Coronation Street Episode Review; Weds 09 Oct 7.30 pm

HAPPY 80TH KENNETH!

Yes, that right! the grandmaster of Weatherfield, Ken Barlow, has become an octogenarian and a birthday party is planned at The Rovers (who needs Venice, eh?)

Over at the hospital, Sinead and Daniel find out that the chemotherapy has been scrapped, her cancer hasn't improved, and consultant Mr Merchant tells them that she's got just weeks to live.  Back home, the couple sits in limited light, and with the curtains closed, bereft at the enormity of what Mr Merchant has told them. Not feeling like partying in any way, Daniel is pained to admit that he's arranged a (bleakly premature) 'first birthday' party for Baby Bertie.

Are you going to miss Sinead? I never liked the character until she got with Daniel if I'm honest. The actors are believable as a couple, and both have played superbly to the strength of their given storylines. In retrospect, it's a tragic demise, and corrie isn't shying away from any of the grim reality, that's certain.

Speaking of which, Sarah visits David in prison and her brother is getting involved in prison life, it seems. His cellmate/prison pal is seen hiding some contraband, and Sarah leaves as quickly as she arrived. Later, although he seems to be coping well inside, David looks to be getting involved with the wrong crowd...

Back on Coronation Street, Kev splashes the cash on a family dinner at the Bistro, and Paula tells him that Sophie is having her head turned by Kate Connor's 'Instagram-able' life in Singapore.
Remember that date Kev was going to have? Abi has tracked down Martine on twitter (@KevWebstersBlonde1) and he's soon wining and dining the (heavily taboo tattooed) attractive blonde.

Sophie takes little persuading when Paula insists that they should head off to Singapore together. It's slightly unbelievable, and in stark contrast to the reality of Sinead's diagnosis obviously, but I think in the world of Weatherfield we need the daftness alongside darkness.

Speaking of which, Ken's nearest and dearest are gathered at The Rovers ready to celebrate the 80th birthday of the streets greatest legend. Quoting Oscar Wilde, Ken is soon taken aback to see that Norris has made the trip for him, and ** LEGEND KLAXON** EMILY BISHOP (!!!!) is on skype, ready to chat to them all.   They aren't enough exclamation marks, nor superlatives, to tell you how happy I am for this guest appearance.

It seems strange then, that we are treated to Norris, Emily, and even Rita, Claudia and Audrey (who all own the salon still?) getting Ken geared up for a party, that the mood is somewhat shifted, into the dark reality of terminal cancer diagnosis. It's hardly a jolly juxtaposition (although I understand the 'drama' factor) and it's one I'm still thinking about, albeit, 24 hours later.

Out of the way of Ken's other guests,  The Rovers beer garden is heavily decorated with colourful walls, bright bunting, and Beth has even made a cake for baby Bertie's 'celebrations'. With everyone in a party mood, Sinead gathers the family together to announce that... she's got just weeks to live!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEN!!

Personally, I'd have preferred Rita and Audrey absolutely hammered on prosecco, chatting to Emily on Skype and reminiscing about Ken's philandering 'back in the day'. That said, it's 2019, and the world is a very dark place anyway...

The 8.30 pm episode review will be your last for a whole week (!) as Corrie is not on telly due to the countries obsession with 'the footy'. No me neither...unless its Wethy County!

Speak in a bit!

I am @rybazoxo your self-styled cobbles connoisseur. Give us a follow on twitter.

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Why it's time for Emily to be killed off in Coronation Street

It's been two years since Emily Bishop moved from Coronation Street to Peru. Two years.  And last night she was given a brief, but important mention in the Rovers Return.

Ken told Sophie that he knew Emily was back in the country, tending to her niece Freda who wasn't well.

Why mention this, I wonder? And why did Ken tell Sophie and not Norris or Rita?

Could it be that Eileen Derbyshire is really going to reprise her role as Emily in the show? I reckon not.  I think the line from Ken was just to keep Emily in our thoughts, as if they would ever go away.

However, it is high time, I feel, for Emily to be killed off - and here's why.

