Looking back at Tina’s dramatic departure, I find myself still pondering a small but shocking detail – the revelation that Peter Barlow is a “bad dresser”. At least that’s what Rob reckons.
That fateful night round at Tina’s flat, Rob just couldn’t fathom why countless beautiful women have been so quick to fall at the feet of Pete:
“He’s a raging alcoholic… a liar… a bad dresser - I mean he wears waistcoats for crying out loud. He should be at the Crucible playing Ronnie O’Sullivan”.
It was a powerful character assassination which proved Rob to be as deadly with words as he soon would be with a piece of lead pipe.
To be fair, Rob does dress well. It’s just that I’ve always considered Peter to be of equal sartorial sharpness (his wardrobe of waistcoats included). When he’s not on the booze, Peter dresses to impress in immaculate suits, shirts and shoes. He’s got a super smart black pea coat and I’m also a fan of his more casual denim jacket.
Not forgetting the classic black shirt, of course. Peter Barlow’s staple garment has started a trend on The Street. In recent weeks, Steve McDonald, David Platt, Gary Windass and, somewhat hypocritically, Rob himself have all worn a button-down black number.
Peter Barlow is many things – former bigamist, perennial philanderer, hopeless alcoholic, absent father, accidental arsonist – but to my mind there is no way he’s a bad dresser. He even managed to put the vodka down a minute and drag himself into his trusty black shirt for Tina’s funeral. I don’t know where that purple tonic suit came from but it was quite something.
Maybe it was jealousy that drove Rob to have a go at Peter’s dress sense. After all, Rob shared a kiss with Tina in the smoking shelter of The Rovers but that was as far as she wanted it to go. In another case of pot calling the kettle black, did you notice what Rob wore underneath his suit at the funeral? That’s right – a waistcoat!
Reverting to Rob’s snooker analogy, his grappling at the graveside with Peter has now put him in the frame for Tina’s murder. A cool customer up to now, it will be interesting to see how Rob copes as the pressure builds.
Rob is doing a remarkable job of keeping his opponent at bay with a delicate mix of defensive and attacking play. But he can’t keep it up forever. One wrong move by Rob and he’ll leave himself snookered. And he won’t be able to choose what he wears in HMP Weatherfield.
By Martin Leay
Twitter: @mpleay
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11 comments:
Thanks for the above ad I completly agree. When you get to the nitty gritty of Peter you have character that is a mixture of a good man with many human failings/issues/demons, take your pick.... A very well developed character which has successfully incorporated some everyday human behavour. The clothes only enhance his character. Will deff miss this character and talented actor.
Since being with Carla, I think Peter's dress sense has really improved and become quite stylish and subtle. I like his casual look of the navy blue light jacket over his denim shirt. Not such a fan of his white gold bracelets, though. I always think they're Carla's!
Even if he looks a little like a cadavre, I find him very attractive!
I think Rob was grasping at straws when he called Peter a bad dresser.
And I agree with Anon 14:03 - Peter is a great character... a decent person with big problems and who for the life of him is unable to be a good husband, son, father.
I have to agree, yeah. I thought Peter looked pretty good for a nearly-50 alcoholic.
Barlow and dress sense? He dresses like a modern day spiv, no less.
Come on, dress sense and Corrie go together like kippered herring and peanut butter.
I have to say I despise Peter's pea jacket. He has not been in the Navy for a LONG time and now it just looks a bit desperate and out of sync.
I do like Peter though and all his crazy personality flaws and will miss him again when he leaves. I do hope he comes back in a while like before.
I'm still struggling to forgive Rob for that jacket with the elbow patches he used to wear when he first arrived:)
He's a rubbish dresser. He has something like two shirts and they're both the same colour (no prizes for guessing what colour, though)...
Pea jackets were all the rage when I was in university... in 1982
Totally agree about the complexity of Peter's character - he'll be sorely missed but hopefully will be back. I like what you say, BSteinhouse about Rob "grasping at straws". For me, the black pea coat remains a timeless classic both on and off shore :-)
Rob's got some cheek criticising Peter's dress sense when he wore that white shirt with black piping to the funeral. What an absolute fashion disaster.
Sigh, forget the threads, Rob/Marc's sultry VOICE beats Peter/Chris's tattoos any day.
(With that said, I have a vintage black pea-coat, ah crap, I'm torn.)
When I saw that black piping on the white shirt, I thought maybe it was something new in appropriate funeral attire: you know, like how they used to notify people of a death with a "letter edged in black". No?
Where I live in Canada, no one seems to bother about wearing black to funerals (Pardon me -"celebrations of life") anymore.
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