The Week In Classic Corrie

MONDAY - Episodes originally broadcast 16th and 18th February 1994

Derek organised a trip to London to see Miss Saigon as a way of giving Mavis some excitement.  She'd complained about being bored, but she'd imagined something a bit more stimulating than a coach down the M6 with Emily and Ken.  As a result they rowed, and Derek sat away from her - so when the coach left without him, she didn't even notice.  Mavis was mortified to realise they'd left him at Sandbach services but Derek assumed she'd done it deliberately.  He didn't get any sleep and ended up dozing off in the school - leaving it unlocked.  He was woken by the police as the school had been broken into.  Vicky brought her new boyfriend Leo back to the pub after he missed his train.  Bet agreed to let him stay in the back bedroom - as long as Vicky made sure Steve saw him leave next morning.  (She also warned Leo that she was a very light sleeper and the floorboards in the Rovers were very creaky, in that delightfully playful yet ever so slightly threatening way that only Julie Goodyear can pull off).  Meanwhile, Charlie came back to the pub and apologised for humiliating Bet; they were soon snogging on the sofa.  Raquel went to a modelling shoot for the brewery's calendar where she posed with a racing driver, Erik.  Her ex-boyfriend Wayne the footballer was also there, and when he tried to put Raquel down, Erik leapt to her defence.

TUESDAY - Episodes originally broadcast 21st and 23rd February 1994

It's would be easy to call Emily boring, with her quiet life in her little house, but she's always been a right goer on the sly.  She lost her virginity to a Hungarian, she married a bigamist, and she'd protest any injustice at the slightest provocation.  She's certainly far too interesting for dull Bernard the vicar, or rather, ex-vicar, as his crisis of faith meant he'd handed in his resignation to the Bishop.  Derek was carpeted by the headmistress after the school robbery and suspended, with her recommending to the governors that he be fired.  He knocked back the Johnnie Walker and blamed Mavis for dragging him down.  Poor Mave.  Tanya's stuff was dumped at the pub; her dad had discovered she was having an affair with a married man and kicked her out.  She moved into the cafe flat permanently while Bet warned her she was playing with fire.  Fiona and Denise had a bet about how old Ken was; they interrogated the locals, which lead to some lovely little mentions of Leonard Swindley and Gamma Garments.

WEDNESDAY - Episodes originally broadcast 25th and 28th February 1994

Today saw the arrival of an important cast member: Ivy's New Lips.  Yes, Lynne Perrie went off and got collagen injections without telling anyone, and suddenly dour, down-to-earth Catholic Ivy has a trout pout Kim Kardashian would envy.  Worse, she's not learned how to talk through them yet, so it sounds like she's got a load of cotton wool in her mouth.  Elsewhere, Des's boss, Captain Bertorelli from 'Allo 'Allo, turned up in the Rovers and caught him hanging out with Raquel.  He was trying to persuade her to go out with him again.  She agreed, but then spoiled things by hinting she'd like to move back in with him.  Tanya wasn't too happy to see Captain Bertorelli, and we found out why; he was Alex, her married lover.  Whatta mistake-a to make-a!  Ken found out about Fiona and Denise's bet, and when she apologised and admitted it was because he looked so good for his age, he asked her out.  This is the start of Daniel, of course, though this whole thing was an emergency storyline - Ken was getting close to Deirdre again before Christmas, but Anne Kirkbride's illness meant she had to be written out fast and so Denise was drafted in to give something for Ken to do.  And Maud was so unhappy about moving out she sold the house from under Reg and Maureen, flogging it to an equity release company so she'd get an income to stay there.  The Holdsworths tried to persuade her to change her mind but she refused, so they moved back into the Coronation Street flat and left her to it.  It also meant Rita didn't have a buyer for Ted's old house - still - so she put it back on the market.

