State of the Street - December 2010

Didn't it start off with a bang?! It ended with one too!

The storylines geared up and things were at a breaking point for lots of families just before the crash and then the rest of the secrets burst out of the closet after the crash.

Anniversary week and the tram crash has been blogged and flogged by now so if you want to read my take on it go back through this blog to the anniversary week blog entries here.

In the aftermath of all that tragedy, there's a little hope, and a little Hope as Fiz's baby clings to her fragile life. I know Fiz will be a fantastic mother. She's not had much of an example other than how not to be a parent. It could have gone either way but i think Fiz will learn from her mother's mistakes. Fiz and Chesney both have come out pretty good, really.

Peter has a spine injury. There's always one after an accident, isn't there? Someone that can't walk but it's always temporary. Past similar victims included Ray Langton after a coach crash in the Lakes and Jim McDonald after falling into the skip. I bet his patience isn't going to be in long supply.

As for Teflon John aka John the Deceiver, his deeds have still not been discovered and he's still continuing to lie and live a double life, having had to go to Charlotte's funeral and pretend she was his lost fiancee and then spend Christmas with her parents as well. Why couldn't he just say he was spending it with his own parents? That is incomprehensible that he would say he had to go to New Zealand and then duck out of Chesney seeing him talking to her parents by accompanying them. It's a good thing all three funerals weren't in the same church. The Vicar might have been a bit surprised at one man with two different names! Why on earth would he think none of Charlotte's and his former colleagues would be at the funeral? That, at least, was quite funny really, seeing them wave at him cheerfully from the back of the chapel!

You forget, don't you, that Nick and Ashley used to share a house way back when Nick and Leanne were first married. We were promised four funerals in the ad campaign. That was a hook and they made the fourth death an unknown person. Ok, fair enough. It did keep us guessing. But we didn't get three funerals, we only got two, the two that would have had the most drama, or storyline significance. The significance to Ashley's funeral was about Claire finding out about Nick's part in not reporting the gas problem so there probably wasn't a point to showing the funeral though it's a bit of a let down for Ashley fans. Still, that would be two funerals in two days plus another one on Monday and maybe they thought that was just a bit too much.

Molly's funeral of course, pushed ahead the storyline where Tyrone found out that Kevin betrayed him and had an affair with his dead wife. Much more drama there, right? And i have been waiting for Sally to tear a strip off Kevin and throw him out for over a year and a half and she hasn't let up yet. There he is with all his family against, him, a pariah in the neighbourhood, subject of everyone's gossip and he's got landed with the baby, the innocent child. Even Sally couldn't completely ignore that though I can fully support that seeing that child hurt her terribly. Twice the reminder of Kevin's betrayal.

And poor Tyrone!!! He really has lost absolutely everything. If i was him i'd be going after Kevin to buy out his half of the business, selling up and leaving. I'm half afraid that's what's going to happen at some point because how on earth could Tyrone live in the same street as Kevin?

There was some whacking great acting this month, some award winning stuff. Alan Halsall, Sally Dynevor, Jane Danson and Julia Haworth in particular blew me away. Watching Claire try to make some sense of the accident, blaming Nick, knowing it really was an accident but she's angry and grieving.

Tracy Barlow is back with a vengeance and someone seems to have had vengeance on her, too. Who attacked her? You just know she's going to blame Steve so she can get custody of Amy. Becky, of course, is the most obvious one after Steve himself and soap law says the obvious are never the guilty ones. It'll either be one of the men she's been bed hopping with or... I bet it could have been Kylie! Yes! Defending her sister for once! She's a tough little nut, that Kylie. Maybe Claire? Tracy could have pushed her too far or she over heard Tracy haranguing Steve or Becky and she snapped. I could see that happening too since Julia Haworth is leaving anyway. We will know soon enough.

I can't say i'm happy about Tracy's return. She's far too over the top and far too horrible. I don't even like to hate her like some characters, i just don't like her and she's not got a redeemable quality. Loves her daughter? Perhaps, but she only uses that child for the advantage she can get over anyone else. When a character is unredeemable, there's not a lot you can do with them. They become a one-note character with no depth. She killed someone in cold blood already. She can't be allowed to get away with it. Either her retrial will send her back or she'll get killed and there will be another who dunnit, the guilty party being someone that's leaving or someone that isn't as important. Time will tell and it'll be painful while we wait. The only bright spot was Gail taking on Tracy in the pub on Christmas eve. Gotta hand it to her, she's tiny but mighty!

Poor Gary is going through hell of a different kind. Between the post traumatic stress and the guilt for not helping out the night of the disaster, the poor boy has so much rage bottled up inside he's going to go explode and there better not be any trams or vehicles nearby when he does. Don't you just want to give him a cuddle and tell him it'll be ok? Since we know now that Steve Huison is leaving Corrie, I wonder if this means all the Windasses will be gone? They've really grown on me and i'll hate to see them go, every last one of them. That house, Number 6, seems to have a curse on it for families. Ever since Des Barnes was killed on the premises, no family has been happy there for long.

Usually there's at least one family that has a good Christmas. I'm not sure anyone had one this year. I suppose Norris, Emily and Rita did but pretty much every other family was touched with negativity and/or sadness in one form or another. Christmas was pretty depressing for pretty much everyone else. My heart broke for Tyrone and for Claire and i shook my head in disgust over Tracy and also over Leanne and Nick canoodling in the ginnel. They never learn.

So we end the year and the month on not a very high note. December was full of tragedy in so many ways.