the rolling Coronation Street thread.

I really like Corrie..but have fallen out of touch with it a bit over the last few months. It never ceases to amaze me how much better than other soaps it is, there's something quite smart about in a really raw, subtle way.

And it does really annoy me when people act as though all the soaps are the same.

I'm sure I'll catch up again now it comes to winter.

really, Eastenders boggles the mind. i don't know how anyone can watch it. coronation street makes me laugh every single episode.

Liam to factory workers: "have i got MUG written across my head?"

shawn: "yes, but it's nothing a choppy fringe wouldn't cover"

Was there a third Polish character? There's Vicky and the one that died but I could have sworn there was another one when they were first introduced?

I've missed it for a bit, can someone explain Kirk's terrible girlfriend to me?

He met her on holiday. Not much more to say than that.

Recently divorced, thinks Kirk is a genius.

she is terrible. also, shut up maria!

I stopped watching because of Claire. She is the worst person in the world, and having her annoying self onscreen so much is a crime against humanity.

Just catching up with Corrie, having given up on it a while back because of Tony/Maria ridiculousness (think the last time I watched properly was a few weeks ago, when Kirk and Julie were splitting up), though I did see some of all that nonsense when it turned out Eileen and Julie were related, and Eileen's creepy dad died really unconvincingly). Just tuned into the omnibus to find Kevin embarking on his eight millionth affair, this time with Molly. WTF writers, please let Tyrone be happy :-(

oh i know, it's stupid. the tony & maria stuff is worse though. as if carla would have run away knowing that tony was a killer and was circling round maria: we still got the big revelation scene where carla finds out that he's a murdered but he stays in the show nonetheless. i think this is called having your cake and eating it.

They have also ruined Becky. Bah.

i know!

and my Tina is now some daft moaning bore.

RIP Blanche

RIP. I'll genuinely miss her!

Me too. I haven't been watching that much recently - how have they explained her absence while the actress was ill?

She hasn't really been absent. I don't know how far in advance it's filmed but she was in a few episodes as recently as last week. I'll genuinely miss her too, she's by far the best one in it these days.

noticed the other week betty turpin in the salon with v blanchey turns of phrase - v cutting and abrupt with audrey in front of another about reece dinsdale and his drugs and that

didn't mean to sound like I was playing cluedo there but

Betty Turpin's outliving everyone!

Betty Turpin? She's been Betty Williams for about 20 years!

Anyone still persevering with this drivel?

even i have pretty much given up, ailsa. i stay tuned for a few minutes if i flick past it but then it goes off.

i briefly got quite into emmerdale during the whole hot gay ned storyline though.

I am trying to maintain some level of interest in Corrie, but this John Stape/Colin Fishwick nonsense is possibly the worst thing they've ever done, and it's had some stiff competition these last few years.

it's utterly ridiculous but boring as hell at the same time.

& blanche is a huge void.

betty turpin in the salon with v blanchey turns of phrase... didn't mean to sound like I was playing cluedo there but

LOL

I said I'd give it tonight's double episode, and I did, but now I'm not watching it again until the lead up to the tram crash.

3 episodes a week again, please.

i can't even tell when it's on now.

can i just...

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_K-ESPDZ8PoU/S-MmDLN12QI/AAAAAAAADFo/NE_8tqBMShE/s1600/dannymillerhot.jpg

that's the most shameful thing i have ever posted to ilx.

How did Gail get released from prison?

just cos she was innocent. i can't remember the details.

She never done it, and Tracey Barlow was the prosecution's main witness.

Jed, I don't recognise your shameful man.

it's aaron from emmerdale. my distraction during the corrie slump.

yeah i know she was innocent, but she got banged up. they realised tracy barlow was full of shit or someting?

and i think tina had some kind of realisation.

that was nice of her.

I saw Nick and David trying to bribe a cleaner to say something or other in court, but I didn't see it for a couple of weeks after that, so no idea where that went.

yeah i think the cleaner turned up to give evidence but bottled it and ran away.

also, what have they done to the music?!

also tina is a potentially great character and michelle keegan is a superb actress but they have no idea what to do with her. they're trying to turn her into another comedy character with the graeme romance.

xpost the title music remix is a disaster.

i know! it's just all so wrong. All of it. Everything. Except for like when they wheel out Rita and Norris and that, that's good.

Blanche is a massive loss, yes. I watched the Blanche tribute show thing they did with my mum (total old-school Corrie fan, also losing patience with it) and we had to rewind it several times because we were laughing so hard.

xpost, yes, agree about Tina. Thought her and Jason worked quite well. Getting her together with Graeme was just madness.

Also, fuck off with the Sean/Violet/baby stuff already. In fact, just fuck off Sean, really.

we had to rewind it several times because we were laughing so hard.

http://www.britishblogs.co.uk/images/512033.jpg

"oooh, nasty gash..."

what do people make of the lesbian teenagers storyline?

sophie is another good character/actress they don't know what to do with

^ truth. Is just dull teenage angsty "we just want to be together" shit, like when Rosie was all emo with Craig Harris before she turned into a moron. Think Corrie are handling it quite well though, from what I've seen.

