Coronation Street: Discussion Thread

[DRW50]

[Ben]

[DRW50]

Edited May 5, 2010 by CarlD2

[DRW50]

Some casting news from the last few days.

Vicky Binns is leaving as Molly (good riddance to Molly).

The guy who plays Trevor the binman is also being written out.

And the sad one, Betty Driver, who plays the longtime barmaid Betty Turpin, is also leaving. 91 years old. I guess you can't blame her for wanting some free time. She's an iconic part of Corrie and I hope they will give her a decent exit.

http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/showbiz/809073/BETTY-CALLS-TIME-Betty-Driver-leaves-Coronation-Street-after-41-years.html

[All My Shadows]

Betty's leaving!? But yeah, she's done more than her part in making this show a success, so if she's ready to go, I wish her the best. Might as well give her something nice and heavy (that she's up to doing) for a send-off. Doesn't Betty (the character) have a son with a family somewhere? I'm sure they'll write her out as going to stay with them, which makes sense.

Molly can get the steppin'. I like Vicky, but that cow she's playing has become too much. She seems to have forgotten the part she played in cheating on her husband. I hope Tyrone tosses her out on her bum. And I also hope Tyrone tells everyone who kept it a second (Bill! Pam!) off long and hard.

Edited May 9, 2010 by All My Shadows

[DRW50]

I wonder if Tyrone may leave with Molly.

Betty has a son, but it's been mentioned more than once that Betty doesn't feel comfortable around his wife, who is stuck up and resents Betty. She retired once and went to live with them and his wife was not very happy to see her. I do hope they will give her some exit, hopefully a decent one. Some of the show's most iconic characters, like Ena and Annie, never got to say goodbye oncamera.

There was something hot yet also something weird about the binman, I never quite knew where his character would go anyway. I spent a lot of his scenes checking to see the size of his hands, as I assume that's the main reason Carla would be interested in him.

I see that the board going down also took away some of our complaining about

I still am not getting that much from the scenes about Blanche dying. I did like June Whitfield's comic turn as the drunken friend, and I really liked that scene where Ken went into Blanche's room and looked at her wedding photo, and other treasures. I think Blanche was such a harsh and comic character, without a lot of sympathetic moments, it's not as easy to get into a sad mode with her. It doesn't help that I find Deirdre hard to take, although I did feel sorry for her when she couldn't go into Blanche's room. Not so much when she started haranguing Ken yet again.

[All My Shadows]

Yeah, exits like Ena's and Annie's always make me a wee bit sad because of how they were handled. I guess a lot of it had to do with the fact that so many iconic characters were going at that time that they didn't want to make a deal every time someone left. It'd be easy for the audience to not want to tune in anymore knowing that those characters were "gone" and probably never coming back. By the time Doris Speed died, would it have made sense for them to do anything on the show to acknowledge it by way of having Annie die off screen? Just having Bet and some of the others raising a toast at the Rovers would have been good enough, IMO.

I'm thinking I've seen Trevor, but I'm not completely sure. Has he been on over the last two weeks?

I think it's kinda funny that the stuff with Blanche's death, which should give Deirdre some great material, has really played best for the characters of Becky and Ken. Becky explaining Blanche's absence to Amy whilst Steve and the social worker looked on was a beautiful scene, IMO. I love Kat Kelly now. And I loved the Ken/Deirdre scene where Ken snapped back at Deirdre in Blanche's room. I think a lot of the trying to make all of this sadness out of Blanche's death comes more from the writers and actors/actresses wanting to remember Maggie Jones fondly. I'm not saying they should all just throw Blanche in the ground and heave a sigh of relief, but remember her for who she was and admit that they loved her for it. Peter, Ken, Leanne, etc, are all doing that. It's really the writing for Deirdre that's spotty. That drunkard May was a hilarious surprise!

The Mary stuff isn't over yet, is it? I can't help but enjoy it. I already said it upthread, but Hebden kills me with every line that comes out of his mouth, so anything that keeps Norris on my screen is fine by me. As much as I generally enjoy most of the characters, there's just something that I really like about Rita/Norris/Emily scenes. I could watch them all day.

I really can't stand Nick. The over-the-top reaction he had to Graeme sleeping in Gail's bed was so uncalled for. He's coming off like a bully who is picking on the "nerd" to show off how macho he is to the girl in the room. It reminds me of Degrassi when Spinner would throw JT around to impress Paige. They were in high school, and Nick is not. Speaking of the Potters, I can't remember if I posted this in one of the lost posts or not, but why is David still single? He's mellowed out considerably over the last year, I think he deserves a love interest more than his brother Nick the Dick or Kirk or Graeme.

Do we have a date for when Maria comes back? She's truly the only part of Tony's return that I'm looking forward to. I love Samia, and I really love Gray O'Brien, but I was over Tony last year, and I'm still over him. I hate hate hate stories like that, where the people who are "right" (Liam's parents) are so obnoxious and annoying that you want so bad for them to be wrong, but they end up right anyway.

[DRW50]

I guess they didn't want to take the time to address those who were already gone, and they may not have wanted to kill Annie because Doris Speed, although retired, lived for quite a few years after she left, so that may have been out of respect for Annie, but I do wish they'd done something. Ena was such a strong presence and even though she barely managed to appear in her last few years she still left a mark. I think the most they did was to mention in one of those compliation videos from 1984 or 1985 that Ena was dead. Ken told some ex girlfriend who was visiting that Ena had passed away, and she was shocked, as Ena was so strong, but then she remembered that Ena was up there in age. I liked that with Annie, they at least kept a photo of her in the back room (I think a lot of that had to do with Julie Goodyear), and then when Bet had to give the pub up, they showed Annie's photo again, passing the torch.

