Carla's rape storyline - what do you think of it so far?

Dark days indeed on Coronation Street. I have a big interest in this storyline as I've had personal experience of what Carla is currently going through, and was dreading them getting it horribly wrong. Given Corrie's recent overly-desperate ratings grabbing, sensationalism was a major concern. My impressions so far? I thought the rape scene itself was far too "low key", given that rape is such a vicious crime. But then again, I'm not sure how else a pre-watershed soap could have handled it. Perhaps if they can't cover them properly soaps shouldn't handle these difficult subjects at all? But that's for another discussion. On the positive side, some of the post-rape scenes were extremely well done, harrowing and very hard to watch - and rightly so. I thought Alison King's acting was superb.

Chris Gascoyne has been fantastic, as well - as always - as has Jane Danson. I'm not keen on Andrew Lancel's performance, which I'm finding a bit wooden to be honest.

Spoilers say that Carla will hit the bottle (again) and attempt suicide as a result of her trauma. While this is a fairly realistic reaction, I would far rather see her "staying strong", getting support, and ensuring that Frank Foster gets well and truly banged up. I think it would give out a very powerful and positive message. Anyone else have any views on it so far?

The Rape Crisis website for England and Wales is here, and for Scotland, here.

My own blog is here

Is Tommy Duckworth a waste of space?

Yesterday I sat and watched nine, yes nine, episodes of Coronation Street back to back. I have to admit, I don't do Corrie in such a marathon way very often, but I'd just returned from two weeks holiday and had a lot of catching up to do.

I agree with Tvor's blogged views of the Carla and Frank storyline and think that storyline was one of the highlights of Corrie for this fan, all year. The acting from Alison King and Andrew Lancel as Carla and Frank, and from Chris Gascoyne and Jane Danson as Peter and Leanne Barlow, was outstanding. The comedy from Deirdre "7 steps" and the drama between Tracy and Steve has been classic Corrie at its best.

But watching Corrie in a chunk like this has also made me realise that there's one character that's very surplus to requirements - Tommy Duckworth.

What's he actually done since he turned up in the Street apart from unsuccessfully trying to chase women?  Either the writers need to give him something to do, apart from leering and ogling, or get rid of him, giving Tina and Tyrone the Duckies house to themselves.

Katherine Kelly to star in West End show

When Coronation Street’s Katherine Kelly leaves the cobbles later this year as Becky McDonald, she'll star in a play at the National Theatre in London.

Katherine will join Oliver Goldsmith’s comedy She Stoops To Conquer at London’s National Theatre next year.  Acting onstage beside her will be Steve Pemberton, from The League of Gentlemen and Benidorm.

It's not the first time Katherine has appeared on stage. She's RADA trained and her previous stage credits include The Accrington Pals at Chichester Festival Theatre, Othello at the Manchester Royal Exchange and Tamar's Revenge, House of Desires, Pedro, The Great Pretender and The Dog in the Manger for the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Emily on Fire

Eileen Derbyshire had a close call on set recently when she accidentally set her clothing on fire! Seems she stood too close to a tea light while filming scenes for Sophie's birthday and a shawl she was wearing caught the flames! A quick thinking crew member got to her quickly and doused the fire but her costume was ruined and Eileen was shaken up.

Eileen wasn't seriously injured and was back filming the next day. The scenes are scheduled to air around Bonfire Night, coincidentally enough! Read more about the incident here.