The year of the Platts

2013 was definitely the Year of the Platts on Coronation Street. What began on Christmas Day, 2012 had repercussions that are still having an impact today, early in 2014. I, for one, have enjoyed the ride!

We began with Kylie and David "on a break" and Nick jilting Leanne at the altar, having discovered that she'd ran after Peter earlier that day. She could possibly be forgiven, as Peter, thinking Carla had left him, made a beeline for the other woman he knew he could charm. Carla came back, Leanne was a distant memory but she didn't know it until she went to Peter to offer to call off her own wedding and saw Carla behind Peter. What to do? Marry Nick anyway and hope he never found out. Fail.

Nick and Kylie had a one night stand to soothe their pain and it all kicked off from there. Nick and Leanne made up and so did Kylie and David but, this is Soap land, and one of the prime Soap Opera Plot Devices states that if you have sex with the wrong person, you will get pregnant. Yep. And ironically, the main reason Kylie and David had temporarily split is because he wanted a baby and she didn't. Now she's up the duff and doesn't know who the daddy is.

Thing is, she'd confessed all to her mother-in-law, which was probably not such a good idea and was then persuaded not to give up the baby like she planned. It might be Nick's but it might be David's. Kylie began walking the tightrope.

David found out and went right off the rails, but since he couldn't face losing Kylie, who should carry equal blame for the fiasco, he directed his rage against Nick, the older brother he'd always resented anyway. He tried to ruin Nick, both in business and in his marraige to Leanne (which had taken place a few weeks after the jilting), all the while playing up to Nick's sympathies and pretending to be the concerned brother. That culminated in a near-fatal car crash when Nick finally figured out David was behind all the tricks and confronted him. David tried to take control of the steering wheel to stop Nick from telling all to the family. They came to a stop in the middle of an intersection and a large truck (lorry) was unable to stop and smashed into them on Nick's side of the car.

I still don't believe that David tried to kill Nick even though everyone else has accused him of that (once the truth finally came out because it always does). But even so, his actions did result in the crash so he was still responsible for Nick's injuries.  Nick survived but is suffering from brain damage which has caused him to have uncontrolled rages and is breaking down his marraige as Leanne struggles to cope.

While Nick recovered, he insisted that David do a paternity test on the little baby girl that Kylie produced. The test was sloppily done, in my opinion with only a sample from David and the baby sent away. Why not one from Kylie and Nick as well? Nick would have been happy to contribute and he could have managed a few strands of Kylie's hair from a hairbrush. Never mind. It turned out that David was the father, much to Nick's disappointment.

When Kylie found out about the test she went ballistic, realizing finally that David had known all along about the paternity issues and that he was behind the hate campaign and accident.  She outed David in front of the family at baby Lily's christening in classic soap style.

The whole family turned against David. The only reluctant friend he had was Tina but even that friendship caused her own relationship to blow up so she pushed David back out again. Rather than see him homeless, Audrey took him in at Gail's request even though Gail wasn't ready to forgive him. Maternal instincts are strong!

Inch by inch, David has been working his way back into his family and job at the salon. He's very, very contrite and remorseful but Nick was having none of it and insisted on the family taking sides. You can't blame him, he feels David has ruined his life. Kylie was angrier and angrier and when she saw that the family was beginning to warm up to David again, albeit reluctantly, it was her turn to go off the rails.

Kylie never had any self confidence. She never thought she was worth having a good life because she was brought up to believe she was less than nothing. She thought having a family of her own, a home, a job, all of that was too good to be true and now she's been made to pay for it. She spiralled downwards into a bottle until she hit bottom. Finally, David and Kylie were able to be honest with each other. Kylie took her share of responsibility for her fling with Nick and she and David have reconciled, much to Nick's dismay.

