Episode Review Friday 24 October 2025

Good evening.  I cannot remember if I am supposed to like Todd or hate him.  Whichever it is he is an idiot for buying Harry a milk shake, allowing him to have it on the back seat of the car which enables the whole car to be reeking of milk shake when it inevitably goes everywhere.  Todd loses the keys to the car (or is Theo gaslighting him by hiding them).  Todd then scratches the car against some metalwork in the car park as he is driving whilst on the phone.  Then he lies to Theo about where the car is parked, although Kev, currently working alone, due to the missus having sodded off with the brother and the partner having had an accident which may well have been down to his brother, being unable to fix it passing Todd a message about the car not being repaired until tomorrow via Theo who does not take kindly to Todd's lying.  Theo extracts his revenge by pouring a bottle of chocolate milk over Todd.  Frankly by the end of it I do not want to watch either of them do anything.

Cassie attempts to make peace with Tyrone and Fiz by buying them lunch at the Bistro.  She demonstrates that she was never mother material insisting on cutting up Ty's pizza so hard it ends up on the floor after demonstrating how not to get a wheelchair through a crowd and how not to talk to the invalid by asking Fiz about him.  Needless to say the reconciliation will be even longer in arriving than it was before.  During the meal a miscreant makes off with Fiz's handbag and instantly Ollie (who is dining with Dee Dee at an adjacent table) takes off after him like greased lightning.  Despite the head start Ollie returns with the handbag and all contents and is accorded hero status.  Given Ollie suggested they go to the Bistro it strikes me that the whole thing is a setup - am I just too suspicious these days?  

Dev is at odds with both his children and Bernie.  Bernie and Gemma are preparing for the quads party and perhaps Dev and Asha will come to it and talk.  However Bernie has reached the point where she does not think that she and Dev can get past this so all the indications are that it will be one of the shortest marriages ever.  Dev has similar forebodings as he tells Cassie.

Carl is trying to make himself useful and eventually Debbie agrees to employ him.  He almost gets Abi involved in stealing a car - but she realises that Alfie needs her and cannot go through with it.  Carl is eventually employed by Debbie and before the episode is out is trying to hack into her supplier accounts possibly to rip her off, or at least that is what it looked like; I may be wrong.  

Hope is fed up with Jake staring at her at school and she thinks she lets him down gently - because after all there is a three year age gap.  Even Gary spots that Jake seems soft on Hope and warns him off.  So doing the usual maths of 2 + 2 = 5 I wonder if it is Jake that is sending those hateful messages to Hope that we saw last week?  Pure speculation.

I will be away next weekend so will not be here.  Maybe, just maybe I will miss an episode of sweetness and light and lives in a Mancunian back street - this week was closer to that perhaps but it really lacked light among the cesspit of human behaviour being reported in terms of Theo and Carl.  Which is worst - I leave you to judge.

Written by Joe Turner and Carmel Morgan .  Directed by Vicky Thomas.

Kosmo

@Kosmo100

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Coronation Street Episode Review Friday 15 August 2025

After months of not being mentioned Dorin turned up tonight so that Steve could lose him playing hide and seek.  The whole world thought he had gone off in the broken fridge but luckily he was hiding in the back yard outhouse from which he emerged to swear Carl to secrecy.  Hope does not know her phone contains a picture compromising Carl and Abi as well as Ty's backside so when it falls out of a biscuit tin into a sink of water from which it might emerge working she is not amused.  Dorin was then allowed out of the shed and everyone, except Abi, was thankful he had been found - she worked out that Carl knew where he was and cannot trust him again.  However given his failure to look after Dorin Steve is homeless.  Hope is pretty tech savvy and it will all be backed up in the cloud, although she says not.  Hope however does not trust Carl - she thinks he did it on purpose - so at least she has something right.

Now that Ryan is living with Aunty Carla he can be told her secrets such as her intention to propose to Lisa.  She sets up the ring in the glass of champagne with Glenda for later.  Along the way we are reminded of Ty's proposal to Molly using the same trick where another couple in the same restaurant had a mariachi band to support the proposal!  Lisa eventually arrives at the Rovers and recounts how Becky proposed with a ring in a glass of champagne at which point Carla just about stops Glenda repeating the same trick.  Lisa wants to visit California so perhaps Carla could propose there?  It will be Carla's sixth wedding - she married Peter twice.  

Alya is finally looking for a job.  However the application goes nowhere.  Dee Dee misses Laila rolling over for the first time as reported by James.  So Dee Dee comes over all motherly and decides she has to go part time.  She tells Adam the solution is to employ Alya as a legal assistant as she needs a job and they need another pair of hands, even if Adam is sleeping with her.  

The fallout from the attack on Noah continues.  Danielle is convinced that Theo is responsible for the attack and bans Theo from seeing the children; plus Lisa Swain invites Theo down to the station to answer a few questions about the attack under full caution.  Noah did not see his attacker.  Theo claims he was at home all evening with Todd who confirms the alibi.  Gary does not admit he did it - but the way he is talking it looks like that he was in fact responsible, but later both Todd and Theo wonder what sort of monster they have released in Gary.  

