Coronation Street: Discussion Thread

[DRW50]

If any of you have time before this episode is inevitably removed please watch it - it's one of my favorite Corrie episodes and for me represents much of what the show should be in structure and tone.

 

@vetsoapfan @I Am A Swede @Nothin'ButAttitude

 

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[I Am A Swede]

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Lovely!

 

Even though it's only one episode I can easily see why this show was such a success. Such a diverse and strong cast of characters, and a setting which probably was something rare on tv at the time.

 

Personally I found it amusing to see an old acquaintance from my favourite tv-show ever, "Upstairs, Downstairs". John Quayle, who played Captain Platt in this episode played Bunny Newbury on that show. 

[DRW50]

 

Yes. He popped up on the show again about 20 years ago playing a man who dated Rita - his wife had Alzheimer's.

 

He and the other guy had a good connection...and it was the right mix of sober and casual, reminding us of the Blitz days without going too heavy.

 

That channel put up another episode today, where the group went to Blackpool in 1961. It's also terrific.

 

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[All My Shadows]

Two fantastic episodes of early Corrie!!!

And of course, the Blackpool ep opens with a nice shot of Ivan Cheveski's ass. We appreciate the finer things.

[DRW50]

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[I Am A Swede]

Absolutely wonderful.  

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Just like early Emmerdale Farm it depicts real people and presents realistic situations. I don't know what Coronation Street is like nowadays, but I suspect it mirrors what Emmerdale has become. A show that has strayed far away from its roots and is now filled with sensationalism and over-the-top storylines. It's very sad.   

[DRW50]

 

It's even worse, sadly. A young mother was killed in a car accident and people were laughing and celebrating in the pub over an engagement, even though they'd been close to her. And someone started slagging her off, even though they'd never had a bad relationship with her. This was moments after her death. 

[I Am A Swede]

That sounds simply awful.

I don't know why these shows have become so full of nastiness and mean-spirited people. Is it supposed to be hip or trendy or something? Self-centered individuals without morals are being treated as heroes while qualities like kindness, honesty and decency are sneered upon and characters who have those qualities are being treated as losers.

[FrenchFan]

January 2018 Episode Rankings
A total of 28 episodes aired this month.

