By Stephen Leach, who is in Twitter @SirTerenceBoot, our guest blogger, who shares his thoughts on current Coronation Street.
It’s been an interesting few weeks.
Andy’s funeral took place entirely off-screen, almost as if to confirm how unimportant he always was. Nicola seems to have been pregnant for a decade, but somehow there’s still two months to go before she’s due. Drunk Jenny Bradley swiftly established herself as the best character on the show right now. And the Nazirs continue to underwhelm. Rana has joined the long list of women who were sparky and interesting when first introduced who’ve slowly degenerated into tedious drips (see also: Tinker, Sinead and Battersby, Toyah) and Alya continues to be a judgemental bore. One week ago she was furiously condemning anyone who dared take Luke’s name in vain or drink out of his old mug, and now she’s cheerfully going on a date with Josh. She does know the phrase “hour of grief” isn’t supposed to be literal, doesn’t she?
Imran hasn’t made much of an impact on the residents of Weatherfield yet, but on closer inspection there’s something truly exceptional about him. He’s been working on the Street for a good few months now and not been living there – what on earth’s going on? Have I missed something? Is he kipping in Ty and Fiz’s spare room and no-one mentioned it? It has to be something of a record, surely. I can’t recall any character in the last few years working on the Street and not living there. (Audrey doesn’t count.)
Michelle Keegan (remember her?) popped up in one of the gossip mags the other day that she’d “never say never” to a Corrie return. It’s ever so slightly difficult to imagine the circumstances in which Tina could make a return, on account of having her head stoved in and all, but perhaps she could make it work. Has there ever been a ghost character before apart from Vera? I’m not sure Corrie should go the Walking Dead route either, it’d be a pretty jarring shift in tone.
I quite like the pairing of Billy and Shona, surprisingly. The two of them living in the flat and bringing up Summer together is an interesting dynamic, and not one that’s really been explored before. Mind, chances are we won’t see much of it: there’ve been a few interesting living arrangements recently that the writers haven’t bothered to explore. Sean and Norris lived together for a while and we hardly got a look in; and what about Craig and Alya and Kate? What on earth do the three of them talk about?
Conversely, there’s so little chemistry between Carla and Ali I can hardly remember if their relationship is on or off. Are Carla and Michelle not going to scrap it out at any point? We’re due a good catfight, after all. I was expecting Michelle to at least chuck a glass of wine at her. Tony Gordon, Frank Foster, Nick Tilsley and now Ali… it’s quite a feat for Peter Barlow to be the best man you’ve ever slept with, but I think it’s time for them to get back together.
Imagine Carla and Peter running the Rovers. I’m in. I’d have liked to have seen Liz become landlady again, though it’s probably too soon. But even with all the scenes with Moira at the medical centre, Liz is feeling a bit directionless. The writers should bring back Jim, if only for the reason that his habit of saying “so it is” after every sentence and calling everyone by their full name (“Stephen”, “Elizabeth”) means they can get away with making the scripts half as short as they otherwise would be.
So while I’m on the topic of things I want to see: showrunners, please take note. Better catfights and more drunk Jenny, pronto. Ta.
By Stephen Leach, guest blogger.
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