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

Monday 22 August 2022

Five Things We Learned In Corrie This Week


Summer's gone.  Fun fact: if you look very closely at the carpet in the florist flat, you can see the outline of Harriet Bibby, because she's spent so much time keeling over to the floor there she's left an imprint.  It's been a year since Summer was diagnosed with diabetes and I'm afraid I've reached the point where I say - let her die.  Frankly after a year of her constantly falling unconscious because she hasn't taken her medicine I think the NHS should wash its hands of her and give her insulin supplies to someone who might actually use them.  Aaron reckoned she was operating some sort of long con with two blood monitors I didn't quite understand and if you're going to that level of effort to avoid being caught then you're kind of asking to suffer and I have no sympathy.


This is of course a distraction from the real scandale in that flat, which is that Todd and Billy and Paul are clearly having no strings threesomes and couplings and the show isn't brave enough to deal with it.  It's eight o'clock on a weekday on ITV, it's difficult to cover the complexities of human sexuality, but these three are almost certainly having some kind of casual sexual relationship and the programme can't quite deal with it.  There's no other real explanation for how free and easy and intimate everyone is together.  I'm guessing that Billy is the crossbeam in their Eiffel Tower, for some reason; he seems the type.  No wonder he was so horrified when he realised Summer hadn't gone on her holiday - he'd spent all day eating pineapple and avoiding spicy foods and now she'd turned up to cramp his style.  I bet he had to dash off to make a series of urgent phone calls the minute she'd finished unburdening.  


A Change will do you good.  Hurray, Faye and Craig split up!  I genuinely thought the writers had finally spotted that they had actual negative chemistry together and decided to put an end to it.  They're like magnets, literally repelling one another.  The fact that Faye was finding Craig irritating when he was just being Craig seemed to be the confirmation - she'd finally spotted he was quite annoying and wanted to end things.  But then they got together again by the end of the week and were all happy with their takeaway and their petrol station flowers and that was the end of that.  With any luck Tyrone will finally spot he's now paying two mortgages and flog the salon flat and these two tedious moaners will have to move to Glasgow and we'll never see them again.


Sean has maggoty skin.  Look, I'm just reporting facts here, don't blame me.  He was in the middle of telling a story to a no doubt unwilling Faye and Amy in which he revealed his skin had gone "maggoty" and so a beautician recommended "leech therapy".  Where is Sean getting his facials, a Harvey Nicks located in 13th Century England?  What's next, a course of mercury to cleanse his humours?  Between this, Sinead refusing cancer treatment, and Faye's disdain for HRT, there's a strange anti-science undercurrent running through the show, which is weird considering every other episode has people in hospital.  Get vaccines, folks, and take medicines, and don't pay weird women in white coats to stick leeches on your face.  


You get what you pay for.  Michael - yes, Michael's back this week, and we even got an appearance from James, incredible times - demanded Underworld's website got an update because apparently they lost business from it.  I do sympathise, because I am So Very Online that if a business doesn't have a decent website I give them a significant side-eye.  Don't get me started on restaurants that don't have their menus available, because that shouldn't be allowed, and by the way having a Facebook page doesn't count.  Anyway.  Carla allocated the grand sum of £750 to come up with a new one, then was surprised when the only people who'd work for that kind of money were a washed up Canadian and a teenager.  I'm guessing Mark Zuckerberg was busy?


Max and Stephen spent one (1) day larking about the factory with a camera and managed to produce a working prototype by home time; you can't say they didn't work for the cash.  I do query their content, however.  I don't want to sound like an old perv - and I'll remind you that I am a homosexual, so I have no personal interest in this - but I would've thought that if you are an underwear company, that's an ideal opportunity to put some girls in their pants on your website.  Sex sells, and pretty ladies in skimpy lingerie can sell almost anything.  Imagine wondering what Underworld's range is like, clicking on the website, and getting Sally Metcalfe wafting a hand over a camisole like she's on Sale of the Century.


Get some prosecco in, invite some of the local women round, then get them to do some modelling.  Nothing tawdry, just ladies hanging out in their knickers.  Although Max seemed to have difficulty saying the word "pants" so I'm not sure he could've handled taking pictures of, say, Asha and Kelly and Maria laughing together in lacy two pieces.  He'd have probably exploded.  


The old ones are the best.  For all its forays into murder, rape, explosions, tram crashes and roof collapses, Corrie is a show about people.  About characters.  And it's at its very best when it remembers that any old show can blow things up and run people over, but only Corrie can mix heart and heartbreak in a single scene.  Some other stuff happened in Monday's episodes but the core of it - the absolute high point - was Audrey's afternoon tea.  One character, meeting her friends.  Those friends chatting and joking.  Claudia, a rival-slash-pal, turning up to stir the pot.  A little bit of scandal.  Rita offering to do the Single Ladies dance, something I would very much like to see, please.  Then Audrey quietly, devastatingly, confessing she tried to take her own life.


