Coronation Street Weekly Update, June 14 2010

Greetings and welcome to another weekly update. This time the update covers two weeks as Corrie was cancelled for a few days and then was all over the schedules. And so, without any further ado, here we go with this week’s Coronation Street update.

Find out why these updates have been written for the internet since 1995: http://www.corrieweeklyupdates.btinternet.co.uk/

There’s been two major stories over the last couple of weeks, Catalogue Tony vs The Flames of Hell (aka The Underworld siege) and Gail vs Jail. Let’s crack on first with the Underworld siege - you may need a cushion to hide behind.

So, Tony Gordon breaks out of jail with the help of cell-mate Robbie who’s just been released. Tony storms back to the Street with his beady eye, a murdering mind and a gun to Carla Connor’s pretty head. He tapes Carla’s gob shut and ties her to her executive swivel chair. And then he did the same to Hayley, on the cheaper chair, and with the two women taped up and tied down, terrible Tony threw petrol around after shooting Robbie dead to the factory floor. By ‘eck this were good.

Hayley wiggled free and Tony threw her out on to the cobbles as the cops buzzed outside and a crowd gathered to find out what was going on. Mind you, it wasn’t a very big crowd and you’d expect a big crowd if there was an armed siege going on at the end of your street. I know I’d be out for a look. Carla wiggles herself free too, and makes a run for the door as Tony sets fire to the petrol and Underworld goes up in flames. Carla runs out and Tony runs after her then he turns and walks back into the inferno and another Corrie villain went and gone and died. It was all quite exciting and Kirk got het up about his packet of Wagon Wheels which were in his locker and might just have melted.

Now that Underworld’s dead and buried along with Tony Gordon, Janice and the girls get a gob on as they’ve not got any work. Carla’s gone to South Africa for the football with Trevor (although if I had Trevor to myself I wouldn’t be watching football) and while she’s away, with Leanne’s help, Nick starts up Underworld again in Peter Barlow’s empty wine bar. Leanne contacts George (boo, hiss, etc) and now Peter and Leanne are at odds as Peter reckons Leanne’s helped out Nick ‘cos she still fancies her ex-husband. “That boy’s face is crying out for a slap,” says Peter of Nick. I can only agree.

Over at the other end of town away from the fires and the deaths, Gail Platt was in court. Even David gave evidence, promising to tell “the troof, the whole troof and nothing but the troof” but the Polish polisher from the lakeside cottage didn’t show up despite being bribed. Huh, some people, eh? Anyway, the jury decided Gail was guilty of many things: bad hair, whispering and all twelve are unanimous that she should have been shot for bringing David Platt into the world, but as for killing Joe McIntyre, they voted her free.

Gail skipped home for a cuppa and a fight with Deirdre on the cobbles when Deirdre admitted she knew Tracy was lying and she’d stitched Gail right up. You’d think Gail would be smiling now she’s released and at home but she’s shooting evils at Natasha every time the woman who’s dating her golden boy Nick comes into her peripheral vision. Natasha was once fun, a bit daft, but since she got together with Nick, she’s become needy and dull. Such is life for anyone involved with a Plattisley boy.

Elsewhere on the Street, Roy proposed to Hayley, upstairs in the flat. And the lady with the flat shoes and sensible hair, she say ‘yes’ and about time too! She breaks the news to the girls over cakes in Roy’s Rolls. “We’re getting married!” to which everyone replies: “We thought you already were?” Well, no, they never were, not properly and legally but now with a change in the law for transsexuals which happened a few years ago, they can now be legally wed. “Do they sell a card in The Kabin for that?” asks Deirdre to Ken.

Mary hands Hayley her marriage portfolio, the dossier she’s been working on for, like, ever, which contains details of everything from dresses and tiaras to garters and cakes. Mary’s clearly been working on her own wedding for some time, hoping for something old (Norris), something new (the Motorhome), something borrowed (Tina’s job at the Kabin) and something blue (Rita’s exotic dancing past).

And finally for this update, Audrey’s getting jealous of Lewis’ work as an escort when he sleeps over with a lady friend before giving Audrey a booty call. I know, at her age too. Anyway, she’s not best pleased so Lewis says he’s giving up the escort work but he’s now got a sparkle in his eye every time he spies Deirdre on the street.

And that’s just about that for the last two weeks.

Coronation Street writers for the last two weeks were Mark Wadlow, Stephen Russell, Chris Fewtrell, Joe Turner, Jan McVerry, Jayne Hollinson, John Kerr, Debbie Oates, Julie Jones and Damon Rochefort.

