Coronation Street Blog: Corrie weekly update – King Ken and the mighty 10k

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This was the week when Coronation Street celebrated two magnificent milestones. The first was that the show reached its 10,000th episode. Not bad for a show that critics wrote off not long after it began back in 1960. And the second milestone was that one of the original cast of the show announced he was finally leaving. Yes, King Ken is no more. Long live the Ken. While Ken might be moving away from Coronation Street, he’s by no means leaving the show. Ken and Claudia are heading to pastures new, to a luxury retirement community called Stillwaters where Norris and Freda live. I suspect a spin-off series called Stillwaters where the older members of the Corrie cast can live our their days. Fingers crossed.

But why did Ken decide to leave the Street? Well, it’s all Dennis Tanner’s fault. He goes and dies and posts his ashes to Rita with a note asking her to sprinkle him in Blackpool. She asks Ken to go with her and before you know it there’s a party bus booked and most of the cast are on their way to Blackpool. The driver’s incontinent and has to stop every few miles, which means they don’t get to Blackpool at all. Poor Dennis’s ashes get scattered all right, all over a pub car park. Fortunately Rita sees the funny side and then it's back on the bus back to Weatherfield and home.

But oh, that party bus. What a wonderful episode it was written by Damon Alexis-Rochefort. It had everything a Corrie fan could need (the bus – and the episode!). I was in tears, I was laughing, and I wanted to be on that bus, although preferably not sitting next to Sean thank you very much. Carla and Nina bonded, Sally and Gail hugged, Ken, Audrey and Gail remembered old friends and it was this that made Ken think that life was for living, not for living out his days stuck at No. 1. At the end of Corrie’s 10,0001th episode, Ken had made his decision to move away and live with Claudia in Stillwaters.

Elsewhere this week, Yasmeen suffers cruelly at Geoff’s hands when he locks her inside a trick box after his magic trick goes wrong at Tianna’s first birthday party at the bistro. The magic trick gone wrong goes viral on th’interweb and “Jiggle it, Geoff!” becomes the international catchphrase of shame, for Geoff at least. Everyone else thought it hilarious, I know I did. Geoff’s embarrassment finds its way out in anger towards Yasmeen and he locks her inside the box at home as he heads to the pub. It’s beyond cruel. It’s Tim who finds Yasmeen and wants to know what his dad was playing at. Yasmeen covers for Geoff, for now, but you can see the wheels turning, something is changing and surely it can’t be long before Geoff gets his comeuppance. I’m hoping he’ll be nibbled by hamsters, slowly, horribly.

In other news Steve and Tracy try to get their marriage back on track with a bit of passion in a hotel room. But Steve gets locked in the bathroom and Tracy has to coax him out for a bit of rumpeh-pumpeh on the duvet.

Over at Roy’s Rolls he serves up vegan sausage rolls for Nina who’s starving and accepts Roy’s free food. However, it turns out that Nina’s been thrown out of her flat and is living rough on the streets. When Roy and Carla find out they go in search of her and find her. Roy begs her to move into the flat and sleep on the sofa until she sorts herself out. Nina finally accepts Roy’s offer of help.

This week has been a very special week on Coronation Street. Not just for the 10,000th episode celebrations, but for giving fans the chance to look back at Corrie of old, to remember, enjoy and savour it. There was a lovely moment which brought a tear to my eyes when Rita handed Amy a ring for her 16th birthday present. It was Rita’s wedding ring from Dennis which once belong to his mum, Elsie Tanner. A lovely, beautiful moment. And then there was Mary dancing and singing on the party bus, a character who Damon Alexis-Rochefort always writes beautifully for. It was just about the most perfect hour of Coronation Street we’ve had in many years. More please.

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 Simon Crowther and Owen Lloyd-Fox (Monday); Jonathan Harvey (Wednesday); Damon Alexis-Rochefort (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

Author of dramatic, historical novels with Headline