There were stressful times at the Rovers as Jack was stuck in hospital. Things were made worse when Vera discovered that he'd been posing on the horse so he could send a Christmas card "from Jack and the Old Nag." She took a picture of him in his hospital bed instead. Meanwhile, Vera had to run the pub with half the staff off sick. Rita continued to mull over Fred's proposal. Jamie blabbed it in the Kabin (he'd heard Fred tell Jack) in front of Audrey, who was extremely amused, and took great delight in telling Alf. He was so shocked he drove the wrong way up a one-way street and collided with a police car. Rita talked it over with Betty and realised she'd have to decline. Fiona continued with her singing career, though she was less and less impressed by Alec's management skills, and skipped a date so she could go out with Alan. She also commiserated with Ken over Daniel, and agreed to testify in court that Denise said he was better off without her. Kelly also moved back in with her mum. Let's be honest, nobody cares.
TUESDAY - Episodes originally broadcast 1st and 2nd December 1996
It's time to celebrate, because guess who popped back to see Curly? ANGIE FLIPPING FREEMAN. She was doing some design work at Mike's factory and nipped round to say hello. At first she told glamorous stories of her life since she left, then she ribbed him about being single and still at number 7, but Mike filled her in about Raquel and she apologised. She was of course absolutely ace throughout. Alec threatened to sue Fiona for breach of contract, which cast a shadow over her 21st birthday party. She got a great gift from her brother: he let her off his loan, meaning the salon was hers. Alan took Alec aside and warned him off. He said he was CID and could make things uncomfortable for him. Alec found a distraction by agreeing to help Vera out in the pub in the evenings. Elsewhere, Liz discovered her secret admirer was the prison Mr Big, some of Joyce's catalogue money seemed to have gone astray, and Sally refused to return to looking after Sophie because Kelly had given up childminding.
WEDNESDAY - Episodes originally broadcast 4th and 6th December 1996
Having a psychopath for an admirer was unsurprisingly making Liz nervous, so she refused a gift from his henchman, even though it could make things difficult for Steve in prison. She was horrified to get home and find the present on her dining table. The henchman then approached Sean and told him to leave Liz alone. With no childminder, Sally was forced to take Sophie into the office, and she tried to persuade Mike to set up a creche. You can imagine how well that went down. Angie was thoroughly amused by it, though Curly got sick of her jokes about Weatherfield and sent her packing, calling her patronising. Don't worry, she'll be back next year. Curly took her words to heart though and decided to sell up and leave. Judy thought that Joyce was siphoning off cash from the catalogues when she turned up with a new coat. She paid off Betty's outstanding debt to try and clear her, only to discover she'd actually won the money for the coat on a scratchcard. Fred withdrew his proposal when he clocked that Rita was probably going to say no. Rita was left feeling guilty. Ken told Sue Jeffers about his problems with Daniel and having to drive up to Scotland to see him. She admitted that the school was overstaffed and suggested he take early retirement so he'd have more time to see Daniel - though Ken suspected that their embarrassing weekend in Southport may have influenced the decision. And Alec organised an Irish night in the pub - with John Henshaw and a dodgy accent as one of the Guinness-guzzling musicians.
THURSDAY - Episodes originally broadcast 6th and 9th December 1996
Derek and Mavis proudly presented the mystery plant they'd been gifted by Des to the allotment society. It was immediately identified as cannabis, to their horror, and when Alan caught a glimpse he advised them to destroy it. I hope they didn't burn it in the back garden, the residents will be high for weeks. Derek and Mavis gatecrashed Becky's birthday party to berate Des for being a drug peddler which obviously didn't go down well with Claire's in-laws. Sean took the threat from Fraser seriously, and immediately dumped Liz, like the gent he is. She was left feeling vulnerable. Curly went round boasting about his plans to run away from boring old Weatherfield, but chickened out of telling Eric Firman. Anne went behind his back and told Eric in hope of getting his job. Also having employment issues was Tricia. Mike realised she was pregnant and sacked her to avoid paying maternity leave - I mean, let her go because she was a poor worker. Sally was so outraged she resigned from the factory. Good girl.
FRIDAY - Episode originally broadcast 11th December 1996
Having won her £100, Joyce continued to spend money she didn't have on scratchcards, but she didn't win this time. Rita grew increasingly uncomfortable at taking her cash. (Scratchcard addiction was a big talking point in the 90s; Rosie Banks in Brookside was obsessed with them round about the same time). Bill invited Maureen away from Christmas, suggesting a sunny trip to the Canaries, but she felt she couldn't leave Maud. Take her along, Mo! I'm sure she'd love razzing her wheelchair down the beach. Ida Clough nipped in sharpish to claim the supervisor's job now Sally was gone, and Tricia went round to apologise for her losing her job. Sally was fine with her. In the Rovers, Roy demonstrated his photographic memory and his remarkable grasp of maths - which piqued Alec's interests...
It's Christmas in Classic Corrie next week, but it's not going to be a very jolly one. Share a pint of eggnog with @merseytart on Twitter.
Classic Corrie is on ITV3 weekday afternoons and is also on the ITV Hub.
We have screwed up big time ITV3 on Friday lunchtime, as Emmerdale didn't show one episode, they'd had to show two episodes due to horse racing coverage (couldnt be on ITV4 due to the British Touring Car Championships) and now the Classic Corrie sequence this week will now be Fri-Sun & Mon-Wed from this week, the second of the episodes in next week's will be a Xmas Day episode.
ReplyDeleteGood news all around next week we will be getting into 1997 and the consecutive sequence run of episodes until Xmas Day '97's offering, where we do go back to the sequence order as before, with the rest of the year ITV3 won't be showing any more horse racing till next year, according to many TV listing sites they'll will only show them from Saturday in the coming months rather than it being on two or three days a week.
The Christmas Day 1996 episode is half a hour long it has Don Brennan in despair as he's been depressed but Martin and Kevin try to cheer him up although. In previous years, it isn't a very jolly one for 'Corrie in Xmas '96, EE and Casualty have had better Xmas '96 episodes.