Here we are again. Another week over (and what a great one it's been), another glass of Chardonnay (ditto) and another piece of cheese (this time with a chopped apple - posh or what?). I'm feeling a bit lost here without my dog as she's on her holidays with her brother shaggy dog in the country for a while. While there are advantages to being dogless - getting up at 6am for a walk round the park in pouring rain and sleeting gales springs immediately to mind - I really do miss the mutt. I find myself looking doey-eyed at other dogs in the street, sighing heavily and gazing lovingly at tins of Chum on the supermarket shelves and really missing those 'just dunked my head in a bowl of water and now I'm going to give you a sloppy kiss all over' moments. Well, anyway, here we go with this week's Coronation Street update.
Actually, not a great deal has happened this week and I'm not really sure where to start. Right, here we go. Ashley receives his passport in preparation for the honeymoon but still has a few personal things to sort out when Fred tells him the truth about his real mother. So, now that Ashley knows Kathleen lives locally, he's keen to see her but bottles out at the last moment, and runs away from the house and after Fred's car instead of getting to meet his birth mother. Maxine does her best to support lickle Ashley and finally he tells Fred he's changed his mind, he doesn't want to meet her after all, he has all he wants and needs in Maxine, Fred and Beryl. Ahhhh.
Spider and Toyah go public with their relationship this week, well, public to everyone that is, apart from Les. Janice forces a smile when Toyah tells her the news but Aunty Em is definitely not amused and suggests to the lovely Spider he actually gets himself a job. Aw, come on, Aunty Em, he is helping out at the homeless person's shelter, bless him. Mind you, then Toyah starts on at him about getting his own place and getting a job - which has got to give a bit more privacy than a hot night in, babysitting the Platt kids.
Steve's mate, Lee and Jim have a bit of a fight in the Rovers when Lee comes looking for Steve and ends up calling Jim 'Mick'. Vinny comes to the rescue and throws the pair of them out, but Natalie isn't best pleased that he's taken it upon himself to be the local heavy and puts him in his place. Anyway, Vinny tells Natalie that the brewery he works for has found out he's helping out in the Rovers and has forced him to make a choice of who he is going to work for. When Natalie offers him a job behind the bar of the Rovers, he jumps at the chance and you won't hear this update writer complaining about having Vinny around a bit more, indeedly do, no. This means of course that Jack is now relieved of his duties behind the bar and Vera is not best pleased.
Anyway, so Steve returns from his trip to Amsterdam and he's got this big white van. Jim's suspicion about drugs is heightened when a geezer in a flash car turns up waving a wodge of money around in front of Steve's face. "How much did he give yer?" asks Jim. "A thousand pounds" replies Steve - to which Jim explodes. "A thoisand poinds!". This scene is so funny, as much for the build-up as anything. What Steve has in the van is... close your eyes now if you don't want to know - a dog. Polly the pooch - smuggled in from abroad for the tune of a thoisand poinds for the missus of aforementioned geezer.
Blanche and Deirdre have a wonderful chat in the cafe. Or rather, Blanche is talking at Deirdre as only a mother can talk at her middle aged, spec-wearing daugther who is living with a trolley-pushing, cardi-wearing, retired teacher. Well, during the course of the conversation, Blanche notices a legal notice in the local paper, stating that Maude's husband, Sidney, died leaving an estate worth 60 thoisand poinds. What? But didn't Sid's kids tell Maude he'd left them nowt and the 10 grand he'd left Maude was rightfully theirs? Not one for mincing her words, Maude tells them straight and to the point - she's keeping the money and spending it to carry out Sid's wishes - scattering his ashes on the River Kwai - and she's taking Emily with her, as companion.
Alison's mam turns up at the flat and the pair of them argue over the death of Alison's sister when her mum tries to blame Alison for it all. Anyway, Alison ends up throwing her mum out of the flat and tells her she doesn't need her any more - her life is with Kevin and the girls now. But what's going on? She takes Rosie and Sophie out for the afternoon after telling Kevin they were off swimming and to ballet class. When the three of them aren't back when Kevin returns home from work, he gets a little concerned and calls Alison's mum to be told Alison isn't there and oh by the way, did he know that Alison attacked her very own mother the other day when she threw her out of the flat. On a completely different note, why on earth is there a Kandinsky print in that flat when everything else is pretty tasteless?
