Rovers Return Reopens Tonight! : Have We Missed It?

It's a Christmas miracle wrapped up in Carla Connor's money but hey ho, at least we start the New Year with the Rovers Return reopening. I can't say I’m pleased about Daisy and Jenny money laundering (it's a soap, repercussions will come) but have we missed Weatherfield’s N0.1 watering hole?

Where would we be without Betty’s hotpots, pints of Newton & Ridley, and the numerous dramatics we've had in our favourite fictional pub? The Bistro probably does better food, and Speed Daal is a dry bar/takeaway alternative, but The Rovers Return Inn is a behemoth of Coronation Street, a literal cornerstone of the show's 63-year history.

Many fans will be happy to see it reopen, none more so than Corrie producer Iain Macleod, who was reluctant to keep it closed for so long. The blog spoke with the showrunner in October and he told us all about the pub reopening. Iain said ‘’It's almost a character in its own right, The Rovers closing, it almost felt like death: I think. The idea of seeing the pub boarded up was horrifying and like a dagger to the heart’’ Iain also told us: “ It (reopens) on New Year's Eve, but the circumstances of it becoming open again are at best naughty, or at worse criminal’’

How will the reopening come about? 

"The reopening of it will be based on this slightly shaky foundation of a criminal act. The viewers will be left wondering what will happen to the people involved in the misdeed committed for it to reopen. We didn't just want it to open up again and be like nothing had ever happened. We wanted it to open up with a buried bomb underneath it, which we will explode later in the year!"

Will the Rovers be renovated for the reopening? 

“It's not going to look radically different. I think certain sets, I'm not saying they shouldn't ever change, but I certainly feel like I don't want it to be modernised or turned into a chain pub or something. It's updated a touch, but I like the look and feel of it at the moment. It will reopen looking very similar, the circumstances of its ownership will be much more fraught’’ 

Thanks, Iain!

With the end of 2023 in sight, I'd like to thank our editor, Glenda, the Coronation Street press team, and lovely readers for keeping me busy with Corrie cast interviews, episode reviews, and opinion pieces. Happy New Year Everyone! 

@rybazoxo Corrie Blogger and Cobbles Connoisseur 

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Coronation Street Episode Review Friday 15 December 2023

Good evening.  Well if you are going to destroy your relationship always resolve the problems of everyone else before you try and ask for your partner to take you back.  Daisy plays an absolute blinder tonight.  Her betrayal leads to Daniel and Ryan scrapping on t'Street.  Daniel manages to land a decent blow giving Ryan a black left eye - the same side as all his other scars.  Crystal finally twigs that "something" has been going down (and down and down).  For good reason Daisy cannot say that she does not love Ryan to Daniel.  Daisy turns into a swirling dervish - telling Ryan in Victoria Gardens that Daniel knew all along and had wrecked the gym job.  She then pops along to the Bistro where Crystal having demanded some space is told the truth and suggests to Crystal that when Ryan turns she should give him another chance which Crystal does.  Daisy having sorted everyone else then talks to Daniel on his doorstep but are we entirely surprised when he shuts the door in his face.  And for longer term afficionados how much did this remind us of Ken (Daniel) and Mike (Ryan) as generation speaks unto generation?  Daisy will no doubt head to Morocco for a handsome replacement but meanwhile is in tears as Daniel has told her it is over.

In the middle of the above Adam appeared out of nowhere.  Where is he living?  How is it he does not have a new best friend?  Did someone check his contract and see he was short of episodes?  I do think his spasmodic contributions are not making the best of him - but I suppose it does give him the opportunity to turn up with a new haircut every time we see him!

Elsewhere it appears that dog loving Terry has not reported dog stealing Evelyn to the police and has been released from police care.  Having given this some thought Roy and Evelyn come to the conclusion that perhaps Terry has something to hide concerning the little white dog.  Now why would a dog "owner" not want to press charges for theft?  Could it be that he is not the "owner" of said £1500 pooch?  Indeed is there a "dodgy puppy farm" which needs shutting down?

Jenny has gone through Stephen's laptop with fine toothcomb and found a file which he used moments before ripping thousands of pounds out of the factory account.  And unlike every other file it is password protected - even the police could not be bothered to break the file encryption as they did not deem it was related to multiple murders so not their concern.  Jenny dahling you need a hacker or the dark web (if anyone can put me in touch with the dark web please let me know).  Jenny enlists Carla's assistance as it is her money.  Well Jenny is her step-mother.  

Elsewhere there is meltdown in the Platt family as the content of Stephen's dairy, particularly the historic relevations that Sarah was in fact Brian's child and not some other person (Ian Latimer) has upset Sarah - why I am not sure as it all happened before she came along.  Anyway as Audrey tells Jenny and Carla the journal (which looks like a filofax to me - do people still use them in place of their phone these days) has all of Stephen's thoughts and she is going to take it home and read it from cover to cover.  Carla takes a peak and realises that there is a strong possibility that Stephen has passwords hidden in his journal.  (I don't write them down - I save them all in a file on this PC - as would Stephen I suspect).  Much sibling bickering between David and Sarah enlivens events - no room for it all here!  Gail uses PlattChat to set up a Platt family get together for tomorrow for Audrey.  