I saw the episode where Gail was set free but I'll be darned if I can remember what happened. Something like 'yeah you surely did some dodgy stuff but we can't prove beyond reasonable doubt that it was murder so off you go then', with a couple of police officers being all 'yeah like we'd ever trust YOU' to Tracy.

the new theme (which I had to look up because I only watch this when I'm with my mum) is a travesty, but I appreciate the little flashes of long forgotten memories that the cat brought back.

nick is so fuckin haggard and stale looking

truth

From a dramatic point of view, I quite like his relationship with Natasha. The fact that he is using her and just keeping her onside as much as he needs in order to get what he wants could develop pretty well. I thought for a while that they were going to have him try to split up Leanne and Peter, but they seem to have dropped that.

Haven't watched Corrie in years but will make an exception if the rumoured Snoop Dogg appearance happens.

Didn't Snoop say the same thing about EastEnders when he was in London?

It's quite sad what's happened to Corrie. I've followed it on and off since the early 80s and I just can't watch it any more.

I wouldn't be surprised if the cast are taking "creative sabbaticals" because of what the show is doing to the characters they've spent years building. It's reminding me of Eastenders a few years ago, so there is hope it can be turned around, but it really is just so bad just now.

Yeah, losing some actual good actors (Alison King, Ian Puleston-Davis, Chris Gascoyne) is surely down to the terrible writing of their characters. Peter's affair with Tina and turning the likeable Rob into a killer (also ruining Tracy again into the bargain) surely a low point.

Haven't watched this in about two years but wait, Jenny Bradley came back? I used to play frisbee with her irl.

Yeah, she's back, dating Kevin and harbouring a DARK SECRET (a badly-written dark secret at that).

I've pretty much given up on watching this now and just follow developments via the indispensable Corriepedia

I follow it by the one line summaries in the Guardian Guide, that's plenty. Enough to know I'm not missing anything.

Still shite. Yesterday's episodes appeared to have been beamed in from another planet with rolling plots involving the Weatherfield County manager getting the sack, everyone buying shite at a jumble sale, and no-one knowing what days their bins went out. Plus Tracy *and* Jenny *and* Todd all mwahahahahahing about being secretly evil. And Calum too probably, but I zone out when he's on now.

And now Shayne Ward is joining as yet another Connor. FFS. That's him, Sarah Harding AND Kym Marsh now - is "TV talent show singing person" now the obvious route to soap acting?

That there live episode was actually quite good, even if I did predict Calum ending up in the conveniently-just-discovered-in-time-for-hiding-a-body-in hole in Gail's garage a fortnight ago. Hats off to Jack Shepherd, Paula Lane and the usually rubbish Tina O'Brien.

It was good in the sense of being seamless and unobviously live. The plotting is far too obvious though, and Gail's absence was really noticeable. Also I was waiting for Todd to try to kiss his brother's dad.

The executive producer has been sacked and it is long overdue, the show is really in a bad place just now. Apparently the cast and crew cheered when the announcement was made. The new producer is the one currently at the helm of Emmerdale, which has been really good in the past few years.

Yeah, it's utter dreck most of the time, but I thought the acting was really good. Perhaps they might like to stop doing six fucking episodes a week so they can concentrate on doing the ones they do properly and refine the storylines and cast down to a manageable level. Having a few storylines they could concentrate on (Platts v Calum, Tim/Sally/Kev, Roy & Cathy) was so much better, and really brought the best out of actors who usually just have a total load of guff to spew out six times a week.

Gail's not done any of the live episodes!

I confess, I was really hoping that Michelle was going to go into the Platt house to look for Sarah and get bumped off by Calum. Which would have been a good unexpected twist, with the bonus of no more Michelle ever again.

I was reading wikipedia page for Alan Igbon, aka the original actor who played Jason's dad in Coronation Street, and found this:

It was announced on 14 March 2016 that Tony would be killed-off and that Igbon would reprise the role after 13 years to film the character's death scenes, which will air in April. Of his return Igbon commented "They wanted to bring back the original Tony and I'm delighted to be going back and filming what are going to be some very tragic episodes of Coronation Street."

this didn't happen, right? who is making Alan Igbon quotes and putting them om wikipedia?

It didn't happen. Tony died off-screen a couple of weeks ago. How did that not get a "[citation required]"?

I really hate Coronation Street these days. I pretty much only watch it just to moan about it on Twitter. They can sack everyone that isn't Tim or Jenny or Mary (who seems to have vanished) or Roy, as far as I'm concerned.

Does anybody watch this anymore? Even my mum has given up on it and she watched it for years

I started following it again recently after lapsing for a year or so, which is probably the longest I've gone without watching it regularly since I was born.

talking of roles being recast, it took me a while to realise that Tracy's boyfriend Robert is meant to be the same Robert she was married to back in the 90s as they are both now played by different actors

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hQMfyd8pv3M/VZffRglQwdI/AAAAAAAAr0s/T9yCuQiYaAA/s1600/wedding.jpg

dying at Nick going for a dramatic moonlight jog while listening to Radiohead

Lol, yes.