Bland Danny and Sharon return from Blackpool and while Sharon is all gurns and Danny-this and Danny-that, he's less than impressed with complaints of trams and candyfloss not being his idea of fun. I'm sure he would have had a much nicer time walking along the prom eating fish and chips and ice cream, but what am I to know? Anyway, he thanks Sally for looking after his market stall for him and gives her a CD (it's dangerous stuff, exchanging music, you just never know what it can lead to). Market trader George has died and Danny is upset and wants to go to the funeral. Sharon is also upset, especially when he tells her he's taking Sally to the funeral with him, not her. Oh, purlease, ladies! If you two are dim enough to fight over bland Danny, I'll throw something at the telly screen, I swear.
Right, that's all for this week then.
Glenda :-)
Don't forget to visit Spider's Web: http://zen.sunderland.ac.uk/~aa8gyo/spidersweb.html
Hi folks.
As you know, in the past, I may have missed the odd episode of Corra here and there, but usually manage to get the update out in a reasonable fashion without making too much of it up (ahem). However, this week, my VCR is still not working - something to do with a hard to find memory chip according to a little man that knows about such things - I have to admit to only viewing 2 of the 4 episodes. I would have caught up with the Sunday omnibus but for some strange reason there was a Carry On Film on instead. Now, don't get me wrong, I love Carry On Films (my favourite being Carry on at your Convenience, in case you're wondering) but it meant I wasn't able to catch up with the Corrie episodes I'd missed this week. However, I've had a little help from Mike Plowman's wonderful CSVU site and have also been assisted this week by the keen eye and sharp update skills of an all-round top bloke and where his comments come into play, I'll let you know by colouring his words.
So here we go, with a little help from my friends, to bring you this week's Coronation Street update. Oh, and if anyone is in Ashton under Lyne on Saturday September 25th, feel free to pop along to Doctor Brown's pub (the old Yates Wine Lodge) on Stamford Street for a drink and a natter, any time after 2pm.
Cast your minds back to last week when Alison took the girls out for the afternoon without telling Kevin where she was going and Sally was all distraught after finding out Alison had been implicated in the death of her younger sister when they were kids. Well, when Alison does arrive back on the street, all innocent-like after taking the girls to have their portraits taken (and framed! crikey, that was quick), she realises why Kevin was so upset at her disappearance with his daughters and knows she can't continue to live with him as he will never be able to trust her, so she packs up and leaves Weatherfield for ever. Kevin has the troubles of the world on his shoulders. His fiancee has left him and now Natalie is onto him about the books of the garage. It's all cashflow and no profit, he must get more efficient or reduce overheads, so he gets rid of both Jim and Tyrone.
Now then, good stuff in the Rovers between new boy Vinny and old girl Betty when she puts him in his place and calls him "sonny". A definite meeting of minds, these two. Vinny is a wonderful addition to the Street. Was it only me who saw the aliens slip into the Rovers this week and abduct Natalie, replacing her with an identical copy except for the sleeves? (she really did, she had sleeves!!!!)
Jack retires from the Rovers this week. Tyrone is gutted especially as he's on such a high having presented Jack with his favourite pigeon (Fergie) stuffed and mounted in a glass case. Jack hates it, but Vera says it must take pride of place on the mantelpiece for fear of upsetting Tyrone. The staff at the Rovers buy Jack a tankard (how original).
More PMT (pre-marital tension) for Maxine when her bridesmaid storms out of the house, refusing to try on the bridesmaid dress. Looks like bridesmaid has gone back to her ex-fiance after all and isn't best pleased that she's already given away her wedding time-slot at the local church to Maxine and now she wants it back! Fickle, or what? And of course it means now that Maxine needs a new bridesmaid. Ashley's birth mum, Kathleen calls into Freshco and there's a beautiful scene when Ashley realises just who the woman is that he's been trying to flog cheap rump steak to. Ashley sits down with Beryl to chat about the wedding. Beryl has really warmed to Maxine and Ashley says 'Aye, she's lovely'. Ashley explains that he would like Kathleen to come to the wedding and Beryl is fine about it, just so long as she is the groom's mother and Kathleen is just a guest. Straight talking and honest, Kathleen explained why she 'abandoned' Ashley after getting pregnant by her boss, Fred. She politely declines the invitation to the wedding, saying that it is Beryl's day and she deserves it more than her.