1. Connor McIntyre (Pat Phelan) : 26

2. Sue Clever (Eileen Phelan) : 24

3. Georgia Taylor (Toyah Battersby) : 20

*. Catherine Tyldesley (Eva Price) : 20

5. Joe Duttine (Tim Metcalfe) : 19

*. Alan Halsall (Tyrone Dobbs) : 19

7. Mikey North (Gary Windass) : 18

8. Lucy Fallon (Bethany Platt) : 17

*. Brooke Vincent (Sophie Webster) : 17

*. Harry Visinoni (Seb Franklin) : 17

11. Julia Goulding (Shona Ramsey) : 15

*. Sair Khan (Alya Nazir) : 15

13. Chris Gascoyne (Peter Barlow) : 14

*. Alison King (Carla Connor) : 14

15. Katie McGlynn (Sinead Tinker) : 13

*. David Nielson (Roy Cropper) : 13

17. Sally Dynevor (Sally Metcalfe) : 12

*. Ellie Leach (Faye Windass) : 12

*. Sam Robertson (Adam Barlow) : 12

*. Debbie Rush (Anna Windass) : 12

21. Sam Aston (Chesney Brown) : 11

*. Daniel Brocklebank (Billy Mayhew) : 11

*. Lisa George (Beth Tinker) : 11

*. Bhavna Limbachia (Rana Nazir) : 11

*. Tina O’Brien (Sarah Platt) : 11

*. Colson Smith (Craig Tinker) : 11

27. Shayne Ward (Aidan Connor) : 10

28. Qasim Akhtar (Zeedan Nazir) : 9

*. Faye Brooks (Kate Connor) : 9

*. Dolly-Rose Campbell (Gemma Winter) : 9

*. Kate Ford (Tracy Barlow) : 9

*. Samia Ghadie (Maria Connor) : 9

*. Michael LeVell (Kevin Webster) : 9

34. Antony Cotton (Sean Tully) : 8

*. Jane Danson (Leanne Battersby) : 8

*. Tristan Gemill (Robert Preston) : 8

*. Simon Gregson (Steve McDonald) : 8

*. Peter Gunn (Brian Packham) : 8

39. Jimmi Harkishin (Dev Alahan) : 7

*. Melanie Hill (Cathy Matthews) : 7

*. Rob Mallard (Daniel Osborne) : 7

*. Kym Marsh (Michelle Connor) : 7

43. George Banks (Henry Newton) : 6

*. Dean Fagan (Luke Britton) : 6

45. Alex Bain (Simon Barlow) : 5

*. Patti Clare (Mary Taylor) : 5

*. Charlie De Molo (Imran Habeeb) : 5

*. William Flanagan (Joseph Brown) : 5

*. Connie Hyde (Gina Seddon) : 5

*. Shelley King (Yasmeen Nazir) : 5

*. Sue Nicholls (Audrey Roberts) : 5

*. Jack P. Shepherd (David Platt) : 5

*. Helen Worth (Gail Rodwell) : 5

54. Marcy Alabi (Ruby Dobbs) : 4

*. Beverly Callard (Liz McDonald) : 4

*. Ryan Clayton (Josh Tucker) : 4

*. Isabella Flanagan (Hope Stape) : 4

*. Matilda Freeman (Summer Spellman) : 4

*. Cherylee Houston (Izzy Armstrong) : 4

*. Elle Mulvaney (Amy Barlow) : 4

*. Andrew Whyment (Kirk Sutherland) : 4

62. Sally Carmen (Abi Franklin) : 3

*. Victoria Ekanoye (Angie Appleton) : 3

*. Helen Flanagan (Rosie Webster) : 3

*. Paddy Wallace (Jude Appleton) : 3

*. Nicole Thorp (Nicola Rubinstein) : 3

*. Lynne Verrall (Geraldine Spellman) : 3

68. Donnaleigh Bailey (Jess Haywood) : 2

*. Alison Burrows (Arlene Tinker) : 2

*. Richard Hawley (Johnny Connor) : 2

*. Sally Ann Matthews (Jenny Connor) : 2

*. Tisha Merry (Steph Britton) : 2

*. William Roache (Ken Barlow) : 2

74. Liam Braistow (Alex Warner) : 1

*. Kriss Dosanjh (Hassan Habeeb) : 1

*. Kate Fitzgerald (Nancy Tinker) : 1

*. Jennie McAlpine (Fiz Brown) : 1

*. Kim Vithana (Saira Habeeb) : 1

 

Contract stars not appearing this month :

Malcolm Hebden (Norris Cole)

Barbara Knox (Rita Sullivan)

 

CONTRACT DEPARTURES

1/05 – Dean Fagan (Luke Britton)

1/22 – Debbie Rush (Anna Windass)

[InLoveWithSoaps]

Corrie has always been the one British soap I never stuck with but I checked it out again for Christmas and I've been glued to it since. A 6th episode isn't too much on second thought given that it still feels like 3 episodes a week. I'd grown sick of Carla by the end of her last stint but she's been revitalized. What I appreciate most about Corrie is that it's really the only soap left that's got big families around. On others they mostly have groups of 2-3 people related to each other with a big family around like the infamous Dingles on Emmerdale (which has greatly improved since they've stopped with the whole who killed Emma which took away from her killing poor Finn right before, and that murder mystery was quite frankly plain boring and has made me sometimes hate Moira), you have the Barlows, the Platts, the Nazirs, the Websters, the Connors, etc. I think that's what works best. Daniel still is a future legend if they play it right.

[TimWil]

Was trying to remember how much Steph knows about Phelan. She obviously knows about the garage fire but does she know about the circumstances around Michael’s death and how Phelan laughed at him as he lay dying? Does she know about the flat scam? I guess one way to insure Todd staying away from Weatherfield will be the full flat scan reveal which won’t make him look so hot. I suspect it will be what makes Billy turn away from him for good.

Edited February 14, 2018 by TimWil

[victoria foxton]

Coronation Street: Is the much loved soap going down the drain?
These days Coronation Street is completely unbelievable and long-winded, full of murderers and people with issues, complains JAN ETHERINGTON


I know Coronation Street is a soap but I think it's going down the drain and I would like them to pull the plug on their obsession with violent, extreme and overlong storylines.

Once upon a time, Coronation Street was a wry, gritty, humorous look at life in a cobbled back-to-back street.

Now, we have more psychos, murderers, fraudsters, ex-jailbirds and utterly stupid people than you'd ever meet in an entire city, never mind one road.

Has Quentin Tarantino taken over as director?

Take the character of Pat Phelan.

Please, please take him. We've all had enough.

Phelan's thousand-yard stare locks on to anyone he passes.

He's either lurking on street corners, or issuing threats, in classic, pantomime bully mode. He's a murderer and the violence is often explicit.

