As in previous years, I present my Awards of the Year. Part Inside Soap Awards, part Smash Hits Poll Winners' Party, part some stuff I have made up.
Best Actress: Sally Dynevor (Sally Metcalfe). Sally's had quite a year, from ignored wife, to public wee-er, to dancer on ice, to councillor candidate, to frustrated traffic warden sex cop, to cheated on wife, even though she wasn't actually cheated on and Ms Dynevor has been marvellous throughout.
Best Actor: Rob Mallard (Daniel Osborne). Dealing with Max on one hand, Daisy on the other, Daniel's also had quite a year. Still he has time to look after Bertie and go to the gym.
Best Young Actor: Paddy Beaver (Max Turner). The change of actor has brought Max to the forefront of the soap. He is currently being groomed for/by a white supremacy group, but the moment that he impressed me was the look of disgust but also amusement that he gave to Nicki when he revealed to his classmates that she used to be sex worker.
Best Old Actor: Sue Nicholls (Audrey Roberts). The afternoon tea when Audrey "came out" as having attempted suicide was the best scene this year: it had everything: sadness, pathos, humour and four experienced soap actors at the top of their game.
Best Villain: The swaggering Mr Thorne was almost a parody of an arrogant upper-middle class person as he smarmed around oilily, camply whispering threats to man of the people, Peter. His foie gras joke was funny though.
Runner Up: Stephen Reid. The latest in a long lone of desperate businessmen exploiting their nearest and also dearest.
Best Villainess: Lydia, her who tried to bring down Adam in a shopping centre.
Best Exit: Imran and his mysterious death.
Best Midlife Crisis: Mrs Crawshaw coming onto Daniel.
Best Loser: Phil(l). Honestly, I expected him to sit down and play Ever Loser Wins at the piano in the Rovers.
Best New Character: Glenda, obviously.
Best Returning Character: Wendy Flamin' Crozier.
Best Conscious Recoupling: Fiz and Ty.
Biggest Change (physical): Daniel. Used to be a floppy haired fop, a mini-Ken clone, now a skinhead gym bunny with clothes straining at his muscles and a bouncer neck. The myth of him being a frail dweeb is getting a bit hard to maintain.
Biggest Change (mental): Griff. From ecowarrior to....white supremacist. Ian Kershaw did his best in trying to make this work in his scene when Griff is addressing the community centre (the one about the invasive species that Roy debunked), but honestly, folk protesting against carbon emissions and white supremacists are not the same people. It felt as if TPTB wanted to do the racist grooming storyline and had already employed Michael Condron (who is a talented actor), so they just switched Griff's beliefs.
Runner Up: Spider. From ecowarrior to....cop.
Most Triggering Storyline. Now I don't have diabetes nor was I ever going to Oxford (not even Oxford Brookes), plus it's 31 (!) years since I did my A-levels, but I do remember the stress of it all.
Most Boring Storyline. Stu and his miscarriage of justice. No-one cares, Stu!
Most Overused: Summer. Remember when Carla was in every episode and then Ali King left the street? Remember the look that Jane Danson started to get around her eyes during the Oliver storyline? Don't do that to Harriet Bibby as well. My hopes for 2023 is that she is allowed some time off and we get a bit of a break from the misery-fest that is Summer's life. Other teenagers exist, Corrie writers!
Greta Thunberg Award for Recycling Storylines: Teenage pregnancy. Stephen rocking the Richard Hillman look. Surrogacy. Bernie falsely accused. People getting married for a bet/competition.
Sometimes It's Hard To Be A Woman Award: Maria Connor. A lot of people (both men and women) hate to see a woman in power and I think the writers did a good job of portraying this.
Gone But Also Forgotten Award: Sinead's beard oil empire. Wasn't Carla going to take this on? Daniel could use it now with his newly hirsute chin.
Agree? Disagree? Nominate your own winners in the comments.
Rachel Stevenson - on twitter
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5 comments:
Best recoupling for me is Ken and Wendy as they have respect for each other that I don't believe that Fiz has for Tyrone.
Fiz is always quick to blame Tyrone when anything goes wrong and if she does marry him,I believe it's only so Fiz can inherit the house [otherwise it would have gone to Ruby]not because she loves Tyrone.
The most boring storyline for me was Summer's diabetes as she did whined and was always putting her health at risk,it was hard to feel sorry for her.
Best lucky escape - Gary.
He literally murdered someone and got away with it, even with Laura 'fessing to the po po, and even Kelly finding out.
It contravenes every soap law there is!
I am going to go against the general comments and say that I am bored to death by Max's storyline, as well as that of Stu and the misery-fest that is Summer (please get her off the air for a break and a personality transplant). And we should be seeing more of Amy, who is played by a cracking little actress.
A lovely read, thanks!
A fab summary. I agree with a lot of it.
I too am, getting tired of Ms and Mr misery - Aaron and Summer. He's quite bland and she's whines a lot. Mike and Esther are getting on my nerves too, as are Brian and Mary.
Best returns for me are Stephen, Spider, Zedan, Martha and Wendy.
Although sadly, Ken has lost both of this lady fiends. as they've run off into the sunset together towards Hull.
I'd love to see the return of Emma and Cathy!
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