Cosy crimes and gritty sagas by Corrie Blog editor Glenda, published by Headline. Click pic below!

Saturday 31 August 2019

Five Things We Learned In Corrie This Week


Sometimes bad people are just bad.  Evelyn delivered a lovely speech to her out of The Two Of Us, all about how Hope was a bit of a nightmare but she was still a wonderful child.  It was touching and taught us all how you shouldn't rush to judge.  (I also enjoyed the latest installment of Evelyn using Ruby as child labour, as she set her to work colouring in placards).  Until the end of the episode, when this happened:


It couldn't have been clearer that Hope is still EEEEEVIL if they'd CGI'd horns and a spiked tail on her.  Nine months in Birmingham has been a complete waste of time; Hope continues to be possessed by Satan and the best thing Fiz and Tyrone could do is buy a cage and a crucifix.


Reality raises questions.  The houses on Coronation Street are made out of rubber, we all know that. They have enough bedrooms for however many people need to live there.  There are approximately four hundred people currently living in the Platt household, while Maria is somehow managing to squeeze herself, her son, and two lodgers into that poky flat over the hairdressers.  We accept this, and just go with it.  So it was something of a jolt for us to get a storyline this week about there not being enough room in Dev's house for all four members of the family.  Firstly, this means Mary is being turfed out on the streets, which is heartbreaking; if she ends up under a viaduct like Sean I will personally head over to ITV Studios and tie myself to the gates until she is rehoused.  Nobody should upset Mary.  Secondly, we realised that Asha and Aadi have been sharing a room all this time.  A teenage brother and sister sleeping in the same room is horrifying.  All those embarrassing puberty-related problems with someone of the opposite sex two feet away.  No wonder Aadi stayed in India for another couple of weeks.  A teenage boy getting a room of his own for the first time in years?  I'm surprised his right arm hasn't fallen off.


A moment of applause, by the way, for Mary's cake-based tribute to the Indian Subcontinent.  Get that woman on Bake Off immediately!


The lies keep coming.  This week, Robert... oh I can't be bothered.  You know the drill by now.  Robert told a lie.  He got caught out.  He told another lie to cover up the first lie.  He hung around Vicky's front room furrowing his brow (even though Vicky wasn't even in Friday's episode, giving the impression she operated a kind of open house policy for any man who knocked her up).  He got caught lying by Michelle, so he did another petty crime, and she believed him again.  In fairness it all seems to be working for Robert, because he's still stringing both women along quite happily, so he may as well carry on doing it forever.  It'll be 2040 and Robert will be telling Michelle he has to nip to Asda for the afternoon so he can attend his secret daughter's graduation from university. 


There was a moment where it looked like Michelle was going to finally drag Robert over the coals for his behaviour.  Michelle was horrified to learn two grand had gone from the safe, money that had been handed over to Jed, and Robert managed to cover his tracks by telling her he'd used the money to buy her a new ring.  Michelle was unhappy - but it turned out she was unhappy because he'd used the restaurant's money to buy the ring, whining "I feel like I've paid for half of it".  It's 2019, most couples pay for the rings together anyway, unless the bride is a totally self-centred - oh right.  Never mind.  Still, with Craig telling her all about the ring's provenance, maybe everything will come crashing down.  Or maybe it won't, and this storyline will continue until the Sun goes supernova and consumes the Earth.


Never follow a man to a truckstop.  Has anything good ever happened in a truckstop?  It's basically a centre for food poisoning frequented by perverts and men who want to abandon the carpet-wrapped corpse of their latest victim.  Eileen learned this lesson when she went to say goodbye to the love of her life, Jan (she's known him about four months, by the way) and he promptly got shot by Rachel, who has a gun, somehow, and isn't in prison.  I'm not sure why she wants to kill Jan - he's a witness to the people trafficking ring, yes, but so are all the girls who were trapped there, and Seb, and a dozen other people.  Maybe she's just bitter.  The attempted murder got a sudden moment of flourish with a fish-eye lens and everything.


That could've come out of a movie - one that starred Vinnie Jones and went straight to video, but still, it's a bit more dramatic looking than the usual series of close-ups we get in the show.  Eileen reckons she's going to run off with Jan now, but as we learned the last time someone close to her was shot and she decided to leave the Street to run off to the provinces with them, the pull of Weatherfield is too much.  She'll be back in a couple of months, probably with a very nice tan.


Cut it!  CUT IT!  "Shall I get my hair cut?" asked Seb as he finished boarding up Eileen's window (he thought it was totally reasonable that she'd smashed it while trying to kill a wasp; did he think it was that giant one that tried to kill Agatha Christie in Doctor Who?).  "YES!" screamed everyone watching and thrillingly, it looked like he'd listened, as the next thing we knew he was actually in the barber's.


