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Saturday 28 December 2013

Coronation Street double episode review, Friday 27 December 2013

Leanne is unhappy at Nick’s decision to tell Norris the truth about her injury. With Gloria and Stella afraid to leave her alone with him, Nick agrees that nobody can be sure he won’t hurt her again, not least himself. He suggests he move out, but they agree that Leanne will move in with Stella instead.

Fresh from the slammer, Kylie apologises to Tina, but after overhearing Max tell David he’d rather play than look for her, she spends the day wandering. As she argues with Anna in the cafĂ©, she gets a powerful dose of perspective from Hayley who demands to know what she wants from life. “If it’s a cry for attention, then take it from me, nobody cares” she tells her, and reminds her of how blessed she is. “I could weep”, Hayley cries, at the time she has wasted. The fact that this seems to have had little impact on Kylie makes her intensely less likeable. When she finally goes home, she tells David she doesn’t give a toss if he stays or goes.

Jealous Michelle looks on as Andrea wows the lads with her darting skills at the Rovers. Andrea’s lovely personality makes Steve’s worse half come across even more repellent than she has in recent times. She knows Michelle doesn’t like her despite Steve trying to convince her otherwise.

Even though Maddie admits to stealing Sally’s bag, Sophie irritatingly tells her incredulous mother to give her a break. Tardy Tim’s bargain chocolates fail to appease Sally who remarks, “Christmas just gets better”.

While everyone in Weatherfield has a wish, Hayley’s is the simplest of all, and puts the rest in perspective; to see daffodils blooming in spring. “The things my brain is dredging up these days” she tells Roy. It’s poignant that the most beautiful and ultimately important thoughts are buried in favour of those which are inane or insignificant in the wider scheme of things, and we feel privileged to witness Roy reading Wordsworth’s poem to her. After a perfect Christmas, she runs to the window, childlike, in the hope that the snowmen are still standing, but the symbols of her and Roy’s togetherness, have sadly disappeared.

She wants to book a trip where there are dancing flowers, “tossing their heads in a spritely dance”, and the simplicity of such a wish, and the ease of its achievement for others, inspires reflection. Despite her optimism, Hayley and Roy are sadly told she only has weeks to live. The measure of her character is found in the dignity of her response, and the heartbreaking humbleness of her parting words at the doctor’s office; “we’ve taken up enough of your time.”

Christmas becomes a metaphor for life as she observes, “Pity it has to end. I suppose if it went on forever it wouldn’t be so special. We wouldn’t cherish it so much. Still, it’s not twelfth night yet”. She insists on going to the pantomime, but breaks down in the lobby. Roy, a pillar of strength for her throughout, takes her home. As her anger comes to the fore, first with Kylie, and then in the apartment as she knocks the Christmas tree to the ground, she offers a dark commentary on the futility of life’s concerns; “The stuff that’s supposed to matter, it’s just all of us whistling in the dark so loud you can’t think, you can’t stop, just keep treading water until you can’t and then it’s like you were never here in the first place”. Roy reminds her of how much she’s loved, and she dissolves in his arms as she cries, “I’m not even 50, it’s not fair, I’m not ready”. It’s an extremely powerful scene with tremendous performances from Julie Hesmondhalgh and David Neilson, and a wonderful script by Chris Fewtrell.

As the tears subside and the tree is restored, a calm Hayley reneges on what she considers harsh words, and tells Roy that loving him has made her life worthwhile. Roy, with his relatively new found and sublime ability to articulate his feelings, tells her “you have turned an apology of an existence into a life fuller and more joyous than I could ever hope” and cites her as his reason to believe in angels. Hayley painfully describes how she could drown out the ticking clock up to now, and breaks down when she tells how every heartbeat is taking her further away from Roy and everything she knows. Roy's words are themselves poetry as he assures her, “I’ll always be here at your side. It’s the only place I can be, where I’ve ever belonged. We shall face this together.”

Such scenes are demonstrative of Coronation Street at its very best. Characters such as Hayley and Roy are sadly not often found on our television screens, and this episode shows their immeasurable value, and clear need for them. Hayley, the embodiment of honesty, goodness, integrity and kindness, speaks of her heart, each beat of which not only brings her closer to her departure from Roy, but from our lives too, and she will leave a huge void that must be filled if this heart is to continue beating at the core of the street.

