Coronation Street double episode review, Monday 7 January

Paul to Karl, 'You've got leaves and muck in your gutter.' Not what anyone wants to hear but what surely must be dealt with. What a come down for siren Sunita as she tells Karl he must deal with the problem. 'Job for today,' she chirrups, as she takes the children to school sounding very much like a primary school teacher addressing her charges. Then, when she sees later that the job has not been undertaken, she turns into a harassed mother addressing her teenager. 'You've had all day!' As Karl protests, she orders him to do it today, 'before it goes dark!' Oh dear, it seems all the romance (lust?) has vanished. Still, the need to get the job done gave air time to the wonderful Craig, a real talent, who, channeling his inner Naomi Campbell, stated that he didn't get out of bed for less than ten pounds, though seemed to settle for a fiver. Later, with Karl supine on the sofa, the ex-siren Sunita attacks again, this time with a dishcloth to the face. As Karl explains his philosophy on life, that is to delegate, he tells the enraged Sunita that that is what bosses do. 'And what are you the boss of?, she asks, then provides a possible answer herself, 'Lying down?' So much snarkiness will surely finish them off.

Poor Nick. What a bad way he is in. Peter was very successful in baiting Nick. He chose his words well. 'She'll always want me.' And there's more, as he tells Nick he'll always be scrabbling around in the dirt for his leftovers. It was satisfying to see Peter on the floor after Nick hit him and then threw Peter's words back at him. 'Who's scrabbling on the floor now?' That said, Peter got a good one back at Nick when he said, 'Sling your smarmy hook!'

Leanne tried her best to persuade Nick that she loves him, but understandably he remains unconvinced. Many viewers will hope that Leanne does not follow through her plan to leave Weatherfield. Jane Danson clocked up some fine acting tonight and the pathos in her words, 'I've broken him, mum. I've broken him,' was thoroughly convincing.

So, finally, the plot begins to come clear as Lewis pays his mate of Tuscan hotel fame the readies for his part in the impending downfall of Gail, who claims not to have 'worry lines' but 'worry canyons' and due to her anxieties over her son is told that she is 'pecking at her sandwich like a little sparrow'. We hear from the Tuscan hotel mate, who takes four sugars in his tea and needs to learn some manners, that Gail is younger than the ones Lewis has conned in the past, which seems to imply that there have been others besides Audrey and Penny. Lewis says of Gail that, 'She pretty much ruined my life, so I'm going to ruin hers.' All this is thrillingly sinister and having heard all this in Roy's Rolls, the note that Lewis writes when Audrey calls at Gail's, ostensibly for Nick but stating, 'I love you,' is brilliantly executed. I wonder if Dionne Warwick's 'Heartbreaker' playing in The Rovers was deliberately chosen for Nick and Gail?                  

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