Glenda Young
Blogging away merrily at http://flamingnora.blogspot.com/

Coronation Street Weekly Update, April 26 2010

Ahoy me hearties and welcome aboard the good ship Weekly Update. If you start to feel sea-sick, just put your head between your knees and whistle up your gang plank. And so, without any further ado, here we go with this week’s Coronation Street update.

Find out more about the Coronation Street Weekly Updates and why they’ve been written for th’internet since 1995 at http://www.corrieweeklyupdates.btinternet.co.uk/

The big story this week has been Molly and Tyrone’s car crash. There they were, in the middle of nowhere on a country lane, upside down in a smashed up car and before you know it, two fire engines and an ambulance arrive quick-sharp after Tyrone struggles out of the car and flags down a woman who calls 999. Molly’s rushed to hospital where she and the baby are going to be fine and Kevin hangs around the ward like an unwashed bedpan that’s due in the sluice. When Molly gets discharged from th’ospital (and does anyone else miss Nurse Martin Platt?) she tells Tyrone she wants to move away from Weatherfield. Go on then, Molly, shift yerself. Just leave our Tyrone where he is.

For a middle-aged fella in a cardigan, Lloyd does a decent job of chatting up Cheryl the stripper. That is, until Teresa the girlfriend comes into the cab office and puts a dampner on things, asking about the whereabouts and thereabouts of the missing Fat Brenda.

Oh, come on Corrie, we HAVE to meet this woman. I bet she’s really thin; it’s like Curly, who wasn’t.

Big “Eugh!” moment of the week came when Eddie Windass appeared at the foot of his stairs in his y-fronts and vest. At least they looked clean. He and Anna are fretting over Gary who’s gone AWOL but what they don’t know yet is that Gary’s in the shed. David finds him hiding and the two of them share a beer and crisps in the Platt kitchen where talk turns to mothers and which one of the two lads is the most grown-up, or not. “You’d still be on the breast if she let yer,” Gary tells David. There’s a disturbing truth in that statement that hits David hard and he lays into Gary before throwing him out to go AWOL back in the SHED.

Big “Haha!” of the week came from the Barlows where Deirdre’s made hummus. Hummus! I know! Deirdre! “I’ve gone all sophisticated and continental,” she tells Liz before finding out they’ve got mice in the hice. And that was the cue for comedy trouser time as Deirdre put elastic bands around the bottom of her trousers to stop the mice running up her trouser leg. Ken just laid traps and poison which was much less fun to watch.

Big “Aww!” moment of the week came when Sian and Sophie made up and decided they were going out with each other even if it felt weird and they didn’t know whether to make their relationship public, or not. It’s sweet, it really us.

Another couple of female friends back on track are Rita and Audrey, where in a lovely moment Rita came into the salon to see her friend and book an ‘air appointment. The camera angle was such that we saw Rita in the salon mirror so it appeared Audrey had her back to her friend as Rita delivered her apology. Magical stuff. Mind you, Audrey’s fluffy head has been turned by Lewis who tells her she’s the special one and he’s off the meter with her from now on, she no longer has to pay for his attention and time. Rita’s wise to Lewis’ game, she knows he’s a bad ‘un but will Audrey listen? Like as not, no.

And finally this week, Norris and Mary go to Bronte Country in the motorhome with Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights singing them off the Street. Once they’re cosied up in their cottage on the moors, they set to comping but first there’s dinner and Mary cooks up a storm for Norris to eat with spicy chorizo sausage ‘Toad in the Olé!’ She confuses Norris when she tells him she had to do a spot of laundry while cooking dinner because “my brassiere got soaked right through.” She’s a marvel, is Mary, but Norris doesn’t seem to have noticed that yet.

Coronation Street writers this week were Joe Turner, Julie Jones, Stephen Russell, Chris Fewtrell and Simon Crowther. Find out more about the Coronation Street writing team.

Glenda Young
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Blogging away merrily at http://flamingnora.blogspot.com/

Coronation Street Weekly Update, March 1 2010

Come in, and welcome to another weekly update. This week the update wants to be a Belgian chocolate so let’s just crack on and don’t ask questions. And so, without any further ado, here we go with this week’s Coronation Street update.

