Coronation Street Weekly Update, December 13 2010

This week’s Coronation Street has been outstanding, phenomenal, fab.  Yes, I enjoyed it just a bit more than normal, coming as it did with a one hour live episode that was superb and it’s just been the best week of Corrie, ever. I can only hope to capture the essence of it in the update – and you know I’ll do my best.  But before I start, I’d like to thank Janet Waterhouse who will be moving into the weekly updates office for the next two weeks bringing you all the action from Christmas on the cobbles as I’ll be away and off-line with my family up north.   I’ll be back in two weeks.  And so without any further ado, here we go with this week’s Coronation Street update.
 

To find out more about these Coronation Street Weekly Updates and why they’ve been written for th’internet since 1995 at http://www.corrieweeklyupdates.btinternet.co.uk

At the end of last week we’d just had the explosion in The Joinery causing the tram crash on Coronation Street. Cast your mind back, if you will, to the carnage and devastation, death and destruction, trouble in the rubble.  And John Stape wondering how he was going to get rid of Charlotte’s dead body after hitting her on the head with a hammer.

Well, Fiz went into labour in the knicker factory and there’s no gusset lining strong enough to stop that baby coming out. The emergency services are working flat out, Doctor Carter’s busy with his stethoscope on Ciaran McCarthy’s bare chest (excuse me while I go ‘phwoar’) in the soup kitchen that is Roys Rolls where Roy and Hayley are dishing out tea and sympathy.  Fiz can’t hold it any longer and just in the nick of time, they get her to th’ospickle where she gives birth to a premature baby girl that she names Hope.  John’s got no hope of his own over Charlotte so he does a runner once he sees his baby born, dashes back to the Street and drags Charlotte’s body into the rubble, making as if she’d been caught up in the crash. He pretends he doesn’t know her when the emergency crew pick her body up and cart it off to hospital. “We’ll have to be quick,” the paramedic says. “Her pulse is very weak.”  John can’t believe his ears! Us fans are stunned too! Charlotte’s still alive?  Not if John has anything to do with it. He’s back at the hospital  and one minute he’s coo-ing over baby Hope and then he’s in Charlotte’s room with her parents, pretending to be her fiancée, agreeing to pull the plug out on her life support machine. John then makes the mistake of going to Charlotte’s house, trying to find and destroy evidence of Charlotte’s stalking obsession of him as Colin. But just as he’s finding and sorting out the photos and diaries and memoirs of a loony tune from her drawers and cupboards, in walks Charlotte’s parents. “Colin!” they say, a bit surprised, to say the least. “What are you doing here?”  He mumbles his sympathy, agrees by default to be at her funeral, while back at th’ospital baby Hope’s got an infection and needs a blood transfusion and John won’t answer his phone. When he finally does reach Fiz, she’s beside herself with worry over their new baby girl.

Meanwhile, back on the Street, Ashley Peacock dies a hero when The Joinery collapses on his head after he hangs on in there long enough for both Peter and Nick to get out alive. Claire’s beside herself with grief, she can’t bring herself yet to tell little Freddie that his dad is dead. Little Josh, you’ll recall isn’t actually Ashley’s, or Claire’s, he’s the spawn of Maxine and  the too tall Doctor Matt. Anyway, Claire hasn’t yet told the boys the news. Graham realises that Ashley’s death means he’s the only living person who knows the Elliot & Son secret family recipe for saucy sausages. Will Graeme keep that flame alive?  He’s got nowhere to live now that his flat has been squashed by the tram and so Dev offers Tina and Graham his empty flat up in Victoria Court, ah bless.

Anyway, the flames are still rising on the cobbles and bodies are being unearthed from the rubble as Molly slips away and dies while baby Jack survives. Sally does her best and nags Molly to stay alive but Molly’s deathbed words send a chill through Sally’s heart that will split up the Websters – for good, this time? Sally now knows that Kevin’s baby Jack’s dad and she throws Kevin out saying she doesn’t want him any more.   Yeah, Kev, loser, you should have never have been tempted by that Molly tart and her dead ‘come and get your meat pie’ eyes.  