Except, apparently, this was the after.  Maria had already worked her magic on him.  What did she do, stand behind him making clipper noises then asked for twenty quid?  I know we all try new things as teenagers - I tried growing my hair long once as well, and I ended up looking like Cousin Itt, only oilier - but enough is enough. 


Yes, yes, it's very lustrous and shiny, but Britain has agreed you'd look a lot better with a nice short back and sides, so pop along to Audrey's and get it sheared will you?  There's a good boy.

Craig informed Sean this week that sarcasm was the lowest form of wit.  The author has now realised he is the lowest of the low.  Send your commiserations via Twitter @merseytart.






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Corrie weekly update, Gangsters, guns and Geoff

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All soaps hit a summer slump and sadly, Corrie is no exception. I’ve taken to fast-forwarding through a couple of the storylines as I can’t bear to watch them. And there are other stories unfolding on screen where I find I’m glancing around the living room instead. However, it’s not all doom and gloom so let’s take a look at some of the exciting stuff going on in Weatherfield right now.


Fiz returns this week to find Evelyn sniffy about losing Tyrone’s full attention. But when Evelyn finds out that Tyrone hasn’t secured a school place for Hope at Bessie Street school, she goes out all to help Fiz get her daughter into the school. Evelyn tries to pull strings with Brian but he tells her he’s not a Square Dealer and can’t help. Then Evelyn marches to the school and stages a protest, which is quite funny and for me, saved Corrie in such a dire sludge of a summer slump week. But with Fiz and Hope back on the Street, Hope’s already caught up overhearing Fiz and Tyrone arguing over her future. The child sits on the stairs with an evil glint in her eye.

Aggie Bailey is now working at Roy’s Rolls after getting herself a job there, much to Roy’s surprise.  The Bailey family secret is out and Aggie keeps a watchful eye on her gambling husband Edison. Turns out his online gambling addiction was the real reason the family had to up and leave their house to move to Weatherfield. 


As for Robert and Michelle? Who knows? Who cares? I whizz through all the scenes with these two in them. There are engagement rings involved and lots of scenes of Robert hugging Michelle and then Vicky and giving wistful over-the-shoulder looks to the middle distance. It’s a real shame this is dragging on and on and on and on and on and on and on because I really like the character of Vicky, but as she’s caught up with Robert I don’t hear anything she sees any more as she whizzes around her living room at sixteen times the speed she should.


Meanwhile, Eileen finds out from Paula that Jan’s a police informer. He’s a good ‘un, not a bad ‘un after all. Hooray!  Seb meets with Alina who tells him she’s heading back to Romania so Seb’s all upset. But for Eileen, there’s the whisper of a relationship with Jan now she knows he wasn’t one of the human trafficking gang. It’s always a plus when you’re looking for a new fella, Eileen. Anyway, just as things look as if they are smoothing themselves out, evil Rachel from the nail bar stalks the street looking for Jan and she finds him at a truck stop where he’s trying to convince Eileen to leave Weatherfield with him. Rachel raises a gun and shoots Jan and he’s whisked off to hospital where Eileen sits by his bedside and tells him she loves him. But does she love him enough to move to Birmingham with him? That’s a big ask in anyone’s book.

Max starts to play up this week when Shona forgets his mum Kylie’s birthday. David’s in prison and so isn’t much help to Shona when she has to deal with Max’s tantrums in the Platt household. 

Some lovely scenes this week between Emma and Amy when they find out they share the same dad. Amy takes Emma shopping and gets to know her half-sister. Steve wants to get to know his daughter, but Emma can only take so much at the moment and tells Steve she doesn’t want anything to do with him, yet.  She’s still in mourning the death of the man she knew as her real dad. 


Elsewhere, Geoff continues his nasty, evil lies and control over Yasmeen. He even installs CCTV in her house and watches her on her laptop from Sally and Tim’s place next door. He tells Yasmeen he’s ill, too. What a weirdo.


At Dev's house, Mary gets bad news when Dev asks her to leave. Well, the twins are 27 now and they each need their own room.

And finally this week, Gary’s new mate is dopey Derek, the fake businessman Gary brings in to pretend he’s investing in Underworld (when it’s really Gary, to atone for Rana’s death). Adam smells something dodgy and puts a private investigator on the case to dig dirt of Derek and Gary. 

And that’s just about that for this week.

Remember, you can sign up to get these Corrie weekly updates by email at http://www.corrie.net/updates/weekly/subscribe.htm

This week’s writers were Alasdair Morrison and Sam Holdsworth (Monday); Mark Burt and Martin Allen (Wednesday); Mark Wadlow and Cameron McAllister (Friday). Find out all about the Coronation Street writing team at Coronation Street Blog: Exclusive: All Current Corrie writers online
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Glenda Young
Twitter: @Flaming_Nora
Facebook: GlendaYoungAuthor

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Antony Cotton signs up for another year at Corrie


The Daily Star reports that Antony Cotton has signed another contract that will keep him on the show for another year. 