It's not quite over. Nick is still struggling and he's pushing his beloved Leanne away because he fears he'll hurt her after lashing out and slapping her on Christmas Day. She's just as determined to stand by her man but it looks very much like things will get worse before they get better. I'm glad they're not having Nick experience a miraculous recovery. It's far more realistic and it's continuing to have twists and turns. I have been speculating for the past few weeks that Leanne will have a fling herself, probably with Kal, Nick's new trainer. After many months of worry, stress and anxiety, and add Nick's rejection of her at the moment, and she's ripe for it.

Will Nick and Leanne manage to come out of it happy? It's hard to say. Nick has loved Leanne all his life and surely would want nothing more. If she has a fling, he'd be devastated but would probably blame himself for pushing her to it. We'll get more huffing and puffing from Gail who would certainly believe that Leanne is no better than Gail ever thought she was for hurting her baby boy yet again.

I have enjoyed the storyline, long though it was. All the actors involved were excellent and I felt that even Kylie's weeks of self destruction was completely understandable and far better than just one or two drunken nights with epic hangovers.  I realized that on top of the storyline covering Hayley's terminal illness, Corrie has been rather grim overall of late, but with performances like these, in both storylines, it's Corrie at its best.

Gail's Conundrum

Gail now knows that Nick may be the father of Kylie's baby so she's the baby's grannie no matter which way it goes. Part of her must think that all of her Christmases and birthdays have come at once! Imagine! She could blow the lid off both marraiges and get rid of both of her detested daughters-in-law! But there's a very good chance she'd also lose both of her darling boys.

What's a monster-in-law to do?

She's got ammunition to hold over Kylie's head for the rest of her married life. It's too bad someone didn't remind her that she had an affair once and Sarah Lou's paternity was in doubt. That was a full blown affair, too, not just a drunken one night stand. Hypocrite, thy name is Gail (add  last name of choice here).

While Gail is thoroughly dislikeable these days, I am really enjoying this storyline. And, trying to look at it from her point of view, she's lost a lot. She's been humiliated and financially wiped out and has found someone that significantly contributed to that. You'd want revenge if it was you, would you not? You'd want the person to pay. If Kylie had done it out of spite or a cut of the cash, Gail would be well within her rights to go to the police but Kylie got herself into this mess due to her own bad judgement and was blackmailed into getting Gail's bank details. It doesn't make it right but the circumstances are a bit more sympathetic.

I know you're all saying, "But Gail got herself into this mess". You'd be right, of course. She made a huge error in judgement when she connived to break up Lewis and Audrey. By jumping to the wrong conclusion, she jumped right off a cliff. With her lousy track record in the romance department, of course she was wide open for a con no matter that she knew his history so well she used it against her own mother. Gail just isn't that bright and is too desperate for a flattering word.  She, like most of us, wants to be swept off her feet and Lewis swept all her doubts out from  under her. The tarnished knight pulled her up onto that big, white, horse and it's a long fall down from there.

 Now Gail has to decide whether to break up both of her sons' marraiges or suck it up. If she keeps quiet, how on earth is she going to be able to keep it in for long? We all know these things come out and always at the worst time. Now that Sally knows, too, there are even more leaks in the dyke.

It might have been easier for Kylie to tell David she'd had a one night stand if it hadn't been Nick who stood with her. David and Nick are at loggerheads a lot and David, though he does love his brother, resents him and is probably jealous down deep that Nick is mummy's first born and the apple of her eye, in his mind at least. Gail has a firm grip on the apron strings on all three children though Sarah has managed to loosen them considerably.

I have no idea how this is going to come out. Will Kylie reveal her secret to David before Gail can? Will she be able to find out the paternity of the baby first? If it's David's, then the secret might die. But if it isn't, and in soap world where you need to keep the conflict going, there's a very good chance it will be Nick's baby. Now that Sally knows, there's more holes spurting water to be plugged but I have a feeling Sophie's going to overhear a conversation and we all know how righteous Sophie can be. She may well end up spilling the beans. Also, according to the way soaps usually work, David and Kylie break up, there's an outside chance that Nick and Kylie could end up together with Leanne glaring and David snarling at them from across the cobbles. I hope not, though. I do like David and Kylie together. It'll be interesting to see this unfold.