Sunita’s aunties leave Manchester for Mumbai and they say bye-bye to Dev in the Rovers after munching on gristle in Betty’s veggie hotpot. “It’s horrible,” they cry at Steve’s straight from the freezer treat. And when Steve goes over to ask them how the food is, they smile and say it’s great. It’s the scene from Fawlty Towers when the American, exasperated, asks Basil how on earth the hotel can keep going when they’re providing such despicable service and awful food. The camera cuts to two old biddies at a table complaining to each other about the dreadful meal. “How’s your dinner, ladies? Everything all right?” Basil asks of them both. “Ooh, it’s lovely Mr Fawlty,” they tweet. To which Basil walks back to the American who wanted to know how he keeps the place open and tells him, quite proudly: “That’s how!” Mind you, I’d still pay good money to give Betty’s veggie hot-pot a go.

The aunties departure means that Dev and Sunita now have the place to themselves and Dev delves in for a snog but Sunita’s not keen. Well, she doesn’t yet know that Ciaran’s returned. By the time Sunita’s changed her mind and decides she wants Dev back, she’s in the Rovers chatting to Ciaran and when Dev spies them he turns round and leaves. But then he comes back, Ciaran goes back to his work, Sunita cuddles up to her ex-husband in the Rovers and all’s well with the world.

Mind you, that Ciaran, he’s chatting up everything that moves. He’d romance a lampstand if it had a frilly shade. Yes, the old Irish charmer wastes no time and he’s working behind the bar of the Rovers before you can say, well, I don’t know, something Irish. Guinness, perhaps, or Tipperary, something like that. Liz is well pleased with her new barman and the cocktail he mixes specially for her – The Queen Elizabeth (it’s a cheeky little number with a sour aftertaste) and she gives him a drink and a debrief in the back room of the pub. They get as far as the drink together before Steve returns with Becky and interrupts the cosy scene before any debriefing takes place. The women of the nation rolled their eyes and tutted. Becky tells Liz she’s a cougar, an older woman who goes after younger men.

Over at Gail’s, there’s cops-a-hoy and questions-a-plenty, wanting to know the ins and outs of texts and flowers sent to Tina from Joe. The two cops assigned to the case look like rejected members of a Take That tribute band. Anyway, David throws Joe’s phone into the canal and Gail lies to protect her son. Tina’s distraught when the cops tell her that Gail sent the text and flowers, not her dead dad. Best settle down and hunker in, this story’s going to run and run.

There’s heartbreak for Steve and Becky when Becky miscarries the baby. She deals with it by going on a bender but breaks down in Steve’s arms, eventually, as you knew she would, upstairs in the flat.

Over the road, Peter checks himself out of rehab and has an argument with Leanne in her pyjamas. So distraught is she that she takes herself for a jar in the pub in her jim-jams. She doesn’t half get some odd looks but, hey, she’s worn worse.

Tyrone’s trying to cope with having his mum back and Jackie has a go at Molly in the shop. “You’re a plate-faced slapper with elevator knickers!” she yells at Molly and asks Tyrone how long Molly’s been dressing as a Pussycat Doll. “She’s not!” says Tyrone. She is, we replied. Jackie’s intuition tells her that Molly’s got a new man although she denies it of course and Tyrone tells his mum to back off but Jackie won’t let it drop and wrongly confronts Dev in the pub: “What’s going on Dev, is it prices up, knickers down?” Apart from molesting Molly and taking Tyrone for all she can get in the most rough/camp/scary voice I’ve heard on telly since 1986: “Gis twenty quid and I’ll buy some saucy prawn balls,” she wastes no time in warming up the duvet with a nasty piece of rough. The next morning, Tyrone comes downstairs for breakfast but tells Jackie he’s lost his appetite when he sees the state of the place. Finding your mother’s bra being used as the tea-cosy can really put you off your Typhoo.

And that’s just about that for this week.

Coronation Street writers this week were Stephen Russell, John Kerr, Mark Burt, Julie Jones and Jan McVerry.

Find out more about the Coronation Street writing team.

Find out more about the Coronation Street Weekly Updates

Glenda Young
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Blogging away merrily at http://flamingnora.blogspot.com/

Coronation Street Weekly Update, November 23 2009

This week the update’s been making a list and checking it twice. And as all of its friends are both naughty and nice, Christmas shopping next weekend will be spent mainly in Selfridges lingerie department. I’m giving posh pants to them all. Anyway, without any further ado, here we go with this week’s Coronation Street update.

Cast your mind back to last week with Roy in the canal, floundering with only his shopping bag to keep him afloat, as evil Tony Gordon runs away. But hang on, what’s this, evil Tony Gordon stops his running, turns and runs back? Not only does he run back but he rescues Roy, saves his life and gives him the kiss of life. Roy recovers, as we all knew he would (and should) and Tony turns himself in at the cop shop. Tony’s gone from catalogue man to cold-blooded killer, as all good soap dudes do.