Bland Danny and Sally go to market trader George's funeral together and afterwards, in the pub, he admits his true feelings for Sally. (Now then, I just want to make it official. I like Sally. I'm probably the only person in the world that still does, but there, I've said it.) Anyway, so Sally knows bland Danny's feelings towards her, but manages to keep quiet when Sharon calls round to her house with a bottle of plonk and gets completely Brahms after a mouthful of the stuff, telling Sally she loves the guy to bits. Danny is missing from the market as he's gone round to the Kabin to finish with Sharon. Before he can do it though, Sharon asks him to move in with her, so when he eventually manages to get a word in edgeways, the hurt for Sharon is even more. In a touching scene with Rita in the shop Sharon is in bits and blames herself for always throwing herself into relationships too fast and getting carried away with it all.
Now then, what else has happened? Maude and Emily received their tickets for their Bangkok trip. And er, I think that's about it for this week....
Glenda :-) http://zen.sunderland.ac.uk/~aa8gyo/index.html
I'm sitting here sweating, trembling, feeling like the world has just ended. help me! Somebody help me!. It's okay though, I'm sure I'll be fine tomorrow, it's just a temporary hitch my email server has gone down!! I mean, I usually sit down to the PC this time of an evening (8.30pm) for some convivial chat with friends here, there and everywhere (from Toronto to Tottenham) but what's a girl to do when she can't get her daily email fix? Well, there's always the washing up I suppose nah maybe I'll just give the server one more try, just one more. First though, I'm going to turn my stereo volume up, way up, up and away so I can hear myself think about the (false) alarm going off in the flat upstairs and the kids next door practising the trombone . It's Basia tonight (on the stereo, not the trombone). Once again, for the second week running, I am indebted to a truly top bloke for providing me with notes and videos for this week's Coronation Street update as I missed three, yes three, episodes. Crikey.
However, by combining his notes with the one epi sode I did see, the update will be delivered in my usual good humour although I can't take any of the credit for it, not really. PS: Remember folks, anyone in the Manchester area on Saturday this weekend, feel free to pop into Doctor Brown's pub on Stamford Street in Ashton under Lyne, after 2pm, for a drink and a Corrie natter. Right, here we go with this week's Coronation Street update.
It's Janice and Les' 5th wedding anniversary (although he's forgotten - as if you need me telling you that) and Janice asks Toyah to make herself scarce that evening so she can cook Les a romantic dinner. This leaves Toyah and the lovely Spider looking for a bit of peace and quiet themselves and Hayley agrees they can have the caf to themselves while Spider prepares Yam Mash. Now, I've been a vegetarian (ahem) since I was 18 years old, which is.. er.. well.. quite a few years ago now and I've eaten so me weird and wonderful things (fish fingers with lentils springs to mind) but if anyone offered me Yam Mash I'd tell them where to stick it. Well, perhaps not the lovely Spider. I'd eat it, just for him. But I digress. As things are steaming up in the caf and our two lovebirds are cooing (somewhat familiarly) to each other - Spider: "Mad innit? All these weeks, these months and me never knowing" Toyah: "I tried hard enough to tell yer!" in walks Les with a chamber pot. He's been to an auction with Charlie West where he bought the gazunda, then stumbles into the caf in search of food only to be told by Toyah that she and Spider are trying out veggie recipes for Roy and he should get himself home sharp-like for a romantic anniversary dinner. Toyah stuffs into the chamber pot the bunch of flowers that the lovely Spider had bought for her. So off he goes home to Janice for dinner and rumpy pumpy before Janice spills the beans about Toyah and Spider. "You mean that dozy crusty's sleeping wi' our Toyah?" he yells before storming round to the caf and trying to pull the legs off Spider before flushing him down the toilet, no doubt. Fortunately (for Spider, bless him) all the noise brings Hayley downstairs and she sorts out the lot of them. Spider manages to sweet talk Emily into letting Toyah stay there for a while after the fall-out with Les. Aunty Em agrees, on the understanding that no hanky panky goes on under her roof. They both agree, well, at least they try not to have any h-p but hormones being hormones and all, well, Aunty Em is not best pleased when she finds out and throws Toyah out. Curly, bless him, lets the young lovers use his spare room, while worrying about incurring the wrath of Les next door.