After he killed for the third time 662 viewers complained.

Bruno Vincent/Getty

Coronation Street launched the career of Suranne Jones (Karen McDonald)
I say all this more in sorrow than in anger because I love Coronation Street and want to enjoy it but I'm turning into Victor Meldrew as I shout at the screen "I don't believe it!" at least three times an episode.

It's the world's longest-running TV soap.

Over the years, leading writers such as Jack Rosenthal, Jimmy McGovern and Russell T Davies (Doctor Who) have contributed episodes and storylines and acting knights Ian McKellen and Ben Kingsley have been among the stampede of big names proud to be part of it.

It's launched the careers of many current stars including Sarah Lancashire, Michelle Keegan and Suranne Jones.

Yes, it's a drama and not real life but the first rule of drama is that you have to believe in the characters.

Otherwise it's fantasy – and currently Corrie is not so much a bubbly soap as a bucket of cold water – shocking and annoying.

It has a wonderful writing team but they are guided by the storyliners, who decide what happens months ahead, to keep us hooked.

Evening Standard/Getty

The Rovers regulars raise a toast to Jack Howarth (Albert Tatlock)
When Coronation Street started, "boxed sets" meant presentation packs of Old Spice aftershave with soap, or matching gloves and a scarf. Now, in many ways, the programme is a victim of boxed set syndrome.

The multiple-series dramas, such as Homeland and Game Of Thrones, have become huge hits and their makers know that once a drama becomes popular, the commercial pressure is on to keep the plots dragging on for whole series.

Film-makers, however, know you can wrap up a good story in a couple of hours.

The writers on Coronation Street have scripted truly magnificent stories over the years – most memorably for Roy Cropper (David Neilson) and the first transsexual character Hayley né Harold Patterson (Julie Hesmondhalgh, whose love for each other endured until, suffering from cancer, she killed herself in 2014.

That was a golden period for Coronation Street.

It proved you can have gripping storylines about good people, where nobody gets punched, or sets fire to the factory.

Popperfoto/Getty

The real golden age of Coronation Street was in the 70s with characters like Alan and Elsie Howard
Yet there is a view – a strong one – that soaps, with their huge viewership, are perfectly placed to bring up storylines which address serious, real-life crises.

But they don't have to do it all the time, do they?

We've had an endless and very harrowing tale of Bethany Platt's teenage grooming abuse.

Admirable.

Keith Hewitt/GC Images

Shayne Ward and Alison King at an event in London
But no sooner has she been rescued from that than she's working in a lap-dancing club.

Currently, there's bipolar Gina Seddon, Robert Preston's gambling, Toyah Battersby's desperation to have a baby – poor Toyah, what a one-note role for her – Eva Price's unwanted pregnancy, Billy Mayhew's guilt at killing Susan Baldwin, Ken Barlow's daughter, in a car crash in 2001.

And at the end of most episodes a call-centre voice instructs us: "If you've been affected by any of the issues, go to the website."

I struggled but I couldn't remember being chained up by a psychotic builder in a basement and force-fed Pot Noodles.

Tim Graham/Getty

Traditionally, soaps have feckless male characters and strong females but I'm appalled that the work-shy laziness of Jack Duckworth, Eddie Windass and Stan Ogden has been replaced by secretive malevolence.

And where are the strong women?

The balcony-chested, brassy barmaids, such as those once portrayed by Julie Goodyear, Sarah Lancashire and Beverley Callard have become fey and troubled Eva, Sarah and Toyah.

Thank goodness there's still a Cruella de Vil in the Street. Tracy Barlow (a convicted murderer), has the best lines.

She marched up to age-gap lovers Carla and Daniel in the Rovers last week: "I hear you've cougared my brother."

More of that please.

Popperfoto/Getty

Hilda and her work-shy husband Stan Ogden muse on life
That's Coronation Street at its best.

Snappy, funny exchanges instead of fear and loathing.

But when did Pat Phelan's wife Eileen – originally, one of the Street's shrewdest, smartest characters – take a stupid pill?

If my husband said, in the middle of the evening, he had to go out for a “bit of business”, I'd jolly well want to know where and with whom.


Can't she see that she's married to a mass murderer?

All the signs are there – the doomy house with a basement he won’t let her see; the number of people who hate him (the entire street); the missing (dead) people connected to him – Michael, Andy, Luke, Vinny?

As Dexys Midnight Runners memorably sang: “Come On, Eileen!”

Even Sue Cleaver, who plays Eileen Phelan, recently admitted that the heavy plotlines are taking their toll.

