Welcome to Friday night on t'Street. A big night as the Connors relaunch our favourite watering hole, but first up we have Audrey who has decided to accept Lewis Archer back into her life and tells Gail this. Gail is not impressed. Gail decides to stage a intervention locking her mother up in the salon until she sees sense. David will not take sides and eventually tells Gail that silent sulking will not solve the problem, it is the best Audrey is going to get (see picture) and he releases Audrey who joins a packed Rovers crowd to celebrate with Lewis, whom Audrey has promised not to take to Gail's for dinner!
Carol recovers and gives Sean and Billy the slip at the hospital when she is discharged. Sean has invented a friend in need of a job at Underworld, but Carla gives Sean his old job back (as seen above) and he returns completely to the Street as he has settled in sufficiently at Billy's flat that Emma moves on (into the spare room at Maria's which she insisted Beth and Kirk leave so she could have some space a couple of days ago and from which Maria is due to be evicted any minute as Audrey wants her out - have the writers forgotten the eviction notice?).
Meanwhile who knew that if you cancelled a wedding the non-in-laws would send round the heavies to collect £20k? Henry for one as he meets the two politest heavies the world have ever known, so polite they call their sledgehammer "Veronica" (see the text message Henry received above). As the Chuckle Brothers might have said - you hit him first, no after you. To pay off Cressida and her family Henry tries to steal a cheque for £15k which Rita has received from an old policy paying out. Rita is clever and decides to invest the money into the hair salon franchise which Maria is planning to open for Claudia. So Henry gets even more desperate and decides to fall down the cellar stairs at the Rovers so he can claim off their insurance. Now if I had just "broken" my arm I would be a lot keener on getting to hospital instead of discussing the insurance claim!
Rumbling along in the background has been Dev and Gina. Down recent years anyone who pulls Dev tends to have problems. Gina is the latest in hope over experience. She is a Seddon, even with the pills she is just a bit too loud and a bit too much to handle and is keen on a bit too much too drink and a bit too bold in trying to lose mobile phones. Dev tries to explain why they are not going to the golf club dinner as he is not sure of her networking skills. Gina, as pictured, says she is who she is and will not change for him and ends up in the spare room at Tim and Sally's. And sadly the same fate probably awaits any girl friend of Dev. Tim might not be entirely behind Sally at present but it was interesting the way he supported Gina in her hour of need.
Early on Steve finds Jenny outside the Rovers and tries to distract her whilst Tim gets a look inside. The rumours are rampant now, no dart board, no photo of Betty, no hotpots, no juke box, Roverz with a zed. Tim is foiled by Johnny coming the other way. And inevitably, given the hype, when the regulars file in with eyes closed as a massive conga they are all stunned to find the place completely untouched with Gary and Seb having been paid to sit in the bar for the last few days and drink beer and arrange for some loud noises from time to time (the absence of a skip to take away the contents of the pub should have been a giveaway). No-one can quite believe it until Jenny tells them the first round is on the Connors and later on Johnny also arranges the first lock-in under the new management.
And so finally we have the grand re-opening of the new Rovers Return. The grand reveal is that there is no change - as Johnny says at length it is a landmark in Weatherfield and does not need to change!
Kosmo
@Kosmo
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