Coronation Street is so shit these days, I can barely bring myself to talk about it. Pretty much nothing makes sense, and Tim is the only likeable character in it (I have zero faith that they'll do the grooming storyline properly, since every other storyline is dispensed with as soon as it's wrapped up two weeks max after being introduced).

I see Shona's next in line for the Becky/Tina/Maddie/Kylie/Gemma production line of rough diamonds turned good. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

I can't believe Kym Marsh is the star of this show just now

I know. Her character is so awful and I think we're still meant to feel sorry for her, what with her trying to kiss Robert and bullying Steve and being an awful bitch to Eva and hitting a heavily-pregnant Leanne and everything.

Rosie can fuck off an' all.

RIP Vera

So a lady in the nail place just told me I look like Bethany from Corrie to which another lady said ‘who’s that? I will google it’ she then went on to say ‘oh god no you don’t look like that.. she looks dog rough and has a fat head’ 🙃

— Lucy Fallon (@lufallon) February 24, 2018

I'm not saying doctors are all the same, they aren't, but they're never anything like the guy they've cast as Michelle's long lost son.

I do know corrie has worse problems atm,

Ailsa, help me out here. I'm blanking on a few people here:

https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/59ca3325190000505d565a65.jpeg

who is that between Percy Sugden and Martin Platt? Funnily, on the other side of Percy is Gloria Todd who i only got because I was wondering "wtf is Jackie Corkhill from Brookside doing in this picture?" then googled Jackie Corkhill to get to Gloria.

Then who is that to the right of Alf Roberts? I do recognise the face but can't put a name to it. The only one I'm totally nonplussed by is the first guy in the photo with the white/blonde hair. I don't have a clue who he is.

& what was Vera's dark-haired pal called?

I’m stumped by everyone you’re stumped by, and also by the lady directly above Deidre.

I think that's Susan Barlow!

"But what about the poor little twins Ena?"
"Their Peter and their Susan?"
"Off up to Scotland. Coming back after twenty years without so much as a Scottish accent." pic.twitter.com/1WzuVPFNdB

— Victoria Wood QOTD (@VictoriaQOTD) December 9, 2017

Vera's pal was Ida Clough. I have no idea who the other randomers are either.

fucking hell at what's coming next week, Corrie has gone dark

(I won't spoil it directly but Shayne Ward is leaving and it is not by taxi)

It's a good topic, I think, quite an unlikely/unbelievable character to use for it.

They've been hinting towards it for quite some time with Aidan's recent storylines, and Shayne Ward's been playing it surprisingly well. I suspect it's going to tie in with David's storyline as well. Be nice for a bit of continuity if it affected Steve in some way, but it'll probably end up being all about Michelle, like everything is in Corrie these days.

Well, this continues to be utter dreck with a bit of decent stuff hidden away. And, as discussed on the Stenders thread, there is an utterly terrible nonsensical and downright offensive storyline coming up for Jim and Liz which will finally have me giving up.

Aidan's storyline passed over in favour of driving Johnny into a pointless affair, more misery for Bethany (good wee actress, sick of the sight of her tied up and whimpering now?, Phelan aftermath done and dusted in about ten minutes ("so, Anna, you stabbed him? Ok, we'll be in touch", Nicola and Michelle both shot with no ill-effects and I don't think the Bistro where two shootings and a fatal stabbing took place was even closed as a crime scene for a full day, Harvey/Vinnie's mum as comedy character who profited massively from the proceeds of his crime with none of the people ripped off in the flats scam seeming to care), blah blah.

Susie "kidnapped" by her own grandfather leads to a police appeal and a nationwide manhunt after less than 24 hours.

Don't get me started on the shite with Jude and his fake job.

So, if this McDonald storyline is true, that'll be one retconned aborted baby and three hospital mixups all on the same street (I assume Ryan #3 is coming back at some point)

oh, that is bad. so the storlyline is that Jim comes back with Liz's daughter who she thought she had aborted? ffs, that is gross. But also there seems to be another storlyline where the mixed-race girl that works in the salon is supposedly Steve's daughter?

You're not seriously telling me Jim McDonald's back are you?

lol! talk about scraping the barrel!

https://alancook.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/my-elizabeth.jpg

https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article2353754.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/Coronation-Street-Jim-robbery.jpg

http://www.tvthrong.co.uk/files/u1465/jim.jpg

Katie wasn't aborted, she died. She was born prematurely, she couldn't survive, and died at a few days old. Apparently it was a mix-up and she was adopted and went to live in Australia. Not sure how the mix-up came to light or how she was adopted, presumably the parents of the other premature baby that did die just took the wrong baby home unaware their baby died then, um, something something THIS MAKES NO SENSE AT ALL.

There were rumours that Emma might have been the daughter of Fiona Middleton who had slept with both Steve and Jim. But I think that's just because the actress is mixed-race and a hairdresser and looks a teensy bit like Angela Griffin (in that she's mixed race and has curly hair). The Katie McDonald thing has been confirmed and an actress has been cast. It's just awful.

Adam Barlow is the retcon abortion, Ryan and Ali are the existing mixed-up-at-birth pair.