Meanwhile, Maria’s beside herself with grief when she finds out the truth about Tony killing Liam. Mammy and Barry Connor fly in from Ireland - Barry flew on RyanAir, Mammy came by broomstick. Maria dumps baby Liam on them, saying she can’t cope and the Connors offer to take her and the wee one to Ireland, and Maria agrees. Kirk pledges his support for Maria when he finds out she’s leaving for Ireland. “I’m never far away,” he tells her, which is a lie as he’s always on another planet. Just as Maria’s pulling herself together there’s a knock on the door. Maria opens it to find the face of Carla Connor, staring in at her. She’s clearly been Tangoed, has Carla. Carla lies to Maria, the cops and Leanne and says she didn’t know that Tony killed Liam but admitted that she once guessed he wasn’t that fond of bats.

Over at the Barlows’, there’s another tea party but alas, a distressing lack of cheese straws. Was I the only Corrie fan to bake some cheese straws after Deirdre’s disastrous attempt the other week? Oh, it was just me then. Be-ro do a foolproof recipe and Deirdre should take note. But anyway, this tea party’s for George and Eve to get to know the Barlows and Blanche decides that as there’s a new fella in the house, she’s going to do a bit of flirting. She plasters her face with make-up and then gets plastered on white wine, airing the Barlow dirty laundry: “Did you know Deidre’s an ex-con, Peter’s an ex-alcholic and Leanne’s an ex-prossie?” It’s just as well she kept quiet about Ken being an old f*rt although I suspect they’ll soon find that one out.

Gail puts her house up for sale when Joe tells her his debts have spiralled out of control. And the first person to look around the property is Joe’s loan shark, who’s got to be one of Corrie’s most evil fellas that it’s had in a long time. And what does Gail to do an evil fella with a sick, twisted mind? She invites him into her home with a smile on her face. The plan is to sell the house, pay off Joe’s debts, move into a small flat and live happily ever after. As this is Gail Platt, that plan ain’t ever gonna work.

Tedious storyline of the week involved Dev and Steve on a golf course where Dev bats his eyelashes at a lady golf coach called Bernie. It’s dull but I just hope it’s leading somewhere. However, the temptation to write a joke about Bernie playing around with Dev’s balls was too hard to overcome and so I just did.

And finally this week, Sally wants to know if Molly’s been fiddling with Kev. It’s the garage accounts that Sally worries about, as Molly and Kevin snuggle up in yet another nasty hotel room for yet another night of vomit-inducing passion in their seedy affair. As the couple go sub-duvet, both their phones ring and it’s Sally on the phone to them both, wanting to balance income and output. Kevin and Molly were hoping to do the same.

And that’s just about that for this week.

Coronation Street writers this week were Mark Wadlow, Lucy Gannon, Stephen Russell, Jonathan Harvey and Jayne Hollinson. Find out more about the Coronation Street writing team.

Find out more about the Coronation Street Weekly Updates

Glenda Young
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Blogging away merrily at http://flamingnora.blogspot.com/

Corrie writer profile: Stephen Russell

Sources: The Writers Company, Corrie.net,

Stephen Russell was a member of the Coronation Street writing team for five years from October 2002 , writing 64 episodes. In 2007 his episodes were nominated for a BAFTA and won an RTS award.

In 2009 he returned to writing for Coronation Street and his first episode was screened on Wednesday September 23rd, 2009. The episode included the wonderful exchange between Luke Strong and Rosie Webster, when Rosie had mascara-streaked eyes. "It's Bela Lugosi!," said Luke, trying to make a joke of Rosie's appearance. "Is lugosi Italian for eyes, then?" the dozy mare replied.

Stephen Russell’s TV credits include six episodes of Shameless for series 4 and 5 and three episodes of Drop Dead Gorgeous for series 1 and 2. More TV writing credits include Big Train, Armstrong and Miller, Chatterhappy Ponies, Supergirly – the sitcom, Dream Team, The 11 O’Clock Show and for BBC Radio 4 The Noise Crusaders.

He also adapted Philip Pullman’s The Firework-Maker’s Daughter for the stage. It’s been performed at the Crucible in Sheffield, the Lyric Hammersmith and throughout Europe.

Stephen is currently developing original projects with several companies, including Company Pictures and BBC Comedy North.

If you can add to this profile or provide a recent picture of Stephen Russell, please do let me know.

Read profiles of all of the Coronation Street writing team.