Time will tell.

Character Study: Gail Potter Tilsley Platt Hillman McIntyre

Many Coronation Street fans these days regard Gail Platt as a bitter, miserable, bossy woman, a clone of her horrible mother-in-law, Ivy Tilsley. I think Gail is a wonderful character and she's one of my top characters. She's also another one, like Sally Webster, whose personality hasn't really changed all that dramatically over the years, just progressed in a logical pattern due to life circumstances.

Gail Potter was the second child of teenage Audrey Potter. Audrey had a son, Stephen, a year or so earlier and was forced to give him up for adoption. She dug her heels in and insisted she keep her daughter. Audrey was not the most responsible single mum and Gail pretty much raised herself with some help from Audrey's parents while Audrey spent her time gadding about and chasing boys. Gail was the responsible one, and as a result, Gail had to be tough, strong and independent. What Gail missed most was the security and support of a real family.

When we met Gail, she was 16 and working in the Mark Brittain warehouse. She was soon living on her own, sharing a flat with Tricia Hopkins (photo above), and later with mate Suzie Birchill. Gail liked to have fun but always seemed to be the more sensible of the two, going along for the ride rather than instigating the escapades. She had her heart broken early by an older married man, Roy Thornley, the first of many. Career wise, Gail has often been in a supervisory position, even at that young age. Clearly she had the personality for telling people what to do!

She met her future husband, Brian Tilsley and he appeared to be everything she wanted. Good looking, with a full time job and a loving family, he was the ideal man; someone she could settle down with and have a family of her own. Gail's strong and bossy side soon came out, trying to force spendthrift Brian to save every penny for a house and her independent side surfaced when she insisted on working, even after her children were born. She had to stand her ground many a time over the years against her interfering mother-in-law who never really approved of her.

She and Brian even split up for a time after she turned to his cousin for comfort when her marriage was going through a rocky patch. A single mother, something she never wanted to be, was a hard row to hoe and in the end, she and Brian reconciled. She soon realized she made a mistake. She couldn't be the wife Brian wanted, someone like his mother who would cook and clean and look after him and his children above all else. After a massive row over a potential divorce, however, Brian was killed in an alley outside a club and Gail was now a widow.

Not only did she have to deal with her own and her children's grief, but she had to deal with guilt and even worse, Ivy's grief and anger. Strength and determination helped get her through this period and she soon found herself leaning on young Martin Platt who was a great help with young Nicky.

Even though she found love again, Gail's stubborn streak caused many a ruction in that house. She was always afraid she'd lose Martin to a younger woman and nearly terminated a pregnancy because she didn't want the young man to be tied down but he persuaded her to have the baby, David. They married, Martin adopted Gail's two children and they bought a house on Coronation Street, all of which Gail had initially not wanted to do, preferring the safe to the unknown. Martin's optimistic youthfulness was good for Gail, it helped lighten her a bit and he was more than willing to take on his share of responsibility.

But in the end, Martin let her down and did indeed leave her for a younger woman. Gail then had to deal with the shock of having her 13 year old daughter become pregnant. Gail was not only a single mother again, but helping to raise a grandchild.

She lost one of her best friends to cancer and it wasn't long after that when she married again, a man she thought would give her the security and love she was always looking for. He turned out to be a murderer, nearly killing her whole family and leaving her in debt and doubt about herself. Is it any wonder she started clinging to them and insisting she knew what was best for them?

The next really serious relationship was with Joe McIntyre, who was the father of David's first proper girlfriend, Tina. Gail really liked Tina who seemed to be good for David though didn't change him all that much. Joe and Gail seemed to be a good couple but Joe is also prone to depression and after a back injury, got hooked on pain medications.

Even then, Gail seems determined to try to make a go of it though her trust was severely dented. Joe also had money problems and signed his soul to a dodgey loan shark which came back to haunt both him and Gail. It's didn't end well.

