed up a few months after the wedding. Leanne was reluctant to say the least, after a lifetime of knowing her mother abandoned her to be raised by Les. After a devastating miscarraige, though, and little by little, Leanne and Stella finally bonded. Good thing, too, because Carla was still shadowing the marraige.

Clearly, Carla's presence is a thorn in Leanne's side. Peter and Carla finally gave in to temptation around the anniversary of the tram crash, something that sent Peter back into the bottle yet again with serious post-traumatic memories. Peter finally left her for Carla when the truth came out at the trial where Frank Foster was accused of raping Carla. Leanne's been on a mission to protect little Simon from Carla and Peter both, considering that while Carla isn't an alcoholic, she does drink too much and Peter's sobriety is not all that stable. Simon has already lost one mother and he wants to be with Leanne, holding a lot of anger inside against his father and Carla both. Leanne is fighting with everything she has in spite of the possibility of her own past being dragged up.
Peter and Leanne did make a good couple but I wonder what's the future going to hold for Leanne?  Leanne's history has her lurching from pillar to post, not seeming to have learned her lesson. She tries to be responsible but she just can't quite get the knack of it. Will Leanne ever put her murky past behind her and become respectible? Will she at least find some success in life, with a family of her own, sagely giving younger women advice gleaned from her own mistakes? In the aftermath of this current custody battle crisis, it looks like Leanne is going to yet again lean on Nick who is more than willing to hold her up. Is Nick the real love of her life or just an unresolved issue from her past?

Leanne isn't one of the savviest characters on the street but she's never been boring.

Saturday 9 June 2012

An Affair to Remember


Pretty much all the feedback on the Karlita (Karl and Sunita) affair is negative. 'Out of character', and 'sleazy' are the kindest things we've heard. It's certainly not been played like a coy 'nudge, nugdge, wink, wink' type affair we've seen in the past or even a fairly straightforward one but with a lower mark on the sleaze scale. Perhaps that's because many of the past affairs involved characters that we liked, characters that had a certain charm and chemistry. This one has none of that. And according to the poll in this post, it's even out-sleazed the Molvin  (Molly and Kevin) affair which, in my books, had reached a new low at that point.


Sunita was always loyal and kind and honest. If she felt hard done by or taken for granted, she'd have confronted Dev, not thrown up her hands and chased after the first man that gave her a cheeky grin. Karl is a newish character and we haven't really seen him in a sympathetic light since he's been here. He's a gambler, he's a bit of a schemer and most definitely feckless. We did hear that he'd cheated on Stella in the past so this is, at least, not a personality transplant for him.

For the past couple of months we've been peering at the screen through our fingers whenever Sunita and Karl have played tonsil hockey with their tongues or plugging our ears and singing "la la la I can't hear you" when one makes blatantly sexual comments to the other like when Sunita suggested she wouldn't wear underwear beneath her Jubilee cossie. How many of you out there were as creeped out about that one as I was? I might have expected that out of Beth or Tracy but not Sunita.

Now we're at the point of the affair where Dev is suspicious. He found the wad of cash that Sunita is keeping for Karl, the gambling win that Karl is hiding from Stella and though he leaped to the wrong conclusion about that, he's putting a lot of other pieces of the puzzle in the right places. All this time she wants to herself, all these friends coming out of the woodwork needing to talk to her including an overnight with one of them. He's sure she's having an affair.

Anyone that's had a cheating spouse has seen all of this before. Once you're suspicious, you watch, listen and try to catch them in a lie. The cheater's reactions are varied but they all try to do a merry dance to try to keep you from finding out the truth. Smoke and mirrors. Fancy footwork. Or, as we in Canada might say with reference to (ice) hockey, stick handling. But those of us watching who've been there recognize the bluff for what it is and it's not pretty. As awful as this storyline is, I have to say from the point of view of a once wronged spouse, it's painfully realistic.

Dev confronted Sunita with his suspicions and she started down that cliched route. First, she pretended not to know what he was talking about. She denied. She put it all down to his overactive imagination. Then, she broke her own phone so as not to have to call or take a call from Karl, pretending it was "Laura". She accused Dev of bullying her. You could tell she was backed into a corner but there was still a way out. Right out the door and into Stella's back room which was obviously the worst place she could be, considering she's doing Stella's fella but she grabbed the first hand hold she could, like someone dangling off a cliff. Doesn't matter that the roots are shallow and she could very easily plummet down onto the rocky shores below.

Even if Dev backs down and Sunita goes home, even if the affair ends with a whimper and they think they're in the clear, it's going to come out. These things always do. Will Sunita go quietly? Will either Dev or Sunita end up in the corner shop flat? Will Stella weld shut the lock on her handbag, the one in which she's already got Karl's 'family jewels' firmly situated. Will there be blood and carnage on the street or forgiveness?

