Coronation Street Blog: Coronation Street Episode Review: Friday 10 August 2018

First up grateful thanks to Kelly (on twitter at https://twitter.com/mskelstar) for taking up the challenge so well last week. I had hoped to be back but circumstances conspired against me.

There has been huge change on the Street this week as that central role - landlady of the Rovers - changed and we said farewell to Toyah as she threw the baton at Jenny and more or less told her to get on wi'it! At the top of the page we can see Jenny in full hostess with mostest mode as she gets people asking for the usual (even though she does not know what that is yet!) Let us hope that this brings the Rovers back to centre stage. She also recruits "sister" Gemma to do some shifts - nice touch.

Imran is in a fix. His ex wants cash so his share of Speed Dahl (which he only got going a couple of months ago) is on the block. Also he is duty solicitor and on call. However he also wants peace restored to the family - so persuades Rana to visit the hospital where his father (Hassan) is reported by the doctor as unlikely to recover and therefore Saira continues to argue with Rana. Saira tells Rana that if Hassan dies then she (Rana) will have it on her conscience. When Imran's phone goes he is glad to escape the family and go to the local police station who introduce him to a prisoner who is clearly responsible for a major fraud - open and shut case according to the police.

In my view Alya is some form of superwoman, she over produced knickers and failed to go bust; she dealt with a moth invasion; she lost a rabidly sexist customer (Hanlon) and now Fergusons, new customer who were playing hardball have only doubled their first order! Even more amazing is that the Connors have stopped fighting over the factory ownership. What a wonderful bed of roses Alya is enjoying!

In Roy's Rolls Sally observes to Tracey that the recent bonus from StreetCars was good news. Or as Tracey saw it - completely new news! She catches up with Steve in the Rovers (where Abi had just apologised for her behaviour on Wednesday) and orders the two of them to the jewellers to find her an engagement rock so large it has its own Twitter account.

We know that Daniel and Sinead will not be taking the empty unit on Victoria Street - might this be where "Connors' Cuts" appears - a franchise from Claudia, financed by Carla and run by Maria who meet for brunch in the Bistro. Claudia makes several digs at the supposedly "silent" partner Carla whose (sensible business) observations are considered unwelcome. The quiet is briefly broken by the celebrating Alya and Sarah who beat a quick retreat when they see the Connors in situ.

The social worker catches up with Abi having missed her previously, so did not see her drunk thankfully. It does look as though the social worker is trying to ensure the family do end up back together. And the Street gods are conspiring to those ends.

Hmm, does that bed of roses have a thorn? Apparently unbeknownst to anyone Aidan gave an interview on being a kidney donor during his stay in hospital for a student project. The student had delivered it to the factory as she felt that those who knew Aidan should see it as he comes across so well. Sarah hands on the package to Alya.

Peter finally gets together with Carla for a cup of coffee in Roy's Rolls. Peter amusingly suggests that the old spark is still there between them and this seems to strike Carla as unbelievable and manages to silence her completely. When she recovers her voice she reminds Peter of events on their wedding night (for latecomers he slept with someone else); then they were supposed to be having a baby together and he behaved badly; then Peter finally realises that Carla was using him for the birth certificate, a couple of weeks ago! She tells him there is not a snowball's chance in hell of them re-uniting. If he feels led on, he should take that feeling and multiply it by a million to get some idea of what he has done to her. Her face quite clearly shows her hatred as above!

Sally is busy organising a fund raising for adapations for Kevin's house for Jack - raffle prizes and getting people to attend a circus themed event on Monday. Geoff volunteers to do some escapology from a straight jacket - assuming he learns how to do it by then. Abi winds Sally up but Tim calls Sally the most thoughtful, kind, generous and sexy woman he has ever met which puts the smile back in place. They are holding a family BBQ - Yasmeen, Geoff, Gina, Dev and Tim are all are happy working on their plans for the event, a huge happy family. However as we watch their happiness this is intercut with Duncan's fairytale:

Imran's client is of course Duncan Radfield who for the benefit of his defence lawyer has a wonderful story concerning how the fraud was inspired by the former Mayor of Weatherfield, Sally Metcalfe, who coerced him and with whom he has been extremely intimate at her request and how he followed her instructions in carrying out the fraud putting the money into their joint account and he passes Imran a "burner" phone with records of their intimate and financial communications in the last couple of months which Duncan and Imran provide to the police.

There are several slips up between Abi and Steve but a ring is acquired and is delivered to Tracey's finger and she is impressed by the size of the rock. To me Abi is becoming too "Becky" like - that cannot be a good thing.

The previously unknown interview of Aidan sees him talking about how his family are so important to him and that he was probably only a kidney donor because it was his sister, so it was a no-brainer of a decision, he does not see himself as brave - that is entering a burning building he explains. He talks movingly about the importance of the Connor family to him, he has saved the life of someone he loves, and in watching it Alya is moved - why is she now sitting in their factory? A little later Yasmeen pops in and also becomes aware of this testament from the late Aidan Connor.

Next week I think Kelly will be here. Enjoy Corrie until then,

Kosmo
@Kosmo