Coronation Street Friday 7th July double episode review

Hiya! It’s just Jordan with this week’s Friday review. Better late than never I suppose! Where to start? So much happened in Friday’s episodes I am going to struggle to condense all the soapy action into less than one thousand words. I suppose the best place to start would be the very beginning, which according to Maria (the nun, not the on-off psycho hairdresser) is a very good place to start.

Jonny is caught on the Street smuggling a bacon sandwich over to the factory for his lunch much to the dismay of Kate, who lectures her dad about his health again. He defends himself, protesting that he had a piece of broccoli yesterday.  Jenny is unfortunate enough to step out of the Kabin at this moment and stares at her ex-fiancé longingly, only to be lectured herself by everyone’s favourite loveable chav – the delightfully trampy Gemma. The kebab artist reminds Jenny that she has a date with a man called Matthew later, which she has gone to the trouble of Googling, and tells her to forget all about Jonny Connor. However, that is easier said than done since Jenny still works for the man she was supposed to marry and when Matthew sends flowers to the factory, this does little more than create a bout of guilty tension between the two ex-lovers. Later on, in the pub, Liz spots a sombre looking Jonny leafing through a holiday brochure trying to pick a honeymoon destination for Aidan and Eva. When he tells Liz it’s making him feel miserable because of his breakup with Jenny, she tells him to budge up and lends an ear.  Unfortunately, Gemma and Norris are sat watching the pair and as soon as Gemma spies Liz – in her usual mutton dressed as mutton dressed as lamb getup – sit down with Jonny, the gobby chav decides the pair are having an affair. This accusation is readily fuelled and supported by gossip queen Norris. They decide that Liz and Jonny must have been having an affair for ages, since they’re both looking at a holiday brochure. Gemma trots over to the Bistro, having looted some of Liz’s wardrobe on the way out of the pub, and reveals all of her hard facts to Jenny, who is waiting for her date. Even when he does turn up, it’s easy to tell that her mind is elsewhere. When Matthew pops out to take a phone call, Jenny is grilled by Kate about exactly why she and Jonny split up. We know that Jonny split up with Jenny because of his MS diagnosis; he didn’t want to be a burden, but Jenny now thinks he was seeing Liz. She can’t take it anymore and storms out of her date, back over to the pub.  She finds Jonny and Liz in the backroom and Liz wisely leaves the two of them alone in the communal revelation space. Jonny is left with no choice to shoot down Jenny’s ridiculous accusations and tells Jenny about his diagnosis. She’s dismayed that he didn’t trust her enough to tell her and flees back to Matthew, but is soon followed by Jonny. When Jenny tries to call off the date and Matthew protests, he receives a punch in the face from Jonny. With Matthew very hastily thrown off the scene, Jenny sits back down with Jonny and sticks the engagement ring back on just like that.

Leanne and Eva are off on a sisterly shopping day, with Aidan’s credit card firmly in hand. Oh no. As we know, Eva knows all about Aidan’s affair with Maria, but has taken a different approach to handling the situation. No clothes have been thrown out of an upstairs window just yet. She lets Aidan think she is going wedding-dress shopping, but he is mortified to see a massive pink bit of product placement arrive on the Street with Eva in the driving seat. Oh yes, I think Eva’s reaction has outdone all the affair storylines on Corrie.  She eventually persuades Aidan that the Barbie pink Range Rover will be useful for when the baby (which she is not having) arrives.

It's a bad day for Bethany (does she ever have a good day?) when she finds out that Nathan will not be prosecuted. They have decided that there is not enough evidence to convict the sleazy sex-ring leader. An officer calls round to Sarah to give her the bad news and points out that Bethany’s lack of foundation in her statement has not helped matters. Sarah tells Bethany this and the troubled teen promptly vomits into the kitchen sink. Mary has got herself involved nicely into this storyline and Patti Clare has so far given some beautiful dramatic performances, a stark contrast from her usual comedy. They’re almost worth the ridiculous long-lost-son-born-out-of-rape storyline she was subjected to last Christmas. After some lovely scenes in the flower shop with Bethany, in which Mary explains to her how brave she has been, she later hears the news from Sarah about the lack of evidence. Sarah then mentions that lovely officer Neil and is going to get in touch with him to see if he can get more out of Bethany, of course totally unaware that PC Neil Clifton is also one of her daughter’s rapists. These lines of Sarah’s were played over an aerial shot of Bethany weeping on the Street. Please stop treating Corrie like a trashy American drama series. It’s not. The scenes should be totally natural; what you see is what you should get with Corrie.

Elsewhere, Todd and Summer get the ball rolling on a legal battle disputing her late father’s heatlh care, and Todd and Billy find a flat on the Street so they can finally move out of  Eileen’s. I’m not sure where they’re going with this and this storyline feels ridiculously rushed, but Summer is a refreshingly smart kid! As well as that, Anna and Kevin have been invited to Dev and Erica’s for dinner. Wahey! Here comes the usual plot device of setting the woman either side of an affair up as best friends. It happened with Leanne and Carla, Tina and Carla, Eva and Maria (to name but a few) and now they’re trying to do it with Erica and Anna. When Erica calls into the café and shows Anna the new, short dress she is planning to wear that evening, it is clear to see that the frumpy waitress is uncomfortable with the competition. Still not on that bloody handle, Anna flares even further up at Kevin for getting dressed up nicely too, yelling at him that he smells like a tart’s boudoir and refuses to go. Kevin’s not put off though, and heads over to number 7, where the evening with Dev and Erica seems to go as planned. That is, until, Dev has to go out to collect the kids from a sleepover gone wrong and Erica’s short skirt – and facelift – prove too much for the hapless Kevin. Things get heated on the sofa, until the door opens and the two are forced to stop. Kevin soon leaves and after a few flirty words with Erica – it appears clear that an affair is about to take off full throttle. Oops, Kev’s done it again!  

  

And with me at almost 1,300 words, I think I’ve condensed Friday’s episodes as much as I can! A rather good couple of episodes – especially with Eva’s new ride. I’m not particularly enjoying Bethany’s melodrama and it looks like the writers are making her into a carbon copy of Sarah. By the time she is 20, she will have been the spokesperson for so many issues she should realistically be in a mental asylum!

As always,

Thanks for reading!

Jordan

Twitter- @JordanLloyd39

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