Joe and Gail got married but, desperate for cash to pay off the ever increasing balance he owed to the shark, he first borrowed money from his father-in-law, Ted and then decided to forge Gail's signature on a life insurance policy. He attempted to fake his own death, but drowned when the boom of the little boat he'd restored swung around and knocked him overboard. Unfortunately, Gail thought he'd gone ahead with the plan and disappeared and, with David's help, covered up Joe's disappearance. This led the police straight to her door when the body bobbed up in Lake Windemere with injuries that were also consistent with someone bashing him on the head with a rolling pin.

They arrested Gail on circumstantial evidence and sent her to trial with the aid of additional lies told by inmate Tracy Barlow who pretended Gail admitted the murder to her. Tracy was hoping for a deal to get out of prison early!

Luckily, though at times the trial seemed to go against her, she was found innocent.

It wasn't long before her Ivy instincts kicked in. Golden boy Nick was seeing hairdresser Natasha and she was pushing Nick into a committment, which Gail thought was inadvisable. Then Gail found out that Natasha wasn't pregnant after all and had terminated the pregnancy but told Nick she was still with child. Gail tried to force Natasha to tell the truth and assuming she had, burst Nick's bubble herself. Natasha tried to kill herself but survived though Gail didn't seem to feel a lot of guilt over  her part in it all. Natasha took verbal chunks out of Gail before she left the area which caused Gail to lose her job because she'd snooped in Natasha's medical records to unearth the secret.

She seems to have made peace with her mother over the years but the old bitterness still bubbles over once in awhile. She's also finally met her biological father, a lovely man called Ted Paige who lives in London.

When her own life has been filled with turmoil, she pins all her hopes on her children, her only constants in life. She's become the woman she always swore she wouldn't, her mother-in-law Ivy! Ivy doted on and spoiled her only son but Gail's children were part of her survival instinct, they are what got her through so much tragedy.

Gail grew up knowing she could only depend on herself, that's where her "I know what's best for you" attitude comes from. She wanted nothing more than to be the mother that she didn't have but has gone too far the other way and over compensated. She was determined that her children would never have to fend for themselves but never figured out how to let them go and do just that when they were old enough. She has hung on too tightly and seen her offspring slip through her fingers and in David's case, go right off the rails at times. With David's marraige to the grasping, greedy Kylie, Gail just might have met her match. 

She makes excuses for them and seems to have blinders on to their negative traits because she feels guilty about making decisions that affected them badly. The Gail we know today is a product of years of guilt, tragedy and survival. She has built a wall around her heart and has made her children her life, even when there's a man in her bed, to the point where she's got blinders on to their faults because it's too hard to face her own. (Martin Platt should be thankful he got away!)  As she gets older, her choices in men haven't really improved and her blinders seem not to have shifted any when it comes to her boyfriends' faults until it's obvious and even then, she'll do everything she can to hold on until the bitter end. She's buried three of her four husbands.

She's had a number of friendships over the years. Her first best mate was Tricia Hopkins. The young women shared the shop flat and worked together and played together. After Tricia moved away, Suzie Birchill became Gail's mate. Suzie was a lot more outgoing and determined where Gail tended to be The voice of Reason. I think Gail had a lot more fun when she allowed Suzie to lead her astray to some extent but the girls got into a lot of mischief as well. Who can forget the time they decided to clean out Elsie's chimney and plopped a brick through Hilda's chimney instead, throwing soot all over Hilda's house!

Eventually, though, Suzie ruined the friendship herself when she tried to chat up Gail's husband, Brian and she was out of Gail's life. When Gail moved to the Street and bought Number 8 with Martin, she and neighbour Sally Webster were pregnant at the same time, she with David and Sally with Rosie. Though Gail is the older of the two, the women bonded over their pregnancies and have been really good friends every since. Gail was also close to Alma Halliwell Sedgewick Baldwin when they worked in the cafe for years and Gail was heartbroken when Alma died of cancer.