THURSDAY - Episodes originally broadcast 2nd and 4th March 1994

Vera was after a job, but Curly took on a young Mandy Dingle rather than her, pointing out that she was caught shoplifting in Bettabuy only a few months ago.  She blamed Ivy And Her Lips for some reason.  Des moved Raquel in, much to Tanya's annoyance, and they had a housewarming party.  Derek banged on the wall to complain about the noise and Mavis, the party animal, banged right back at him.  Emily and Bernard organised a holiday together, with separate rooms, though Sally saw the brochure and assumed they were off on a dirty weekend.  Maureen grew frantic when she couldn't contact Maud, thinking she'd gone missing, only for Bet to reveal she was sat in the Rovers after a day in Blackpool with Percy and Martin.  Mike presented Steve with a massive rates bill, finding it amusing that he was getting all these debts stacked up so early, and Jim went and had a word with him for being such a smug git.

FRIDAY - Episodes originally broadcast 7th and 9th March 1994

Ivy and Andy spotted a boy in Bettabuy stuffing sweets into his pocket.  He was dragged up to Curly's office, where he turned out to be a very young Joseph Gilgun.  Even better, his mum turned out to be Tricia Armstrong, played by the Member of Parliament for Batley & Spen, Tracy Brabin (although obviously as there's a General Election going on she's not technically the MP right now).  Tricia flirted with Curly then returned the next day in search of a date.  Derek went to see the school governors, waiting for the axe to fall, only to find himself reprieved.  Mavis had written to them explaining about the Miss Saigon disaster.  However, they found it so amusing, Derek took umbrage and handed in his resignation.  He went back to the Kabin and unloaded a lot of resentment on Mavis.  Denise - with an enormous hairdo that tripled the size of her head - went to dinner at Ken's.  She wanted to be friends with him, but it seemed the gossips of the Street had decided they were at it like knives, so she decided not to see him at all.  Sally tearfully confessed to Kevin that despite their best efforts, she was pregnant.  He thought she'd done it deliberately and stormed out, leaving her sobbing.  Honestly Kev, that's Sophie on the way, she'll be no bother.  You should've got all upset when Sally got pregnant with Rosie - she turned out to be an absolute nightmare.  Anyway, he soon came round, and admitted he was pleased and that he loved Sally.  I really love the young Websters.  They're absolutely adorable.

Of course, the arrival of Ivy's New Lips means that we'll very soon be seeing the departure of Lynne Perrie.  But on the plus side, next week will also see the first appearance of a certain Norris Cole.  Join me on Twitter @merseytart for the welcoming party.

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The Week In Classic Corrie

MONDAY - Episodes originally broadcast 24th and 26th January 1994

Love was in the air, as Reg finally made an honest woman of Maureen.  The ladies of the Street turned up for the hen do - even though they thought she was mad - and then the ceremony itself, with Bet arriving in Charlie's truck and Raquel going on the arm of Des - though she spent more time talking to the wedding photographer.  At the reception, Reg tried to persuade his new brother-in-law that he should have a turn at looking after Maud.  Unfortunately Maud heard them rowing through the Xpelair and went home, upset that she was a burden.  The new Mr and Mrs Holdsworth went hunting for her and in the process missed their flight to Paris for the honeymoon.  Elsewhere, Kevin donated an unloved painting to Emily's charity fund, not realising it was a wedding present from Percy.  Sally demanded he get it back.  And Steve's dodgy dealings came to an end as it turned out his cash in hand client was a mate of Mike's.  He sacked Steve on the spot, only for the young McDonald to turn up at his flat and offer him a partnership - or alternatively he'd set up his own t-shirt firm and drive Baldwin out of business.

TUESDAY - Episodes originally broadcast 28th and 31st January 1994 

Denise bought the Websters' old painting at the auction for a fiver and took it into the Rovers.  It didn't go down well, but it went down even worse with Percy, who recognised it as his wedding present.  Denise wasn't particularly enthusiastic about the picture until she discovered it was worth £120 from Nick-nack Paddywack, the Irish-Liverpudlian junk shop opposite the chippy; when Kevin tried to buy it back for £5, to mollify an upset Percy, she agreed to give it to him.  Unfortunately Sally then learned it was worth a lot more so they agreed to sell the picture and split the profits with Denise, with a donation to the Royal British Legion on top to try and make Percy happy.  (Meanwhile Vera took her tacky dog in and discovered it was worth £45, or £185 if she found its pair).  Alma thought Mike was spending too much time fawning over Mark and he accused her of being jealous because she had no kids of her own.  She threatened to leave him over it, until he apologised; meanwhile Mark was also sick of Mike's attentions and told him he wanted some space.

