Tribute to Tracy Barlow

Guest blog post from Susan Bloomfield
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Cast your mind back to 2015, when young Faye Windass discovered she was up the duff and quickly got rid of her newborn faster than a toupee in a hurricane, and Kylie Platt’s ex was the villain of the month. When Andy was Gavin, and you had that goddamn awful Paddy McGuiness cameo.

If doesn’t take a genius like Roy Cropper to tell you this was the nadir of Corrie. Storylines going nowhere, businesses drifting along. As a viewer of many decades, it was pitiful stuff.

Tracy Barlow was one of the characters who badly suffered during this period. In case you have forgotten, Tracy – fresh from dobbing her fiance-to-be Rob Donovan to the police for killing tango Tina, decided she wanted a bit of fun and started an affair with Tony Stewart, Liz’s partner. It got a bit serious, and they both formed a plan to take the Rovers off the McDonalds.

In hindsight, getting rid of the McDonalds and having the Rovers under new management was a brilliant idea. Let’s not pretend they worked first time around. Steve and Michelle were going around and around in circles. it took someone with a foresight like Phil Collinson to turf them out. Alright, the Prices weren’t everyone’s cup of tea (St Stella was almost ubiquitous, as she was practically-perfect-in-every-way), but it was a shakeup badly needed.

But another affair? Yawn. Another chance for Liz to downtrodden all men? Yawn. The worst thing was Liz and Tony got on well together, and the latter was an all-action, alpha male potman in the making. I would have loved him and Liz to run the place, and it potentially could have thrown up some interesting storylines.

Back to Tracy. This storyline showcased the Barlow lass at her worst. You then had that ridiculous Victoria Court fire (so many faults to pick from, such as Liz’s joyful delivery to Tracy that her granddaughter was in the building), where she had a massive part to play and guilt tripped Carla into thinking it was her responsibility. The acting bordered on pantomime; Tracy in one episode got a visit from the police over stolen goods and tried to sweet talk her way out. The police officer had none of it, read her rights, before escorting her to the car for further questioning. All this with Sean, Michelle and Liz in full view, gossiping and cackling like the three witches.

With changes behind the scenes, Tracy has since come leaps and bounds.  She has stepped up as the Barlows matriarch and with good reason, a legacy character like hers needs to be handled with care. She runs the florist and her and Mary bring the best out of each other. She isn’t the greatest character, but a pantomime bitch makes for dull viewing, especially if all she did was make snide remarks about what others wear and what they got up to. At least now it’s believable residents would want to talk to her.

Kate Oates the current producer is without her faults (don’t get me started with the issue-laden plots) but in recognising how to get the best out of Tracy, she’s at least got one thing right.

Guest blog post from Susan Bloomfield
Fancy writing a guest blog post for us? All details here! 

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