2012 Wrap up and awards

This is a list of off beat awards I find myself making notes on through the year. Most of them are not the usual "Best Actor, storyline" etc. though there are one or two of them. Some have two winners. They're just for fun and my own opinions. Down the post further is just a quick summary of the storylines by family unit, again mostly just to jog my own memory, and not really to touch on every single storyline, just the more prominent ones.

Conversation Street podcast also did a year end awards and wrap up with 2013 predictions, it's good fun and you can listen to it here. 


Shortest marraige ever:
Tracy and Steve. It blew apart at the reception.

Disaster wedding: (Tie)
Tracy and Steve. See above.
Leanne and Nick.

When will it be over storyline:
Karl and Sunita's affair

Creeped out award:
Stella and Jason.
Eileen's relationship with Paul while dealing with his wife's Alzheimer's.

Creating the most havoc award:
Ryan Connor
Eva Price

Best right hook:
Leanne and Carla's most recent fight

Best (Worst?) plot twist:
Tina to be Izzy's surrogate
Marcus and Maria get together

Stupidity thy name is...
Steve MacDonald. How many of his "cunning plans" come back to bite him?

Rewriting history:
Annie Walker could not bequeath the Rovers to Betty because she didn't own it, Newton and Ridley did.
Ryan never once mentioned that Michelle wasn't his real mother during their many arguments

Best return:
Gordon Clegg (but for sad reasons)
Terry Duckworth (I know he's horrible but he always makes things interesting for me)
Wendy Crozier (for giving Deirdre jealous hissy fits)

Most ruined character:
Sunita Alahan

Curly Watts Loser in Love award
Jason Grimshaw (two in one year)

Mary Taylor

Love the one you're with Award:
Leanne got back together with Nick.
Steve got back together with Michelle.

Most enjoyable couple:
Julie and Brian

Best Wedding
Dennis and Rita, even with all the loan shark angst.

Deirdre Barlow "I Didn't Do It" Award:
Peter Barlow who was arrested for killing Frank Foster.

Best suited new couple:
Tina and Tommy (even if they ended the year apart)
Kirk and Beth

Worst suited new couple:
Karl and Sunita

Most missed character:
Becky McDonald

Least missed character:
Rosie Webster

Best new characters
Beth and Craig
Gloria Price

Dullest new character
Rob Donovan

New character with potential:
Mandy

Bizarre couple:
Tracy and Ryan
Stella and Jason

My Most Embarassing Moment:
Hayley calling out Mary on her crush on Roy

Bad Decision award:
David taking over the Salon when Lewis and Audrey get back together.

Best Actress:
Natalie Gumede

Best Actor:
Alan Halsall

Best Exit:
Becky popped Steve and Tracy's happiness balloon and then jetted off to the Barbados with her handsome prince and little lad.

Best storylines:
Domestic Abuse
Rita and Dennis' romance
Frank's downfall (trial and murder)
Salon Wars


Major storylines:
Becky's Exit
Frank's rape trial
Frank's murder
Peter and Leanne's breakup over Carla/custody battle/
Steve and Tracy's war

Paul and Eileen and Lesley
Katy's Post Natal problems
Gary and Izzy's baby/surrogate
Terry Duckworth's return/Rick the loan shark
Kirsty and Tyrone's domestic abuse storyline
Salon Wars
Sophie's car accident
Ryan's return and drug struggle/Tracy Barlow
Peter and Carla's return/Nick and Leanne's non-wedding
David's baby blues
Marcus finds love with Maria
Lewis' return and potential revenge on Gail for breaking up he and Audrey

Storylines by family:

Barlows of Number 1
Deirdre supports Tracy's lies about Becky.
Tracy and Steve marry but Becky exposes Tracy's lies.
Tracy makes friends with Beth when they are temporary housemates
Tracy continues to chase Steve, gets ill, Steve raises her hopes yet again
Tracy chases Ryan Connor to get back at Steve and Michelle, pretend she's pregnant and dumps Ryan when he proposes.
Ken encounters old flame Wendy Crozier and chooses Deirdre!