Gail has a few enemies as well, the main one being Eileen Grimshaw. Gail always felt superior to Eileen though I don't know why. Eileen might have two children by different fathers but so does Gail! (Three by two different men!) The arms-length acquaintance turned into high end rivalry and nearly a charge of aggravated assault when Gail's daughter, Sarah, was Eileen's son Todd's girlfriend. Eileen accused Sarah of luring Todd away from higher education but when Sarah got pregnant by Todd and was subsequently dumped by her when he admitted to her that he was gay, the two mothers had it out in a hair pulling barney on the cobbles. Literally, in wonderful Coronation Street tradition!

Gail has done a lot of jobs over her lifetime. She worked in Mike Baldwin's retail outlet and she's worked in the Rovers and the corner shop. The cafe took up many of her years and caused more than a little contention between her and her first husband, Brian and his mother Ivy who both felt she should stay home to raise her little'uns. Gail was even a partner in the cafe but sold her share to Roy Cropper after Sarah got pregnant and she needed to spend more time with her family. Gail has also worked in the medical centre but lost that job due to her interference with Natasha's medical records. She is now helping her son Nick at his bistro, cleaning mainly.

What will happen to Gail next? She's most definitely replaced what is missing in her life by interfering in her children's lives. She and son David have come a long way from the days when he pushed her down the stairs in a rage. He still holds a lot of bitterness against her but they have made a sort of peace. Most of the time. But her relationship with David's new wife is rocky at best. She's long since made peace with her mother and they've supported each other through good and bad.

Gail is still one of my favourite characters. She's bossy and interfering, she's strong and determined. She's a survivor because she's had no choice.

You can see other character studies here. 

State of the Street: February 2010

So Becky was officially pregnant (but spoilers say she's going to lose it in early March). First of all, after everything she went through with Steve, I can understand how she wants to be cautious. Second of all, she made a remark about what she dared to want. See, she wants a baby but she's scared. She knows things might fall apart like they usually do in her life. At least she has enough respect for Steve, no matter how bad things got with him, she didn't take any action before she told him about the baby. Rumours say that eventually it'll be known that she can't carry a baby. More fodder for her low self esteem, poor kid. If that's the way it goes, i'm glad. I can't see Becky as a settled down mother figure on the show. She's better off as a step mum, I think. I thought, oh maybe they can adopt a child that has had a similar rough upbringing as Becky, someone who's life she can help turn around like Roy and Hayley did for her. I think that would work. Then after i thought that, spoilers came out with the exact same thing. Psychic, me.

Jesse and Eileen are all but finished i think. He didn't like it when Jason and Tina moved back in and he had to shift his stuff outside. Why didn't he put it in the van or at his mother's house where he kept it before he moved in? A bit petulant really. He always was a mama's boy but they're making him very dislikeable which is the entrance to his exit. Too bad they wasted John Thompson, he can be so good and there was loads of potential. If you ask me, i kind of think that Trev, Janice's lodger, might make a good bloke for Eileen, but it's early days yet. He could have no spine just like Jesse though he does seem to have a bit more about him. Time will tell.

Ciaran is back and wasted no time chatting up both Michelle and Carla straight away with all the Irish patter. But Peter, who had found staying dry not too much trouble, wasted no time dipping into the booze minutes after hanging out with his old mucker, missing the cameraderie no doubt. You didn't think Peter wouldn't have at least one backslide? And it's going to lead to worse things. I'm glad they went this route. It's realistic and very much in line with Peter's personality and character that he would start hanging out with his old drinking buddy and fool himself into thinking he could handle a few drinks. It's heartbreaking to see the effect on poor little Simon especially but that's realistic too.

I really thought George was going to be the bad guy, someone with ulterior motives but it seems he really is just trying to be a good granddad and look out for Simon after all. Maybe. Someone has to, for Peter's sake. Ken questioned whether George cares about Peter. Good point.