Maxine moans to Audrey about not having a bridesmaid at her wedding and Ashley is all of a fluster when he thinks about having to get into the aeroplane for the honeymoon. In the Rovers, Vinny tells Ashley: "Count yourself lucky. You've got a beautiful girl who wants to obey you. You'll never want for owt." Mmm.seems to me that any bloke wanting an obedient "girl", would be more suited to owning a cocker spaniel bitch perhaps.
Meanwhile, Sharon bawls her eyes out (again) over a bloke (again) and is comforted (again) by Rita. She's sure summat's up, and over a close-up shot of a glass of wine (which can only mean one thing in Corra - a downward alcoholic spiral into oblivion - nothing less!) confides in Sally and asks her if Danny could have been seeing another woman. Sally hates all this, deceiving her bessie mate and all that but if I was writing this script, I'd send bland Danny back to his lampshades and knicker stalls - forever - while Sharon and Sally get themselves a life and stop fighting over him yawnzzzzz.. Some good scenes though between Sally and Sharon when Sharon eventually finds out the truth about Sally and Danny - lots of tears, screams and gurning.
Vera's driving home from the supermarket after offering Judy a lift home, but she crashes into something in the supermarket car park and Judy hurts her leg. It's pretty badly bruised but she refuses to go to the doctor. Gary's a bit concerned but she insists it's not too bad (when it is really, she just doesn't want to admit it). One of the baby twins says their first word to Judy: "Dada?" A touching line this week from Judy: "You're a nice man, Gary Mallett, that's why I love you". Anyway, Vera's car is taken into casualty at Kevin's garage and young Tyrone notices the back door doesn't close quite properly. Upon investigation, it's obvious the car is made up of two halves, a "cut and shut".
And that's just about that for this week. This coming week, I promise to miss no more than one episode (!) and there'll be a full report from Friday night's hour long special. It really will be very special indeed.
Glenda ;-) http://zen.sunderland.ac.uk/~aa8gyo/index.html
Don't forget to visit Spider's Web: http://zen.sunderland.ac.uk/~aa8gyo/spidersweb.html
No preamble this week, folks, keep reading and you'll understand why. This week has been one of the most emotional ones on Coronation Street in a long time. For me, personally, perhaps this week's events have been the most emotional I've ever seen in my favourite show. Not since the end scenes in 'Our Friends in the North' where I hid behind a cushion then yelled "Don't jump, Geordie, don't jump" have I been so moved by events on the telly. If you're in Canada or the USA, in fact, wherever you are reading this, if you still have yet to see this week's Corrie, make sure you watch it with someone you feel comfortable with. Someone you can cry with. Someone you can hug. I am indebted to my top bloke once more for his notes on the 2 episodes I missed this week (no, the VCR is still not fixed).