Does anyone care about Eliza, Yasmeen, Dom and Stu?  Well after the concert where Sam was an absolute whizz on the triangle they return home and Dom hangs around until it is time to go to Germany.  He tries to imply that he is coming back for Christmas but we know he won't and Stu thinks he is finally rid of the man.  But this is Coronation Street and I reckon that Dom will dob Stu in for his payoff to social services to get Eliza all to himself.  Other predictions are readily available.

Which means that Friday night is a wrap.

Tonight in memory of Bob Johnson I have been listening to the "King of Elfland's Daughter" whilst writing this update.  A wonderful guitarist with Steeleye Span and this concept album with Pete Knight - ride softly into your next life.  

Written by Debbie Oates.  Directed by Reece Dinsdale.

Kosmo

@Kosmo100

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Sally Ann Matthews & Tina O’Brien interview: Stephen’s Showdown

The time has come that Corrie fans have been waiting for - but will justice be served to Stephen, or will he get away with his crimes? 

Having a quiet chat in the Rovers, Jenny and Sarah soon realise they’re not alone, and Stephen certainly makes his present felt as he turns on those he loves the most. Hitting Sarah over the head, desperate Stephen is on the edge as Jenny is on a mission to finally learn the truth. 

At a press event for these spectacular episodes recently, we caught up with Tina O’Brien and Sally Ann Matthews to talk about their encounter with a desperate and dangerous Stephen. 

Stephen has had a long run. The net is finally closing in. As Jenny starts to listen to Carla and put the pieces together, what emotions is she going through?

Sally: She doesn’t listen to Carla! She just thinks, “Carla, you’re a bit of a psycho, you’re having a moment,” because Stephen hasn’t done anything wrong in Jenny’s eyes. She’s never seen him be violent, he’s only ever been supportive and kind to her, and that’s because he loves her, and he’s not had an ulterior motive with Jenny at all. 

It’s only when the net is closing in on Stephen, and he says about moving to Thailand tomorrow that she suddenly starts to go, “Oh,” and maybe Carla was right, so she tests the water, some kind of self-preservation kicks in and wants to delay going to Thailand. Then he says he found the bank account, and she starts to go, “He does want my money,” and I think she has flashbacks of what her dad did to Rita. 

And she has that moment where she realises this isn’t love. But actually, it is! But he wants her money, and Jenny has that moment of loss. And then the same for [Stephen] when Jenny says, “Let’s delay it,” and he goes to the kitchen, and you see his heart break, and I think it’s really important because ultimately, it is a love story as well. If he’d not been such a murderous bastard, they’d have had a really good time together! She’s heartbroken that he’s done this, but as far as she’s concerned, he’s a conman and a fraudster, and he’s after money. She doesn’t realise that he’s murdered anybody. She’s not privy to any of that information, which is when Sarah says that to her in the pub, unawares that Jenny doesn’t know any of it. It’s a HUGE shock. 

As his behaviour starts to confirm her suspicions, how scared does she become?

Sally: She’s terrified and suddenly realises that… Very quickly, it all starts to gather that if he did this with Leo, how long has this con of his been going on for? Leo’s been dead a year – was this his intention all the time? But then he was comforting her, so a betrayal on every level. 

This is Sarah’s uncle. Can she really believe he’s capable of all of this when the Platts start to put it together?

Tina: I think she’s in denial. I think it’s David that’s really kind of going, “Hang on a minute.” She doesn’t want to believe it. I think she wants to believe the uncle she went to Milan with, the man who supported her and helped her in her career, that isn’t what he is. So I think it’s a shock when that starts to realise.

Does she realise that the family could be in danger, or is it too much to process?

Tina: I don’t think she would think for a second that he would ever hurt any of the Platts. You know, that’s family. And I don’t think she would ever think that she or anyone else in her family would be in danger. 

Sarah’s stood up to Stephen before. When they come up against him in the pub, does she think she can get through to him?

Tina: I think if she thought he was dangerous, she never would’ve tried to, you know, have a word with him. I think she still believes at the end of the day that it’s her uncle, and maybe there’s been miscommunication. So I think she believes that they, as a family, could get through to him.

We end up in this situation where he has both of them in the Rovers. Do they realise at this point that this is going to be a fight for their lives?

Sally: When he clonks her on the head, yeah! Before then, I think it’s really cleverly done that Dylan and his dodgy friend have been in the pub, so she feels confident to go in there. It’s only when Sarah says she saw her upstairs, it’s like, “Whoa, hang on.” I love that moment. It is, “Get out of dodge,” and they go to get out of dodge, and he whallops her one, which breaks Stephen’s heart to do that to her. And I think that sends Stephen into a spin because he loves Sarah, he loves his family, he loves Jenny. He doesn’t want to do these things.

