Last week, the Rovers was turned into a boxing ring after Tina rejected the advances of one of the builders. This week, it turns out she secretly quite liked it and was only playing hard to get. The gender politics of 1989 are a truly troublesome place. Rita, meanwhile, has vanished off the face of the earth, and Mavis is literally the only person who cares. That's not me using literally when I should be saying figuratively (thanks Roy!); everyone else seems to think she's done a moonlight flit to have a holiday without telling anyone, as though that's a thing people in their right minds do. Boring Dawn Prescott's boring brother turned up and goaded Mike Baldwin about his lack of ambition and general business uselessness. Obviously this got right up Alpha Male Mike's nose, and he decided to gazump him on a property deal in Spain.
TUESDAY - Episodes originally broadcast 17th and 20th November 1989
The Rovers and the builders finally had their five a side match, with the pub winning thanks to the intervention of Gazza, a man-mountain brought into the team as a ringer. It left Alec fifty quid better off, so he was happy. Tina went out with Eddie the builder, to that most glamorous of Eighties venues: a Pizza Hut, while Mavis went somewhere a lot less exciting - the police station, to report Rita missing. Obviously they sent her home with a flea in her ear, because nobody cares that Reet's gone. Most gloriously of all, Ken went to the airport to pick up Wendy Crozier after her Shirley Valentine holiday in Greece. He took the opportunity to have a quick snog, only to look away and spot Mike Baldwin watching. And laughing.
WEDNESDAY - Episodes originally broadcast 22nd and 24th November 1989
Ken was fretting that Mike might return from Spain and tell Deirdre all about his dirty nights away. Ah, the days when being abroad meant you were out of contact! Today he'd have texted her a photo of the filthy pair from the departures lounge. Wendy couldn't work out why Mike would want to wreck Ken's marriage, while ignoring the fact that the only people wrecking the marriage were her and Ken. The police finally clocked that Rita's disappearance may be a bit odd, and got Mavis in to identify a woman's body which (obviously) wasn't her. They did search number 7 though, and finally decided to have a word with Alan Bradley, which annoyed Maurice Jones.
THURSDAY - Episodes originally broadcast 27th and 29th November 1989
Mike returned from Spain, and spent his time stirring the pot. He sniggered to Deirdre about men who pretend to work late at the office. Ken went round and confronted Mike and told him Wendy was just a friend; Baldwin quite naturally told him that was a load of rubbish ("I know a bit of skirt when I see one"). He was floored by Dawn's brother Robert telling him the property he'd bought in Spain was worthless. Tina was shocked to discover that Eddie's "little brother" was actually his son, and decided to end things with him because she thought he was married. Alan was released by the police, but was sacked from the building site because he was more trouble than he was worth. It didn't stop the police from searching Rita's house from top to bottom (offscreen, because they didn't want to wreck the set). "This used to be such a quiet little street," mused Alf, apparently forgetting everything that's happened there in the previous three decades.
FRIDAY - Episodes originally broadcast 1st and 4th December 1989
Eddie revealed he was a single father, and Tina's heart melted. She turned up at his house with a teddy bear, all forgiven. Mike tried to reverse the Spain deal, but the cheque had already been cashed, so he got drunk and lashed out at Dawn. She packed her bags and left. In news of other awful men, Deirdre got suspicious about Ken leaving the Recorder, and accused him of having a bit on the side. Ken did the decent thing and admitted everything - ha, not really, he accused Deirdre of being a suspicious hag who didn't trust him, because he's an awful human being. The locals finally turned on Alan after months of treating him with utmost respect, but before he got the chance to brain Percy Sugden with a bottle and earn my eternal thanks, the police started digging up the building site in search of Rita's body. Obviously they didn't find anything, because she was at a hotel in Blackpool, trying to get a singing spot under the name of Rita Littlewood and claiming Alec was her agent. Outside the hotel, a tram trundled by, ominously...
Monday's episodes are going to see the end of Alan Bradley. If you're as excited as me, tweet me @merseytart.
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7 comments:
I am indeed very excited. I've been trying to work out for months when we would see this episode. The recorder is set!
Many of the characters in the Classic Corrie years were absolutely awful. My top 5:
Ken Barlow
Audrey Roberts
Vera Duckworth
Jack Duckworth
Curly Watts
Can't understand why many of these later changed to be Corrie legends. Horrible people.
Classic Baldwin grin there!!
Great round up, as always, Scott. Interested, Anonymous 30 July 2018 at 12.59, in your analysis of Curly as a horrible person? I’ve found him to be pretty decent and enjoyable to watch. I agree with most of the others you mention being pretty unlikeable though!
It's always fun to see a minor character played by an actor who reappears some years later as a different character. This week it was the turn of Dawn's brother who reappeared 10+ years later and got Natalie pregnant!
Curly is a sponger. And pathetic with it.
Ha ha - fair enough!
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