Coronation Street: The end of John Stape

Reposted with permission from fab TV blog PauseLiveAction.

Yes, sadly it’s true. After months of speculation, the Stape-inator has been revealed as a departing member of the cast, confirming rumours that a dramatic exit is on the cards. Graeme Hawley, who plays the identity-stealing, schoolgirl-romping, pensioner-suffocating, body- burying, youngster-kidnapping, hammer-time chief, filmed his final scenes today. Scenes have already been filmed which see John threaten to jump from the roof of a hospital, with aptly named baby Hope in tow. The dramatic episodes do culminate in John taking a tip over the edge but the fact that the actor only finalises filming today leads me to suspect that rumours of John surviving and going on the run could in fact be true.

So how do we feel about losing the Street’s king of wacky plotlines? John has grown on me a great deal and, now that I’ve given up on realism and taken the story as it is intended, I’ve been thoroughly gripped and will be sad to see it end. I do fear that writers are missing an opportunity to take it in even more bizarre and entertaining directions but I suppose all good things come to an end and no Corrie villain, unless their name is Tracy Barlow, gets away with their crimes forever.

How do you feel about the storyline? And how do you feel about Coronation Street’s current reliance on dramatic plotlines such as Stape’s ending, Jim’s bank robbery and Sophie’s church roof fall? With news of a further armed robbery on the cards, is it becoming too much?