Coronation Street Blog Advent Calendar 2014 - Day 20

It's day 20 of the Coronation Street Blog advent calendar, let's see who is behind today's door. It's Sally and Kevin, who remarried in the run up to Christmas in 2002 only to split up again 9 years later after Sally found out about Kevin's affair with Molly Dobbs.

Download our App | Follow on Twitter @CoroStreetBlog | Like on Facebook



All original work on the Coronation Street Blog is covered by a Creative Commons License

The faces of Corrie in 2009

If you remember, last year I had a series of posts looking at the top 12 faces of each Corrie decade - the 1960s, the 1970s, the 1980s, the 1990s and the 2000s. For the next few weeks or so, I’ll be looking at the top 12 faces of each year between 1960 and 2013.

With thanks to Corriepedia for the information.

In 2009, 260 episodes were broadcast.

1. Kevin Webster (127 episodes)

2. Maria Connor (126 episodes)

3. Fiz Brown/Stape (124 episodes)

4. Tony Gordon (123 episodes)

5. Sally Webster (122 episodes)

6. Molly Compton/Dobbs (119 episodes)

7. Joe McIntyre (117 episodes)

8. Peter Barlow (116 episodes)

9. Steve McDonald (116 episodes)

10. Becky Granger/McDonald (114 episodes)

11. David Platt (111 episodes)

12. Jason Grimshaw (107 episodes)

Average age: 34

Note: This is the last time Tony, Molly and Joe appear in the top 12

Download our App | Follow on Twitter @CoroStreetBlog | Like on Facebook



All original work on the Coronation Street Blog is covered by a Creative Commons License

Heavy Stuff

Weight is a hot button issue right now.  You can't open a magazine without discovering some celebrity is "celebrating her curves", which is Daily Mail-speak for "get off the eclairs, lard arse."  We're besieged with stories about our portly schoolchildren stuffing their face with Turkey Twizzlers in front of their Nintendo Playbox, never seeing the daylight and having to be airlifted into their Maths lessons.

It's a National Obesity Crisis, the kind of horrific story that gets Bill Turnbull pulling his serious face on BBC Breakfast while stock footage of straining belts and saggy bellies plays.

That's in the real world.  In Weatherfield, fat is good.  Fat is fabulous.  Fat characters are almost immediately clutched to the bosom of the viewers, because they're warmer, they're nicer, they're lived in.  Fred Eliot.  Alf Roberts.  Jack Duckworth.  HRH Betty Turpin.  We like characters to be a bit porky.  This might be because we're people who spend at least two and a half hours a week plonked on a sofa.

Take Molly Compton.  When she arrived on the Street she was chunky.  That heaviness told a story.  She was the daughter of Diggory Compton, a man for whom the answer was always pastry.  She'd been bullied at school.  She was a bit shy.  We instinctively knew that Molly had spend her teens wolfing up the stale iced buns while sobbing into her Smash Hits.  We loved her for it.  We loved it when she hooked up with Tyrone, Coronation Street's version of the Marshmallow Man.  They were bound to have a happy, joyous life together.

And then she lost weight.

Suddenly Molly became annoying.  Thin Molly started wearing tight spandex and crop tops.  Thin Molly turned down a fish supper on a Friday night so she could have rice cakes.  Thin Molly started talking about her GIs and running round the block and she was boring.  Thin Molly looked at chubby, loveable Tyrone inhaling a fried slice and thought, "I can do better than that."  Next thing you know she's bunked up with Kevin in the Bolton Premier Inn, and the audience is cheering when she's crushed under a wayward tram.  All that exercise but you still couldn't outrun that, could you?

Peter Barlow has changed too.  He came back from Los Angeles bronzed and slimmer, his belly gone, a healthy glow about him.  But he's not the same.  When Peter was fat his character was tied up in those extra pounds.  Coal black eyes stared out of a face that carried years of disappointment, years of abuse, years of loss.  His body spoke to us about the fags, and the gambling, and the drinking, definitely the drinking.

Healthy Peter is all angles now.  He's sharper.  The sad eyes are still there but they don't fit the package any more.

 It feels like he was quietly taken apart in LA and then put back together by a team of crack surgeons, only they forgot some of the parts, like an Ikea coffee table with three extra screws you can't place.  I can imagine some oily American staring at a beer gut incomprehensibly and simply slicing it off.  He's not whole now.



