Ted Paige, The Voice of Reason

I'm quite fond of characters that are Voices of Reason. After all, that's what "Tvor" stands for! Emily Bishop is, of course, the Queen of Reason and Roy Cropper is the Prince. There's a new contender, though and that's Ted Paige. Ted quickly established himself as having both feet firmly on the ground. He's pragmatic, unjudgemental, loyal, insightful and he's not at all as boring as that sounds! He's just what the manic Platts need to haul them back down to ground when they go flying off in all directions, he is stability in the face of absolute mayhem.

He has made friends with the other almost-voice of reason, Ken Barlow (whose womanizing ways and overly superior attitude remove him from being one of the contenders, at least in my book). When he discovered Ken's most recent affair, he didn't judge. He didn't encourage it but he didn't tell Ken he shouldn't be doing it, either. He pointed out the issues, the plusses and minuses, but basically just supported Ken in whatever decision he came to. That's a true friend.

Lately, he's been the inadvertent victim of one of David's schemes to lay waste to the Windasses and even though he knows David is to blame, he forgives. He made it clear that he's very disappointed in his grandson and that probably hurt David more than his mother's hands off attitude because Ted is probably the one person that David respects. That's because Ted has had the measure of David from the first day they met, when David was banged up in the Youth detention centre and accepted him anyway yet making it clear he wouldn't stand for any of David's crap and attitude.

Even Gail stands up and takes notice when he speaks, and when he put his foot down and demanded the Platts and Windasses put the feuding behind them, even she grudgingly went along with it. He knows it's not fair to take it out on the parents for the error of their son's ways yet he didn't blame Gary for his heart attack either even though Gary broke into Audrey's house and nearly scared the life out of him, literally.

I like, no, I love Ted. He's the ideal granddad, he's a gentleman, he's a Voice of Reason and I hope we have him around for a long time. I think he adds greatly to the Platt canvass and that's definitely a good thing.