Now that we’re back off from the epic “50th Anniversary Week” that included the infamous cram trash and all of it’s victims. All the victims will be missed, but I felt a particular
kind of sadness towards the death of Molly Dobbs. Perhaps it was the most tragic to me since the life of Molly Dobbs wasn’t that great either.
A quick breeze back through the history of this much unliked character. Molly Compton, as she was known back then, come onto the street about five years before her untimely death. She came to know Coronation Street through her father, Diggory Compton, the local baker. In 2005, she was bullied by Fiz Brown after Fiz felt she was too close to then boyfriend Kirk. Her father then leaves her on the street and she starts working in Dev’s corner shop.
She starts a relationship with Tyrone Dobbs and they end up getting married. She falls in love with Tyrone during their snack truck venture. She and Tyrone started dating after Tyrone broke off his engagement with an indifferent Maria Sutherland. She moved in with Tyrone 
at the Duckworth’s and after Vera’s death, she and Tyrone bought The Old Rectory. The two soon got engaged and had a lovely winter wedding despite the crooked intervention of Jackie Dobbs – Tyrone’s duplicitous mother.It’s not long after that Molly, when keeping up her new healthy lifestyle, continues fun running. She manages to get Tyrone’s business partner and married best friend, Kevin Webster, involved in
fun running. Eventually, the two strike up one of the most repulsive affairs in soap history to be known as “Molvin.” Molly falls for Kevin, but Kevin’s just having a “fun run” with her. Eventually, Molly’s 
Auntie Pam finds out about their affair and demands that Molly end it and chastises Kevin for taking advantage of a young woman.Molvin goes from bad to worse as Molly reveals to Kevin that she’s pregnant and she believes the baby is his. Kevin was almost about to leave his wife, Sally, for Molly and their new “future in Chester” when Sally reveals she has breast cancer. Kevin’s allegiances are set and he’s not leaving Sally for Molly. Molly is devastated and does not know what to do.
Molly leaves Tyrone but doesn’t tell him why. Kevin sends Molly and Tyrone out in a
car that has shot brakes, by accident, and Molly and Tyrone get into a bad accident where Molly is critical. After this, she feels Kevin tried to harm her and her unborn child and gives up on him staying with Tyrone.
She manages to stay with Tyrone and will pretend that the baby is his.Molly gives birth to a healthy baby boy that she names Jack after Jack Duckworth with the aid of Kevin’s wife Sally. Kevin can’t let sleeping dogs lie and has a paternity test done to reveal that Baby Jack Dobbs is indeed his son, not Tyrone’s. Molly still has a shred of hope that Kevin will leave his family for her and Baby Jack, only he doesn’t.
On the fateful night of the tram crash, Molly is fatally injured when the tram crashes into Dev’s shop. Molly succumbs to her injuries, but not before telling Sally that Kevin is the father of her surviving baby Jack. We see the end of Molvin, with the tragic end of Molly Dobbs.
I find the most tragic thing about the death of Molly Dobbs is that she never really lived. Not only was she young – only 26 years old – when she passed, but she never really got “hers.” A perennial loser at best in life, it was cut all too short. Molly had always been pretty, not beautiful. Smart enough, but not clever. After reviewing this character I wondered how many Molly Dobbs were out there. Molly Dobbs was by no means perfect, or an angel, but I felt she needed a bit of a highlight. This post is an ode to all those Molly Dobbs past and present. Molly Dobbs might be one of Corrie’s most tragic characters. Thoughts?
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Ah, yoork I love your posts because you write with such insight and compassion as only someone who's been through the wring cycle yourself.
ReplyDeleteBut I take a slightly sunnier view of the whole of her life and the life of perhaps other Mollys. She was pretty, yes and got prettier as she took up exercise and diet... vast majority of people probably wouldn't be considered "pretty" and most won't get thinner or fitter but go the other way... especially after a certain age.
She did find love with Tyrone who absolutely adored her and as dense as he was, treated her exceedingly well. She got along famously with her "in-laws" -- older Jack Duckworth and Vera and later with Jack's new ladyfriend. How many of us actually get along with the in-laws, let alone our own families? And Auntie Pam despite being lied to and rebuffed, always stood by Molly. She really, as Auntie Pam tried to tell her, was in a far better place in life than most people. She held a job which may not have been the coolest job, but this is an era of disappearing jobs, disappearing small shops. In her job, she was treated very well by Dev and his wife. Her customers were also her neighbors and friends. How many of us can say that they had bosses that offered them a free flat to stay in when we want to get away from a spouse?
