Coronation Street Friday 18th August double episode review

Hiya! It’s just Jordan with my cynical synopsis of Friday’s trip to Revelation Street. What was that revelation, I hear you ask? Well, if you don’t know by now, you’ll just have to wait until the end of this post, because as Glinda says: It’s always best to start at the beginning…

Friday’s drama picked up right where Wednesdays left off. Rita made the decision to have Gemma

arrested for the burglary of The Kabin and the theft of £100. Of course, we all know that it was the wrong decision, but despite Gemma’s loudmouth protests, the loveable chav is still ostracised by the factory girls and hauled off in the back of a police car for a crime she didn’t commit. As tradition dictates, when someone is innocent, Weatherfield police must believe that they are guilty and Gemma’s dilemma was no exception. Poor Gemma tries helplessly to prove her innocence. It is rather surprising to see Gina come to her rescue. The sister of Our Pal Sal turns up at The Kabin after hearing watching the drama unfold to remind Rita that she loaned Gina £100 herself to pay the bills and she must’ve forgotten. Whether this is true or not is questionable, but upon hearing this, Rita tearfully hurtles down to the police station and – getting her words confused in her outburst – gets Gemma freed.  Unfortunately though, the peace doesn’t last long after Gemma is back home with Rita. Things boil over when Gemma is awkwardly determined that Rita doesn’t trust her and she storms off to pack her bags.

"I'll pack me bags!"
"Do that!"

Liz seems to not only have left her heart behind the bar at the Rovers, but also her brain. While at work at the Medical Centre, she spots a leaflet on the noticeboard advertising a deal for e-Cigarettes. Without thinking about it, she sends the company all her bank details and is soon shocked to discover her account has been drained of every last penny. Visibly shaken by the scam, she receives little sympathy from boss Moira who coldly reminds her that she shouldn’t have been using the Internet whilst at work. At first, like Eileen, I thought it was a little strange that such a leaflet would be on display in the medical centre. But things began to click into place pretty quickly, especially since Corrie is going through a phase of inundating us with not-so-shocking twists right now. If Liz had any money left, she could probably successfully bet that Moira herself is running the scam.Oh and one more thing on this storyline - can that pantomime witch Moira stop addressing Liz as Elizabeth? The only person who should address her as such is Jim McDonald.

"You've gotta be careful who you give your bank details to"
"It seemed completely legit!"

Elsewhere, there’s a surprisingly comedic car chase going on in Weatherfield. It’s the day Gary is due to go to do that dodgy work in Ukraine, but he has told Sarah, Izzy and his family that he is going to Germany to visit his dad. He has confided the truth to Alya, and has given her a letter to give to Sarah should things take a turn for the worst. Alya puts it with her work documents, and of all the pieces of paper she has with her while in the café, the letter is the one she unknowingly drops when leaving. Shona spots the letter later and when she sees that it is addressed to Sarah, she pops over to the pub with it. The secrets spill from the page and all of Gary’s sudden shiftiness makes sense.  Having already waved Gary off in his taxi, the ever-tragic barmaid is left to march over to StreetCars and seek help. Steve employs the totally daft phrase “We need more Jammy Dodgers” to get Tim to stop the taxi, a pre-existing phrase in the cab drivers’ code.  Tim pretends the car has broken down and Steve and Sarah race to the scene in another taxi. Upon arrival, she rightfully demands an explanation. Gary reveals to her the extent of his debt; she was unaware of his uninsured building work that has left him thousands in the red. This still does not persuade her though that he should risk getting himself killed, so she offers him an ultimatum. If he goes through with the scheme, their relationship is over. Seeing that he is not about to change his mind, Sarah gets back in cab with her trademark tears, marking an end to their relationship.  Back on the Street however, a new relationship has been formed in the shape of Alya and Luke. Their flatmate Kate, however, is dismayed when she discovers this and harps on about how they can’t be together for some illogical and just downright silly reasons.

For the first time, Nicola makes a return to the Street that is neither dramatic nor involves her pulling up harshly and slamming her car door. Instead, she strides calmly into number 11 and asks her long-lost dad for some advice on buying a flat she’s put an offer in on. Being in the building industry, the seller is aware of Pat and after a couple of nice words from the man himself, Nicola’s relatively small offer is accepted. Nicola gets the drinks in to celebrate, and Todd remarks to Pat that being nice to people could be the way forward in life. The next time we see Phelan however, he’s driven to an abandoned flat with a Freschos bag. Through a series of carefully plotted camera angles, we are unable to see who he’s talking to once he’s inside. He mutters about changing his ways in the dimly-lit building. Chains rattle as he leaves and a hoarse voice screams, begging him to wait. It’s Andy. That beating with the laptop didn’t quite finish the budding writer off, as we’d been led to believe.  A powerfully written scene, brilliantly acted but I can’t help but question the plausibility. We all know that around the time Andy was kidnapped by Phelan, he was supposed to be moving away to Portugal with Steph. She received a text, clearly not written by him, claiming he couldn’t go through with it and she left alone. Why has Steph not been in touch since January? Why would she believe Andy was ending their long-term relationship via text? Why is Corrie doing all these daft twists as of late?

"I soon discovered it was easier to get the good things in life by doing the bad things"

Both episodes were distinctly Corrie. A good mix of drama and comedy. That last scene with Phelan and Andy was executed brilliantly, and although I wasn’t keen on Rita’s dementia to start with, I think it is going to be a good storyline. As much as we all love Rita – she’s Corrie royalty – if she were real, there is sadly a strong possibility she could suffer from memory loss.

As always,

Thanks for reading!

Jordan

Twitter - @JordanLloyd39

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