All was not as it seemed on tonight’s Corrie in which we saw Sally convinced that her demotion was, in fact, a promotion; Liz looking increasingly like she’s out for revenge rather than reconciliation; and Simon revealing that his 8 weeks with Peter was less than enjoyable. Naivety and deception are rife, and Billy, Sinéad and Seán enjoy front row seats, making them the most entertaining part of it for me.
Over at chez Barlow, it is unsurprising to find Ken calling Amy by her mother’s name, as she is clearly being moulded in her image, and doing rather well at that. Amusingly insisting on a whole new outfit for a violin exam scheduled for March, Amy nonchalantly reveals that she saw her Gran and Tony “canoodling”. She is promptly marched around to the Rovers to reveal all to Michelle who can’t quite believe her ears.
As this goes on in the bar, Tony is in the back room giving Liz the good news that he is free of Barlow's Buys, having emptied the bank account, even revealing that he was happy to lose £2,000 in the process to prove he’s a new man. Liz seems genuinely disarmed, but not as shocked as Tracy and Michelle who walk in to witness them kissing for themselves.
Unfazed by Michelle’s downright disgust, Liz keeps up what now looks more like a charade, and gets to work on carefully planting the seed in Tony’s mind that the only way Steve will forgive him is for him to return his share of the pub. Tony dismisses the suggestion outright, but nevertheless seems to be giving it some private thought. Liz allowing Tony to pursue her again has thankfully gone from perplexing to rather transparent in the space of one episode, and while I’m amazed that a man of Tony’s intelligence isn’t even a tiny bit suspicious, it's enjoyable to watch and both are, as ever, a delight.
I’m pretty sure hating someone’s voice isn’t grounds for demotion and I did rather wish that Sally had acted suitably aggrieved rather than allowing herself to be conned by Johnny into believing she’d been promoted as supervisor of the “sewing pool”, and consequently made a fool of. Carla may consider Sally to be a world-class machinist, but on the whole, her devotion and hard work tends to go completely unappreciated. Carla agrees to Sally's demotion in an instant and without conscience, which is disappointing, as Sally was essentially her right hand women for some time before the influx of Connors.
Simon is back and as foul-humoured as ever. As Leanne leaves a frustrated voicemail for Peter after he failed to travel home with his son, Eva manages to get Simon to reveal that when he wasn’t at work, Peter’s time was devoted to new love-interest Sharon, All he wanted was an hour alone with his Dad, but instead played gooseberry for 8 weeks. Eva betrays his confidence and tells a furious Leanne who in turn blames Ken for handing down his womanising ways to Peter; a tad insensitive considering he’s recently widowed, but he doesn’t seem to mind, telling her, “take it out on me, by all means.” Leanne’s efforts to reach out to Simon essentially fail miserably, and even after she ends up reminding him of his abuse, he storms out.
While I guess it succeeds in furthering the plot, as it has made things worse between Simon and Leanne, I’m nevertheless disappointed by Peter neglecting to take even an hour out with his son. I'm particularly annoyed at his failure to accompany him back to Manchester on the train; not so much for Simon, but for those among us who would have welcomed the opportunity to, erm, assess his progress. We can but live in hope.
By Emma Hynes
Twitter: @ELHynes
Deirdre: A Life on Coronation Street - official ITV tribute to a soap icon. Available here.
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4 comments:
Mostly, I'm annoyed at the dumbing down of Sally. Granted she needs taking down a peg or two but it wasn't realistic or funny that she was so easily fooled by some clumsy flattery. Sally's no mug. Writers, take note. Fans won't like it if you do to Sally what you did to Gail, and to Deirdre towards the end. I only hope Sally susses out what's happened and makes life hell for the Connors.
There is a legend of Ancient Greece that tells how the goddess Athene was born fully grown and fully armoured, springing from the forehead of her father, Zeus, who had swallowed her mother. I was reminded of this tonight, watching Amy Barlow. After years spent having her hair brushed, suddenly a fully formed, accomplished character actress, with fantastic comic timing and great characterisation, appeared from nowhere! The moment when she pushed her way to the front between the outraged Michelle & Tracy and managed to DOMINATE the scene was masterly! "Why don't I tell him?" she asked, determined to be part of the big showdown, ending with that gloriously brazen: "Can I have some money?" Even Ken accidentally called her 'Tracy'. Her mother's daughter, sure, but thankfully she's every bit her great-grandmother's scion too. Love her!
A very wittily penned episode tonight. I found myself laughing out loud several times - although I do agree with Humpty about dumming Sally down: I was really expecting her to follow up "So this is really a promotion?" with "So what about a pay rise to go with it?" which would have signified she wasn't fooled by his flattery but was prepared to swallow it if there was something in it for her ... but no. Just a sniggery 'Isn't she awful' pay-off.
Why does Sally keep getting knocked back? For all her Hyacinth Bucket mannerisms, she does put the work in and has a ton of experience to offer and in the real world, irritating people get promoted all the time.
Well Said Humpty!
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