Returning to a cobbled Street near you

Well, it would appear that the Corrie cheque book has been opened and it's spend, spend, spend as a couple of old faces weave their way back to Weatherfield. Hurrah say some, whereas others stifle a groan. Absence sometimes fails to make the heart grow fonder.

Flicking through the Corrie history books, it would appear that returnees don't always shine quite so brightly second time around.

May I present exhibit A, m'lud - the Old Faces of '84. It's well-documented that in a bid to paper over the cracks of the rapidly disappearing mid-1980s cast, the characters of Linda Cheveski and Billy Walker were re-introduced. How we warmed to them. Okay so we didn't. Linda came back as a totally unlikeable, sour piece of work who was desperate to land Bill Webster and her beloved Number 11. Billy, once affable if dodgy, was now re-cast as a bargain basement JR Ewing. All he needed was a Stetson.

Some characters came back simply to be vile and stir things up. Naughty but nice Suzie Birchall popped back after a four year break just to undermine Gail's marriage, rattle Marion Willis' cage and upset Elsie. It was not the Suzie we had known and loved. A decade or so later, the venomous Jenny Bradley returned even worse than before, ripping off Rita and spreading maliciousness in her wake. Be gone with you, foul beast.

Other come back for no real reason at all. The once cheery Amber Kiralai, having been dispatched off to uni, returned to service Sophie's lesbian storyline and then, rather hastily, disappear again. Likewise Sharon Gaskell found herself on t'cobbles after a seventeen year absence only to get embroiled in an odd marriage storyline, upset 'Reet' and then do another runner.

Perhaps the most nonsensical re-appearance was that of Eunice Gee. Dear old Eunice. She was a bit of a ratbag back in the early 1980s. Annie Walker saw her for what she was and indeed, when faced with the prospect of a cheerless marriage with Fred-face, she disappeared with a councillor. As you do. Almost twenty years later though, she was back and running a boarding house. She spoke fondly of her 'Freddie' which left us all wondering what had happened in the intervening decades. Had she grown tired of life with a town hall big wig? Had the hapless Fred managed to woo her back? Questions that went unanswered by Eunice as she left as quickly as she had arrived.


Three words of warning to any returning character though - Remember Bet Lynch.

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