Cosy crimes and gritty sagas by Corrie Blog editor Glenda, published by Headline. Click pic below!

Tuesday 16 December 2014

The curse of 6 Coronation Street


So the Nazir family are rather inexplicably moving into number 6 Coronation Street. I still do not understand the reason behind this impulse purchase, other than a crazy notion these days that every character connected with the programme must live on the street itself. Gone are the days of seeing the wider Weatherfield world it seems. 

I'm trying very hard to like the Nazir family. Alya is the brightest hope for a long term character I can take to. I can't even find the words to describe how boring I find Kal, Zeedan and Sharif. I feel sorry for Jane Danson as the trend for her character being placed with unpopular new arrivals continues. Yasmeen has promise but she can sometimes be just too full on for me. Putting her in charge of the new community centre has been a good move but the current Alya/Gary storyline isn't impressing me all that much.

Anyway, they've moved into number 6 which hopefully means that horrid living room wallpaper will soon disappear. Every cloud. 6 Coronation Street is something of a doom-laden property so that doesn't exactly augur well for its latest inhabitants. Shall we take a look at the evidence as we go through the keyhole? Ahem.

For the first eight years of its life, the house was owned by bookmaker Des Barnes. The fondest memory I have of this time is the lovely Phyllis Pearce acting as his cleaner. Sadly all was not well chez Barnes and before too long Steph had run off with someone else. More misery ensued as Des mucked poor Raquel about for years. And of course Des met his maker in the house thanks to a run in with a coffee table and some dodgy drug dealers. 

Ever since then, the house has changed hands on a rather alarming number of occasions. It has become a temporary residence for a constant stream of ill-advised casting decisions. Debs Brownlow and Matt and Charlie Ramsden spring uneasily to mind. 

Then came the Harris family, never a happy, bubbly brood. They ruined the character of Martin Platt, daughter Katy killed her father and then herself and mother Angela went to prison. 

Then came Charlie Stubbs, who also breathed his last under that roof thanks to a combination of Tracy's woeful sexy dance and her nack with heavy, ugly ornaments. After a quick bottoming through, in come 23 members of the Morton family, although the only one I can remember is Sinbad from Brookside. Most recently we've had to witness the extended misery of the extended Armstrong-Windass clan, now forever banished to the gloomy flat above Tracy's emporium of knock off. Not exactly a glittering track record is it? 

So I wonder what lies in store for the Nazirs? Will it be more murder, mayhem and misery or will they lead a more charmed existence, sandwiched between Sally and Gail? I'd say it will be interesting finding out, but I'm yet to be convinced. 


Follow me on Twitter @GraemeN82

Download our App | Follow on Twitter @CoroStreetBlog | Like on Facebook


Creative Commons Licence
All original work on the Coronation Street Blog is covered by a Creative Commons License

8 comments:

Humpty Dumpty said...

Very ill-advised bringing the whole family group in, no matter how slowly SB thought they were doing it. Yes, Graeme, why exactly are they all moving to the Street? I can understand the grandparents wanting to buy a place for the other three but they themselves should have stayed wherever they were supposed to be living. Audrey and Carla work on the Street but manage to live elsewhere.

There's one thing that I don't understand about the Gary/Alya romance and that is Alya's apparent belief that this is the real thing. I was expecting her to tell her family that she had no intention of settling down with anyone and she was just having fun. That would have led her father to say that Gary would want more than fun etc etc. Are we to assume that Alya has never had a boyfriend or hung out with young men at university? Maybe so, but we ought to hear her talking about this with Gary or Steph. Celibacy is much ignored in this society and there are young people who, for whatever reason, choose not to have sex before marriage. Could be quite challenging storyline for a soap.

njblas said...

Cursed indeed! What a miserable track record that house has:) If popular opinion prevails, the Nazir family will soon go the way of the forgettable Mortons (although I did love mad Teresa). Alya is the only one with potential here. Zeedan is absolutely dire. Yasmeen shouts all her lines in a dramatic actress-y manner, and the rest are DULL. Kal and Leanne have about as much chemistry as Jason and Stella (shudder:)

Anonymous said...