Joe's dead! While i'm not happy to see anyone die, when it's on a tv program, that's different. And don't get me wrong, i'm not happy Gail has to go through losing a spouse YET AGAIN, and have reason to be miserable YET AGAIN, i am glad to see the back of Joe "Mr. Miserable" McIntyre. It's so wearying to have to watch his face whinging and whining and crying and self pitying. He could have been a better character but they made him a loser. That's 3 out of four husbands of Gail's that are dead. Martin should count himself a very lucky man. And i know, in real life, people get into desperate situations but this isn't real life, it's a soap so i am allowed to belittle the late Joe. I never liked him.

I don't know why Gail thought lying was such a good idea. You'd think she'd have learned that protecting people just digs you in deeper and you get found out in the end. By that time, it goes harder for you for covering it all up! Now she's changed her story to the police and it made her look more guilty. Including lying about the text and flowers.... to protect David. Well she's made her bed now. It's going to be lie upon lie. First mistake was bringing that boat back home. It's all going to fall apart from there. Poor Tina, though, she's the victim of all of this. Where's her mother? I wonder if we'll see Tina's mother come to the funeral?

Molly continues to make desperate puppy dog eyes at Kevin, hoping to lure him away but she can't be blatant about it. Kevin remains loyal to his wife and family. But the secret has to come out, it always does on soaps sooner or later. In the meantime, Jackie's back! She was the one bright pink spot in the sadness and misery of Gail and Tina finding out Joe was dead. Gail and Tina sobbing and miserable and cut over to Jackie and Molly chucking flowerpots at each other on the cobbles! Brilliant! I know people really detest Jackie Dobbs and she really is awful, Gobzilla we used to call her, but she's fun to watch because she's just so out there and audacious! More nerve than Dick Tracy, me dad used to say! With Jackie, short doses are best and this was a great one!

Joe, we hardly knew ye

I can't say I'm unhappy to see the demise of Joe McIntyre. He wasn't in Coronation Street long enough to really form any attachement to as a character and he was rarely a sympathetic one. He leaped from weakness to weakness, dragging Gail down with him. She even moaned to her mother at one point that she was too old to be looking after a man, and wanted someone to look after her for a change. It's a lot of stress and baggage to take on but she stood by her man, even after his addiction drove him to break into her workplace to try to steal painkillers from the drugs cabinet.

He first seemed to be a great guy. Lots of humour and zest, he persued Gail with zeal but not in a stalking kind of way. He liked her, she liked him. She had reservations because their children were a couple and quite rightly too, because when it did come out, neither was too happy with the revelation. He thought they'd be good together and didn't let her put him off. It seemed like a very long time since someone really put such a smile on her face and although his temper seemed a bit quick to boil, he could be the right man for Gail.

Couldn't he?

Well, no. That's never going to happen, is it? Gail seems to be a loser magnet, I'm sorry to say. And very bad luck for husbands. She's had four of them and three of them have died, two by drowning and one stabbed to death. Mind you, she was about to divorce both Brian and Richard (who she found out was a murderer). Fate has funny ways of taking care of your problems for you, doesn't it? Even this time around, Joe was mired under debt to a nasty loan shark who might have come after Joe's family so very likely his death will mean that she's off the hook as far as the debt goes. As to the insurance fraud? Hmmmm... maybe not so off that hook.

It didn't take long for Joe's finances to crash and burn. The economy took a downturn and Joe's business as a kitchen fitter suffered. He took odd jobs with Bill Webster and even worked part time in a DIY shop. He humiliated himself and worked for a contractor through the despicable Len Windass who, thankfully, seems to have disappeared off the screen. The problem with that contract is that he had to borrow money for supplies (though why the developer building the properties didn't pay for it is a gaping plot hole never addressed. Nor was the fact that the building to be converted was little more than a shell yet Joe was putting in kitchens straight away? Maybe Len just met him in an out of the way location and that wasn't the building site, but that, too, was never clear.) Did Joe go to the bank with the signed contract to prove he had a way to pay back a loan for supplies? Of course not, that would be too easy. He borrowed from a loan shark.

