State of the Street July 2016

Kylie's dead! In a media onslaught, the week or so before the event, ITV released a whopper of a spoiler and  revealed that Kylie Platt was going to die. We knew Paula Lane was leaving the show and as far as we knew, Jack P. Shepherd was not so nobody could figure out how she would be leaving. It didn't seem likely she'd leave her family voluntarily again so now that we knew she'd die, it made sense. But how did she die? That was the question and speculation was rife.

I won't go into the episode where she died in too much detail, I've already done that here. I only have to add a few more observations about the way they filmed it. I've seen criticism about there not being very many people around or traffic for that time of evening (the EMTs declared her dead just before 5 or 6 p.m., without going to check, I forget which). In the real world, of course the street would have been busier. But this is television and that's not the story they wanted to tell. The shrank it down to focus on David and Kylie, family, one or two friends and the people who had other involvement in the story.

Sally is Gail's best friend. Freddie was Kylie's newest friend and a friend to Audrey. Gail had to be there for her son. Roy is the local first aider but you could see his face drop when he saw Kylie. He knew there was no hope. The few we did see during and just after were shocked to their core, breathless with the profound tragedy of a young woman dying from such senseless violence. Guilt from Craig over what could have been done to prevent it. Relief from Beth that her son didn't try to be a hero and get hurt himself. And Gail's recollection of her own role having to tell her child when his father was killed in a similar manner, urging David to make sure his children understood. It was heartbreaking.

The death was shocking and the aftermath was interesting to watch. Would David go right off the rails? No, he actually held it together, for his kids and for the family but it was eating him up inside.  Jack P. Shepherd had grown up on the show and turned into a real powerhouse actor and his performances this month as he reels in shock and tries to pick up the pieces of his life were superb.

What will happen to Max now? I do hope David goes ahead and adopts him or else Callum's mother might get her hands on him, as Max's only living blood relative aside from baby Harry. I should think if it ever did go to court, they would understand that it would be important to leave Max with the only family he has ever known, close to his sister and baby brother.

Leanne jumped into bed at the end of June and the identity of said man was not revealed to the viewer. Could it be Nick? Robert? Those were the two most likely candidates by all accounts but there's a third man thrown in that mix. It would never have been Zeedan, that was always a big, fat, red herring.

A couple of times in the week before we saw Leanne and Steve chatting which was a bit unusual. They've known each other nearly 20 years but have never really been anything more than acquaintances but with Steve and Michelle "on a break" over her near-fling with Will, Steve turned to Leanne's friendly shoulder. Nothing weird there, you say? Ah, but nothing on a soap happens without reason and that was the clue to the unseen mystery man.

Yep, Steve is the father which makes me laugh. Both times he was "on a break" in the past, once from his marriage to Karen and once from Becky, he had one night stands with Tracy. Tracy never expected to be able to get pregnant because of her kidney but both times she did. Amy was the first result and twins, sadly miscarried, were the second while his serious  attempts at daddyhood with Becky were fruitless. It turned out she was unable to carry a pregnancy though she could conceive. The same thing happened with Karen.

Here's another one night stand for Steve with a woman who didn't think she'd be able to get pregnant or carry a baby successfully. Super Sperm Steve to the rescue just when he's getting back together with Michelle and it looked like Leanne might reunite yet again with Nick (don't get me started on that one!). Leanne is determined to go through with the pregnancy if at all physically possible. Of course, coincidentally, Michelle wants to get pregnant, too, something she was dead set against up until now. And of course, she'll find out about Leanne. That sort of thing always comes out eventually. Whether she has her own baby remains to be seen but there's a very good chance they'll end up pregnant at the same time.

Doubtless, the stress of all that will NOT actually send Steve back into a bout of depression which would be realistic but he'll be twitching and gurning through the next 9 months with Liz shouting and glaring at him from behind the bar. Not a bad thing, I love Liz!

Phelan keeps trying to get his hands on Jason's bank account and continues to be thwarted by Eileen even though she doesn't realize she's in the thwarting business. He's playing a long game, however, and is determined to find a way but both a returned Michael and a suspicious Todd are both keeping an eye on him. Todd might be a bit distracted, though, now that he and Billy have admitted their attraction to each other once Billy and Sean have split up.

Bethany has continued to be bullied and has ruined her GCSE tests because of that and all the upset at home. It's too bad. Young people on Corrie rarely seem to get to university for one reason or another, even the ones that have potential or are even accepted at a school. I have high hopes for Craig. I hope he doesn't let me and his mother down! I know something will happen to give Bethany relieve and triumph over the bitches but I can't think what it will be at this point unless they finally just get bored and turn on someone else.


Sally and Tim continue to delight me. I loved Sally and Yasmeen's ongoing feud. It seemed like Yasmeen was still having a hard time dealing with Kal's death so turned her focus on Sally who was mildly irritating as a neighbour. Yasmeen seemed to decide to put her energies into making Sally look a fool and causing all kinds of trouble. The fun part of it was that often Sally would come out on top and Yasmeen's dirty little tricks would be foiled. It all culminated in Yasmeen holding a rival party which flopped and her subsequent invasion of Sally's party caused an uproar over the Mayor's dog. It all led to the two neighbours finally finding common ground and making peace.


Simon's not an angry child anymore. In fact, he's so completely changed that it feels like the powers that be have completely forgotten his previous anger issues. Counselling is good but is it really a miracle worker? It was with Simon who is helpful, cheerful and a lovely young man with absolutely no spark of temper in the least, even when you would have expected a flicker or two with a subsequent scene of him trying to control and get over the anger as he had been taught in his sessions.  When Leanne told him she was pregnant and wouldn't say who the father was, didn't anyone else expect him to lose his nut and accuse her of being a slag and as slut like he did last year? I still say that kid is going to end up going off the rails by the time he's 18.

Caz's lies were discovered and Kate has finished with her. I've never bought into that relationship, nor were we meant to. It was all a long game to get Kate and Sophie together but it's not over yet. Caz is desperate to win Kate back and she's woven Maria into her web of lies, playing the sympathy card. To tell you the truth, this storyline has been dull as ditchwater though I do have to say I like the actresses playing Caz and Kate quite a lot and would have liked Caz and Kate's ups and downs if it hadn't been so blatant that they were going to split them up and put Kate together with Sophie right from the start. That's not a bad thing, mind you. Sophie has become so dreary over the years that someone fun like Kate is just what she needs to bring some fun into her young life again. Let's just hope it doesn't have the opposite effect and Sophie doesn't drag Kate down into dreary-dom instead.

Jenny and Johnny may be considering a reboot of The Spy Who Loved Me! They're on and off and on again all month, including an unseen shag on the factory floor apparently. We only got to see the big kiss by the sewing machine. They're going to keep things under wraps and Jenny is going to be Johnny's eyes and ears with the rest of the staff. This is more like the old Jenny of long ago. Mischievous and a bit scheming, liking the challenge. It feels like she's back to her old self again and she's going to be fun to watch.

Tvor (Twitter @tvordlj)