If you're thin, you can seem hard.  It's the way our minds are structured.  Beth and Tracy are both balls of cruelty and spite, but Beth seems adorable when she bellows a coarse insult across the Rovers.  Tracy just seems like a stick of hatred when she spits another offensive remark over the hotpots.

That's another thing: Coronation Street isn't built for thin people.  Where are its principle commercial spaces?  A pub.  A cafe.  A sweetshop. A corner shop that seems to sell nothing except frozen pizzas and tins of beans.  A kebab shop.  A chippy.  No wonder they turned the Graffiti Club into a Medical Centre; they probably have a defibrilator on permanent stand by.  Corrie is the only place in Britain where a group of working women unashamedly knock back pints of lager at lunch and have a daily cake run; in reality all these women would be embarrassed to enjoy their food and drink, and would be having a cheese and onion Snack-a-Jack as a "treat" with their cup of green tea.

It leaves us with a slight suspicion in the back of our minds when a character gets thin without a Molly-style Damascene revelation.  Anna Windass has dropped a hell of a lot of weight since she arrived on the street.  She came into the show squeezed into trackie bottoms, her face and body bearing the brunt of running around after feckless Eddie and out of control Gary.

Her little round body told us about her character - we got it; she bought cheap, carby foods from budget freezer centres, she didn't have time to exercise, she worried over her family and guzzled down half a pack of Party Rings to make herself feel better.

Now she's lost all that weight but she doesn't seem to have changed her lifestyle at all.  She's still serving up enormous meals drowning in gravy and sneaking herself the odd iced bun at the cafe, yet she weighs eight stone three.  It doesn't add up.  And that angularity comes into it again; a rotund Anna clutching Faye to her generous bosom would have been an image of family we'd all ascribe to. Whippet thin-Anna shouting at Tim in the street doesn't seem maternal - she's just kind of a bitch.

No.  If you want to truly succeed on Corrie you need to pile on the pounds.  Think of Steve McDonald.  When he was a twiglet, skag-trained limbs reaching across the prison table, he was horrible.  He was an annoying twerp who really needed to fall under a Weatherfield Wayfarer. Steve McDonald in 2013 carries round an eight month pregnancy belly, and he's adorable.  His jeans strain, he lets out a sigh of satisfaction as he collapses into a chair, and he launches into soliliquys about Penguin biscuits.  In short, he's a joy.  He's actually enjoying himself, and life, and he's making it fun for us to watch.  Stay unhealthy, Steve; keep eating those choccie biccies.  All the best people do.  Just ask Fat Brenda.

You can follow us on Twitter @CoroStreetBlog and Facebook: CoronationStreetBlog


All original work on the Coronation Street Blog is covered by a Creative Commons License

Bill Webster to return to Corrie

Bill is set to return to Corrie with Auntie Pam in September, according to The Mirror. The couple's reason for being off screen will be that they have been travelling, and have now returned to marry. Although Pam will apparently ban Kevin from the wedding, which causes Bill to suffer a heart attack.

I'm looking forward to the pair returning, it was a bad decision to axe them in the first place, with Auntie Pam returning, we will have another link back to Molly.

Meeting Vicky Binns

Last night in Halifax, Nova Scotia, I attended An Evening With Vicky Binns. Vicky played Molly Dobbs on Corrie and while she's now gone from the show, she's still on Canadian Corrie screens where the storyline is up to the point a few weeks after Tony Gordon blew up the factory. Happy days! ;)

Vicky did a question and answer type show with host Neville MacKay and later signed some autographs. She was really bubble and Neville had her giggling through the whole show. She is very genuine and very much a lovely woman. She had lots of great backstages stories and told us a bit about her interests and charity work. She runs in races to support leukemia and teenage cancer charities, both of which are close to our hearts here at Blog Towers.

You can read all about the evening here where there is also a link to photos.

The tragic life and death of Molly Cozette Compton Dobbs

Now that we’re back off from the epic “50th Anniversary Week” that included the infamous cram trash and all of it’s victims.  All the victims will be missed, but I felt a particular kind of sadness towards the death of Molly Dobbs.  Perhaps it was the most tragic to me since the life of Molly Dobbs wasn’t that great either.
A quick breeze back through the history of this much unliked character.  Molly Compton, as she was known back then, come onto the street about five years before her untimely death.  She came to know Coronation Street through her father, Diggory Compton, the local  baker.  In 2005, she was bullied by Fiz Brown after Fiz felt she was too close to then boyfriend Kirk.  Her father then leaves her on the street and she starts working in Dev’s corner shop.