And promptly threw his back out, meaning he couldn't work. He got coerced into paying Gary Windass and Jason to do some of the work which probably stretched his finances even thinner while he struggled to stay on his feet with the help of painkillers. And things went downhill into addiction from there.

Poor Gail, it was one thing after another. David and Audrey both tried to make her see that Joe was a loser. Yes, i know, people in real life have financial trouble and you should stick by your man but this is a soap, not real life. We can be hard on Joe if we want to. Especially when he kept making one bad decision after the next, ending with a fatal plan to fake his own death for the insurance, which wasn't going to pay out for 7 years anyway. Desperation makes strange bedfellows.

How was that plan really going to help Gail? wouldn't anyone notice her taking regular weekend jaunts to Ireland where Joe said he'd go and hide under a new identity? Did he really think she would be able to maintain the pretence for all those years? And then what? He's declared dead, she gets the cash and leaves town, home and the family she's so tied to? Well, she wouldn't have to find out. Joe couldn't even do this right. He got knocked overboard when the boom caught a gust of wind (on a glass-clear lake, another plot hole, but I digress.) Because he'd had a sprained wrist, he couldn't haul himself back on board (why didn't he swim to the dingy he was chasing instead?) and finally just gave up and slipped beneath the surface.

Gail is frantic, thinking he really did go through with his plan but she didn't hold up her end of things. She was supposed to report him missing but because she thought he'd change his mind, she refused to go to the police in spite of David's urging. That's going to be her undoing. Spoilers say Gail will go to jail for his murder in the insurance scam because he forged her signature on the application for the life insurance. No health checkups, and i think it would look suspicious that someone would drop out of sight two weeks after signing a new policy even if it wasn't to pay out for 7 years? The insurance company and the police agree. So Joe is dragging Gail even further down from the grave. Naturally it looks suspicious and Joe's daughter Tina will think the worst of Gail even though she knows her father's situation with the loan shark. Why on earth would she think Gail would kill Joe? Wouldn't it make more sense to assume he killed himself on purpose if you didn't know about the fake-death plan?

Ah well. It doesn't matter. Joe's death and the aftermath will to have repercussions that will last all year long and to tell you the truth, now that he's off the canvas, I'm going to be looking forward to the ride! Gail is one of my favourite characters even if she can be headstrong, bossy, blind to her children's faults and miserable. Even if she's turned into Mini-Ivy Tilsley, she's still a lot nicer than Ivy and hasn't turned into a bitter middle aged harpy in spite of having a lot of good reason to be that way. Not yet anyway. But it could be on the cards after this year is over!

State of the Street - January

Kevin might be staying with Sally now that he knows where his priorities lie, but Molly got fed up with Tyrone and left him after she found out he wasn't going to take a job and move away. Only Tyrone figured she must be having an affair and jumped to the wrong conclusion and thought it was Dev. How on earth he would think that, I don't know but after all, this *is* Tyrone, not the sharpest tool in the box. Didn't you feel sorry for him though? He loves the bones of Molly but his loyalty to Kevin kept him from taking that job offer once he found out that Sally was ill. Really, though, Molly probably made the right choice. There's no point staying in a marraige when she couldn't have been happy or she wouldn't have had an affair only 6 months into it.

And Sally's prognosis is good and she's only got to have radio therapy. I guess it would have been too long and drawn out of they'd had to show her go through Chemotherapy. I gotta say I am as impressed as I knew I would be about how Corrie has been handling this storyline. They've really shown how it affects everyone around the person who's got cancer. Sally was one of the lucky ones. And it also seemed to take Rosie down a peg too, and she backed out of a boob job that would have been far superfluous to requirements anyway.

