State of the Street - June

Coronation Street for June served up death, tragedy, sadness and not a little foreshadowing of more of the same. We started the month with the aftermaths of the deaths of Kal and Maddie, one a hero and one far too young to die.

The Corrie PR machine overuses the word "reeling" but in this case, Alya's grief really is the epitome of the word. This young woman has already lost her mother to cancer and now losing her father so suddenly to an awful death in a firey explosion has sent her into a spin.  She's angry. She's looking for someone to blame. She's trying desperately to find a away to keep living but nothing is normal for her anymore.

The arms of her family hold no comfort so she pushed away the arms of the man she loves and reached out for the arms of someone else, instantly regretting it. Now she's added guilt to her grief and keeping the secret is only eating her up inside. You know she's going to crack, you know you're going to see Gary thump Jason. I do feel for Alya and in spite of her former dedication to her religion and upbringing, I do think this is not out of the realms of a realistic reaction to her grief.

I do find myself wishing we would see a bit more of the rest of Kal's family who seem to be carrying on as if nothing had happened, going to Ramadan family feasts etc. I suppose you have to temper the storyline so it's not all grief all the time so they're focussing on one of the Nazirs for this.

We've also got young Simon having to deal with losing yet another important person in his life and we're starting to see the effects that all of his losses have had on him. It was bound to happen and I'm glad to see them going down that road. The pressure of so much loss in that child's life has to have an effect. If you thought David Platt went off the rails after just one divorce and an attempt on his life by his stepfather, you just wait until Simon really hits his stride!

As the child of an addict, I reckon Simon will be strung out on heroin before he's 18 if he's still in the show. (his mother, living with an alcoholic father, Grandma Blanche, Grandma Deirdre, Kal, Leanne and Nick splitting up, Grandma Stella leaving, too!) He'll never be able to have a good relationship with a girl/woman because down deep he'll always be afraid they'll leave him.

And then there's Faye who did the right thing allowing her baby to be raised by the other grandparents and the baby's father, who seems to show far more interest than Faye herself was able to. We forget that Faye's mother was a drug addict and that Faye was neglected, possibly abused and shunted from care home to care home. It's going to be a lot tougher for her to bond with a child and she knows from experience what it's like not to be wanted. She wouldn't want her baby to have a mother that resents her.

It would be nice if she did keep in touch and got to know Miley as she grows up, perhaps grow to love her later as she herself matures but usually on a soap, it's "out of sight, out of mind". I loved how Tim was besotted and he's really come into his own as a dad, too. I did find that Anna was dangerously close to being a bully in all this, with a major set of blinders on until she couldn't deny the fact any longer. Faye is right, Anna refused to listen to her and how she felt.

One storyline I'm still really enjoying is the Rodwell one. Michael finally found out that Andy isn't Gavin. It was a brilliant scene to watch. Every page of the photo album turned showed pictures of a boy who was more and more evidently not the one sitting beside Michael. Gail sounding positively idiotic in the background, waiting for the inevitable and asking Andy if he had been in a accident (to explain the difference in his features!)

Michael was rightly furious and very rightly left Gail. That's a pretty big lie to keep from someone for whatever good intentions. I know Michael realized that he met Gavin and remembered how vile and resentful Gavin was towards him and he thought he might have been able to change Gavin's mind. I don't think that would have happened. If Gavin hadn't died, his mother would certainly have continued to enforce her lifetime of vitriol against Michael, ensuring Gavin would never have come round.

I felt bad for Andy, who grew to love Michael as a father. We don't know yet how this is going to come out in the long run but Michael is thawing towards Gail even though he's currently backing off after Gail's fight with Eileen. Gail did say some pretty stupid and insulting things about Michael. I wonder if this is going to push Michael and Eileen together? Could happen. I suspect Eileen is already growing feelings for him.

Another cheer from me now that Kylie's back. The David and Callum shenanigans has been deadly boring and Sarah's interjection into the mix hasn't made it any better. Not surprised Sarah would take up with David's worst enemy. That was probably the main attraction in the first place. It's clearly not love's young dream. She's pretty stupid if she can't see he's still dealing but she was never the smartest cookie.

Now I'm waiting for Kylie and David to team up and kick Callum back into the heap of garbage where he belongs. That's what will help the two of them get back together, them against the boogey man. It'll be tough for Max so he'll have to see Callum do something hurtful to his mother or something so he won't hold it against Kylie and David for making his dad go away. Callum may have genuine parental feelings but it's not going to end well.

With any luck, he'll be in prison for a long stretch but, seeing as it's a soap, I predict that Callum will be killed. In true soap fashion, it'll probably be either David or Kylie arrested for the deed because the real murderer always ends up being someone that's not a main character or, at an outside bet, it's an accident but I doubt that will be the case. Callum's a drug dealer. There could be a lot of potential killers. I figure the "expendable crew member" will be Kylie's friend, Gemma, in self defence likely. She's already expressed a healthy fear of Callum.

Dev, Julie, Talisa. Dull. Dev got himself into a romance of his own making, his own imagination and fancy turning into a one way crush. Talisa came across too good to be true and she never showed any evidence of a mutual attraction to Dev and we found out why that was. So why was she there? Why did she follow Dev from India? Was she just using him as the excuse she needed to leave her husband? Will we find out? Will we care?

This is all contrived to push Julie possibly back to Brian and out the door which is the real shame. Julie will be missed. I don't know if she'll leave with Brian or go on her own. I'd like to see her insist on her own independence rather than going back to Brian. She said that ship had sailed and I think it has. Julie doesn't strike me as the sort that would try to catch the ship again at the next port of call. It just wouldn't be the same. Travel the world, Julie, have adventures!

Finally, we saw Jenny crack into pieces. She lost her own son and latched onto Jack to fill the empty spot. She started off reluctant to look after him, probably because it hurt being near a child. She ended up using him  as a surrogate Tom, and decided to run away with him. It had to end badly, of course, but you watched and your heart broke for her. Sally Ann Matthews really did play this one brilliantly. I thought it was a great storyline.

It was a shame that the writers forgot that Kevin lost his own son 15 years ago and the fans really pulled them up on it. It could have added a very poignant angle to the storyline ending. They apologized publically and I think they won't forget that mistake in a hurry. They're going to wear that one for awhile but if it makes them a bit more careful with Corrie history, it'll be a good thing.

Nick-Carla-Erica. Not that interesting. Don't think Nick works with either woman for a long term relationship. Tony has gone underground after the whole reveal that he and Tracy tried to take over the Rovers. That's unresolved at the moment so that will have to come back into it. Still don't care why Todd does what he does. Glad to see Fiz back. Hope she doesn't get all shouty and hateful towards Cathy who clearly has problems. I'd much rather Roy just continue to be her friend but we shall see how it pans out.

Summer on Corrie seems to be revolving around Deirdre's upcoming death and Simon's spinning out of control. And so it goes.