Bejaysus! The big Oirish man has railly gone too far noy.
Liz and Jim go to an army reunion night, they take Andy's car
and Jim has too much to drink. At the reunion, they meet with
Jim's best pal from his army days and innuendo flies when he makes
comments about Liz. On the way back home in the car, with Liz
driving, Jim loses his temper once more, demanding to know what
happened between Liz and his pal in the past. Liz admits they
had a brief fling, and this is more than Jim can take. Liz stops
the car and they argue, and then Jim gets out of the car, walks
around to the driver's side and pulls Liz out of the car, calls
her names that a man shouldn't call his wife and thumps her!!
He then drives off in the car, leaving Liz on the ground crying.
When Jim gets back home he finds Andy and Ann there, they had
gone to the house for some peace and quiet while everyone was
out, after Racquel had tried her match making skills on them both.
He tells Andy what has happened but shows no remorse, believing
that Liz deserved what he did to her. Andy rings Steve and Vicky,
then Andy and Ann go off in search of Liz. Meanwhile, Liz takes
a taxi to Deidre's flat. When she arrives, she explains to the
taxi driver that she hasn't got any money and it's obvious that
she's in a real state but the taxi driver won't listen. Ray Cropper
is just entering his flat as the taxi pulls up, and pays the fare
for Liz. What a hero. (Look for a nice touch when he pulls his
key out of his bag... it's attached to his bag with a piece of
elastic).
As this is the middle of the night, what's Ray Cropper doing coming
in at such a late hour? Determined to find out whether there really
is a ghost in the Rovers, Ray stays behind, hiding in the cellar
after closing time. Jack and Vera are woken by strange noises
and are sure they have a burglar and are quite relieved to find
it's only Ray, who explains what he's been doing. "Are you
a medium?" asks Vera. "No, I'm a 42" replies Ray.
The next day Bill Webster sees Liz in Deidre's flat. Liz has made
her black eye look much worse by painting it with make-up and
is determined that everyone should know what Jim has done to her.
Jim comes around to see Bill, and Bill lets Jim know where Liz
is, but he isn't interested in seeing her and walks out of the
building. Andy and Steve take Deidre to Jim's house and they take
Liz's clothes back to Deidre's flat. Liz goes into the Rovers
with her bruises on show and Des wonders if the fight was because
of him. "Don't worry" she says "your name wasn't
mentioned". When she arrives for work the next day, Jim is
waiting for her, he apologises and tells her he's sorry, that
he'll never do it again. What will Liz's reaction be to that?
Tune in next week!
Ken's childminder Kelly is visited by 2 of her friends, who are
also ex-pupils of Ken's. She shouldn't really let them into his
house but she does anyway and of course Ken walks in and finds
them there. Kelly apologises, expecting to be sacked but Ken keeps
her on.
Josie and Don apologise to Vera for upsetting her with the fake
exorcism.
The new cleaner at the Rovers is very thorough. Vera makes elevenses,
brings it into the back room on a tray with china cups and still
using her best posh voice, takes tea with her staff. Vera still
doesn't know that Mrs. Smedly is Judy Mallet's mother.
Alma prepares a candle-lit meal for Mike, she wants more sparkle
in their marriage but Mike thinks things are ok as they are. Mike
drags Alma out looking around possible sites for his new factory.
Alma is less than enthusiastic about his new venture until Emily
asks her "would you rather he did all this without involving
you?".
With an eye on his bank balance, Fiona's brother Lee wants Fiona
to rent out the flat above the hair salon. Fiona is against this,
she doesn't want a tenant having access to her salon but after
Lee persuades her that it makes financial sense, Fiona decides
to move in there herself. She breaks the news to Maxine, who will
be left on her own in the flat above Jim's Cafe. Maxine can't
afford the rent on her own and wonders what she will do.
Andy and Steve McDonald are now the Street's own "Wills
and Harry" - products of a broken marriage. Andy goes to
see Jim and in his anger towards his father, he pushes him around
a little, he feels guilty and wonders if it's his fault that his
dad hit his mum. Jim tells Andy about his mother having affairs
especially with "Uncle" Johnny Johnson. Jim goes to
see Liz at Deidre's flat but Liz tells him that their marriage
is dead and that she wants a divorce. Roy Cropper answers the
door to Jim and stands guard as Liz and Deidre confront Jim. Later,
Roy brings Liz some flowers. Liz meets with a counsellor who advises
her to go to the police and report the beating, but Liz decides
not to. Vicky provides support for Jim, asking if she can do anything
for him, shopping, cooking etc. She goes to see Liz on her own
to ask her to reconsider divorcing Jim, but Liz tells Vicky that
they can't stay together and wonders if Vicky only wants Jim and
Liz to be her surrogate parents. After a slanging match in the
Rovers between Liz and Jim, Jim announces he is off to Ireland
to see his mother, and Jack sacks Liz from the pub. He says she
is putting the customers off their beer with her face in the state
it is, and tells her off for shouting at the customers. Liz goes
crawling to Des to ask if she can have her job back there, but
he says no, both to her request for a job and to anything else
she may be offering! Liz confides in Deidre that Des has hurt
her when he said he wasn't interested.