Nothing else that happened this week could beat the second half of Monday's episode, brilliantly written by Corrie legend Carmel Morgan.  There were tears and emotions and sadness, but understated, quiet; dignified.  It wasn't hysterical but was tinged with genuine tragedy.  That this wonderful, vibrant woman had felt so alone and abandoned she'd turned in on herself.  Her friends, full of regret at never really noticing.  It was beautifully performed by a cast of legends with a total age of 329.  Take that, Hollyoaks.


I get that in today's media saturated, multi-channel, publicity thirsty world, ITV demands big stories to catch the attention.  You're not going to get an Inside Soap cover splash with Audrey has afternoon tea.  This though - this is what I tune in for.  Wonderful characters talking to one another.  Last week I said I'd almost reached the end of my tether with the show after a load of dreadful criminal nonsense.  But now they've pulled me back in.  As Audrey herself said... "there's life in the old girl yet."

Apologies for the lateness of this week's post, but after seeing what Audrey pays for window cleaning, I've spent the whole weekend slathering up the salon.  Send my the fifty pounds via Twitter @merseytart, ta, Aud.






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11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Neighbours did a trouple thing and they got cancelled within few months. So, I think the folk at Corrie is wary of that, haha.

Fluttershy said...

You say exactly what I was thinking about the Underworld website nonsense. Reminded me of those films where they get a kid in glasses to hack into the Pentagon. There's a reason why businesses pay for web designers, but of course the first rule of Corrie is that everyone who works in the faktry must live on the Street (and vice versa) so I guess it had to someone local. All we need now is Edward and Tubbs running the Kabin...


And yes, the Audrey stuff was wonderful, bittersweet and heartbreaking as only Corrie can do.

Den said...

Seriously the three dads thing needs to stop. Why are the show making out that this weird dynamic of Billy and his two exes (one of whom treated him like trash last year) is cute.

I can't see this same scenario being played out on screen as cute if Billy were a straight guy and these were two ex girlfriends. But because it's three guys who all happen to be gay we're just meant to accept that they'd all be chill with the fact they've been romantically involved with Billy. It's so weird and I just can't get my head around it at all.

At Christmas none of them were speaking, then suddenly in April they're all best mates with keys to Billy's home and they just walk in whenever they feel like it. What the heck !!

I love Billy and I would like to enjoy his screen time without this weird throupling that we keep having forced upon us against our will.

Charles Burns said...

I love the three dads dynamic, the problem as far as I'm concerned is Summer, she's unbearable to watch.

Sharon boothroyd said...

I agree- Summer and Aaron are becoming the new Fay and Craig.
Tedious, miserable plodders that are going nowhere fast. Who is Aaron's dad?
People say it's this DS Lennox.
Harvey is being brought back, apparently.
Why has Carla only got £750 for a website? It'll need to be mobile friendly - has Max taken that into consideration?
It was just a bit of comedy fluff to distract us from Audrey's suicide attempt and Summer's and Aaron's problems.
Never mind a throuple - I was taken by Beth and Kirk chilling out at home in the nude!

Anonymous said...

Never mind aarons dad, where does he even live? Seems a random character

Pat said...

I find the whole Paul and Todd walking into the flat really annoying. This is the only thing I feel sorry for Summer about. It’s bad enough having her ‘dad’ (Billy) badgering her about her insulin every 2 minutes without Paul and Billy sticking their oar into her business uninvited as well.

Anonymous said...

I agree with all the above comments about Summer and would like to add how boring it is to see her collapse at least once a week because she's not taking her medication or her illness seriously soeeso.
I have no sympathy for Summer and if she does die,her grandmother will have a lot to say about it to Billy!
I thought Carla owned the factory so why are Stephen and Max[?!]working there?
Let me guess Sarah hired them?
I guess Sarah has forgotten how Max set up porn videos of Nicki and a video of someone looking up Summer's skirt and that he drugged Amy's drink the same Amy who is Carla's niece!

popcorn said...

Don't like where the writers are going with any of the younger characters right now. Can somebody please make Summer just go away? I don't care where.

Anonymous said...

Not good are they, just depressing and irritating. The youger actors in the 00’s were much better

Bobby Dazzler said...

People seem to give Max a pass for a lot of bad behaviour that he never has to make amends for.
Stephen is annoying AF.

Could they perhaps just let Summer go into a diabetic coma? That would show the reality of what could happen when you fool with your insulin. Maybe she could lose her eyesight? Whack a toe and get gangrene? Show the real dangers that diabetics face instead of this little madam behaving like an idiot. I thought she was supposed to be smart?
Love Carla and Peter scenes!!

GRITTY SAGAS BY CORRIE BLOG EDITOR GLENDA YOUNG, PUBLISHED BY HEADLINE. CLICK PIC BELOW!

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