Barlows junior
Peter and Carla's affair revealed. Leanne leaves Peter, Simon wars with Carla
Peter on and off the wagon
Peter confesses/arrested for Frank Foster's murder
Peter and Leanne custody battle over Simon leading to...
Peter and Carla leave town for awhile.
Leanne and Nick reunite
Peter and Carla return, Carla leaves, Peter stays for Simon
Peter makes beeline for Leanne
Carla returns.
Leanne still wants Peter who knocks her back for Carla which Eva reveals at Nick and Leanne's wedding.
Leanne re-proposes to Nick.

Connors
Ryan returns from uni, struggles with cocaine addiction, causes Sophie to be hit by a car.
Carla's brother Rob gets out of prison, runs factory with Michelle
Rob dates and dumps Eva, chats up Stella
Rob sabotages factory accounts to get a low evaluation in order to buy it
Carla and Peter's affair
Frank's rape trial
Carla contends with Frank back in the factory
Frank's murder - Carla and Peter both suspects but his mother did the deed


Windasses/Armstrongs
Gary and Izzy reunited, miscarraige, surrogate (Katy, Tina)
Anna and Owen breakup over his rough handling of Faye, reunite at Jubilee party
Faye bullied at school
Katy's post natal depression

Platt/McIntyre/Tilsley
Lewis Archer returns, makes up with Audrey, instigating the Salon wars
Lewis and Audrey broken up by Gail and Gloria's scheming/Lewis plotting revenge on Gloria and Gail
Kylie and David deal with Brian re Max's school lunches
David at war with Audrey over the salon, Kylie and David temporarily separate.
Nick and Leanne reunite and almost marry.
Kylie wants to make something of herself but David wants a baby
Kylie's one night stand with Nick

Websters
Sally and Frank's affair
Sian and Sophie breakup
Rosie and Jason breakup, Rosie leaves Weatherfield
Sally and Kevin almost reunite but Sally can't accept baby Jack
Kevin buys Number 13.
Sophie car accident with back injury
Sophie's crush on physio Jenna

Prices
Stella supports and advises everyone
Karl's gambling escalates
Karl and Sunita's affair/ Stella and Karl's breakup
Eva and Nick breakup
Eva and Rob breakup
Eva working at factory
Stella's mother Gloria arrives, enters Rovers in Pub of the Year contest
Eva breaks up Nick and Leanne by outing Leanne wanting Peter


Stape/Battersby
Katy struggles with motherhood, later offers to be surrogate for Izzy.
Fiz supports Tyrone
Fiz and Tyrone affair
Fiz gets carbon monoxide poisoning

Alahans
Amber leaves
Sunita's affair with Karl
Alahans break up

Dobbs
Tyrone and Kirsty pregnant and engaged.
Baby Ruby born
Kirsty manipulates Tina and Tommy out of Tyrone's life
Kirsty abuses Tyrone.

Grimshaws
Eileen moves Paul and Lesley in
Jason and Rosie break up and Rosie leaves.
Jason moves into his flat with Tommy and Tina
Jason sells flat to Julie and Brian
Sean and Marcus break up
Jason and Maria reunite
Julie has cancer scare, operation, cannot have children.
Eileen and Paul together after Lesley dies.
Jason and Maria break up.

McDonalds
Steve and Tracy at war because she won't agree to an annullment.
Steve reconciles with Michelle while helping her with Ryan, moves in with Michelle.
Lloyd returns and he and Steve partner up again after a brief falling out.


