The early Phelan catches the Vinnie, as Pat phones to confess to the manslaughter of Michael. But Vinnie is already in his Hawaiian shirt and his cab is waiting to take him to the airport. Let's get an earlier plane, urges Phelan, little knowing that Vinnie is taking a much earlier flight. Pat knows everything by the end of the episode though when he rings the bank to find out that his erstwhile business partner has stolen all of the fake flats cash. He nonetheless turns up to the airport with his fake passport and his real airline ticket, only to look at the fiver in his wallet and decide that three regular meals and a bunk up with Eileen is better than Cancun with no pesos. Phelan, it's panto season, surely you could get a job playing Baron Hardup!
This is excellent stuff: Phelan has, in his words, been shafted, but with any luck, he can pin Michael's death and the development fraud on Vinnie and live to con another day, with the oblivious Mrs Eileen Phelan by his side.
The news spreads about Michael, and Andy immediately thinks that Phelan must be involved. Anna knows he is and calls the police 'round to tell them what she knows, although they don't seem to really believe her. Maybe she should've called the over-credulous coppers investigating Caz's 'murder'. The only one not blaming Phelan is poor Gail. That's husband number five gone, she only needs one more to make it the full Henry VIII.
Not in the pub mourning Michael is the Barlow clan. They're more interested in interrogating Daniel. First bad cop Tracy, then kinder cop Peter try to find out about his likes, dislikes and who the strange man might be who was peering through the window. They get nowt from him apart from a home cooked meal, some grammar and geography correction and a couple of shifty looks at the front door. In the meantime, little Simon is not so little any more and has got himself a girlfriend, Daisy, who is super-hot, according to Tracy. Let's hope she's not dodgy Seb's little sister.
My fave of tonight's storylines was Gemma at the awards ceremony. Doesn't Dolly Rose scrub up a treat? I do hope that she doesn't lose the orange tide mark, the boob-tube and the inappropriate funeral wear though. In a sparkly dress bought by her sugar-mummy Rita, too tight shoes, and hair product and lippy 'borrowed' from Jenny, Gemma gets her Good Samaritan reward, but is disappointed that her idol whose nipples she used to kiss (in poster form), Peter Andre, doesn't show.
Finally, Roy sacks Michelle and her pink filofax of dreams when she comes up with lots of Roy-unfriendly ideas for the Cropper-Matthews nuptials. It's the horse and carriage that breaks the cafe owner's back. He says that he wants he and Cathy to plan their own wedding, but when he urged to say what he feels about Cathy for his speech, he comes up with a blank piece of paper and Brian wonders if Roy truly loves Cathy.. I'm not sure anyone should take romantic advice from Mr Packham, to be honest.
Talking of Brian, he has had his interview for the Recycling Czar (or Tsar) job, although he is regretting not saying he'd get Tom Cruise to star in a big budget, all star, pro-recycling video. I do love Brian, the actor has great comic timing, but I do hope this storyline isn't going to go into 1970s busybody from the council going through the bins type malarkey.
Rachel Stevenson - on twitter.
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All I can say is thank goodness for Peter Barlow - I am so glad that he is back to at least infuse a little bit of humour and good sense into the Barlow clan. I'm sure, when it all comes out, it will be Adam that the person peering in the window was looking for. He is just a little bit too smarmy to be a goody too shoes - also where does that Scottish accent come from? - obviously not from living in Canada all those years. Rubbish.
ReplyDeleteBrian is wonderful to have back on screen. I can see that both he and Roy will form a wonderful friendship that has been surely missing on the street.
He grew up most of his life in Scotland, was in Weatherfield for a while before moving to Canada.
DeleteYes, I've always liked Brian Packham --funny, self-serving, a quasi-intellectual much like Ken, but also insightful. There's a lack of credible friendships in this show so his re-introduction should be good for Roy and Ken-- and possibly Yasmeen, another higher-educated figure on the Street. Perhaps they can bring back the Book Club. As for the Cathy-Roy wedding-planning-gone-bonkers, I find it not credible. Why is a middle-aged widow who's been unlucky in love all of the sudden going whole hog? By now she should be well aware of Roy's understatedness and dislike of ostentatiousness. Surely, a couple such as them would opt for a tasteful, muted second marriage ceremony for the both of them.
ReplyDeleteBrian and Mary. It has to be.
DeleteThis Episode was suburb. The whole betrayley was fun to watch and Pat's melton was hilarious and was so satisfying. The Barlows seems to have to have so much more life than they did before the new arrivals. Brian is great to have back and Roy and Ken really do need some more friends right now. Lets have more of this and less of Caz, Aidan and Maria.
ReplyDeleteI loved the dress Gemma wore to tonight's awards ceremony. Would anybody happen to know where it can be purchased?
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jo
I enjoyed Brian's scenes with Roy and the Barlows, and the humorous banter between the Barlows, particularly Daniel being a mini-Ken, correcting people's grammar and general knowledge.
ReplyDeleteHow on earth does Anna get up and down the stairs of her flat?
ReplyDeleteYes Adam Barlow grew up in Scotland, and moved to Canada for a few years.
ReplyDeleteMy parents are Scottish; my father never lost his accent because he never went to school here; whereas my mother did purposely lose her accent when she was in school here, as she wanted to fit in. Same goes for my husband, he came here as a young boy, and has a Canadian accent (if you can call it an accent!) So, it is totally believable Adam would still have a Scottish accent.
It's Bethany who seemed to oddly have her accent, after going to school in Italy for most of her life. Although, I expect she would have went to an all English school, with teachers from Manchester of course ;)
Christine, Owen installed a stairlift for Izzy when he lived there with Anna.
ReplyDeleteDidn't Anna move from the place that had a stairlift when they had to sell after Phelan scammed them? Or did Owen remove it from their house (which is now the Nazirs') and reinstall it where Anna has been renting?
DeleteI thought that last night's episode were really good but it's funny how something small and trivial can irk you. For me last night it was Eileen's pronunciation, would someone from Weatherfield say 'aarfternoon' and 'aarfter' ?
ReplyDeleteTop performances all round in Coronation Street last night, two of the best episodes I've seen in ages . I'm so glad the humour is back, it's what sets Corrie apart from the other soaps and has kept me watching for almost 50 years now.
ReplyDeleteI can imagine Brian rocking the camper van with Mary, but I'd love to see Roy ditch Cathy and end up playing chess and watching bats with Mary for the rest of his days.All the mad wedding planning reminds me of Hayley and what a perfect fit she was for Roy, a really hard act to follow I should think.
I really hope TPTB are following these comments and therefore realize how many viewers say a big NAY to Roy & Cathy. I'm still hoping for Nessa to put a kibosh on the wedding in pure soap style.
ReplyDeleteRe Bethany's lack of an Italian accent, she lived in Weatherfield for the first 7 or 8 years of her life, so that accent would be well established. In fact, she probably speaks Italian with a Manchester accent. Only native Italian speakers might have an Italian accent when speaking English.
ReplyDeleteOwen bought a second hand stairlift for the flat when they moved in there. Owen had to get rid of the house because Phelan had caused him to go bankrupt. They were in Number 6 where the Nazirs are now, which didn't have a stairlift so I guess if Izzy had to use the loo when she visited there, she just had to hold it!
ReplyDelete