“It's all getting very dark. It's just too complicated at the moment.”

Dave Benett/Getty

Sue Cleaver (Eileen Grimshaw) and Jane Danson (Leanne Battersby) on a night on the town
Amazingly, the programme makers seem to have reacted to the criticism by viewers and actors of the depressing storylines (which recently included everything from child grooming to kidnap and murder).

They're encouraging the stars to share ideas and participate in shaping their character's fate.

Jane Danson (Leanne Battersby), said: "We can put our creative points of view across now. So, rather than be miserable, we get a little bit of the old characters back."

Hallelujah! But it's also a ploy to stop their stars walking out.

Catherine Tyldesley (Eva Price) is off this summer, while Shayne Ward (Aidan Connor) is also expected to go soon.

Debbie Rush has "left", as her character Anna Windass is in prison for five years.

Malcolm Hebden (the pernickety Norris Cole) is on a health-related "extended break", while Helen Flanagan (who plays Rosie Webster) is leaving to have a baby.

But back to Pat Phelan.




Andy Carver and Vinny Ashford were both killed off by Pat Phelan
 

•  

Spoiler alert!

Photos seem to show he and Eileen setting out in a boat in Cumbria.

Will he drown?

Not very original.

Didn't Joe McIntyre, one of Gail's many deranged husbands, try to fake his own death in a boating accident there?

The Cumbrian Tourist Board should start a "This is where soap actors come to die" tour.

Popperfoto/Getty

Roys Rolls is the scene of many confrontations in Weatherfield
Some choose exits and some have exits thrust upon them.

Lately there has been a rash of departures linked to accusations of "inappropriate behaviour".

There are three ways to leave the Street: be murdered, leave in a taxi gazing back out of a rain-lashed window like Mrs Thatcher quitting number 10, or "go to Portugal".

For my money, aggressively quiffed males Adam Barlow and Zeedan Nazir who let their hair do the talking, restricting their own contribution to heaving sighs and moody dissent, should be the next to get the first plane out.

Maybe the writers could go to Portugal too?

A bit of sunshine might cheer them up and inspire some more light-hearted stories.

Because, for heaven's sake, it's a soap, not an acid bath

[TimWil]

Friday’s episodes were unbearable between Billy’s withdrawal and Craig’s OCD. The kid who plays Craig is sweet but enough is enough, he has to go. They should send his character off for further police training somewhere.

Edited February 18, 2018 by TimWil

[victoria foxton]

Corrie outrage as Eileen takes a 'dump' on screen

CORONATION Street loves to toe the line when it comes to controversy.

1

By Jazmin Duribe / Published 28th February 2018

Keand Alex deliver intimate performance on Dancing on Ice

But tonight's scenes may have been too much for viewers.

Coronation Street spoilers revealed that medical centre manager Moira Pollock (Louiza Patikas) would return to the cobbles, and tonight she made her debut.

Moira fled from Weatherfield in 2017 with her boyfriend Colin Callen (Jim Moir) after being sacked from her job at the surgery for stealing Norris Cole's (Malcolm Hebden) blood sample so Colin could perform a DNA test.

The redhead clashed with surgery receptionist Liz McDonald (Beverley Callard), who branded her "mentally unstable" in the tribunal.

Moira emerged successful from the employment trial and headed to The Rovers to celebrate.

ITV

GUESS WHO: Moira returned to Weatherfield after fleeing in 2017

In high spirits, Moira asked Eileen Phelan (Sue Cleaver) for a drink.

But Liz wasn't happy to see Moira back on her turf and hid in the back to escape the confrontation.

She soon noticed former pal Eileen – who recently fell out with Liz over her dislike of Eileen's husband Pat Phelan (Connor McIntyre) – was heading to the toilets and seized the opportunity to help her get rid.

Most explosive soap bustups

 

ITV

ME TIME: Eileen was rudely interrupted by Liz while having a wee

"Eileen, we've been friends for 15 years. Friends do not leave each other in the bogs!" Liz snapped.

Eileen, with her trousers pulled down, fired back: "And friends do not insult each other's husbands."

Liz pleaded with the cab office worker to help her out, and she eventually thawed.

ITV

GROSS: Viewers didn't want to see Eileen on the bog

Eileen replied: "I will think about it while I have another drink with her. Now shut your ears, I'm having a wee."

Suffice to say, viewers weren't so keen on the toilet scenes.

"I could really have done without seeing Eileen on the bog," one viewer snapped.

"There's no need to see Eileen on the toilet," another scathed

[All My Shadows]

Embarrassing!