Fiona moves into the flat above the salon. Both her boyfriend
and Maxine feel a little left out that Fiona wants to spend the
first night in the flat on her own to assert her independence.
Fiona has a salon re-opening party arranged for later this week.
Fiona and Liz have a heart to heart and Liz tells her "I
do like Vicky, but I wish you could have been my daughter in law".
Old age gets to us all and to Percy it looks like it's taking
its toll. He's lost his best cap and has Emily searching everywhere
for it. Emily goes to Raquel's house as she is throwing out some
old clothes and Emily takes some for charity (Judy Mallet takes
some to wear!) when Emily sees Percy's cap hanging up in the hall.
Turns out that Percy gave the cap to Curly when he moved in with
him for a while, but Percy forgot all about it so Emily pretends
she found the cap down the back of the sofa.
Raquel has a secret appointment, she won't tell anyone where she
is going but promises to tell Curly first "well, he has a
right to know before anyone else does" she says. Curly puts
2 and 2 together and gets 5 and assumes that because she's been
throwing out her old clothes that Raquel is pregnant and is making
a doctor's visit. He doesn't know whether to be relieved or disappointed
when she tells him that she has enrolled on an aromatherapy course
and that is where she went for her appointment.
Mike breaks the news to Alma that he has given their flat to the
bank as collateral against his new business loan. Alma is aghast
when Mike pulls out the bank loan agreement for Alma to sign -
he's taken her for granted once again.
Vera finds out that her cleaner, Mrs. Smedly is Judy Mallet's
mother. Far from being upset about it, Vera has found a soul mate,
someone she can talk to about "our Terry" and they exchange
stories about growing up with wayward children.
Mavis and Derek are invited to the Square Dealers ladies night
dinner dance. Mavis is overjoyed until she finds out that Norris
and Angela are the ones who have invited them.
Emily is rather put out when Deidre announces that Ken has asked
her to baby-sit Danny when he goes out with some colleagues to
the theatre. When Ken returns home, he has a drink with Deidre
and they tell each other they are both lonely, and that the only
person that they can both confide in is each other. (It's quite
a moving scene!). Does this signal a re-run of the Ken/Deidre
love match? I, for one, hope so. Deidre without Ken is like a
wet fish without water.
Mike Baldwin now has the factory for his new clothing business
and is in the process of recruiting staff. Deirdre is after a
job there after Mike more or less promises her a job in the office.
Josie is also after the same job but Mike upsets her at first,
assuming she has no prior experience to which she replies "I
don't right know I could work for a jerk!". Josie gets the
job and Deirdre gets upset. Emily is quietly assuming Mike will
ask her to work for him in the office again as a wages clerk and
so is disappointed when he makes a reference to her being too
old for the job. Derek is quoting Mike for his corporate stationery
until Norris comes along, makes some remarks about Mike not being
good enough to be a square dealer and Mike says that the stationery
deal is off. Derek is furious with Norris, who later apologises.
Fred Elliot asks Rita to the ladies night dance at the square
dealers this week and she says no. She still says no after Fred
sends around his nephew with some best steak to bribe Rita to
go with him. It is only when Mavis makes such a fuss over the
fact that Rita isn't going to the ball and she is that Rita rings
Fred and agrees to go to the dance with him.
Sean Skinner goes to see Liz, and offers her a job at a bookies
in a different area but she says no, she thinks that Des has sent
him round to see her but Des doesn't know anything about this.
Then Andy goes to see Des in the bookies and is surprised to see
his mum talking to Des there, he assumes she is still flirting
with Des and when he sees her later back at her house makes insinuations
about her and Des and she slaps Andy across the face and he walks
out.
It's the re-opening party at the hair salon, no longer called
"Denise's", now it's "Hair by Fiona Middleton".
Steve McDonald goes crawling to Fiona to ask for an invite to
the salon party as he hasn't received his invite in the post.
