There have been some good comments left on my speculatory blog post about
Max being hit by Nick's car in Coronation Street. Will Max live or die? My guess is he'll live because Coronation Street wouldn't kill off two kids in one year, would it?
Mind you, we don't know for sure if Hope will live or die. All we know is that
Fiz and Tyrone will have a very sad Christmas. Therefore, losing any children on Coronation Street in the future is a matter of pure speculation. But it has prompted us to think about whether Corrie would, could or should kill off little Max.
Corrie's past record suggests that Max won't be killed off because they haven't killed off any children in the past on screen before,
as far as we know. Corrie has had baby deaths from still-births, premature births and disease, but never a grown child being killed off.
It's brought a lump to my throat writing this blog post. It's possibly one of the saddest blog posts I've ever written... here's a look back at some of the sad stories when children of the cobbles have passed away.
After David and Irma Barlow emigrated to Australia in 1969, David was killed in a car crash there in 1970. David and Irma's 18 month son, Darren also died in the crash. We never saw Darren on screen in Corrie as he was born in Australia.
In 1992 Liz McDonald lost her premature baby Katherine (Katie) soon after she was born on
1 January. The scene is on YouTube here. I remember this storyline vividly and with great sadness. Liz's grand-daughter Amy Barlow has Katherine as her middle name in honour of Liz's baby.
In 1998 Zoe Tattersall lost her daughter Shannon to meningitis. The grief of her baby's death unhinged Zoe and she kidnapped Fiona Middleton's baby, Morgan. Morgan's dad was Alan McKenna.
In 2000, Jake Webster was born but died from the disease Strep B. His parents were Kevin and Alison Webster.
This is the storyline which Corrie recently forgot.
In 2004 baby Billy Platt, the prematurely born son of Sarah and Todd Grimshaw passed away.
In 2008 Maria Connor gave birth to a still-born baby son. The baby's dad was Liam Connor and they named their baby Paul.
It remains to be seen if little Hope Stape will survive
neuroblastoma, a rare cancer.
And will Max dodge his uncle Nick's car?
Watch the video trailer here and see what you think.
Download our free App | Follow on Twitter @CoroStreetBlog | Like on Facebook | Visit Corrie.net
All original work on the Coronation Street Blog is covered by a
Creative Commons License
It's interesting that it was mentioned how Kevin forgotten his son Jake died as I've noticed Sarah seems to have forgotten her son Billy too.Billy has been mentioned by his father Todd but not his mother or his sister Bethany.I doubt either of them even visited his grave.
ReplyDeleteAnother child was killed in a traffic accident in 1964 by the name of Susan Schofield. She had been in a storyline where she was suffering from beatings by her father, but when she died, a couple of years later, I don't think we actually saw her on screen, she was just mentioned. It happened in Rosamund Street I believe, and she attended Bessie Street School. Albert Tatlock was lollypop man at the time, and was very upset by it, as he had befriended her against her father.
ReplyDeleteA much needed blog post FN, thank you!
ReplyDeleteAs Anon above says, there's a lot of amnesia about kids on the street, not only after they've died, but even when they're still alive.
Max actually seems like the exception to this rule, because he has been consistently woven into serious adult storylines, like Becky's attempts to adopt Max, Max's ADHD, and now the custody battle. Running in front of Nick's van and potentially ending up in hospital promises to keep Max front and center in the Platt's saga.
I really like the young actor who plays Max and look forward to seeing more of him, at the same time I wish the writers would find ways to invovle more of the kids more of the time - well, perhaps that's what they're doing with Hope and Simon as well.
Agreed. Also, about five years ago, Max narrowly missed being run over in front of the Platt house. I remember because David went ballistic and showed he could for someone other than himself.
DeleteThe problem with children, obviously, is that there are very strict rules about how much work a young actor can do. They also need to have a certain level of acting ability which is often beyond the very young - Simon being an obvious exception. That's why they usually get recast around puberty.
ReplyDeleteI'd actually be interested to see a child die from a dramatic perspective, but Max is probably a better bet than Hope. Soaps are always less than keen to kill people with cancer - it's very depressing for the viewers - whereas a nasty accident creates tension and can be seen as a terrible tragedy. It'd also create tension with Nick and Callum and Kylie and all points thereof, while a child dying of a horrible disease just makes everyone sad and united around the grieving parents.
Still don't think it will happen though. Brookside killed Susannah's children, and it was widely condemned. Even EastEnders think it's more acceptable to have children who are murderers than victims.
I once went to an event where a Corrie writer was talking about storylines which never made it on air. One was the death of Sophie Webster at about the age of six. We were told that a writer had suggested Emily take the Webster children to Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve. On the way home Sophie was to run into the road and be knocked down. Emily would have to break it to Sally and Kevin that Sophie was dead. I think - but this is a few years back - that Emily was then going to try and track down the driver when the police drew a blank. Apparently it was given due consideration but decided that it was too sad for a Christmas story.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous[15;31]After reading your post,I thought it's ironic that the writers at the time thought it would be too sad for Sophie to die at Christmas whereas now we'll have to watch Fiz, Tyrone and Ruby share one last Christmas with Hope.
ReplyDeletePerhaps it's just as well as I also thought considering his nasty temper,I could imagine Kevin constantly blaming Emily for his daughter's death because she took Sophie to church which leads to her becoming a detective to find the driver.
David is going to lose Max, whether by his death or by custody to Callum.
ReplyDeleteHe'll either die from the hit (if he's actually hit at all), or be seriously injured and Callum will twist and use it to his advantage to take him away from David and Kylie.
This is definitely leading up to Callum being murdered and David will be arrested for it, but the real killer will be Gemma who finally had enough of him and snapped.
Anonymous [15;31] they were going to kill Sophie?! I'm glad they didn't! In her day, she was a fantastic character who brought a lot of humour, dynamics with Rosie and her 'lesbian storylines'. She isn't particularly interesting now (she hasn't had a decent storyline for about three-four years...) but she used to be!
ReplyDelete