At
the end of last week we'd just had the explosion in The Joinery
causing the tram crash on Coronation Street. Cast your mind back, if
you will, to the carnage and devastation, death and destruction,
trouble in the rubble.
And John Stape wondering how he was going to get rid of
Charlotte's dead body after hitting her on the head with a hammer.
Well, Fiz went into labour in the knicker factory and there's
no gusset lining strong enough to stop that baby coming out. The
emergency services are working flat out, Doctor Carter's busy with
his stethoscope on Ciaran McCarthy's bare chest (excuse me while I
go ?phwoar') in the soup kitchen that is Roys Rolls where Roy and
Hayley are dishing out tea and sympathy. Fiz can't hold it any longer
and just in the nick of time, they get her to th'ospickle where she
gives birth to a premature baby girl that she names Hope. John's got no hope of his
own over Charlotte so he does a runner once he sees his baby born,
dashes back to the Street and drags Charlotte's body into the
rubble, making as if she'd been caught up in the crash. He pretends
he doesn't know her when the emergency crew pick her body up and
cart it off to hospital. "We'll have to be quick,"the paramedic
says. "Her pulse is very weak.? John can't believe his ears!
Us fans are stunned too! Charlotte's still alive? Not if John has anything to
do with it. He's back at the hospital and one minute he's coo-ing
over baby Hope and then he's in Charlotte's room with her parents,
pretending to be her fianc?e, agreeing to pull the plug out on her
life support machine. John then makes the mistake of going to
Charlotte's house, trying to find and destroy evidence of
Charlotte's stalking obsession of him as Colin. But just as he's
finding and sorting out the photos and diaries and memoirs of a
loony tune from her drawers and cupboards, in walks Charlotte's
parents. "Colin!"they say, a bit surprised, to say the least. "What
are you doing here?? He
mumbles his sympathy, agrees by default to be at her funeral, while
back at th'ospital baby Hope's got an infection and needs a blood
transfusion and John won't answer his phone. When he finally does
reach Fiz, she's beside herself with worry over their new baby girl.
Meanwhile, back on the Street, Ashley Peacock dies a hero
when The Joinery collapses on his head after he hangs on in there
long enough for both Peter and Nick to get out alive. Claire's
beside herself with grief, she can't bring herself yet to tell
little Freddie that his dad is dead. Little Josh, you'll recall
isn't actually Ashley's, or Claire's, he's the spawn of Maxine and
the too tall Doctor
Matt. Anyway, Claire hasn't yet told the boys the news. Graham
realises that Ashley's death means he's the only living person who
knows the Elliot & Son secret family recipe for saucy sausages.
Will Graeme keep that flame alive? He's got nowhere to live now
that his flat has been squashed by the tram and so Dev offers Tina
and Graham his empty flat up in Victoria Court, ah bless.
Anyway, the flames are still rising on the cobbles and bodies
are being unearthed from the rubble as Molly slips away and dies
while baby Jack survives. Sally does her best and nags Molly to stay
alive but Molly's deathbed words send a chill through Sally's heart
that will split up the Websters ? for good, this time? Sally now
knows that Kevin's baby Jack's dad and she throws Kevin out saying
she doesn't want him any more. Yeah, Kev, loser, you
should have never have been tempted by that Molly tart and her dead
?come and get your meat pie' eyes.
Elsewhere, Jason rescues little Simon from the flames and
gets a hero's welcome on the Street from everyone except Eileen, who
clips him around the ear and tells him never to do anything so daft
again in his life. But he's Jason, so he will.
And as the rescue services do their best on the Street, as
families and loved ones reunite and hug with relief that they're
still alive, someone's been almost forgotten about. It's Rita in the
Kabin, squashed by the bon-bons and flattened by Double Deckers.
It's not until Nick's freed that he mentions that Rita told him she
wasn't going out after all, she was going to have a quiet night in,
that it dawns on everyone that Rita could be dead! Rita! Dead?
There's a rush to the Kabin where Rita's pulled free from the
rubble, much to Norris' relief. And mine, I have to say. "What is it wi' me and
trams?"she says as she's carted away on a stretcher. Mind you, Mary's not
best pleased when Norris tells Rita that he doesn't care about the
Kabin, he doesn't care about the toffee creams that went up in
smoke, all he cares about is her. Fortunately for us Rita fans,
she's going to be fine. She's got cuts, bruises and is released back
home with her arm in a sling. Whether her big red hair will ever
recover its lustre and bounce remains to be seen but the doctors are
doing all that they can.
Over at the hospital, there's a lot going on, as you can
imagine. And in Peter Barlow's room there's a scene that had me in
tears. Peter's at death's door when he's dragged out of the Joinery
and Leanne and Ken are called in to say their goodbyes. Peter can
hardly breathe, never mind speak, but he demands to marry Leanne
right there and then in his hospital bed. A vicar's called and vows
are exchanged before Peter's sped into intensive care.
Heart-breaking stuff.
However, in her grief, Leanne's a little confused as to why
Carla's so cut up about Peter and indeed, why she's hanging round
the hospital at all, until it dawns on her that she's ?Carl' the
alcoholic whom Peter's been helping. The two women sling words at
each other in the hospital foyer. "He's got internal bleeding round
the heart!"Leanne cries to which Carla sniped back, "Oh, haven't we
all?"I loved that line. Carla tells Leanne she's
married the wrong man, she should have wed Nick. "You only married
Peter for his expiry date.?
I loved that line, too.
It's touch and go but Peter pulls through, his first words to
his new wife, Leanne: "Hiya, Mrs
Barlow.?
And in amongst all of this, Gary Windass sits alone on the
floor, cowering behind the sofa in his mam's house, reliving the
horrors of what he's seen in Afghanistan. The explosion, the tram
crash, it brings it all back to him, he's having terrifying
flashbacks of his best mate Quinny's death, of seeing war close at
hand. Shocking. Poor Gary.
And elsewhere this week, as if that wasn't drama enough,
Kylie returned demanding more money for Max. Steve and Becky were
frantic when they though they'd lost Max in the tram crash, but
Kylie had been and taken him away. She wants more money but Steve's
already cleaned out. Becky spies a way to pay her sister the cash
when she stumbles into Dev's corner shop that's been blasted by the
tram. In the back room, the safe's burst open, scattering ten and
twenty pound notes everywhere. Becky scoops the cash and rings Kylie
to tell her she's got her filthy money, and the McDonalds welcome
little Max back into their lives.
Finally this week, Nick's questioned by the cops over the
explosion at The Joinery. Nick reveals he knew there was a problem
with the gas on the afternoon of the explosion but he'd done nothing
about it. "You do know it's a legal requirement to report a problem
with your gas?"asks the copper. "No"said Nick. "No"said everyone in our
house. Well, we all know now.
This week's writers were Carmel Morgan, Simon Crowther, Chris
Fewtrell, Damon Rochefort, Martin Allen and the live episode was
written by Jan McVerry.
Find out more
about the Coronation
Street writing team.
http://coronationstreetupdates.blogspot.com/2008/11/exclusive-all-current-corrie-writers.html
Glenda
Young
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Blogging away merrily at http://flamingnora.blogspot.com