By Emma Hynes
Twitter: @ELHynes

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11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for this, Emma.

Humpty Dumpty said...

A great blog which catches the emotion of the Roy/Haley scenes. Anna charging up the stairs, poking her nose in again, was reality encroaching on Roy and Haley's private world. Didn't anyone else feel like giving Anna a slap? How has she become so unlikeable even when she's trying to help?

Unknown said...

I agree I was angered by Anna's interference. I thinks it's because she tends to be nosy and irritating but even when Roy was trying to shush her away she didn't even take the hint and still had her neck curved around the door to see the fallen Christmas tree. But it's more so because it was beautiful scene and it was interrupted. I think if it was a scene with another couple such as Kylie & David or Carla & Peter I don't think anyone would have cared that much. But yesterday's episode was beautifully written and acted. It's episodes like that, that reaffirm my love for Corrie.

Anonymous said...

Oh please let Tracy kill Tina and leave Rob free for Michelle to hook up with. So tired of her and Steve it ruins everything else on the screen.

Anonymous said...

Wow! talk about different perspectives! I didn't find Anna's actions "encroaching" or an "interference" at all. From downstairs she heard a loud crash. She's worried about the Croppers. She knows how ill Hayley is becoming. She knows how worried and upset Roy is. She knows they had gone for the scan results. She knows Hayley is considering suicide and Roy is alarmed by this. I interpreted her arrival at the flat door as the legitimate concern of a friend, with nothing "nosy" about it. If Hayley had fallen or collapsed and needed an ambulance, she could have been a help at a critical time.

Mrs Barton said...

Beautiful write up. Brilliant Corrie but I do agree with the above Anon writer that it seemed to me Anna was OK to be concerned. I also think that Hayley's lecture to Kylie was taken on board as I saw nuance the actress' performance and then Kylie went home...

Anonymous said...

Excellent review drawing attention to thing I missed in the programmes. A very enjoyable read.

Beth said...

Oh my, whilst the acting between Roy and Hayley was beautifully done I can't help but say this episode, considering it was meant to be boxing day and therefore still 'Christmas' in Corrieland, was soooo depressing. I stopped watching EE years and years ago for this precise reason.

Do people get scan results on boxing day? It's a public holiday and not that different to Christmas day so an epic fail as far as the story goes imo.

The scenes were well acted and poignant between R&H but c'mon did we really need so much of them, when we've already had so much of them, when we know there's so much of them to come. They promised us that she wasn't going to die at Christmas but the scenes were so sad it was the next thing to it!

And then there's the happiness and joy of Michelle, Tina, Peter, Leanne & Nick, Kylie & David.

They gave us festive cheer in bucket loads...... :(

In all seriousness, has Stuart Blackburn come from EE? The show is mirroring it so much these days for it's misery. Bl**dy awful!

Frosty the Snowman said...

We all cheered when Hailey put selfish little Kylie firmly in her place and not before time. She should get back to the gutter from whence she came. Lurching from caff to Bistro to Rovers just causing trouble is now more than tiresome as is David’s constant pandering to her. Now we have the charming little girl in the soup kitchen where it is seen as OK to assault a helper and steal her handbag. In fact the thicko Sophie obviously sees these as admirable qualities. The world has gone mad. Why do the writers think we see anti social behaviour as entertainment????

Rosie said...

I agree with Frosty, the writers seem to think we want misery and bad behavior all the time, if I wanted to watch rubbish like that I would watch EE, and I haven't watch EE for a very long time. Corrie used to be different from all the other soaps, that was its charm, tragidy was balanced with comedy and misdemeanors came with price. I miss the old values.

maggie muggins said...

It was a sad Boxing Day on Corrie, but not the kind of pointless grey sludgy depression one finds on EE. Roy & Hayles are characters I care about, and I didn't find it odd that the scan results were given on that day. Cancer doesn't take holidays. It might have stretched the truth a bit, but could happen with caring staff.

I find the emotions on Corrie feel real at times, whereas on EE it's more often delivered as if the actors just want to go home quickly. I loved when Hayley lit into Kylie, and also saw Kylie do a bit of a think about her behaviour. She didn't miraculously transform, but at least she stopped drinking.

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