I'm not quite sure where to start this week, so I'm just going to jump right in and start where it feels right. It's Maxine's hen night and she's dragged out to the pub, blindfolded, handcuffed and still in her PJ's. Meanwhile, the stag party organised by Fred has turned into a bit of a flop. He's hired a room at the golf club but they can't have the jukebox on as there's a committee meeting going on in the room next door; the beer's a whopping £2.20 per pint; Fred bores them all with tales of sausages and the steward won't let the cowgirl stripper in because she's wearing denim (although she does offer to remove it). Anyway, both hen and stag parties end up back at the Rovers (where else?) but Sharon is there, knocking back the tequila like there's no tomorrow. At the end of the night, everyone gets to hear her drunken ramblings as she pours out her bile on Sally and Natalie for stealing her men, and is dragged outside by Rita and Gail. And so, the day of Maxine and Ashley's wedding starts with champagne at the salon with Maxine's mum Doreen eyeing up young Tom. At Ashley's, he tells Fred he'll always think of Maxine as an Elliott, no matter what it says on their marriage certificate. Best man Gary Mallett has his speech all prepared but it drops to the floor as he hugs Judy while he's trying to get ready for the wedding. After he leaves for the church, Judy isn't feeling too well and Emily comes round to sort out the twins, leaving Judy to put her feet up for a while and rest. Meanwhile, over in the Kabin, in a wonderfully composed shot, Sharon stands at the door of the Kabin and watches bland Danny and Sally snog on the doorstep before he go into Sally's house. It's too much for Sharon, she loses it completely and goes berserk, throwing magazines off the shelves. At the church, Maxine looks pretty in pink and Fred gives Ashley a few words of wonderful pre-nuptial advice at the altar. "Never neglect the passion, son, never neglect the passion". During the service, Maxine stops the proceedings to have the word 'obey' included in her vows. Ashley does what he's told to and lets her say obey, (oh well, I suppose some women like that sort of thing), and the vicar pronounces them husband and wife. The happy couple are beaming, with Maxine declaring herself "proud as a Peacock". Fred spies Kathleen hiding out in the church grounds and invites her onto the wedding photographs, which pleases Ashley no end to have "me mam and dad" there, although Beryl is less than pleased, naturally. Spider and Toyah, of course, use environmentally friendly confetti and the whole day is just perfect, simply perfect. Upstairs in Sharon's flat, she's in bits as she throws back the vodka and knocks back the pills. In a scene that had me wanting to scream at the screen and yell "Don't humiliate yourself, Sharon, don't do it", she sat, in utter and total despair, looking through her wedding photos before calling ex-fiancée Ian to tell him how low her life had sunk... before collapsing on the sofa, the glass of vodka falling from her hand. Back at the Mallett's, Judy decides to get up off the sofa to hang out the washing in the back yard. She's in a bit of pain but struggles on, gasping for breath as she tries to peg out the nappies. And then it happens, she tries to hang on to the washing line for support, but it's no use, she collapses to the ground, clutching her chest. And as this happens, in the most poignant scene I've ever watched in Coronation Street - Gary's giving his best man's speech, straight from the heart, and his words ring out, not once but twice, telling Ashley the secret of a happy marriage is always to 'be together and cherish each other' .(I can't believe this, I'm crying again as I recall it all, having to write it down). A scene made all the more moving without the strains of the oh-so familiar theme music. (Believe me, get yourself someone to hug, right about this point)
Right, so, anyway, Ashley and Maxine know nothing about what's happened to Judy and off they jet on their honeymoon in ignorant bliss. Ashley suffers turbulence and worries about the wings falling off the plane, all this while he's in the departure lounge, but realising how much Maxine loves him, finally manages to get himself on the plane, telling her: "I could fly to the Caribbean with you under me arm." It's left to Ken to break the news to Gary and it's more than Gary can take - all he can do is sit and sob and try to get his head around what's happened. Jim arrives to help Gary, and the two men hug and Gary breaks down in floods of tears in the arms of his friend. However, Jim decides to tell Gary the truth about Vera's un-roadworthy car, and Gary, even through his numbness over the death of his wife, starts putting two and two together. Judy's death was caused by a pulmonary embolism caused by the knock on her leg she received in the car crash with Vera, and Gary wants someone to blame. Jim tells him Vera knew nothing about the 'cut and shut' car, but of course, Terry did. Sharon comes round in the flat the next morning and a very concerned Rita lets herself into Sharon's flat with her own key to find her wallowing in self-pity. The next day, when Ian turns up, Sharon had forgotten all about her phone call to him, and he doesn't seem best pleased that she is okay after all, having made a long journey at breakneck speed up the motorway to find out if she had committed suicide or not. He tells her he still thinks about her (yeah, right) but Rita's cold stare at Ian said everything that every viewer in the UK was thinking too. You know, a lot more happened this week, lots of small things at the wedding and the episode afterwards, but it was so very emotional that I couldn't, didn't want to, write everything down. I just wanted to watch. When you see this week's events wherever you are in the world, you'll understand why.
Glenda
