Coronation Street Episode Review Friday 27 November

Evening Corrie fans, it’s Kelly here with your Friday night review.

It’s Oliver’s final day and Leanne and Steve are sat bleakly by his bedside. The doctor gently explains that when they remove Oliver’s breathing tube, he won’t feel any pain and will just drift off. She tells them they can take as long as they need and Leanne frets about getting home to get his toys and favourite pyjamas. Back at the flat she drags out the time by drying and then re-drying a pair of pyjamas, until Nick tenderly persuades her that it’s time she returns to the hospital to say goodbye to her son.

Over at the Rovers, Jenny wants to get a parrot that sings Ed Sheeran songs but Johnny is in no mood for crooning birds, as he’s convinced he’s going to prison (and also he’s about 85 so probably has no clue who Ed Sheeran is). As he sulks, Jenny gets a call from her ex-stepdaughter Daisy to say that her and her boyfriend Lee are going to drop in. As Jenny fusses around preparing lunch for her guests, Johnny sneaks out to see Adam. With Daisy and Lee in the bar, Jenny finds her husband in the back morosely nursing a whisky. He tells her he’s cleared out their joint bank account and he wants a divorce. 

In other news, Geoff has been out all night and Alya tells Tim she thinks he might be holding Elaine in Oldham. Tim wants to follow him but Alya says they should wait until he leaves and then search the house (haven’t they tried this unsuccessfully before?). After a brief rummage they find a taxi receipt with the Oldham postcode just as Geoff arrives back with his new lady friend in tow. She tells the hapless burglers that she lives in Oldham and that ‘lovely’ Geoff is helping her with the rent. 

Back at the pub it’s all gone very Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, as Jenny gets stuck into the booze and Johnny is utterly vile. He crassly tells Daisy and Lee about Aidan’s death and his affair with Liz, laying all the blame on Jenny, while she calls him a stealing, cheating raddled old toad (fair I’d say). Lee is clearly uncomfortable, but Daisy seems to enjoy the drama. I rather like her. She’s fond of a large wine and seems to have learnt the fine art of the withering look from her stepmum. 

As the row escalates, the police finally do arrive to arrest Johnny on suspicion of burglary and GBH.  I’m quite surprised they can function as they didn’t even have one-man crime fighting unit Craig with them. Carla finds Jenny in the backroom fighting back tears and tells her that Johnny didn’t mean all the things he said and was trying to make her hate him so that she wouldn’t wait for him. Jenny says that it’s clear he doesn’t care about her.

At the hospital, it’s time for Leanne and Steve to say goodbye. They both sing 'You Are My Sunshine' to Oliver until he passes away. Back at the flat Leanne curls up on Oliver’s bed and sobs her heart out.

And that’s it for this week. How was tonight's episode for you? My worry with the Oliver storyline is that they seem to have written Leanne into a corner. She’s an interesting (if at times infuriating) character and Jane Danson is a great actress, but I can’t see her having anything to do now except be a woman broken by grief. They’ve already made this mistake with Gemma who was once an engaging character but now only has one story arc for probably the next 10 years: exhausted mother of quads. What do you think? Let me know in the comments or on twitter @mskelstar

---

---

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