Ronnie thinks Debbie joining a dementia choir might be a good idea.  And is it likely that Debbie will consider it a good idea?  An inevitable row follows which gets worse when Ronnie shows little interest in wedding rings - which he was not planning to wear after the wedding.  Eventually there is compromise on both sides.

And in news which I did not want to hear Carl tells Abi he does not want "this" to end.  Worse - nor does Abi as she wants it to go on forever.  These two are just so wrong.  Please end this story next week.

Just to note that the last gig Roy attended was the Spinners in 1978 (possibly 14 October - Manchester Free Trade Hall £1).  Farewell concert in 2021.  

Written by Chris Fewtrell and Simon Crowther.  Directed by Richard Lynn.

Kosmo

@Kosmo100

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Coronation Street: Episode Review Friday 18 July 2025

Welcome.  Carla and Lisa have been well and truly gazumped by Debbie but in turn Ronnie, Ryan, Kev and old uncle Tom Cobbley an' all convince the property whizz kid also known as Debbie Webster that overpaying by £30k for a back street house of ill-repute with a bit of a history, with the deaths of Katie Harris, Charlie Stubbs and Geoff Metcalfe to my certain knowledge.  So by the end of these episodes Carla and Lisa are lined up as the buyers and Carla would be happy to accept an offer from Debbie for her flat which will means she is living much closer to her family.

Gary is getting the best of everything from Maria to get him better.  He has other ideas and spends the afternoon catching up on lost drinking time up to the point where when he stands up and then he falls down.  Gary must be ill as at one point he even offers to buy David Platt a drink and I have lost count of the run-ins between those two down the years.  Whilst not completely drunk Gary and Theo agree that the latter is happy to take on some scaffolding work for Gary's jobs.  Has Gary closed the secondhand furniture store as he has now returned to being a builder?  Gary is insistent he can get over being duped and beaten up by Lou without any help.  Everyone else knows differently.  

I am sure you will all be pleased to know that Kit is on the mend and he did hear Sarah tell him that she was falling for him when she thought he was asleep.  He has some news for her - he is falling for her too.  He repairs relations with Bernie - Kit admits Sarah has given him a good talking to.  Sarah later pops round to see Bernie and updates her on Kit's recovery and that there might be a possibility of some form of relationship with Brody - but no promises at this point.

What looks like Brody in disguise is running away from the Corner Shop as fast as his legs can carry him with Aadi shouting at the disappearing thief whom we find has taken some £6k from the safe.  Which is odd as everyone always seems to pay with their card (remember cash is king).  There is some story for the police (Tink's old partner turns up) about not being able to get to the bank whilst short handed.  Bernie later walks in on Brody seeking to collect some cash and soon extracts the true story from Aadi.  Despite Aadi being the greatest business whizz kid on the block a couple of years ago he has managed to get the shop £6k in debt and has had to take a loan out.  He over ordered and his promotions did not move the stock, so it was out of date and it snowballed.  So he plans to claim on the insurance using the £6k which is upstairs under his bed to settle the loan and the insurance money to pay off Brody (who was supposed to do in the dark, not in daylight) and put the accounts for the shop straight.  Bernie does not like knowing but promises to keep schtum mainly for Brody's sake in view of the news from Saah earlier.  However one might argue that the expected outcome might not happen when Dev walks in at the end of the episode, his long holiday having ended.

There are a couple of sub-plots floating around the last one.  When the disguised Brody was running he went straight past Lisa who, instead of her usual gung ho action stands there stunned and lets the "criminal" abscond.  It seems that the poor dear is confused about Becky and what is right and what is wrong and she is not at all sure who she is at the moment, breaking down in tears for no good reason, and thinking she cannot ever go back out there again.  

Additionally when the shop re-opens Lauren pops in to check on Aadi and admits that she likes Aadi and she was perhaps a little wrong last week and perhaps they could go on a date.  There is a suggestion of bowling but Aadi fluffs it, Asha comes in, Lauren goes to the Rovers and Asha reminds Aadi that he is playing with fire, poor lad cannot get it right. 

Having hugged Bernie and Aadi, Dev sets his sights on Asha's share of the pizza and wants to know what's been going on - hands up for the rights to explain his own son has robbed his own business for the insurance payout?

I won't be here next week as I plan to be in Paris (Eurostar permitting) and I will not be here the following week as I should be in Clermont-Ferrand (assuming SNCF are up to snuff).  So I plan to return in three weeks' time.  Hopefully by then we will be seeing character driven plots and isshoos, police stations, hospitals and stunts will have been consigned to the dustbin and we return to stories of strong women in the back streets of Salford.

Written by Mark Wadlow and Joe Turner.  Directed by Jason Wingaard.

Kosmo

@Kosmo100

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