Elsewhere, Jason rescues little Simon from the flames and gets a hero’s welcome on the Street from everyone except Eileen, who clips him around the ear and tells him never to do anything so daft again in his life. But he’s Jason, so he will.

And as the rescue services do their best on the Street, as families and loved ones reunite and hug with relief that they’re still alive, someone’s been almost forgotten about. It’s Rita in the Kabin, squashed by the bon-bons and flattened by Double Deckers. It’s not until Nick’s freed that he mentions that Rita told him she wasn’t going out after all, she was going to have a quiet night in, that it dawns on everyone that Rita could be dead! Rita! Dead? There’s a rush to the Kabin where Rita’s pulled free from the rubble, much to Norris’ relief. And mine, I have to say.  “What is it wi’ me and trams?” she says as she’s carted away on a stretcher.   Mind you, Mary’s not best pleased when Norris tells Rita that he doesn’t care about the Kabin, he doesn’t care about the toffee creams that went up in smoke, all he cares about is her.  Fortunately for us Rita fans, she’s going to be fine. She’s got cuts, bruises and is released back home with her arm in a sling. Whether her big red hair will ever recover its lustre and bounce remains to be seen but the doctors are doing all that they can.

Over at the hospital, there’s a lot going on, as you can imagine. And in Peter Barlow’s room there’s a scene that had me in tears. Peter’s at death’s door when he’s dragged out of the Joinery and Leanne and Ken are called in to say their goodbyes. Peter can hardly breathe, never mind speak, but he demands to marry Leanne right there and then in his hospital bed. A vicar’s called and vows are exchanged before Peter’s sped into intensive care. Heart-breaking stuff.  However, in her grief, Leanne’s a little confused as to why Carla’s so cut up about Peter and indeed, why she’s hanging round the hospital at all, until it dawns on her that she’s ‘Carl’ the alcoholic whom Peter’s been helping.  The two women sling words at each other in the hospital foyer. “He’s got internal bleeding round the heart!” Leanne cries to which Carla sniped back, “Oh, haven’t we all?” I loved that line.  Carla tells Leanne she’s married the wrong man, she should have wed Nick. “You only married Peter for his expiry date.”  I loved that line, too.  It’s touch and go but Peter pulls through, his first words to his new wife, Leanne: “Hiya, Mrs Barlow.”

And in amongst all of this, Gary Windass sits alone on the floor, cowering behind the sofa in his mam’s house, reliving the horrors of what he’s seen in Afghanistan. The explosion, the tram crash, it brings it all back to him, he’s having terrifying flashbacks of his best mate Quinny’s death, of seeing war close at hand. Shocking. Poor Gary.

And elsewhere this week, as if that wasn’t drama enough, Kylie returned demanding more money for Max. Steve and Becky were frantic when they though they’d lost Max in the tram crash, but Kylie had been and taken him away. She wants more money but Steve’s already cleaned out. Becky spies a way to pay her sister the cash when she stumbles into Dev’s corner shop that’s been blasted by the tram. In the back room, the safe’s burst open, scattering ten and twenty pound notes everywhere. Becky scoops the cash and rings Kylie to tell her she’s got her filthy money, and the McDonalds welcome little Max back into their lives.

Finally this week, Nick’s questioned by the cops over the explosion at The Joinery. Nick reveals he knew there was a problem with the gas on the afternoon of the explosion but he’d done nothing about it. “You do know it’s a legal requirement to report a problem with your gas?” asks the copper.   “No” said Nick.  “No” said everyone in our house. Well, we all know now.

This week’s writers were Carmel Morgan, Simon Crowther, Chris Fewtrell, Damon Rochefort, Martin Allen and the live episode was written by Jan McVerry.

Find out more about the Coronation Street writing team.

http://coronationstreetupdates.blogspot.com/2008/11/exclusive-all-current-corrie-writers.html

Glenda Young

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