She starts a relationship with Tyrone Dobbs and they end up getting married. She falls in love with Tyrone during their snack truck venture.  She and Tyrone started dating after Tyrone broke off his engagement with an indifferent Maria Sutherland.  She moved in with Tyrone at the Duckworth’s and after Vera’s death, she and Tyrone bought The Old Rectory.  The two soon got engaged and had a lovely winter wedding despite the crooked intervention of Jackie Dobbs – Tyrone’s duplicitous mother.
  
It’s not long after that Molly, when keeping up her new healthy lifestyle, continues fun running.  She manages to get Tyrone’s business  partner and married best friend, Kevin Webster, involved in fun running.  Eventually, the two strike up one of the most repulsive affairs in soap history to be known as “Molvin.”  Molly falls for Kevin, but Kevin’s just having a “fun run” with her.  Eventually, Molly’s Auntie Pam finds out about their affair and demands that Molly end it and chastises Kevin for taking advantage of a young woman.

Molvin goes from bad to worse as Molly reveals to Kevin that she’s pregnant and she believes the baby is his.  Kevin was almost about to leave his wife, Sally, for Molly and their new “future in Chester” when Sally reveals she has breast cancer.  Kevin’s allegiances are set and he’s not leaving Sally for Molly.  Molly is devastated and does not know what to do.

Molly leaves Tyrone but doesn’t tell him why.  Kevin sends Molly and Tyrone out in a car that has shot brakes, by accident, and Molly and Tyrone get into a bad accident where Molly is critical.  After this, she feels Kevin tried to harm her and her unborn child and gives up on him staying with Tyrone.
She manages to stay with Tyrone and will pretend that the baby is his.

Molly gives birth to a healthy baby boy that she names Jack after Jack Duckworth with the aid of Kevin’s wife Sally. Kevin can’t let sleeping dogs lie and has a paternity test done to reveal that Baby Jack Dobbs is indeed his son, not Tyrone’s.  Molly still has a shred of hope that Kevin will leave his family for her and Baby Jack, only he doesn’t.


On the fateful night of the tram crash, Molly is fatally injured when the tram crashes into Dev’s shop.  Molly succumbs to her injuries, but not before telling Sally that Kevin is the  father of her surviving baby Jack.  We see the end of Molvin, with the tragic end of Molly Dobbs.
I find the most tragic thing about the death of Molly Dobbs is that she never really lived.  Not only was she young – only 26 years old – when she passed, but she never really got “hers.”  A perennial loser at best in life, it was cut all too short.  Molly had always been pretty, not beautiful.  Smart enough, but not clever. After reviewing this character I wondered how many Molly Dobbs were out there.  Molly Dobbs was by no means perfect, or an angel, but I felt she needed a bit of a highlight.  This post is an ode to all those Molly Dobbs past and present. 
Molly Dobbs might be one of Corrie’s most tragic characters.  Thoughts?

Images Courtesy of Tarty Doris!

Like my style? Check out my personal blog here.

The worst ever Corrie couple?

Now that we're approaching the fatal 50th and we've got Molvin rising like a ghastly phoenix from the ashes for a (hopefully) final flourish, not to mention Nick and Leanne (oh dear - it's so horrible I'll just leave it at "not to mention Nick and Leanne..."), it set me to wondering about which might be the most awful ever Corrie coupling.

Me, I'd go for the disturbing "Dev 'n' Deirdre". It's been etched on my mind for years and it won't go away. I'd put Nick and Leanne in their current incarnation as a fairly close second. Then Molvin.

How on earth do they think them up? In the words of Big Jim McDonald - I'll tell you this and I'll tell you no more - the script-writing boffins at Corrie Towers have got some twisted minds! So they do!

Dobbs speculation

They'll soon be filming the birth of baby Dobbs, I would think. The filming for Corrie is usually about 6 weeks in advance and the baby is due to appear in September. It won't be long after that when we see Molly leave the show, supposedly killed off at Christmas. Tram crash...December...lying in a hospital at death's door for a few weeks before she expires at Christmas...what are the odds? Pretty good, I'd say, if the rumour is true. They also speculate that Sally and Kevin are going to raise baby Jack Dobbs. Hmmm...

So...where's Tyrone? Does this mean that the truth of the baby's parentage comes out? Or is Tyrone going to be killed as well, leaving the baby an orphan for "best friend" Kevin and his wife to take the baby in. You certainly wouldn't give Jackie Dobbs the baby and I'm guessing Diggory is a bit on the old side to be raising an infant alone. Or maybe Tyrone finds out the baby is Kevin's, takes the garage buyout and leaves after Molly dies and that's how Kevin ends up with the baby.