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Why it's time to say goodbye to Emily in Coronation Street

I know it's not even the end of October yet but my thoughts have already turned towards Christmas. I blame Poundland, really. Well, I was in there the other day and there was tinsel and glitter and cards and ribbons and I couldn't help myself, I have to admit, I made a start on my Christmas shopping. And as my thoughts turned to Christmas, I found myself getting a little sentimental about Emily Bishop, as you do in the middle of Poundland on an October Saturday in Sunderland.

In the show, we know that Emily is living in Peru and we hope she's having a good life and she's being looked after well. And in real life, the actress who plays Emily may - or may not - return to the show, we don't know.  It's not our business to know what goes on in the real life of the actors away from the street.

But in the show, we're invested in Emily. Many of us have grown up with her in our lives, watching her faithfully week in, week out, year in, year out.  Do we want her to be happy in Peru, forever? Of course. Is it likely that she will? Of course not. All good things come to an end, and I think it's time that Emily was given the send-off she deserves.

And so, on that sentimental Saturday in Poundland last weekend, I was thinking that Christmas would be the perfect time for a phone call to come in during Norris and Sean's Christmas dinner. It'd be a long distance phone call, from Spider in Peru, giving Norris the sad news that Emily had passed away - happily, peacefully, campaigning to save the Peruvian Whorey Ground Wort.  Norris would raise his glass of sherry and wipe away a tear. Sean would look on with a wistful smile.

At home, watching this unfold on Christmas night when we're stuffed full of chocolates and turkey and Bailey's Irish Cream (other Irish liqueurs are available), we fans would raise our glass too. We'd reminisce about Emily, there'd be an ITV special, the newspapers would be full of pictures and memories, and a framed picture of her would go up in the Kabin.

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Five things we've learned from Classic Coronation Street this week

 

I was overjoyed when the announcement came that ITV3 would start re-running classic episodes of Coronation Street. To begin with, I was disappointed the network wasn't going to show episodes from earlier on - I believe the mid 1970s to early 80s to be the golden age for the show - however I can now see the benefits in starting in 1986. The episodes broadcast this week are modern enough to feature a vast number of characters viewers today will still be aware of, either because they are still regularly on our screens or because their time has only recently been and gone.

Coronation Street in 1986 featured regular characters who stlll appear today - Ken, Rita, Jenny, Audrey, Gail, Sally and Kevin. The likes of Deirdre, Emily, Jack and Vera, Betty and Hilda are still very much in our consciousness too. Early '86 also began some long running stories, introducing Sally Seddon to enliven Kevin's life for many years to come and most of all, the start of the three year Alan Bradley saga. 

I have been tasked with cobbling together a blog on five things we've learned from a week of Classic Coronation Street on ITV3. Week two of Classic Corrie has seen Hilda going from door to door looking for her own storyline, Mike Baldwin owning his sheepskin overcoat retro look and Granada forking out the cash for an outside broadcast at the bins depot just so Curly Watts can overact and snivel about. Oh and Susan Barlow still cannot act for cinder toffee.

Emily tucks in

Pasty-gate with Emily Bishop

Poor Emily seems to have spent much of early 1986 appearing in the background of other stories, shuttling back and forth across the cobbles in her sensible winter coat from Baldwin's Casuals to the Rovers (she drank a lot of pineapple juice it seems). Emily's main role was providing understanding looks to Ken and Deirdre as the Susan and Mike saga dragged on into month three of the year. Sigh. Not only that, Mrs Bishop was then also landlady to drip in a donkey jacket Curly Watts. I often look back at Curly through rose-tinted Deirdre bins however recent viewing of these 1986 episodes has made me realise just how irritating he was. I wouldn't have blamed Terry Duckworth for thumping him either side of the advert breaks. All sympathy for Curly eventually dried up when he mooned about after Susan Barlow for several episodes. What is it with her? Can't they see she's the blight on an otherwise glorious classic Corrie horizon?

Anyway back to the Bish. In yet another scene providing succor to a quite simply undeserving, bouffant Kenneth Barlow, our Emily also has to suffer through a Rovers lunch of beige pasty and pineapple juice. Dame Eileen of Derbyshire toys with the pasty as only a lady of breeding would - delicately with her fork and the sheer skill of her performance makes it look like she's enjoying it as much as Lord Roache of Cheshire who inhales his in an instant while spitting bile about Baldwin. Either that or Ken was secretly wearing the pasty on his head, which would at least explain that awful haircut.