Kabin
Rita and Dennis become engaged and marry

Croppers
Sylvia meets Milton, nearly leaves with him but stays in Weatherfield
Sylvia flies to U.S. to nurse Milton.
Mary crushes on Roy
Roy and Hayley visit California

Miscellaneous
Tommy and Tina get together and break up over Surrogacy
Tina supports Tyrone's affair with Fiz
Terry Duckworth returns, runs off with Tommy's money and much of Tyrone's
Tommy and the Loan Shark
Weatherfield in Bloom
Cafe theme nights
Lloyd finds old flame Mandy and daughter he didn't know he had, Jenna
Kirk and Beth get together.
Beth and son Craig move onto the Street, Beth works in factory
Death of Betty Williams

Corrie Christmas

My Christmas this year, as usual, had a Coronation Street element to it. In addition to the 2013 calendar, I also found these under my tree. They're made by Lilliput Lane and the detail in them is exquisite! They each sit up to 2 inches high and have detail all around front and back.

The corner shop has the pillar post box and a cat lurking. The back "yard" is empty.

The Kabin doesn't have anything behind besides the bricks and doesn't have the side doors to the flats but there are lots of little bits in the windows at front as you can see.

Now here, you can see the Duckworth house in all it's yellow and blue glory. The back is exquisite, with the little pigeon loft and a few birds on the ledge.

Last but not least is the Rovers Return. The signs, the windows, the frosted glass. Lovely! In the back is the yard with the empty barrels. No smoking shelter but this is the classic pub!

Each of the houses comes with a little deed and description of the houses. Unesco sells the houses and you can get them from H. Samuel which is where these were purchased. Other good gift stores that carry the Lilliput Lane brand will also carry them and there are various places online that sell them including Amazon.co.uk, Edwards China and Gillygifts. There are many other sites as well, just put "lilliput lane coronation street" into your favourite search engine. There will be a few more released in 2013.

Peter's Choice

It was a rough old week on the cobbles for Peter Barlow. He's returned with a Zen attitude and found himself right in the middle of a conundrum. He's had to choose between his child and his partner and it's a tough spot to be in.

He wanted to see Simon for Christimas and that was that so Carla came with him, against her better judgement. As she accused him, it's always what he wants. It does seem to be that way, too. One whiff of a little boy's puppy dog tails and Carla was hitting the bottle though Peter seems to be doing well on that score. She spent most of the next two days on the sauce including a rerun of the plot where she goes to the school to pick up Simon while drinking. He grabbed her keys and ran off like a smart little boy. Peter hollered at her, why did she take the car when it's only around the corner. Indeed.

I did think the fight between Leanne and Carla was a good one. Lately a lot of the squabbles on the cobbles have been a washout but this was right up there with Sally and Natalie and the classic one between Gail and Eileen in their dressing gowns. No, nothing can really beat that one but Leanne really did round on Carla and wallop her. You can't take the Battersby out of the girl and Leanne was furious that Carla was going to drive drunk (or near enough) with Simon in the car and you don't rile a mother hen, do you! Carla also made things worse and pretty much had that left hook coming. 

Why does anyone pick up their kids and walk them to and from school when it's only around the corner and they're not 5 years old? That's one thing that's long irritated me.

But I digress.

Carla can't take the pressure and there are a lot of bad memories for her in Weatherfield, to be sure. I wonder if some of it isn't the spectre of Leanne. Surely someone like Carla can handle a child not liking her. The feeling is mutual with most children for her anyway but having Leanne around is another thing. After all, if they run around on their spouses with you, they could very well run around on you and Leanne and Peter have unfinished business and unresolved feelings, it's pretty clear. She's more of a threat to Carla than Simon.

Then again, an awful lot of new couples have a very rocky time when it comes to step children who put the natural parent in a tight spot. Children should be the priority but a lot of kids know it and play on it, like when Simon got angry that his father was leaving again and said that Nick was his new dad. He knew that was the worst thing he could say. Add to that the healthy (or unhealthy) amount of guilt Peter has about leaving Simon and you have a recipe for disaster. Peter has let down Simon more times than Carters has little liver pills in his short life and well he knows it.

Again we have Ken's abandoning of Peter making inroads as well. Peter doesn't think him leaving Simon is the same thing. It isn't, but it is, too. Maybe Simon has a mother to care for him where Peter didn't but after all the times Peter's let Simon down, with this on top of it all, doesn't Peter think that Simon would group up resentful every bit as much as Peter did? Don't repeat the cycle, man!