And there's news of a "big story" coming for Sean.

Antony tells The Daily Star: “I had a meeting about my future. I didn’t sign up straight away. You have to negotiate a little bit! It will be my 17th year. I’m so pleased because I love being on the show. It’s a nice set.

“Towards the end of this year, I’ve got a big storyline. I will be working with someone that the audience may have seen before… maybe someone is returning!”

This week I was thinking about Sean's son, Dylan and I wonder if that might be who could be coming back into Sean's life?

If you want to you can read it here.

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Glenda Young

Twitter: @Flaming_Nora
Facebook: GlendaYoungAuthor

Fancy writing a guest blog post for us? All details here!  

Read more Corrie news, interviews, gossip and spoilers  


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Rob Mallard interview: Daniel to cheat on Sinead - with Bethany?


How has Daniel been feeling since hearing the positive news about Sinead’s cancer?

It’s a ray of hope in a really dark time. The good news is exactly what he wanted to hear, but I think he’s probably indulged it a little bit too much and has convinced himself that the outcome is going to be positive.

Throughout this, has Daniel been more positive that Sinead? Perhaps as a coping mechanism?

He’s had to be the most positive one. Sinead is suffering to an almost unimaginable extent, so he really has no choice because she is his world. Without a doubt it’s a coping mechanism, it’s also very British and very polite to ‘keep calm and carry on’ even in the face of death, and I think Daniel is due a lot of credit for that.

How has your close work with Mummy’s Star helped you establish and discover how Daniel might be coping? Tell us about you being an ambassador. Pete the founder having gone through the same?

I met with Pete who is head of the charity, and we had such an honest and open conversation about his experience of losing his wife to cancer at a young age, shortly after the birth of their child. His story and his honestly allowed to be more attentive to the details and emotions that may be present throughout all of the hurt and sadness. I can’t explain how much of a privilege it has been work with Pete and Mummy’s Star, and I credit their generosity for the depth of the story. Even though the narrative is so complex, I hope that there are aspects which reach out to people who have been through something similar, even if it’s only small aspects that ring-true to viewers as the story develops , I hope it creates a sense of understanding or even unity.

Is it hard to accept for Daniel that he is unable to help Sinead with her health?

Yes, because Daniel’s not particularly strong mentally or emotionally, so there will be an impact somewhere. This is something I spoke with Pete about, and I asked him how many selfish thoughts he had. On the surface of it, you’ve got to support those who are suffering, but you also need to consider that if the worst is imminent, that you are going to be left behind by someone but of course you can’t say that to the person who’s dying. Daniel was having these thoughts throughout the whole time, and this is something that Pete taught me, and was very open about when talking about the final stages of his wife’s illness.

Do you think that Daniel and Sinead’s row was really about wedding plans, or do you think there was another reason behind it?

Everything that they talk about is set-dressing, because they’re aware that time is now an issue. Although everything seems well for the moment, cancer can come back, and they’re both aware that Sinead isn’t as healthy as she once was. They’re living life as if everything they do could be the last time they do it and that is difficult.

Is taking on Bethany’s struggle and the issue with the article a distraction from the issues with Sinead?

Absolutely it’s a distraction. Everything else exists on a knife edge. Also, Daniel isn’t very good at self-care, so what he does instead is cares for others. He’s like a feeder, even if he was starving he’d be feeding other people and that’s his form of escapism and you can’t blame him for wanting to escape at times.

What happens in the scene with Bethany when Daniel confides in her after his row with Sinead?

Daniel has been white-knighting on behalf of Bethany when she discovers that her article has been cut. For some reason, Bethany is almost annoyed by him helping her which could be an indicator that emotionally she’s heavily invested in him. I think a lot of his help is guilt, and that by him doing good, he feels that increases his chances of his situation improving which is quite desperate but quite understandable. Bethany is a damaged person and has been used a lot, so she gravitates towards his kind actions which leaves her vulnerable to misinterpreting his kindness.

Is there any chance Daniel could become emotionally entwined with anyone offering him company and support?

I don’t know, but I think Daniel believes in soul mates which made the threat of losing Sinead even more painful. For me, the only way Daniel’s head could truly be turned is if something serious happened between him and Sinead and some would question that her cancer was a wedge between them, but it seems to have just made him more devoted to her.
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Glenda Young
Twitter: @Flaming_Nora
Facebook: GlendaYoungAuthor

Fancy writing a guest blog post for us? All details here!  

Read more Corrie news, interviews, gossip and spoilers  


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All original work on Coronation Street Blog is covered by a Creative Commons License

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