Trevor you did see -- he was laughing with Janice and haggling World Cup tickets with Steve.

I agree that Ken and Becky came out well with Blanche's passing, and that some on the show are probably mourning for Maggie, not Blanche (Maggie was apparently a very nice woman). I wish we saw more from Peter.

Nick does like to bully those he sees as lesser. He's very nasty with David. I also don't believe that he actually cares about Gail. He may want to but I don't think he does. I have no idea what they are planning with Nick but I think he's very vile. Frankly I think he's a sociopath. I really wish they would write him out, but if they don't, then this could be what they use to implode the Platt family once and for all. I don't hate Gail, I actually kind of like her, but her children are nightmares.

I think Maria's supposed to be back this month? Or next month.

Hopefully that's not it for Mary. She's the type of character Corrie does so well, and the actress is a real find. I especially liked when she was ranting at her mother in the mirror, and any of her scenes in her camper.

[Ben]

Won't miss Molly, at all. But Trevor, I kinda thought he had potential - again. They should really have just paired him with Janice, instead of the silliness with Carla; like she would fall for a guy like Trevor.

At one point, they were building Tyrone & Molly up, as the next Jack & Vera - but the horrendous Molvin affair has ruined all that. I really hope Tyrone leaves, too, as there really isn't much more they can do with his character, and we can finally put this period to rest. Otherwise, I can see him becoming another spare part, like Kirk and Sean.

I'm gonna miss Betty. Maybe her recent health scare forced her to make some changes? Re: Betty's family - she does have a son and daughter-in-law, but when we saw them last, Betty retired, moved in with them, feuded with the DIL, who subsequently tried to con her out of her money, by manipulating the son into sending her into a retirement home, and signing everything over to him. The only way I can see her leaving to be with her son, is if he's grown a back bone, and dumped her gold-digging ass.

So, Sean has gotten his yearly story, by randomly wanting to find his son. *yawn* No build up, just one day, he suddenly remembers that Dylan exists... Why must we put up with Sean and his dull storylines? I know this could have some good emotional impact, but when it involves a character who I don't care about, and is played by an actor who is simply playing himself, and would have to be the worst "actor" to grace Corrie's canvas, it all feels pointless and contrived.

[DRW50]

Antony Cotton has no dramatic ability (dramatic talent in his mind seems to be pouting), but he also has no real comedic ability, as those drunk scenes on Friday suggested. He also tends to overdo his one-liners. I thought the way Violet and Jamie ran off with the baby was unfair but then and now it was difficult to care.

I didn't know all that about Betty's DIL trying to con her out of her money. That's awful. I guess that was when they recast her son a few years back.

I liked Molly a lot before the Molvin stuff and now I'm not even sure why. I like Tyrone too and I think he's an underrated actor, he also works well as a background character, but I'm not sure where he would go now. The sad thing is that with the way Corrie has changed over the last few years there doesn't seem to be any real foundation for a Jack or a Vera.

Becky used to be one of my favorite characters but I skip most of her scenes involving this baby. I just don't care and I don't think she is in the right frame of mind to be raising a child. The only part I enjoyed was when Fiz saw her outfit and asked if she had another court appearance coming up.

So far I'm liking Izzy (she also reminds me of Stephanie Waring, Cindy from Hollyoaks, and she played Charlie Stubbs's baby mama 3-4 years ago). She is "feisty," as the cliche goes, but not too harsh, and she works well with Kirk.

Friday's episodes were stronger for the Blanche story. Ken talking about how much he'd miss Blanche and how he never had time to tell her was so sad to hear, especially knowing Roache lost his wife last year.

[BadBoy93]

Betty Williams May be Retiring.

[Ben]

I do like Becky, but last year she was overexposed, and became obnoxious. This year, her stories have all be rushed - off-screen death of her mother; 2 episodes of mourning; 2 miscarriages, and aftermath dealt with in 2 weeks; now she's applying to adopt a baby! The social worker said it best - Becky has not mourned the loss of her babies, and now she's throwing herself into the adoption. But, it seems Kim Crowther believes it's OK to mention this, and move on, even though it wasn't an intentional plot point, and is simply her addressing fans concerns.

Don't say that - we want to get rid of Kirk, not have him propped by the newbie!

[DRW50]

I think Kirk's time has passed but I don't see him as enough of a problem that he has to go quickly. I think they could use him to phase her in, as they did with Julie, although Julie herself is barely around these days.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

PLEASE TELL ME THIS WON'T BE TRUE!!!! :mad: :mad: :mad:

UGH...

http://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/s3/coronation-street/news/a218996/kym-marsh-is-new-flagship-corrie-star.html

Edited May 10, 2010 by Y&RWorldTurner

[DRW50]

It wouldn't surprise me, clearly someone at the network thinks she is a big name. Her 2008 stories were a disaster and the character has only recovered somewhat because she has been in a supporting role for an entire year. She is not suited to be a leading player.

So she and Eileen have both been signed to new, long contracts. I can't think of two people who are more different...

Edited May 10, 2010 by CarlD2