Simon is very good at playing Peter and did so when he ran off to find his dad at the airport. It came down to a final choice and Carla knew it as soon as Simon ran through the doors. Peter had to put Simon first and  Carla made him do it. Simon had no empathy whatsoever when Peter saw Carla off tearfully.

I did have to laugh though, after Carla and Peter checked in and later, Carla was running for the boarding call? They filmed that in the walkway between the terminals at Manchester airport. She was still outside of security, in the next terminal actually. She had quite a hike to the terminal from the look of how much moving walkway was behind her, and from the terminal, a good distance from the gates once she got through the lengthy security lines. Trust me on this.

Anyway, now Peter is staying in Weatherfield, in Carla's flat, I assume, for now, and Nick isn't going to be too happy about it. He knows down deep Leanne still loves Peter in spite of the hurt and pain though he won't admit it. Peter might be all calm, cool and California Collected but I happen to think he's also had a Zen course in smug. He smirked when he found out the Vegas wedding was off and had another one of those smirks when telling everyone he was staying. With Carla out of the picture, is he going to try to work his way back into Leanne's heart if only to get his own back on Nick?

Nothing would surprise me. 

Is Eva the new Raquel?

If you watched Corrie in the 1990s you may remember Raquel Wolstenhulme. She's the tall, leggy blonde barmaid that enchanged Curly Watts and eventually broke his heart when she finally grew up and wanted something of her own, something he couldn't give her. Raquel had a misguided sense of style with tight tops, short skirts and little fripperies in her hair.

She had airs above her station, with a burning desire to be a model though never really made it past Miss February on a lads' calendar (with her clothes on, mind.) Raquel also always fell for the wrong men, men who desired her but never loved her and the one man that did love her, Curly, was her safety net when she couldn't have the one she really wanted, Des Barnes.

More and more, I'm seeing parallels with our Eva Price. She's blonde, she's not the sharpest knife in the drawer, she falls for men who don't really want her, she's their "Miss Right Now" instead of the love of their life. Her sense of fashion is getting more and more "out there" with bows and decorations in her hair that are starting to worry me and dresses that are only half there. I'm not the only one to notice the similarities. Flaming Nora blogged it and David has also become a fan on the Coronation Street Blog as well. I forgot about those posts when I started to write this!

Mind you, she fills out those dresses like liquid and she looks great in them, but it does detract when she turns around and you see the whole of her bra across her back. Maybe she's just making it easy for the fellas? I dunno.

She's makes tragic choices in men, too, just like Raquel. She showed up on our screens, having dumped her fiance whom she found cheating on her. She seems to have latched on to Nick who dated her for awhile but Leanne was the one he really wanted. She took up with Rob when we all knew he wasn't serious about her. He chatted up her mother behind her back and Eva caught him in a hotel room with a random waitress.

Now's she's got her sights set on Nick again. Nick, who dumped her and then took up with her newly discovered half-sister. If she has her way, she will successfully break up Nick and Leanne or at least ruin the wedding. I've heard she may even try to outshine the bride with her bridesmaid outfit. I shudder to think.

All she needs to complete the Raquel transformation is to find a really nice bloke to fall for her, but someone that she wouldn't wipe her stilettos on until every other man breaks her heart. I would have said Tyrone would be the type of man to fit that role but of course he's got his own tragedy unfolding. How about a new character? A nice, steady working postman or drayman perhaps?

I think Eva may have a little more on the ball than Raquel. I think she's perhaps a little less naive and she's certainly able to stand up and fight for herself when wronged, something Raquel never really did. Raquel didn't have a bitchy bone in her body but Eva excels in it when the need arises. 

Having said all this, I do like Eva. I like her snarkiness, her fashion faux pas, her comic timing and to be honest, even though it's not my "bus", she's hot!