My main complaint about the Nazirs is that they're draining even more life out of Leanne. I cheered when she broke up with Nick, who up until then I had considered to be the most boring man on television. Yet, somehow, Kal has proved to be even duller. Sigh.

Frosty the Snowman said...

Funnily I dont mind Grandad Nazir, I think he could have had potential as a member of the Four Squared or whatever they were called. I cannot abide Yasmeen with her sour hard face and bullying and downright rude manner, no doubt the writers think we find this amusing - Ho Ho Ho - Ena Sharples she aint and will never be. The Ayla working the factory story and being in love with Gary Windbuckeet is frankly totally preposterous, as is Kal's relationship with Leanne who although she is played by a good actress just seems bad tempered and surplus these days. I dont mind the sulky teenage son too much either, most teens are like him with an atttude problem. I just find them contrived, plastic and over the top. If they all just 'appen to be passing, all at the same time, just as Gary is passing by, its just turning into a pantomime - Oh Ayla - hes behind you. No doubt when Mr Blackburn's stint ends, so will this unpopular family.

John McE said...

I cannot stand the sulky teenage brat nor his overbearing grandmother. Kal has to be one of the dullest characters ever in the soap, and to me he continues to look like an action man doll... without the action.

Yes, I agree, compared to the rest of the family, Ayla shines. Hopefully she'll have a chance to show how good an actress she is when she has to mourn the rest of this sorry bunch in yet another tragedy at #6. And it can't come soon enough for this viewer.

AlbertT said...

One, of the many, problems for me with the Nazir clan is that they just don't look, or feel, like a 3 generation family. Whenever you see them together Kal looks more like Alya and Zadeen's older brother rather than their dad.So they're badly cast and written before you even get to the turgid characters of all 5 of them.
But the powers that be have invested a lot in them so I think they'll be here for a fair time yet and they could be an even worse car-crash than the dreaded Mortons. However even they showed some promise once they'd pruned away some of their dead wood and I suspect they'll chop a couple of Nazirs before too long. Zadeen is utterly superfluous and it's already been said he's on a gap year so no doubt he'll be packed off to uni far far away never to return at the first opportunity. I think Kal will go too before too long. Jimi Mistry is an established actor and they tend not to hang around for that long on a soap, plus it's clear the character isn't working and is becoming increasingly unpopular and I can't imagine he'll want to sully his reputation in this way. Which long-term would leave a triangle of Sharif, who has shown the odd glimpse of promise as a character, Yasmeen who hasn't but who may work long-term and Alya, who is as insipid a character as there's ever been but is at least young and pretty, which counts for an awful lot in the eyes of the producers.

Zagg said...

I'm kinda hoping for a gas leak and then an explosion at No.6 that will blast them all the way to Blackpool. If they have to stay then I would like to see Sharif have an affair with anybody...just to wipe that smug face off of Yasmeen. Horrible woman.
And I agree Mimi Mistry is wasted as an actor. I bet he didn't figure on his character being written as such. It all went downhill from the hen party stripper stand in night.
And Zadeen.....ugh...I can not bear to look at him he's so bloody miserable on screen. He has not had one normal congenial moment on screen...not one.

Anonymous said...

What I find so unrealistic is the fact that they have just moved from a massive and beautifully decorated house to number 6 with no explanation as to downsizing etc. Characters who are first introduced with these houses and then end up in the street never have this explained, Natalie Horrocks was the same and it always bugged me! - Micky

GRITTY SAGAS BY CORRIE BLOG EDITOR GLENDA YOUNG, PUBLISHED BY HEADLINE. CLICK PIC BELOW!

You might also like...

Coronation Street Books for Fans

GRITTY SAGAS BY CORRIE BLOG EDITOR GLENDA YOUNG, PUBLISHED BY HEADLINE. CLICK PIC BELOW!