I was pondering the other day, like you in moments of stress, on the 'journey' (he said in a wheedling 'X Factor' contestant's voice) of Julie Carp on't Street. Let's not pull any punches here, when she first toddled on to the cobbles she was as nutty as a fruit cake. Barmy, Miss Babs. However, unusually in these 'Corrie' times, she has been allowed to develop. Once the relationship with Kirk was through, Julie, looking like a thirty-something version of Yootha Joyce, was free to impinge on the lives of others, most notably her adoring (maybe not) sister Eileen. Now in a settled, if slightly odd, relationship with the world's most worrying headmaster, motherhood beckons.
Some characters never make any progress though. Prime candidates in this category are the senior Battersbys. Les changed not one iota in his decade on the programme. Nasty, loud and boorish from day one to the bitter end. Janice too paddled around in the murky depths of character development. From gobby, stupid, bint she made the journey to . . . well, gobby, stupid bint over fourteen years. At one point, my heart actually lifted when there seemed to be the possibility of the screeching beer-guzzler training to become a nurse. It wasn't to be.
Likewise, the venomous spitbag known as Cilla also had a trajectory that went around in circles. There were no redeeming moments, no signs of sun breaking through her thunderous character. Even a brush with cancer failed to make much of a dent. This can be a bit of a problem for the viewer. There is a need for progress and at times, redemption. Is it lazy of writers to just keep peddling the same old stuff for some characters or are they always looking for that certain spark which will propel someone to that next level?
Without it, Hilda Ogden would have remained a slightly unpleasant back-street bitch. Mavis Riley would have festered in the background as Emily's feeble spinster friend. Becky would have shuffled off to prison years ago.
Even now there seem to be some faces on the Street that never make any progress. Dev saunters through life in a decidely feckless manner.
Jason, fast approaching thirty, goofily blunders from one unsuitable relationship to the next.
Tracy Barlow or whatever she's calling herself, finds herself in never decreasing circles of unhappiness and resentment.
Is it a good thing to have a bunch of steady-eddies on the cobbles or should everyone be given a chance of a moment in the sun? Or are viewers left feeling exasperated by a bunch of characters chasing their own tails?
