State of the Street - August 2011

Where last month was Barlow month, this month was Fiz month. Make sure you remember, she's got a suspended sentence on the fraud charges, that was thrown in there but the murder charges still stand. I guess they figure they could get her on that so more or less forgave the other charges that she actually admitted to. We have seen her dealing with the drugs dealer, Ruth and, having snitched, she's now terrified for her safety and that of her baby. It might be prudent to give that baby back to the Croppers now. I do wonder, though, as much as these women threaten to hurt Hope, if they actually would harm an infant. I think there's some that would be hard enough or damaged enough but overall, I don't think most women would have it in them to hurt a baby. Fiz can't be sure though.

I know a lot of people are tired of Becky but I'm not and I find it sad though inevitable that she and Steve have split. Now she has to face the prospect Max back on the street again with Kylie, Becky's worst nightmare. Meanwhile, Kylie and David are trying to modernise the salon with spa treatments that Kylie is supposedly learning in college. I think they've only just told her about them. It's good fun to watch though. Poor Kylie jumped from the frying pan into the fire with her attitude, lashing out and blackmailing Audrey. I knew from the first I would enjoy Kylie and Gail at each other's throats and I've not been proven wrong. I'm also not surprised that Kylie and David make such a really great couple. Kylie just goes from strength to strength as a character, played by the most excellent Paula Lane.

Seeing Becky bond with Hope was nice, too. The media of course screamed that Becky was going to run off with Hope when all she did was consider it but in the end only went to the park with the baby for a bit. I never thought she'd do it. You really do have to take the tabloid headlines with a grain of salt sometimes. It's a shame that there are people willing to sell storyline leaks to the tabloids and it's shameful the way the tabs try to manipulate readers.


And it looks like we'll soon see the end of the Gray family. I won't be sorry to see the three of them go. Dull, boring, pointless, just like their name. Gray. Dropped the plot of Chris's domestic violence though when he first came on the scene, Cheryl did say it only really started when he was unemployed and feeling very down on himself. I suppose you could use that to get round the apparent turnabout. Now he's grappling with a brain tumour. Heavy stuff and really, the actor isn't a bad one. But the problem is he's acting circles around the one that plays Cheryl. So the Gray family will be leaving and Lloyd is going to be stuck living with that awful bright pink sofa and that tatty pink flowered wallpaper! No wonder he'll be hiding out for awhile (in real life, the actor will be off for a bit filming a new series of Red Dwarf)

Frank is another character I don't really care about. I don't imagine he's in it for the long haul and he's being set up as a villain but having him pant after Carla like a puppy in heat is unworthy. No complaints about the actor, he's fine. But villains need to have a bit more about them and I just don't buy it. He doesn't have that edge like Tony did or even Richard Hillman. And for a smart (supposedly) man, he's pretty stupid. He proposes, in the middle of the pub which is pretty much tradition on Coronation Street, and when she turns him down, he figures she's still in love with Peter. Which she is. But when cornered, she says she'll marry him and he goes all gooey eyed.


Marc decided to come out on, coincidentally, Manchester Pride weekend. Sounds like calculated timing on the part of the Powers that Be. It was a brave move but unfortunately, everyone's including Audrey's reactions are more often the usual. At least, though there were a few jokes made at Marcia's and Audrey's expense, they weren't really mean spirited. Stella showed perfect landlady aplomb, she's probably seen it all anyway and Mary just wittered on idiotically as usual. I'm starting to this this character is past her sell by date.

Back home, once the shock and initial anger wore off, Audrey was calm and honest with Marc about not being able to cope the way she thought she should and the way she wanted to and tried to but couldn't, knowing that she just couldn't do what she knew was the right thing. It's sad to see her heart broken again but she handled it all the right way at least, rather than screaming and shouting though still angry at the start.

The storyline might have been ill-conceived and badly cast but I thought the concept was good. And, while these situations often will have a happy ending, (think of Roy and Hayley's situation which is different, but not all that dissimilar in some ways) having it end this way shows that things don't always get tied up in neat little packages, Happy Ever After and it was the right ending for a storyline like this that involved a character like Audrey and was very true to the character herself.