What I would love to see is the truth of the affair and baby coming out and Sally and Tyrone kicking their respective cheating spouses out on their respective cheating backsides. I'd like to see Tyrone find out the baby is definitely his and leave the street, taking the baby with him. Unfortunately, it means we'd lose Tyrone but I can't see him staying partners with Kevin and raising the baby across the road from him under the circumstances. All this is purely speculation, and I suspect the truth will be a lot more dramatic because, you know, it has to be "gripping" and "explosive".

How do you think this will all play out?

Molly Dobbs to be killed off

The Sun has a Coronation Street spoiler in it today that says Molly Dobbs is going to be killed off at Christmas.

Not just that, but the paper also says that Sally Webster will be left looking after Molly and Kev's baby as the couple take in the child after Molly's death. By 'eck, up the barmcake, etc.

Molly Dobbs is leaving Corrie

Molly Dobbs is leaving Coronation Street, says the official Corrie ITV website. The site confirms that actress Vicky Binns will leave Coronation Street later this year.

Will anyone miss her? Poor Tyrone, I wonder what he'll do?

TV's worst couples - yep Molvin is right there

I signed into my Hotmail account today and came across a story called "TV's Gruesome Twosomes". The top couple is our very own Kevin & Molly.

An excerpt:

When Coronation Street's Kevin Webster and Molly Dobbs embarked on a torrid affair, few could believe their eyes; many more covered them instead [...] Quite simply, Kevin and Molly's affair has backfired spectacularly. Fans hate it, critics think it's ridiculous and actors Michael Le Vell (Kevin) and Vicky Binns (Molly) have had to, in effect, defend the storyline.

Plot Hole of the Week

There was one hole in the plot about the crash this week, a hole big enough to drive a breakdown truck through! Tyrone didn't take the road to Diggory's, he turned off in a different direction to go to the country pub as a surprise for Molly, yet Kevin drove right past there and arrived at Diggory's house. I would have expected Tyrone to return the way he came to that intersection to take the other turn to Diggory's house. Presumably, Kevin has a Satnav in the breakdown truck to enable him to find people easier, it didn't make sense to me that he would take the wrong road just so he could drive by Tyrone's car parked by the pub. It would have been just as "tension building" to see Kevin at the intersection, check the satnav and turn the other way.

Other than that, though, the crash was all very well done, wasn't it? Great stunt work, top marks for that and for the rest of the drama. I don't blame Molly for having an initial reaction that had her accusing Kevin of trying to kill her and the baby after he tried not once, but twice to convince her to get rid of the baby. He says it was impulse but, as i said, he came after her two different times on two different days to put pressure on her. That's not impulse. And that's really not like Kevin, either. Kevin is the dad that took his sobbing teenage daughter home and held her and made her cups of tea.

Behind-the-scenes video of Molly and Tyrone's car crash

Take a behind the scenes look at Coronation Street's latest stunt to see how Molly and Tyrone's car crash action was filmed.

The cast and crew fill fans in on all the tricks of the trade over at the official ITV Corrie site.

Watch the video here.

Vicky Binns turns into Playboy Bunny

It's a far cry from Molly Dobbs and life on the cobbles. Here's actress Vicky Binns, who plays Molly in Coronation Street, as she takes to the stage this week. Vicky's starring in "I'm Mad, Me", a 10 minute play part of the JBShorts series.

The plays are running until March 27th in the cellar bar of Joshua Brooks pub, round the back of the BBC's Oxford Road studios in Manchester. There's more information here.

Molly heads home

Sorry for getting your hopes up but Molly isn't heading back to her father Diggory with a bun in her oven but back into her marital home. Inside Soap reports that after finding out she is pregnant she confronts Kevin in the hope that her predicament will rekindle their love, even going so far as to show him the scan of her baby, which he promptly sets fire to. At first Kevin won't even speak to her, caring more about his family but pretty soon he's demanding that she either has an abortion or gets out of Weatherfield.

Feeling rejected and vulnerable and with 14 million viewers screaming 'Go, just go!', she packs her bags and is ready to leave. Unfortunately Tyrone, unaware of Molly's pregnancy, steps in and begs her to move home so that he can look after her. After they have a talk about their relationship, she reveals that she is pregnant and Tyrone, the poor sap, is over the moon.

