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Toyah Laverne Battersby might have her name above the door at the Rovers Return, but a Rovers landlady she is not. Not to this fan, anyway. Don’t get me wrong, I love Toyah, I always have and I’m invested in her character but she’s not a natural behind the bar, not where her mind is on hormones not hotpots, babies not booze. When the last round of IVF treatment fails, she can’t bring herself to tell Peter and goes to the clinic alone. Once there, the consultant tells Toyah that she isn’t prepared to put her through any more IVF treatment as there’s little hope that Toyah’s body is built to create. Meanwhile back at the pub, Toyah has to cope with babies everywhere as Leanne’s moved in with Oliver and Sarah calls in with Harry in her arms.
Ousted Rovers landlady Liz struggles in her new job at the medical centre where the manager, Moira (or as Steve calls her “Moo-ra, the snarling beast of Coronation Street”) makes life hell for her. Liz is like a fish out of water, dealing with patients instead of punters and the transition from being Queen Bee of the Rovers to receptionist for ill people isn’t easy. But she’s determined not to give in, and stands up to Moo-ra’s nasty quips about the way she works, the way she talks and, even, gulp, the way she dresses. “Could you wear something beige?” Moo-ra asks Liz. Beige? It’s not even in Liz’s vocabulary, never mind her wardrobe.
Elsewhere this week, Norris and Mary find out that they’ve won through to the next round of the Mr & Mrs competition Norris has entered them into. There’s only one problem, the competition organisers want to see photos of them both at various stages of their relationship through the years. Cue lots of dressing up and posing for pics on the Street with Bethany as make-up artist and Craig as photographer. It’s all good fun and Mary decides to take matters firmly into her own hands and proposes to Norris – for real. Dressed in her Christmas outfit, she gets down on one knee in Dev’s kitchen to pop the question and Norris accepts with a smile. Lovely stuff.
Gail’s not best pleased to be handing over a cheque this week. It’s a cheque from Nick to Leanne for her share of the sale of the flat and it’s a big fat cheque for twenty five grand. Leanne offers the money to Toyah and Peter to pay for their next round of IVF treatment but it doesn’t look like this will be going ahead, not now.
Over at the Bistro, Michelle gives Chesney a box of chocs and a wad of cash by way of saying sorry for him getting stabbed the other week and ending up in hospital. Adam “Better Call Saul” Barlow is on the case, tells Chesney to sue Michelle and Robert and promises he’ll win the case for him. But there’s more for Michelle and Robert to worry about than Chesney’s compo-claim. Someone firebombs the Bistro, writes RIP in red paint on the wall, breaks into Robert’s flat and beats Robert up after he spends a night in the casino. Robert knows that drug dealer Rich is behind all of this but he’s got no proof and the cops can’t do anything, not yet.
Fiz starts doing a course in antiques this week. I’m not really sure where this is going other than to remind us that she was also doing a course in massage a little while ago but that’s been forgotten. As has Zeedan’s new business ‘Speed Dahl’ with his van.
Another cracking story this week has been Summer moving in with Billy and Todd into the flat above the florist, which Tracy owns. Summer’s grandmother is against Summer moving in to live with Billy, she calls him as many horrible names as you’d expect a homophobe to do. But Summer’s grandfather Angus has the final word. “I denied my son in life but I will not deny him in death!” he declares and allows Summer to go and live with Billy, which is what Drew wanted in his will. Now, Billy and Todd have a daughter living with them. “Are we out of our depth?” they ask each other on the sofa. “Oh, yes,” the nation replied. Amy has a run in with Summer when Tracy barges into the flat to offer advice on how to handle teenage girls to Todd. It’s Amy who comes off worse, when Summer hits her. It’s going to be interesting to see how this all pans out and Summer is a wonderful addition to the show.
And that’s just about that for this week.
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This week’s writers were Damon Alexis-Rochefort (Monday double); Mark Burt (Wednesday); Joe Turner (Friday double). Find out all about the Coronation Street writing team at Coronation Street Blog: Exclusive: All Current Corrie writers online
Glenda Young
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Think it was "The Snarling Beast of Rosamund Street" - the meter works better ;)
ReplyDeleteA busy, enjoyable week in many ways. but for the first time in my many years of watching Corrie, I was so distracted by the background music in the Rovers and Bistro scenes, I could hardly concentrate on the storylines on Friday's eps.
ReplyDeleteDid anyone else notice this? I watch on my computer with headphones, so I can hear the actors, but the songs were actually louder than them for the most part. Just awful! I used to enjoy the songs in the past when they really were part of the background, but this is too in your face. Or ears, in this case. I hope production is reading this.
Outside the pubs and resto, a lot of lovely scenes with Liz, Norris, Mary, Amy and Summer!
I personally didn't like the scenes with Amy and Summer. Neither are particularly good actresses.
ReplyDeleteThe background noise has bugged me for a long time. I often think I must be hearing next door's TV but then I pause or mute the TV the noise goes. Other soaps don't seem to do this.
ReplyDeleteActually, I thought the Amy/Summer get together with Todd and Billy not knowing what to do was pretty funny. Ignoring each other on the sofa is kinda realistic.
ReplyDeletePlease just let Toyah be a counselor again so that she can wear her Earth Mother floral clothes and settle into being her authentic self. Lordie knows, she'd have a busy practice on the Corrie cobbles! Then let Leanne become the landlady of the Rovers as she has the right personality for it.
ReplyDelete