I felt so sorry for Tyrone. Does Molly really not love him? She thinks so. She's desperate to get Kevin back but he has seen the light and realized he really does want his wife and family. She begs, she manipulates, but he still rejects her and she might start to realize that Kevin probably was just using her, a crush, an infatuation. But it did my heart good to see that Kevin was forced to support Tyrone, listen to him cry on his shoulder, even return his wife's wedding ring and that is karma coming round to bite him on the arse well and proper. And I relish every uncomfortable moment he's going through after what he did to his best friend and business partner. Pam and Bill both know and now they know each other knows. If Molly and Tyrone are going to get back together eventually, they'll be the ones that engineer it.

More Grandad wars... Ken went off the deep end when he found out that George wanted to pay for private education for Simon. Ken figures it's bad for Simon, who won't have a happy life if he's brought up in a posh school. Deirdre was just more concerned about the smart uniform. Peter was very forthright at the planning meeting which George probably already had sewn up anyway, much to Ken's chagrin. I loved Deirdre's rant at Ken after the hearing. She knows darn well it's got more to do with the rivalry between Ken and George and he should have been supporting Peter rather than pushing him right at George. Maybe Ken's give up the battle because as much as he disapproves of the bar and the private school, he seems to be backing down a bit.

Then there's Gail and Joe, the newly minted McIntyres. El Desperado is in debt up to his eyeballs and illegally so. Surely he could go to the police once he'd paid off the loan shark who keeps coming back and threatening his family? He's scammed money out of Ted. He tried to get money out of Peter and an advance out of Bill. He gleefully accepted Gail's decision to sell the house (and yes, David, she *can* just sell the house you grew up in. Except, he hasn't really grown up has he? Most lads his age would be pleased to be able to move out on their own.) He even eyed up the charity collection jar in the pub! I really thought she was finally standing up to him when she told him she wasn't going to sell the house and Joe gave her insult after insult. I always knew he had a temper and and this just proved it. But no. One apology and one sob story and she took him back. No wonder she's a jinx with men, she has Doormat stamped on her arse! Next up, a life insurance scam by forging Gail's name on a crumpled up form. And obviously making one payment and then pretending to drown immediately after will not make the life insurance company suspicious. Or not.

Yay! Mary's back to be a carbuncle on Norris's backside. She seems a bit more obsessed than she was before she left. I feel a bunny boiler coming on, don't you? It's nice to see Mary back anyway. And it's nice to see Sunita back and with the fiance out of the picture, can a reunion between Dev and Sunita be far behind? Dev is all worked up and Sunita just thinks they'll mess it up again. But really, it wasn't all messed up until she found out he kept the fact of his other children from her.

And there's Becky and Steve's upset. Becky doesn't want kids because she's had a horrible childhood and doesn't want to feel tied down. She's also scared of pregnancy as well. There was a scene with her taking a test on New Year's we found out at the end of the month it's positive. She's been smoking and drinking all month. For as much as she didn't want a baby though, she didn't go get a terminatin behind Steve's back. He'd have never known. So somewhere, she did want a baby and probably not just because she knew he did, too. Probably the fear is stronger and so she pushed Steve away. And because she says she won't have kids just when Steve thinks he might like to have more, Steve goes off the deep end in a major sulk. That makes her dig her heels in and one's almost as bad as the other though i think he's pushing harder than she is. He keeps upping the stakes, with expensive gold clubs and a motorbike (don't you need a bike license for those?) and pushing Kelly in Becky's face.

But Becky's mom died and though there wasn't much of a relationship, it still gets you right in the heart when you lose a parent. I think what really bothered Becky is how little her mother had to her name and how she ended up, and it seems to make her think how she could very well have ended up the same way if she hadn't fought to get a life. It hurts that Steve just doesn't take any notice that something is wrong. He really thought that winding her up would make her come running back instead of pushing her away. Finding out about her mother's death was nearly the death of the marraige but you knew that wasn't going to happen, didn't you?