Friday’s double Corrie didn’t offer much in the way of light relief with tensions in both the Bistro and at Underworld, and a rather unpleasant altercation for Izzy in the latest incarnation of the Dog & Gun, the Blue Ghost.
An open day at the gym provided some welcome respite with Audrey Roberts as the star of the show. Preferring G&T time to M&D time, equating wheatgrass to lawnmower juice and bashfully admitting to signing up for a Twerk Out, she was a joy. Michael proved an amusing sparring partner as she observed that Gary is a gym instructor, not a magician at the news that he’ll get him half way to iron man in six-months, and they continue:
Michael: You’d be surprised at my levels of endurance
Audrey: Well, you were married to Gail
Michael: Still am
I continue to welcome the return of the Nazirs and I enjoy the fond banter between Yasmeen and Sharif who will only fetch her “energy balls” if she promises not to take any herself.
Over at the Bistro, Nick looks so sad at selling up that it’s a wonder Carla has the heart to go through with the deceit. Even as he says, “I’ve put so much into this place, I’m going to miss it”, she tells him to get the paperwork ready now but put in a clause to say he’ll continue running it until he leaves after the wedding so they can milk it for as much cash as possible.
The main development is that Leanne makes an offer after confiding in Ken that she feels she could make it more profitable, and would love nothing better than to provide a stable future for Simon, and Ken consents to releasing some of his inheritance. Tracy is naturally disgusted but made her own bed when she made it clear that Amy doesn’t factor in any of her considerations. “Amy has got grandma Deirdre’s inheritance to look forward to” she tells Ken “Now is Tracy time”. These words come back to haunt her when she demands to know why he turned her down but agreed to help Leanne, and Ken replies, “Don’t pretend this is about Amy”. Tracy shows she has no class as she makes reference to Leanne’s prostitution and pound shop hairdo in retaliation.
Despite verbally agreeing to sell to Robert, Nick says he needs time to consider both offers. Robert is convinced he’ll sell to Leanne and blames Tracy for being the way she is with everyone. He needs to look at his own attitude, because the way in which he spoke to Zeedan tonight was a disgrace.
Tracy guarantees Robert they’ll be successful, and marches over to Carla's to demand the shortfall of £10,000 and insist she get creative in convincing Nick to sell to Robert.
This story has had some amount of toing and froing with more cash flying about the place than olives. The most enjoyable part for me as it stands is Tracy not getting things easy, and Ken ensuring quality in any scene he's in.
After she drops Jake off at the gym in his pyjamas before phoning in sick, Gary worries about Izzy. Erica tries to tell him what’s been going on, but he ends up finding out from Izzy herself after he collects her from the Blue Ghost where she tried to take on the dealer who sold her herbs and was roughed up.
He’s disgusted to hear she’s taking drugs while Jake is in bed, but when she tells him the pain she’s going through, and how it makes life easier for her, he sympathises and vows to help.
This is not an easy watch, and it will be interesting to see where the story goes.
I’m growing rather tired of Chesney’s gurns and discomfort with Sinead’s new career. As she heads off to a proper photo shoot, he’s disappointed to hear she’ll be back late after attempting to surprise her with flowers. There’s a cycle here of photo shoot – anger – hugs, and while I like the element of the storyline that sees Sinead blossom, Chesney's reaction is spoiling it.
Rana has started flat hunting, and learns that she has gotten the job at the medical centre in a bizarre manner in which her phone rang, she put her ear to it, said nothing, and hung up before announcing the good news. She hits the town with Alya and invites Zeedan along, but he’s too busy getting verbally abused at the Bistro to be able to go.
Meanwhile, at Underworld, Carla wants Kate to learn the family business much to Aidan’s annoyance. He wonders of the office, “when did this turn into a family drop-in centre?” a question we've all asked over the last number of months.
As Kate is coached in the ways of “Grafting, blagging and booze” by Carla and Michelle over at the café, Aidan is left alone with pants villain Richie 'he's behind you' O’Driscoll, and agrees to his demands to up the order. He lets another client down as a result, and Johnny’s not happy when he finds out, accusing him of gambling with customer loyalty. However, he admires Aidan’s “nerve” at the same time.
It’s certainly not Aidan’s night, as Eva turns his offer of a drink down on spotting Marta lurking around the factory in the dark. She brings the mysterious girl back to the flat to stay the night and Leanne is uncharacteristically devoid of questions.
I had great hopes for Aidan when he joined Corrie. He had many traits of the arrogant, self-assured, wheeler-dealer that has frequented the factory in many guises before him. But, being undermined and in the shadow of Carla and Johnny, sees him cut an anxious dash and make questionable decisions which doesn't tally with the man we first met. My wish for Aidan is that he find his feet and prove to all that he can be trusted to manage Underworld, even if he has a bit of learning to do first.
By Emma Hynes
Twitter: @ELHynes
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9 comments:
great recap Emma, as always. I was thankful for some light comedy at moments, because that certainly has been lacking lately. I can't understand why Robert has no clue how quickly the bistro will be run into the ground after Nick sells. We can see Tracy running off both the staff and most of the customers, as we can't exactly call her a people person. Same with Aidan - he was such a charmer when he joined the street and now the writers have given him a personality transplant which doesn't suit him at all. Maybe one day he will go back to the charmer with a glint in his eye.
For what it's worth,I thought Ken was hyporcritical allowing Leeanne access to Simon's inheritance from his grandmother Deirdre as he objected to Peter using his son's inheritance from his mother to buy the bookies.I also wonder if Ken is aware that the last time Leeanne owned a restaurant,she went into bankruptcy and conned Paul Duckworth to commit arson for the insurance money.
Ken offered to help Leanne because she has been "straight" for a very long time now, and has been trying her best with Simon.
When Peter wanted the bookies, he was an alcoholic, and as we know, when push comes to shove, they choose the alcohol god over any other consideration, including their children.
I'm still trying to figure out how Ken could access Simon's inheritance. The solicitor who settled Deirdre's estate would have put it into a trust that no one could touch until Simon himself accessed it as an adult.
Perhaps the lawyer and Ken are joint trustees? It would make sense that Deirdre would try to put some clause in place that would allow Ken to make decisions in the absence of Simon being of age, rather than just a lawyer.
No so. My grandmother left me a trust that my father controlled, by the time I was 18, it had all gone (spent on my education). It depends on the terms of the trust, but Ken did say he has the power to invest it.
I missed the whole thing where Leanne owned a restaurant and burned it for the compo. Does anyone still have it on tape?
I missed the whole thing where Leanne owned a restaurant and burned it for the compo. Does anyone still have it on tape?
Leanne burning down her restaurant was quite a few years ago. Being in the US I didn't have access to watch the episodes, but would catch up on either Corrie.net or ITV at the time would post updates. It was about the time that Paul Duckworth had come back to stay with his grandparents and Leanne was dating a rather nice young man who owned the bookies with his father. This time frame was before Peter Barlow returned to the street with Simon, so you can see how old that was. Actually Leanne & Carla were friends at the time and Carla was going to invest in the restaurant also, but for some reason changed her mind. She was still married to Paul, so if Carla has been on the cobbles for 10 years then I would hazard a guess that it was about 8 or 9 years ago. A lot has happened since then.
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