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Maddie’s one of those characters dividing opinion on Coronation Street. Some people love her and some people hate her. Even Sally has a hard time knowing how she feels about the girl. One minute she’s trying to get rid of her from Sophie’s life: “And don’t have a fight with yerself on the way home!” and then the next minute, she’s giving Maddie another chance because she can see Sophie cares very much. Mind you, Maddie doesn’t make it easy for folk to like her, that’s for sure. She gets arrested this week when she takes her little brother Ben away from his foster parents only to have the social worker and a couple of cops hunt her down and take her and Sophie to the cop shop when they find Maddie, Sophie and Ben hiding in Mary’s motorhome.
Sally’s upset that Tim’s taking sides, and it’s not the side she wants Tim to take. Tim’s agreeable and open to Sophie and Maddie being given another chance, and although that’s what Sally does in the end, it’s too little, too late for Tim. He’s fed up to the back teeth of being told what to think, what to feel, what to wear, what to say and he calls Sally a snob. Yes, Sally. A snob. He then heads upstairs muttering and comes back downstairs with an overnight bag and tells Sally he’s off. Well, that’ll teach her. I do hope he comes back soon though, he and Sally are one of the best things about Coronation Street right now. I’m finding it hard to be cheerful watching the show just now, there are too many storylines dragging on for too long.
Speaking of which, Maria spots Marcus back on the Street and gives him what for on the doorstep. Tyrone finds her, they head back to her flat, she cracks open the wine, knocks a bottle to the floor when Tyrone says he has to leave and then he gets back to fed-up Fiz who’s convinced there’s summat going on between Tyrone and Maria. Fiz’s been baking and has gone and burned the pie but Tyrone’s still wants to eat it when he gets back from Maria’s. “It’s burnt,” Fiz tells him. “And it’s cold.” “Yeah, but a pie’s a pie,” notes Tyrone and a nation of pie-eaters could only nod and agree. Well, he did in our house anyway.
Another relationship I’ve had enough of this week is the tiresome triangle of Leanne, Nick and Kal. Leanne sleeps with Kal and Eva finds them all loved up in the flat the morning after the night before. But Nick wants Leanne to go to the flicks with him and little Simon, and that’s what Leanne does before she dumps Kal and tells Eva she’s decided to stay single.
One relationship bubbling along nicely though is Sinead and Chesney, love’s young dream on a cheap sofa. Chesney buys Sinead a new frock, it’s orange, bright orange, with bits cut out and it’s rather tight on the bits that are left. It’s a frock the likes of which Liz McDonald would wear, and therefore it doesn’t suit Sinead one little bit. But as Ches has bought it for her, she puts it on and they head to the Bistro, only to find Katy and her shiny hair wearing the same bright orange cut-out frock too. Sinead gets drunk, Chesney takes her home and shows her a picture of the dress he wanted to buy for her before being talked into the orange fright frock by Steph.
The bromance of the Street, of course, is by far the brightest star in the Weatherfield sky this week. Yes, it’s Lloyd and Steve. Steve starts training for the Weatherfield 5k fun run to raise charity funds in Hayley (rest her soul) Cropper’s name. But he tells Lloyd he’s not doing any training, he’s just drinking beer and eating pies as normal. Well, a pie’s a pie. Lloyd continues drinking and eating and swerves any training as he thinks Steve’s doing the same so he’s not best pleased when he find Steve limbering up in lycra in the backyard at the pub. “You Judas!” he says.
And that’s just about that for this week.
This week's writers were Susan Oudot, Mark Burt, Damon Rochefort and Debbie Oates. Find out more about the Coronation Street writing team at http://coronationstreetupdates.blogspot.com/2008/11/exclusive-all-current-corrie-writers.html
Glenda Young
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Totally agree about Tim and Sally being one of the best things in Corrie at the moment.
ReplyDeleteA year ago I despised Tim about as much as Owen and Anna did, but then the writers took the character in a completely new direction, and now he's one of my favorites.
It was really good to hear him acknowledge his regret at having been a rubbish dad to Faye for so long. That, and the way he's been with Sophie and Maddie lately, lead me to believe that deep down he's quite a decent bloke.
Oh, and I love his window cleaning business... the mere idea of Sally the Snob being paired up with the 21st century's Stan Ogden makes me giggle.
What I'm curious about is the involvement of the writers mentioned at the end of the blog. Is it naïve to assume that each one wrote a whole episode on their own like sitcom writers do? I wonder at the variation in the writing from episode to episode and can't believe the big names would have written that drivel. I now think the named writer must have a gang of uncredited writers who fill in the dots. It would explain why the quality of the dialogue and scene set-ups (is there a technical term?) is sometimes so poor. The named writer has to give their approval but there probably isn't time to make great changes. Does anyone know?
ReplyDeleteI think the paring of Tim & Sally is wonderful. They compliment each other's personalities. That being said..
ReplyDeleteHumpty, I agree, if the SR writers have to approve JR writers, it's sloppy either way. The way some of the story lines go...it HAS to be more than one writer, and that's why they're over the top and just absolutely horrid stories. If you or I were head writers, I'm certain I would NOT want my name associated with the garbage they are throwing our way.
I saw someone ask a quesrion like that before about writers...and the answer was..it is written at end of show.
ReplyDeleteI get it.....can you match good shows to the same writer....are the blah shows (like Friday) attributed to one such writer or team of writers.
How else can one show be so good and the next be so rotton...and the personality transplants etc.
I wish someone could explain it.
This show was unbearable.
I am so glad that Tim walked out on Sally. That was the highlight of the show...the rest made me groan or fastforward.
I'm sorry, but Maddy is as odious as Gloria was. And Gloria was as odious as Rancid Rob continues to be. Characters who are in the show purely to sow discord are not popular. Get rid of the pallid, poisonous little pill.
ReplyDeleteAt least Phelan was a character you love to hate. Maddy's just tiresome and doesn't know how to behave properly.
No, Humpty, if a writer's name is on an episode, that script is written by that writer (although subject to tinkering by the script editor). The storyliners meet every few weeks in an hotel and thrash out the new ideas. The individual writers are then given a synopsis of that needs to happen in an episode (I understand from writer friends that of the big three soaps, Eastenders gives the writer more leeway in that their synopses are shorter & less prescriptive.) This explains why often there is a jarring change of tone in a storyline between two episodes. A character may have an angry reaction to an event yet in the next episode be far more stoical abut it. The script editor OUGHT to pick up on this, but with the volume of material per week, often does not. As the scenes are often filmed non-sequentially, even the actors are not in a position to say "Hang on, this contradicts what my character said in the previous episode!
ReplyDeleteThere is some extraordinary writing talent on the show (not all the writing staff, by any means, but the weaker ones will hopefully improve on the job). So much of what we complain about is not the writers' fault at all, but rather the storyliners, who decide pace, character direction and ludicrous sensationalist plot devices. Just as the actors can only do what they can with the lines they are give, so the writers have to work within very narrow strictures handed down to them. Ultimately, the buck stops with the producer.