Last week I joined my family in sunny Bridlington, a seaside town I last visited in 1974 but seemingly forgot about shortly afterwards. With a day's crazy golf and ice cream behind us, we settled down for the nightly Corrie episodes. Well, we'd already sat through ITV's tatty 'end of the pier' talent show do we deserved a bit of drama. I could tell that things weren't going quite to plan though when various members of the family started up conversations part-way through Monday's episode. It was downhill from there on.
There were some praiseworthy performances though. As always, Sue Nicholls, Helen Worth and Alison King delivered the goods. The issue this week was that Corrie was attempting to make drama out of stories that were either well past their sell-by date or just a bit dull. The origins of the Audrey deception felt as though they were lost in the mists of time. We've had months of tedious whispering, some of it a bit camp, between 'them babbies', Nick and David. The latter is always fun to watch but with Nick, we seem to endure one scene of him squinting followed by another. Then another. On it goes. Plus he seems to drag Leanne down and she reverts to 'One Woman War' status. Give it another week and she'll be stomping across the cobbles in her M & S mac.
Also climbing several places in the Yawn Top 40 is the very unloveable Gary. I'm still not totally sure what was going on with him, comedy murderer Rick and an extra from Prisoner Cell Block H. My slow brain has still to work out why a machiavellian crook like Rick managed to leave his back door open so that Toyah and the M & S Munch Scream could stroll in and rifle through the filing cabinets. Much of this particular storyline didn't hang together. In addition it's difficult to feel much for Gary, a boorish bore who spends most of his life staring into the middle distance. For viewers to invest in a character, they need to have some redeeming qualities. Gary seems to have none, so as he lay on Rick's makeshift carpet (he should have opted for a deep shag like Sally), preparing to meet his end, I stared into the middle distance. Do your worst Rick. Except of course, he didn't. Suddenly there were police on the scene and Gary was legging it through that famous unlocked door. Then we discovered that he was responsible for the roof collapse and not Robert 'jugged hare' Preston. Of course, in soapland, misdemeanours never go unpunished and so Mr Windass will probably be the next Street resident to find himself on the prison set. Plenty of time for Gary to contemplate his lot and hone his middle-distance stare.
For this viewer then, not exactly a stellar week for Weatherfield. Awkward, confusing and at times, slightly dull episodes. Do you think that Corrie ticked the remit for the annual 'explosive week' or would we have encountered more drama watching Dev price up his tinned fruit?
By Clinkers to Riddle
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