She gave birth to a healthy baby boy -- became a mother before hitting 30. Many women today have to delay marriage and motherhood due to job inflexibility, financial reasons, etc. She never got "hers"? I respectfully disagree, I think in her short 26 years, she squeezed a lot of living -- good and bad, including a sordid affair with an older, married man. Could she have had a better life, could she have done better? I suppose we can all choose to do more, do better, take more risks -- but how many of us actually do? Sometimes, we have to be happy with doing enough.
In some ways, exiting life at this point saved Molly from the messy fallout from bad choices.
@ Anonymous - Very interesting flip side of the coin for sure! All points correct, I suppose I always just found something rather sad and "empty" about Molly. Even though she had so much, she never seemed fulfilled or satisfied. Even though she "should have been." I think there are a lot of women (or people) out there who feel a certain amount of "nothingness" in an otherwise perfect world and to me that's what I found so tragic.
ReplyDelete- Yoork
Love this. Hope you don't mind that I added Molly's middle name to the title of the post - I'm still not sure where the Cozette came from, it sounds like a Lady Tena sort of product!!
ReplyDeleteIsn't Cozette in Les Miserables? The little girl who sings There Is A Castle On A Cloud, for one?
ReplyDeleteExcellent blog. Molly's character was of course ruined beyond redemption by the Molvin affair which was not quite believable as she was so in love with Tyrone. I know these things happen but so quickly? Seems unfair that she is to be written out while Le Veil carries on in his role as the cumudgeon Kevin.
ReplyDeleteI have to side with Yoork on this. Molly never did seem satisfied for long. She was bullied in school and tried to take revenge on Fiz by trying to steal Kirk but she didn't really want him. She and Tyrone could have been really happy but she didn't seem satisfied with him either, and jumped at a bit of excitement with Kevin, who was a real pratt having a mid-life crisis. She did always seem to want something more, something she didn't have.
ReplyDeleteGiles says
ReplyDeleteI wish Molly had listened to the sensible words of advise from the great Auntie Pam.
Pam stood by her niece through thick and thin and only wanted what was best for Molly and Tyrone.
It will be interesting to see what happens with Jack. I don't think Pam will give up on him as she is his only blood relative from Molly's side now (I think Diggory is long gone) and I would like her to stick the knife into Kevin just a little bit more, while being there for Tyrone.
Interesting times - especially if Pam and Bill tie the knot and bring the two families together!
Isn't Bill still officially married to Maureen (Sherrie Hewson)?
A lot of us have been a 'Molly' in some way or another, at some point in our lives, she probably represents a lot of people out there today.
ReplyDeleteHowever I did miss a huge period of Corrie, when she was having the affair with Kevin. I do wonder if she underwent a slight personality transplant, and the affair was actually a little 'forced' by the writers, for the sake of drama.
The bit where Tyrone and Molly's burger van catches fire has to be in my opinion one of the funniest moments on Corrie.
ReplyDeleteI reckon she was only 26 so although she'd packed a lot in, hadn't really started living/reached her potential yet. Pretty, not beautiful - so what? doesn't matter. If she'd survived, I think she'd have re-married, raised baby Jack & got child support off Kevin, and had five more of her own, then been a brilliant matriarch. Shame they killed her off really!
ReplyDeleteTotally agree Yoork I was hoping someone would write something
ReplyDeleteShe was a pretty sad character, looking at when she first came into it, she seemed young, happy and free, then slowly, things began happening around her, it seems like her whole time in the show was leading up to that scene at the end
ReplyDeleteI think we're all suffering from a bit of mass amnesia...I recall the Molly character being quite happy and satisfied until this awkward affair seemed to have happened just out of the blue. That makes the AFFAIR a tragic thing in more ways than one, but not the life of the Molly character.
ReplyDeleteIf there was a character who was consistently dissatisd with her lot in life, and consistently disappointed -- sending favourite daughter Rosie, rather than smarter Sophie, to private school or pining after a promotion at Underworld and having that blow up --- than I'd say it was Sally more than Molly who didn't know what she had.
I'm waiting for Kevin to have a go at Sally about Ian Davenport. And that painter who she was having it off with before their last wedding...
ReplyDeleteYeah, the affair greatly altered Molly's perspective on life and what she wanted from it.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of Sally & Kevin's affairs...Didn't they get re-married solely for the sake of the kids and wasn't it made clear that it was not for love with a guarantee of an extremely dull sex life as well?
I don't blame them for cheating on one another! It's to be expected. They should just have an open relationship and leave it at that.