When will this tedious story end?

Molly and Tyrone in Corrie car crash

Molly and Tyrone are going to be involved in a car crash on Coronation Street, says Digital Spy. Molly will be left fighting for her life, and also that of her unborn baby. Yes, she's pregnant and we don't know who's the daddy.

Tyrone manages to escape the crash and goes in search of help, unaware that Kevin has been following behind them in his car. Both Tyrone and Kevin will then be left to wonder whether Molly will pull through and they are also plagued with worries over the health of the unborn baby, who they both believe is their own. We'll see this story on screen in late spring.

Street Style: Molly Dobbs' Blue Shift Dress

After a few requests for Molly Dobb's blue zipper shift dress she wore when throwing nasty Jackie Dobbs out of the corner shop, I've decided to do a street style edition on it.

Molly Dobbs' has been dressing very "pussycat doll" lately, at least according to mother-in-law Jackie. I've also noticed her dressing this way as well. As Tvor pointed out in the comment section of last Thursday's episode review, she's dressing to the nines on the thought that Kev will come in there and find her irresistible again, and it'd have all been worth it.

I personally don't think Molly suits the whole "pussycat doll" look. I also found this dress to be far to much for a corner store worker. It also had airs of something that Rosie Webster would wear with all the snugness, cleavage and zippering. She does look good in it, but I think it more suits a night out or date. Just something other than ringing up crackers and soda at the cash register.

I have looked through all the shops online, but could not find an identical match. Molly has worn this dress a few times before in the past, so most likely, it's slightly older and wouldn't be in new inventory online at the moment in many stores. I have done my best to find some similar alternatives. I think the key stylish aspects of this dress are the bright vibrant blue colour, as well as the shift shape. Both are very much in the "now" at the moment.

Here were my finds:
1) ASOS Panelled Jersey Bodycon Dress, ASOS (click here)
2) Gina Bacconi Bow Front Shift Dress Bluebell, John Lewis (click here)
3) Hobbs Emily Shift Dress Blue, John Lewis (click here)
4) French Connection Fast Crush V-Zip Dress Blue, John Lewis (click here)
5) Pleat Neck Shift Dress, New Look (click here)

____
Is there anything that you've ever seen on The Street that you'd like to have, but don't know where you can find something similar? Are you interested in any particular character's personal or decorating style? For any Street Style requests, send me a line!

Jackie's back and Molly's in for it

Next week brings the return of the cherry-haired harridan, Jackie Dobbs. We now know that she's back to defend her chick, Tyrone, who's marriage has gone up the spout. Molly left Tyrone, even though she knew Kevin had firmly rejected her once and for all (we hope!) Jackie returns to Weatherfield when she finds out the bad news and it isn't long before she's confronting Molly outside on the cobbles, just how we like it!

ITV reports her return is going to cause Tyrone more problems than it solves!

Corrie fans vote for Tyrone and Molly to split

In the latest poll here on the blog we asked whether Tyrone should take Molly back on Coronation Street.

460 fans voted and the overwhelming vote was Oi! Tyrone! No!

The votes came in as follows to the question: Should Tyrone take Molly back?

No - 242 votes
Let Kevin have the trollop - 131 votes
Yes - 87 votes

How will Molvin get found out? My money's on Sophie

Awwwww.... couldn't you just hug poor Tyrone? His heart was broken. He got the shock of his life, trying to sort out his marraige and having his wife turn it back on him. She doesn't love him anymore. She denied there was someone else and he just couldn't figure out what he'd done wrong. He went through the gamut of emotions from denial through to pain to anger but in the end, he was outside trying to persuade her to stay while the neighbours watched in shock.

The reason I'm saying all this is because of one of the people watching. Did you see Sophie's face? She looked sad for Tyrone but I had another one of my "inspirations". I may be way off the mark, but I think Sophie's going to be the one that discovers her father's infidelity. Somehow. Some way. She's going to be the one that figures it out or overhears something and puts it all together. She won't tell her mother but Sally will probably pick up on tension between Sophie and her dad. Secrets don't stay that way on a soap.

I don't know what's going to happen so this isn't a spoiler, it's speculation gleaned from a long, long time of soap-watching. There were rumours of Molly getting pregnant and if that is true I reckon she will in fact go back to Tyrone but I do think that he's better off without her because she won't be faithful. I don't think they will be like Jack and Vera because Tyrone is not like Jack at all but Molly could very well be another Vera in the making.