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Saturday 12 December 2015

Corrie weekly update - the one with the Loch Nessa monster

Corrie weekly updates from 1995 - 20 years in 20 e-books
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A visiting order from a jailbird in soapland can only end in tears. And so it begins when Tracy receives a visiting order from Rob who’s banged up in the big house for the murder of  Tina. She dolls herself up and pops to the prison where Rob gives her sweet talk. What he really wants to know is what’s going on at Underworld after he spots a picture in the Weatherfield Gazette and reads about Jonny Connor joining the knicker-stitching gang.  Another visiting order wings its way to Johnny who dons his dapper waistcoat and takes himself to jail.  Rob tells Johnny he knows he knocked up their mam about 9 months before Carla was born and reckons he’s Carla’s dad. Johnny agrees that he had a one-night fling with Carla’s mam in the backseat of a Vauxhall Cavalier (classy!) but defies Rob to show him proof that he’s Carla’s dad. The fact that Johnny goes all shifty and sweaty provides Rob all the proof that he needs. Blackmail is afoot and Johnny heads back to Weatherfield with much on his mind.


It’s Nick and Carla’s engagement party in the Bistro. Carla’s gone all curly-hair and sparkle for the event, a look I much prefer to her straight-hair and blackness.  Johnny finds out that Liz McDonald has got a thing for Errol Flynn in the old Robin Hood film and buys a new green shirt for the party to impress.
“All you need now is a bow and arrow,” muses Carla, clearly cottoning on to Johnny’s plan to woo Liz. And I think it’s a partnership that could work. I like Johnny Connor a lot and I hope Liz will too.  At the party, Carla asks Roy to give her away at her wedding to Nick, and Roy agrees, while Johnny looks on, confused.  The party also provided a platform for the saga of Aidan's missing silk socks to play out, a lovely little touch. The socks, it transpires, are in Spain wth Steve McDonald.


Leanne takes Simon to their counselling session and Robert goes with them, for Simon’s sake. Mind you, Tracy finds out and she’s not best pleased. There’s more disharmony in the Barlow house when Nessa wheedles her way into Ken’s bed and stays overnight. The next morning she rewards Ken for his sexual prowess with a cooked breakfast and compliments him on his timing. I nearly choked on my cocoa.  Tracy is up in arms with Nessa the imposter getting her claws into Ken, but Ken seems content even if no one else is.  Audrey’s still jealous  and when she finds out that Nessa wants her hair done for Carla’s engagement party, she gives Nessa a hairdo from hell.  But never mind Nessa, never mind her hairdo, the Renshaw twins made a reappearance in this scene. Not only that, they spoke too!  In unison!


There was another great scene between Amy and Nessa when Amy warned Nessa not to messa with her grandad, before demanding that Nessa take her out to the Christmas markets and spoil her with goodies. Channelling a potent mix of Tracy and Blanche into young Amy is a dream to watch.

Liz, Erica and Anna get drunk in the Rovers and muse about men. In the back room of the Rovers, with the three of them sat around Liz’s table, talked turned to fellas – and their lack of.  It was a timeless scene, one that could have been done at any point during Corrie’s 55 years with any of its female characters.  It was a lovely scene that I enjoyed a lot and the three of them decide to try a singles night.  Anna’s not got anything to wear so borrows one of Liz’s spangled tops while Liz takes an age to get ready. “It’s a full-time job, being me, you know!” she says.

Released from hospital after being knocked over last week, Sarah goes back to work in the pub.  When she gets stuck into a bag of scampi fries, Todd’s the only one that notices and when Sarah runs out of the pub and takes comfort on Maxine’s bench, Todd follows her out.  He reminds her that she used to eat scampi fries when she was pregnant with Billy, their baby who died.  He’s guessed, of course, that Sarah’s pregnant again and she confides in him about Callum being the dad. Kylie also figures out what’s going on with Sarah’s odd behaviour this week when she rifles through Sarah’s handbag and finds the name of a clinic where Sarah’s booked in to have a termination next week.

And finally this week, Brendan takes Mary to a convention of crop circles and alien abductions. Mary’s in love and giggles like a schoolgirl to Brendan’s whispered admissions of lust. But when Rita overhears him on the phone to someone he’s clearly fond of, she feels she must warn Mary that she fears Brendan’s married. Rita’s words of warning fall on deaf ears when Mary tells Rita that she already knows that Brendan’s wed. She tells Rita to keep her sanctimonious and bitter words to herself.  When Brendan pops round to collect Mary to take her to the convention, they kiss and they cuddle and he tells her: “Oh, stop being so gorgeous!”.  “Stop being so married,” she replies.  Oh Mary, you stupid, stupid, girl.

And that’s just about that for this week.

Remember, you can sign up to get these Corrie weekly updates by email at http://www.corrie.net/updates/weekly/subscribe.htm

This week’s writers were Julie Jones (Monday double); Ben Tagoe (Wednesday); Simon Crowther (Friday double). Find out all about the Coronation Street writing team at http://coronationstreetupdates.blogspot.com/2008/11/exclusive-all-current-corrie-writers.html

Glenda Young
--
Blogging away merrily at http://flamingnora.blogspot.com
Website: glendayoungbooks.com



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10 comments:

Humpty Dumpty said...