WEDNESDAY - Episodes originally broadcast 2nd and 4th February 1994

Raquel got a session with Ben the wedding photographer.  Des offered to accompany her as a chaperone, but Evil Tanya interfered and told her she'd look daft with a companion.  Raquel was worried when Ben asked her to do a special session, but all he wanted her to take off was her make-up.  She got upset when Des turned up as she was stripping her paint off and sent him away.  In the pub later, she told him he'd embarrassed her, and he confessed he cared about her.  Alf wound up the shop - again - and used his last day of discounts to go to the cash and carry and stock up on tinned goods.  Audrey had thought he was out getting her a present so she as compensation she demanded he buy her a conservatory.  Jack thought he had a dead cert bet, but no money to wager, so he flogged Vera's tacky dog for £25.  Unfortunately, Vera then walked past the second-hand shop and thought it was the pair of the one she had at home, so she bought it for £48.  When she realised she'd bought her own ornament back she lobbed it at Jack in fury and it smashed.  (His horse didn't come in either).  Alma went up into the cafe flat to let the meter man in and she realised that even though Tanya was paying her rent, she wasn't actually living there.  She immediately concluded Tanya was using it as a knocking shop. 

THURSDAY - Episodes originally broadcast 7th and 9th February 1994

Liz was told by a solicitor that she could take Newton & Ridley to court for making her choose between the pub and her private life.  She wasn't keen, not wanting to rake up the past, but Jim insisted because he wanted to get his own back at Richard Willmore.  However, Ken took it upon himself to go to the brewery on her behalf, and it turned out Willmore had left the company.  His successor gave Liz £2000 compensation.  Reg and Maureen started at the Corner Shop though he was a little disappointed at how small his world now was.  Maud meanwhile was upset when an offer came in on her home as she didn't want to live in Reg and Maureen's annexe.  Mike tried to take on a jobseeker at his t-shirt company for slave wages, but the lad didn't turn up, so Vera filled in - once he'd upped the wages.  It was still beneath Baldwin though and he decided to give up the factory unit.  Alma tried to have a quiet word with Tanya about the flat but she was told in no uncertain terms to keep her nose out of the flat and her private life.

FRIDAY - Episodes originally broadcast 11th and 14th February 1994

It was the start of the McDonald empire as Steve put in a bid to buy the factory off Mike.  (It's interesting that the unit is so tiny, not the sprawling multi-level behemoth it's grown into these days).  Mike refused on principle, but he agreed to rent it to Steve if he covered all the costs.  He also got a haircut to reflect his new powerful position, and also, because it's 1994 and baggy is out and Britpop is in.  Reg pulled the ticket for his shop raffle (first prize: that patio set he got from Bettabuy that he couldn't stand).  Rita was the winner, and she told him to stuff it, having been burned by the last time she won one of his lotteries.  On top of that, Maud got a ramp put in at the shop so she could help out, meaning she'd be with Reg and Maureen 24/7.  Tanya's private life continued to raise eyebrows, as Betty clocked she was still living with her dad even though she rented the flat, and a delivery of Valentine's flowers were delivered to the cafe.  Alma snuck a look at the card and saw they were from someone called "Alex".  Bernard the vicar told Emily that he was going to leave the church as he'd lost his faith, worrying Percy, as he thought he was planning on moving in.  Charlie took Bet out to an absolutely awful country and western bar (people with thick Lancashire accents should never say "howdy"), and she was shocked to have her name called out by the compere to get up on stage.  It turned out he'd entered her into a Dolly Parton lookalike contest without telling her.  Bet was furious and sucked on a lemon the whole time on stage; when she got down she told Charlie she'd felt humiliated and dumped him.

Is it wrong that I like Tanya too much and wish she wasn't having this clearly inappropriate relationship?  Very probably.  Let me know on Twitter @merseytart.

Classic Corrie is on ITV3 every weekday from 14:50 with a repeat the following morning.

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