The ruination of Michelle Connor

When Michelle Connor first graced the cobbles, it was as a singer for Vernon's band. She was a much better singer than Liz who also auditioned and she got the gig. Vernon, of course, was a bit smitten and managed to get Michelle a job behind the bar of the Rovers. Michelle wasn't having any of Vernon's mucky paws on her glossy bonce but neither did she particularly want Steve McDonald's attentions either. He was also smitten but after more than a few false starts, she finally agreed that she might like to be Steve's girlfriend after all.

Therein lies the rub. What on earth would someone like Michelle see in Steve? She was hip, she was rock and roll, she had tattoos, she had manners! She was a young single mum who's husband was dead. Steve was balding, paunchy, he had tenuous apron strings to his mother, he had three marraiges (two ex-wives), a psycho sort-of-ex who was in jail for killing her lover and who is the mother of his child. You'd think Michelle would have run a mile. But noooo. She must have seen Steve as stability. She's struggling on her own with a teenage son. A man that owned two businesses must have seemed just the (meal) ticket. It's easy to see why Steve was attracted to Michelle. She's quite pretty and sexy, after all and let's face it, Steve is attracted to almost anything in a skirt anyway!

It seemed like the powers that be decided that Kym Marsh was going to be the feature actor on Coronation Street screens and with that in mind, they paired her with a major character and from then on it was non-stop front-burner storylines. It really contributed to making Michelle Connor an over-exposed and over-used character and, quite frankly, I think people are bored to death of her. In the process, they've taken her character from a flirty sexy woman to a woman with problem after problem, who seems to jump into bed with any bloke that looks her way. No wonder her son, Ryan, is now calling her a hypocrite for being upset when, at nearly 18, he and his girlfriend decide to have sex. Her angst at all that lasted about 5 minutes and she was off to a posh hotel for a romp with a man she'd only known five minutes. Nice one.

During the year or so that she was the character of choice, she had both brothers die in car accidents, one who was seeing prostitutes and had one in the boot of his car at the time of the crash, and the other who was cheating on his wife with his brother's widow and was killed by his lover's husband. Lots of reasons for Michelle to emote, her beringed hands constantly pressed to her forehead. If that wasn't enough, it was decided that her son was not her son and was switched at birth with another lad. The other lad was a handful and caused no end of upset. Michelle agonzied over wanting to know her biological son, most of the time at the expense of the boy she raised and then became jealous and upset when Ryan wanted to get to know his biological parents. All this, a major storyline, was soon forgotten. The biological son and Ryan's bio parents have disappeared and aren't even referred to at birthdays or Christmasses.

That's ok, though. The next major storyline for Michelle came hot on the heels of all this when Steve had a one night drunken fling with Becky. He covered, he lied, he fled to Spain, and when Michelle was about to figure it out, he proposed to her. She found out of course and chucked the ring into the bin. No longer engaged, she made Steve leave his own pub but eventually forgave him and they reconciled. She became bossy, imperious, she snapped her fingers, Steve jumped. Is it any wonder he ended up falling for good time girl Becky, a woman not all that far away in personality from his most recent ex-wife, loose cannon Karen.

Steve did the dirty on Michelle and fair enough, she was pretty ticked off and hurt when she found out. She took great pleasure in informing Becky that the shiny bling on her finger was the one Steve gave her. She'd picked it out to make sure it was pricey and then chucked it in the skip, remember? So really, she didn't want it anyway but made Becky feel like 2 pennies over it anyway and then, in drunken glee, and in front of the whole pub, made sure she was the one that told Becky that she was not Mrs. McDonald after a thwarted wedding. Becky was drunk and the registrar wouldn't marry them but she couldn't remember.

Dusting off her hands, her work there done, she sashayed next into Peter Barlow's storyline after Jane Danson left on maternity leave. No way to further that relationship so what do the writers do? Chuck Michelle at him instead. After all, he's a known womanizer just like his father. Ah but there's also handsome Luke Strong in the picture too and yes, she went out with him as well. In fact, she jumped into bed with one and then the other within a day of each other before she left town for awhile on a concert tour.

And was I glad to see the back of her for awhile! They had her at a low-ish profile when she returned but when Tony Gordon was revealed to be the man that murdered her brother, she went into hysterics at his court hearing and pretty much made the whole thing about her. As usual. But Michelle's back so we can't have her doing nothing, say the Powers that Be, the same ones that leave other, more interesting characters, like Hayley for instance, or Janice, in the storyline closet for Spare Parts for months on end. We can throw her back between Luke and Peter for a minute, until Leanne gets back, and, ooooh, I know, let's give her a job back in the bar with the man she lived with and his new wife, the one he cheated on her with, and let's give Michelle another man. And so they did. Jake the builder came in through the lounge window and saw her naked. I suppose that took all the guesswork out of it and it was inevitable that within 48 hours she was making doe eyes at him.

There are rumours that she will be put together with returning character Ciaran McCarthy and with Nick Tilsley in the picture, can a romp with him be far away? I think not. What better (that's said sarcastically) storyline than to have Michelle and her former sister-in-law Carla fighting over a man? (Carla is apparently going to be wooed by Mr. T in a bid for the factory)

If ever there was a character in need of a holiday in the spare parts cupboard, it's Michelle Connor. Over exposure and stupid, unbelievable storylines have turned her from a pleasant enough character into a screeching, bossy, man-tease. Enough already!