Fiona's brother Lee and Maxine are there helping out. Fiona's
parents turn up for the party also and her mother says to young
Vicky "So you're the one Steve left our Fiona for!".
Liz is there also, and Andy sees her talking to both Sean and
Des. He gets annoyed with his mother, telling her that Jim had
every right to be furious with her as she is such a flirt.
Jim arrives back from Ireland to find that Liz has moved his clothes
out of No. 11 and changed the locks on the doors. Liz arrives
home to find Jim thumping on the front door and she calms him
down and they go to the Rovers to have a drink which starts out
calm enough with Jim apologising and wanting to get back together
with Liz, but they soon end up shouting at each other. Liz runs
out of the pub and into the house, locking herself in as Jim pounds
on the front door. Panic stricken and in tears, she calls the
police. Outside, Curly and Kevin try to pull Jim away from the
house, but Jim runs around to the back door, and threatens them
both with a shovel, he's like a man possessed. He breaks the window
at the back of the house with the shovel and gets into the house
that way, just as Liz is running out of the front door, screaming.
He chases her on to the street in front of all of the neighbours
who have come to see what's going on, just as the police arrive.
Jim fights with the 2 policemen who try to restrain him, he's
shouting at Liz, telling her he's going to kill her. After a long
struggle the police get Jim into the back of the police van and
drive him away.
Could Tiffany Watts be a new character in the Street? She could
if Raquel gets her own way. Curly and Raquel have a chat about
children, and Curly says he has nothing against having children,
in principle... which is just as well when Raquel tells him that
she hasn't been taking her pill for the last 2 weeks as she wants
to get pregnant. One of the names she'd like if the baby is a
girl is Tiffany.
Jim is called in front of the judge at court after trying to attack
Liz last week, and he is ordered by the court not to go near Liz
again. Unfortunately, he starts following Liz around saying "I
just want to talk to yer, Liz". Liz starts to panic when
she sees Jim waiting for her outside of her house, so she runs
into the Rovers and tells Steve and Andy that she's frightened
of Jim, although the twins try to calm her down and are still
hopeful that their parents will get back together. Jim comes into
the Rovers, and Liz runs behind the bar to call the police, telling
them that Jim has broken his promise to the judge to keep clear
of her.
It's the Square Dealers dance and in the great rectangle, Fred
Elliot is "Grand Master of Ceremonies" and Curly is
declared to be "Master Cube", which means he gets lumbered
with the raffle! Norris arrives late after having an argument
with Angela, who stays at home. Derek drops as many hints as possible
about becoming a member of the rectangle, but no one takes any
notice of him. Fred is grateful to Rita that she went to the dance
with him and sends her a present the next day of calves liver
(quite unfortunate timing, considering mad cow disease!). He asks
Rita if she would like to attend any future functions as his guest
and Rita says yes, but there must be no strings attached and no
more calves livers.
In the corner shop, Maureen discovers a broken shelf, and calls
Bill Webster in to fix it. Later in the Rovers, she gets a bit
drunk and cries on Bill's shoulder, telling him how much she misses
Reg and having a proper marriage. After much flapping about in
the corner shop and arguing with her mother, Maureen is all set
to visit Reg for the weekend when her car runs out of petrol only
20 minutes into her journey. She calls Curly who comes with petrol
for her to help her on her way but she decides not to visit Reg
that weekend, or ever again! She calls Reg and leaves a message
on his answering machine and is anxious as she hasn't heard back
from Reg yet.
Mike Baldwin is looking for ways to raise cash to inject into
his new sportswear business. Alma tells him she isn't selling
the cafe, so he has decided to sell the garage and offers it first
to Kevin. Kevin is very unsure about this and he tells Sally who
gets fired up about it, she sees owning the garage as the best
opportunity that has ever come their way and urges Kevin to buy
it. Baldwin has also got a new car, an Audi with the MVB personalised
number plate.
Still playing truant from school, Jamie is up to no good hanging
around the streets of Weatherfield. He's now causing tire punctures
to the bikes of the street's cyclists (Josie, Don, Fred Eliot's
nephew Ashley Peacock) and then just so happens to be on hand
to fix their tires for them, for a fee. What a helpful little
chap.
When Ashley Peacock delivers the calves livers to Rita on behalf
of his uncle Fred, he bumps into Ken's child minder Kelly in the
corner shop. They were both in Barlow's class at school and Sally
sees this as an opportunity for some match making between the
two of them.
Jack wants to organise a men-only day out at the races. When Vera
hears about this, she wants women to be included on this day trip
too but Jack is adamant that it's men only and starts taking names
for the big day out on the coach to the races.