Tina: He’s a desperate man.

You can see how upset Stephen is when he hits Sarah. Is it a bit of a wake-up call that no-one is off limits?

Sally: Jenny’s definitely terrified. She does believe what she’s been told that he killed Teddy, and therefore it makes sense that he killed Leo. I think at that point as well, she’s angry, and she wants to get the truth out of him. I think she doesn’t think she’s going to get out, she thinks Sarah’s dead, and then she wants to find out exactly what Stephen did, and I think she’s disregarded her own safety to just get to the truth.

Do you like seeing Sarah and Jenny working together?

Sally: We only had that little bit, but it’s nice to kind of be initially in the Rovers in our joint, “What a bloody day!” He duped us both, and we share that moment of drinking the dodgy sherry.

Tina: Obviously, they both kind of cross paths because Sarah doesn’t know that Jenny doesn’t know Stephen’s maybe a murderer. That moment of going, “Yeah, this is what we’ve heard,” and then again, the fact that Sarah assumes that it was Jenny upstairs. I quite like how that all then comes together for a little moment, to kind of go, “Oh, gosh, this is time to go.”

Stephen drags Jenny outside with a bottle to her throat. Does she really believe her could kill her?

Sally: She thinks she’s a goner, but I think she’s also thinking… I don’t think she thinks about her own safety. She wants the truth. She wants to know why he did it, what he’s done, and in that moment, she sees that is far more important than her own safety.

With time quickly running out for Stephen, just how far will his desperation take him? Will he kill again?

Tune in to Coronation Street tonight to find out!

Sophie Williams 

Find me on Twitter @sophie_writer1

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Coronation Street Episode Review;Wednesday 31st of August 8 pm

Whatever else happened in tonight's Corrie, I'd already seen a preview, so this review was inevitably going to be about Audrey's salon reopening!!! An icon all on its own, we've been starved of Audrey's blue-rinse brigade, since the pandemic, and Ray Crosby's failed Coronation Street buy-out. Tonight was a cause for real celebration then, and Corrie did not disappoint! I seem to write this every week now, and I always will, when they have these really big cast gatherings, post-covid. With everyone outside the re-branded salon, Roy, Ken, Rita, and the Platt’s congregated in the sunshine (I’m guessing filming was during one of those heatwaves we had) giving a ceremonial nostalgic tint to proceedings. 

A relic relaunched (minus the Renshaw twins), the old guard tells Audrey that maybe a confession about her suicide attempt, to her family, is long overdue. Inside the salon, Stephen asks Audrey about the trust fund paperwork, and Audrey's renewed vigour has given her a change of heart - she's not going to proceed with the trust fund, which refuses him the power of attorney and control of the cash. 

Thinking back to Gail's monologue in the aftermath of Aidan's suicide, and Audrey’s recent suicide attempt, that confession to her daughter, couldn’t have been any more apt, poignant, or tinged with sadness, and was undoubtedly tonight’s standout scene! Here are two actresses that have cemented their onscreen relationships for about 40 years, and it’s one of those scenes where Corrie’s TV longevity only adds to the dramatics. No hyperbole required - that was just brilliant. With the clan gathered at Number 8. Audrey reveals all to the rest of the family, promising herself a new start, sobriety, and a bog-standard will, splitting her money between them, apart from Stephen, because she still thinks he’s loaded. Later, we see Stephen buying a suit from the local charity shop. He’s clearly brassic. 

Feeling like the street’s pariah, Toyah is cheered up by a lunch invite from Peter, and the old partners catch up at Roy’s Rolls putting the world to rights. Spider’s arrival, alongside his echo-warrior friend, gives Peter some thoughts about possibly joining them at a new protest. The problem is that the target for a protest is Carla’s latest potential bigshot Underworld client. With Carla back on top form, Stephen goes berserk behind the bins, realising he’s run out of monetary business options.  

Aadi and Kelly’s rush to get (underage) married, and courting the idea of eloping to Gretna Green, takes my Corrie brain back to the 1990s when Leanne and Nick did just that. Is this a rehash of an old storyline or something a little different? Tonight, the lovesick teens cause Dev parental woes, and tears in the shop, causing Asha to confront her brother. Kelly makes Aadi see sense but he tells his Dad he’d still like to stay at Gary and Maria’s for a bit. Later, the teens email a registrar in Scotland, setting up the rushed nuptials. 

Elsewhere, Jenny and Leo’s relationship finally cracks under the weight of his dullness (sorry, but come on!) and, having been covered in poo working for Ed, he decides to take that job in Toronto. Jenny’s maturity leads the way, it’s an amicable split, and quite frankly, I can't see him being missed. 

Can he take Stephen Reid, and his terrible suit, back to Canada with him? 

A superb episode tonight. Is it me, or is the show on 100% top form right now?

Let us know in the comments! 

I am @rybazoxo self-styled cobbles connoisseur & Coronation Street superfan 

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