Coronation Street Weds 30th March episode review

Hello it's Jordan! Welcome to this week's Wednesday thoughts of the goings on in Weatherfield.

An excellent episode for comedy tonight, but before we get to that we must endure an opening scene picking up from where Monday's left off. At the end of Monday's episode, the Wicked Witch of Weatherfield revealed to Carla that she had no intention of spilling the beans.  For some reason, Carla was shocked to learn that she was simply being strung along for Tracy's own personal gain. In tonight's episode, she confidently tells Tracy to back off; as far as she's concerned, they've both got what they wanted now. At Number 1, Tracy dishes up a bacon sandwich for Robert (which goes uneaten), as well as the usual slew of innuendoes she considers to be alluring. It looks like she has finally realised that the Bistro is not hers- it belongs to Robert. For the foreseeable, anyway. The staff at the Bistro are thrilled to learn that the Wicked Witch of Weatherfield will not be casting her spell on their workplace anymore and they all breath a heavy sigh of relief.  Thankfully, this was all we saw of the Carla/Tracy farce tonight,  apart from a scene in the Rovers where Tracy pulled a few of her usual jealousy faces at Carla and Nick. I may not always enjoy the storyline featuring Carla and Tracy, but Kate Ford and Alison King never fail to impress with their portrayals of the Wicked Witch of Weatherfield and, to use Glenda's fabulous description, Elsie Tanner for the Twitter generation.

"Oh back off, Tracy. You've had your fun. I hope you enjoyed it but this is our time now. Mine and Nick's"
"Well, cue the music as they waltz off into the sunset! Yeah, right"

It is probably obvious who provided the comedy aspects I am lauding. Sally and Tim of course! Councillor Metcalfe is observing her ever-suffering husband on his laundry-hanging skills, which of course, are not up to her standards. It is only when she is patronisingly explaining her way to poor Tim that karma strikes and she steps right in an egg, fresh from one of the Nazir's chickens. Naturally, Mrs Metcalfe is overly dismayed; the egg yolk on her expensive shoes is doing her Eva Perón political-style makeover no favours whatsoever. It appears that the demon egg has appeared via a hole in the fence and this is just unacceptable. Councillor Metcalfe gives neighbour Sharif orders to fix said hole instantly. If only Sally could hear herself. When she storms off, trying hard not to tread the egg further into her posh shoes, the two men laugh helplessly at her over the garden fence.  The highlight of the episode comes a few scenes later, when Sharif uses an old campaign poster of Sally's to temporarily patch up the hole, complete with nails. Needless to say, Mrs Walker is far from impressed by this either, going to the extent of declaring war on her baffled neighbour. A fabulous- if a little contrived- bit of comedy. I've found that while Sally's sheer ridiculousness and her delusions of grandeur provide the basis of the comedy, it is in fact Joe Duttine as Tim who makes the storyline what it is. The ever-suffering husband has been an archetype of Corrie since time began, but Joe Duttine nails it every time.  My only concern for Sally is that she is becoming a caricature, but nevertheless I am still enjoying the character. Sally and Tim are one of the best double acts right now.

"Remove that placard right now, or you'll regret it!"
"It's done now, Sal. I'll nip to the DIY shop when I get a chance"
"Oh and when will that be?"
"Next week, maybe"
"You've started a war here. And there'll only be one winner!"

We were even treated to more of Gemma in tonight's episode, looking very much the part behind the counter at Prima Donner. When she spots Bethany, who is clearly skipping school again, she invites her in for a free kebab. When Gemma asks Bethany is bunking off school because of "them girls", Bethany initially lies. but Gemma can see right through, and tells her she needs to stand up to them. It is after this, that things take an odd turn. Gemma knows that Bethany doesn't have a phone right now. It transpires that the Street's latest wearer of hooped earrings has set her sights on Jason and offers to sell a mobile phone to Bethany. The more she can tell her about Jason, the cheaper the phone will be. Even by Gemma's standards, this seems a strange way to go about things. However, I can do nothing but praise Dolly Rose Campbell's portrayal of Gemma. I think she is the best addition to the Corrie cast certainly in the last year at least.


"I even went to look round Oxford once"
"The university?"
"Yeah! Just kidding. I went picking up a load of gear for Callum"

And now for the 'news item' storyline of tonight. A large portion of the episode was taken up with Izzy and her cannabis. Over the last couple of months or so, we've seen Izzy come to depend on cannabis for her severe pain relief. It is only recently that Gary has become involved and while I'm glad he's getting more screen time, I am not enjoying this storyline one bit. In tonight's episode, Gary manages to source some more cannabis from a dealer, only this time of a much stronger sort. Anna is babysitting Jake (who I must say has most definitely been SORAS'd) while Izzy takes a turn for the worst, obviously reacting differently to this stronger batch of cannabis. She tries calling Gary, but naturally his phone is on silent and nowhere near him. When Anna arrives back with Jake, she can tell immediately that something is not right. When she walks into the living room, she spots the remains of the joint on the table. As usual, Anna refuses to see both sides to the story and laments to her former-sort-of-step-daughter-as-well-as-daughter-in-law how wrong she is. She refuses to understand or even listen and takes Jake home with her, proclaiming that Izzy is not fit to look after her own son at present. Anna of all people should understand that there are two sides to everything and what it is like to do something which is considered immoral in an impossible situation.

"If anyone came round here, I could be in real trouble. They could take away Jake"
"Yeah, well you should have thought about that before you started messing around with drugs"
"You don't understand"

A rather good episode - the only thing I didn't really enjoy was the chunk of the cannabis storyline. Gemma is always a welcome addition to a Corrie episode and it was also interesting to see a couple of brief scenes with Michelle and her old
As always, Thanks for reading,Jordan
Twitter - @JordanLloyd39
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