Carla married Peter but I don’t remember her talking so mournfully about the absent father who should be giving her away. But, OK, those scenes were only there so we could see Johnny eaves-dropping. My real gripe is that Rob was told the family secret by his drunken mother so we must imagine that her comment just slipped out. Strange, then, that the same comment didn’t slip out when Carla was talking to her mum. I can imagine in the middle of a row that her mother would at least fling out the information that ‘he’s not your real dad, anyway’. Carla would have eventually worked it out. And then, good grief, Johnny immediately gives the game away in the prison cell by looking guilty. And then, good grief, instead of storming out in search of a good solicitor to shut Rob up, we get the stuff about not having the money. On the bright side, we met the wonderful Marc Baylis again. I agree that Liz and Johnny would work well as they already have great rapport. From the expressions on Ken's face, Nessa may soon be on the way out.

Ancient corrier said...

Nessa is a HAIRDRESSER, for goodness sake, she would have sprayed and brushed that awful style out in minutes!

Anonymous said...

I for one hope Nessa is on the way out - in tonight's episode she was appalling. Of course she could have brushed her hair out and not acted like a petulant child. Aidan with his missing silk socks, surely he would have more than one pair if he likes them that much. Jonny being Carla's real dad - so what? It isn't as if Carla was ever connected to her real father, heck she doesn't even know who he was, so what if it turns out to be Jonny. Really weak story lines.

Anonymous said...

I had to smile at Blanche peering round the photos at Nessa when she was in the armchair. Did anyone else notice?

Anonymous said...

Loving seeing Marc Baylis back. A strong soap villain, a strong actor.

I love it when the writers delve into a character's background like they sometimes do with Carla.
Casting Richard Hawley as Johnny Connor, Carla's biological father was genius but I only wish Stuart Blackburn could resist telling viewers what will happen months in advance.
Rather than being shocked at the drama unfolding, I'm sure the average viewer response will be the usual "It's so predictable" - which it is because Mr Blackburn has been dropping hints and not-exactly cryptic spoilers about it for months.
Having said that, I am still looking forward to watching it all kick off because it involves strong characters and actors.

Ken has possibly chosen the worst woman on the planet to start a relationship with just months after Deirdre's death. I am totally on Audrey's side.

I am a fan of Mary but found those scenes with her eating Brendan's face very disturbing.

PS. What on earth was all that nonsense about socks?

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 13:38: Why should Carla not being "connected" to the man who she thought was her father make any difference to her finding out after 40 years that Johnny Connor is her real father?

The man is someone she thinks she knows well and well, I would be extremely hurt if my father chose to ignore the possibility that he could be my father for 40 years.

Johnny obviously went on to have other children and was a good father to them- while Carla was left with her drug addicted mother and drunk father who was hardly ever there. Except now she knows he wasn't her real father and she has two siblings she didn't know she had. Add that to her knowing that the truth is only coming out now because Johnny is being blackmailed by her brother, who apparently is her half-brother. She has unknowingly gone into business with her father so there's no escaping him.

Tvor said...

The socks gave Eva a chance to flirt with Aidan.
Brendan is giving Mary every smooth comment that most cheating married men on soaps give women, isn't he? Dont' reveal he's married until he's sure he's got the new woman well and truly hooked but not hooked far enough that she'd dump him when she found out.

Maybe Nessa could have fixed her own hair, but it probably took a lot of hair spray and that might have been a bit tricky, dismantling that helmet in time. Plus, it looked like there was a lot more hair in that updo than Nessa actually has. Or is that just me?

Loved Amy this week!! Loved seeing Rob back. Even if the old Who's your father storyline is a typical soap cliche, I'm going to enjoy it.

Bet Lynch said...

I'm sorry, but the two episodes were a load of old cobblers. It's sad that folk continue to overpraise Corrie for doing the basic things right which was standard five years ago and not criticising the underbaked characters and loony plots Stuart 'The Hat' Blackburn vetoes. Annie and Ena would be turning in their graves.

Johnny Connor is something straight out of a detective programme, conjured up out of nowhere and now we're expected to believe he's Carla's father? Why didn't Rob decide now to tell him the truth? Surely Rob would have revealed it to Carla first?

And then Johnny wanted to tell someone he has hardly met the "shocking" revelation. Poor Liz, she'll console him after taking him up them stairs. Either way, sick to death of Carla and her made-up Connors clogging the street. And no, I won't put a (silk) sock in it! ;)

The only star has been little Amy this week. Yes, I've missed Rob and he was great with Tracy. But why did silly Blackburn turn him into a murderer and ruin one of the better partnerships on Corrie in the first place?

Anonymous said...

I wondered why would Ken be invited to Carla's and Nick's engagement party?He's her ex father in law and a few months ago he believed Tracy's lie that she started the fire that killed Kal and Maddie,never apologising when the truth came out even though Carla was the only resident who believed Peter was innocent of Tina's murder.A contrived ploy to justify uneccesary scenes of Nessa in the salon and staying over at the Barlows.

Rapunzel said...

Bet Lynch, I totally agree that turning Rob Donovan into a murderer was like the wanton vandalism of a great character and his charismatically-corrupt partnership with Tracy.

I am still grumpy about it, especially as Marc Bayliss rocks every scene he is in and his chemistry with Kate Ford remains fabulous.

I remember feeling some hope when Tina fell off the balcony and it could have been a simple accident. But when Rob picked up that shovel, we knew it was all over for him. All for the sake of some short lived "twist in the tale" kudos. It makes me so wild!!

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