Tuesday 5 June 2012

The wedding of the year: Love it, Hate it



Things I loved (or at least enjoyed) about the wedding episodes:

  • Rita really looked lovely! That was most definitely a Rita hat, too! There's life in the old girl yet!
  • Ken being Dennis' best man. Ken is the oldest friend Dennis has on that street since they grew up together. They looked very smart in their frock coats, too!
  • I chuckled at Mr. Smug (Norris). He couldn't stand not knowing what was going on and even confessed to interfering in order to find out. And when the wedding went through after all, he scowled and sighed and was very much put in his place.
  • I loved the vows.
  • The song that played as she came into the venue was "On the Street Where You Live". Very appropriate. She also sang that at the millenium street party if you remember.
  • Faye was being really nice to Anna and Owen and acted very grow up, accepting that they really did want to be together. 
  • We only got a glimpse but David dressing as Johnny Rotten was appropriate and so was Kylie as the wild child Amy Winehouse. 
  • I'm very glad we were spared the costuming of characters like Deirdre, Gail,  and especially Scary Mary! 
  • Rita was very brave and feisty even in the hands of a threatening thug. She was clearly scared witless but shouted at Tina to drop the drugs in the water, hoping Rick was just bluffing about throwing her in after them.
  • Tina making a stand and taking things, and the drugs, into her own hands. Enough of weak spineless Tommy bowing down. She didn't think it through but she'd had enough of Rick what with his involvement in her father's death and now this. 
  • Kirsty came through in the end, probably against her better judgement in part and they caught Rick red handed. Thank GOD/DESS this drugs storyline is over!
  • Tina dumped Tommy. He deserved it.
  • There's a new, red headed Mrs. Tanner! (and wearing Elsie's engagement ring, too!) 
Things I hated, disliked or just scratched my head in confusion over:

  • Sophie's wedding outfit. Short hotpants, heels and a big, white, fluffy thing on the side of her head. Really?
  • Tina was Rita's bridesmaid, not Emily or Audrey? Obvious plot device.
  • How did Kirsty know where Tina and Rick were? She didn't tell Tommy. Possibly she called Kirsty when she was waiting for Rick. Ty and Tommy couldn't get hold of Kirsty and she was probably busy setting up the police sting, likely. But it was a bit confusing. I must watch the episode again.


I must say the wedding shenanigans were much more interesting than the Jubilee party itself. The costumes were fun but it was mostly just people running around in costume with not a lot of plot happening. Jason as Elvis had a few chuckles, with his Elvis-like comments. I'm sure some of them were ad-lib! There was the hotpot business, Tracy chasing Steve around (boring, and I thought he looked more like a young Elton John than John Lennon),  and a little bit with Owen and Anna getting back together . Which leads me to ...

The downright nasty:

That awful, repulsive Sunita and Karl mess. Why didn't they go up in the flat like they have been? Why go into the shop back office when the flat was 10 feet further around the corner? And that cringeworthy line of Sunita's about wearing nothing under her costume just doesn't fit on Coronation Street. I don't think it even fits on Eastenders! It just defies belief and taste.

Overall, a really lovely wedding. Weddings, unfortunately, can never run smoothly and if it had to be like this, then at least they've caught the bad guy and that storyline is done and dusted.

Other comments:

Sylvia was apparently hiding, grouching and bad tempered. The spoilers had said that she was upset about all the romance while she was alone and I thought we'd actually get to see her making a few choice comments or looking sad and missing Milton. I guess one sour face among the guests (Norris) was enough. Two would have curdled the cream.



Nick didn't dress up. I suppose he thought it undignified or he couldn't think of any pop star he could possibly resemble. I know who I'd have suggested. I think with a wig and shades he'd be a dead ringer for Rick Ocasek from The Cars! Don't you think?

The wedding in photos.
See more pics of all the costumes for the Street party here.

Monday 4 June 2012

Congratulations, Rita and Dennis

Julie's emotions got the better of her. I know just how she felt! By the end of tonight's double episode, with the marraige of Rita and Dennis Tanner, I was nearly in tears, meself! But enough of that. Here's a pictorial accounting of tonight's wedding and adventures.
 
The bride is having doubts in the wake of the revelations about Dennis' lies.

Norris sticks his nose in and demands to know what's going on, confessing to interfering and admitting he was the one that told Rita about Norma.



Rita makes Emily and Audrey go off to the registry office, expecting Tina back any minute to take her there. But Tina's on a mission to take down a drug dealer and takes off to bring down Goliath instead of taking Rita to the registry office. Look who shows up instead! Uh oh!


Meanwhile, everyone's waiting at the registry office.


Rick has arrived, Tina's threatened to drop the drugs in the water but is shocked when Rick produces Rita. Now what?

Back at the wedding venue, Dennis is sure that Norris is to blame. Norris smug but asks why he would be smug? (he's smugger than a smug thing, is Norris)
There's a struggle and Tina backs off though Rita's putting on a very brave face.

HA! Rick is caught red handed with the drugs!!


Tina has to race to the wedding venue where things are getting ugly between Dennis and Norris.
The police escort arrives with the bride.

Norris is told to shut up and escort her down the aisle.
They played "On the Street Where You Live"!!! I got all teary eyed, I really did!


And here's a few photos from the ceremony.






They are pronounced Husband and Wife!

The bride and groom arrive back on Coronation Street to join the Jubilee party for their reception. Where else could they possibly have it!

And there's a new Mrs. Tanner on the Street!


Read what I loved and hated about the wedding/Jubilee episodes and see more pics of all the costumes for the Street party here.

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