Much more satisfying than a ride in Baldwin's Jag

Barlow's Beetle

Staying with the prodigal son of Weatherfield, in a rare moment of outside filming Ken spluttered down the cobbles in a rust coloured Volkswagen Beetle this week. This is the same motor Ken bought back in 1980 that lovely, kindly old Uncle Albert Tatlock refused to get into, principally because it was "built by the Jerry's". Not one to hold a grudge, our Albert. Or perhaps that was just a front and Albert simply didn't want to sit in Ken's car in case he squished the cream horns he'd just half-inched from the Granada tea trolley (ah, those were the days). Anyway, Ken's wheels clearly show why Deirdre walked away from burgandy coloured Jag driving Mike Baldwin and back into the back seat of Manchester's very own Love Bug. 

Bet is so pleased for Gloria

Gloria Todd - the Tina McIntyre of '86

Years before Sue Jenkins swapped the cobbles of Weatherfield for the glamorous locale known as Brookside Close, she spent a few years behind the bar at the Rovers Return as barmaid Gloria Todd. Gloria was finding herself squarely between Duckworth and son in February '86 and was in danger of sending out signals to beefy young Terry after she asked him to pop round and deal with her sticky sash. This week has seen our Glo receive the attention of a secret admirer after a rose was left on the front step of the Rovers. Bet, the sympathetic kindly employer that she was, gave poor Miss Todd a look that would curdle milk but obviously, this being Corrie, the admirer isn't going to turn out to be Robert Redford. Ok, Gloria didn't end up falling off a balcony and being beaten to death with an iron bar, taking part in a surrogacy that goes terribly wrong or having an affair with Peter Barlow (hers was with Alan Bradley - six of one I suppose) but as drama and intrigue go a rose in a plastic box had to do in 1986.

George Wardle...I mean Sam Tindall

A Blue Rinse Love Triangle

One of the proper joys of these old episodes is becoming reacquainted with gravel-voiced Phyllis Pearce, beautifully played with grit, warmth and weary charm by Jill Summers. Phyllis first turned up in Corrie in 1982 as a relation of the instantly forgettable Chalkie Whitely and his grandson Craig. By 1986 she was a regular character, eking out her pension with shifts in a floral tabard at a rather grimy Jim's Cafe alongside Gail the Wail and a pimply Martin Platt. The main storyline for Phyllis as the years ticked by was her unrequited love for Tatlock replacement, Percy Sugden. Mrs Pearce was a racy girl and probably too much of a handful for our Perce, more at home in the Community Centre flat with his budgie and a nice tin of Spam.

Things were hotting up for Phyllis in February 1986 though as she became embroiled in a rather slow-moving love triangle which made Susan and Mike's affair look as appealing as a night in with Ivy Tilsley and an individual fruit trifle. Phyllis found herself enamoured with a quavering-voiced, cagoule wearing pensioner by the name of Sam Tindall. Mr Tindall was now clearly filling the void left by last week's George Wardle as the mid-80s character we'd all rather forget, if we could actually remember him in the first place. Sam was one of those characters you'd get back then who you were never quite sure would get to the end of their dialogue without drying up. Despite Phyllis and her fruity suggestions, I doubt Sam Tindall was up to much and the only thing Randy about Mr Sugden was his pet budgie.

Move Over Rio Rita...

Finally this week we learned that back in the day our Jenny Bradley was a bit of a songstress. She spent much of this past week 31 years ago exiting stage left for a bit of late night band practice while estranged dad Alan and foster mum Reet Petite got cosy on that awful brown patterned sofa. Jenny B was so into her rehearsals that she turned down a Chinese meal in the company of Alan and Rita in favour of banging out some tunes with her mates. Mind you, given that Mike and Susan ended up at the same restaurant, it was probably a wise move. 

This got me thinking. Perhaps with Rita in no fit state to fill the role of resident songbird these days, our Jenny could rediscover her musical roots. What about Weatherfield's very own answer to Bucks Fizz (continuing the eighties theme). Sal, Jenny B (or is that C now?) Kev and Tim could form Milk Stout! Ena Sharples would be turning in her hairnet. 

Until next week!

Classic Coronation Street is broadcast on ITV3 every week day at 14.40 and 15.15, repeated from 6am the next day.

You can follow me on Twitter @GraemeN82
 

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