QUITE CONTRARY

So, farewell then Scary Mary. You didn't have your evil way with Norris Cole, so all is well and good. The idea that anyone would want to have their evil way with Norris is so abstract that it's impossible to understand. Still, if anyone WAS remotely attempting to get into Norris's knickers, it would be Mary ...


Scary Mary in younger, leaner, hungrier and sexier times.

I'm not sure what Mary's real age is, but mentally she is about 74. Most of us are pathetically attempting to hold back the years ("well, you speak for yourself!" says the blog's only reader). Mary is hurtling towards the grave happily. Having seen her enormous and terrible mother off to the afterlife, she has acquired a camper van and has been dreaming of travelling the world in her twilight years (ie., now, when she's about 38 or summat).

Mary reminds me of the kind of 70+ women who go to BHS on a weekday morning and have an enormous dump which stinks the toilets out for the rest of the day. I think they get a lot of enjoyment from keeping a regular habit. It gives them something to do other than watch This Morning and besides, it means that they don't leave any unpleasant aromas in their own bathroom.

Yep, Mary thinks like a pensioner alright ...

... except that the scriptwriters went into "fringe theatre" mode, and sent her a bit doolally before her exit.

You know what Corrie's fringe theatre scripts are like, don't you? Full of quirky stuff, knowing references and innuendo. You usually have to suffer them on Friday nights, presumably because viewers have had a couple of drinks and can handle the more offbeat vibe.

Suddenly, Mary was throwing herself at Norris, lighting joss sticks to "get rid of any fishy odours" (fnar fnar) and yabbering about Sheena Easton's avant garde hemlines.

WTF? as they say nowadays.

Mary's exit has coincided with the arrival of Norris's "long lost" (soap speak) brother, who naturally has a dark, daaaaark secret.

Come on, we're not that stupid. Anyone over the age of 40 will KNOW WHO HE IS!



... it's Leonard Sachs off of The Good Old Days! Why is that a dark, daaaaaaark secret exactly?

ALREWAS

I've had high hopes that Ken Barlow's torrid affair with Stephanie Beecham would lead to some happiness during Ken's twilight years. Um, actually, hold on - Ken is probably only *59* in Coronation Street years, so I should really say middle age.

Anyway, since Ken walked the ghastly, foul smelling dog Eccles down the towpath and had a chance encounter with the former star of The Colbys he's finally blossomed as a human being.  At last he has found someone who he can talk to about Ibsen, especially as Stephanie once starred in Ibsen's The Doll's House!  They can remember the Ban The Bomb marches, they can remember "smoking potash" and they both luff A Kind Of Blue, as well as all sorts of classical music and proper literature and all!

Back in Ken's house on Tha Street, it's impossible to have conversation or the thrill of shared experiences.  Usually it's as packed as a phone box is when there's an attempt to break the world record for the number of people who can fit into a phone box.

It is impossible to have an *interesting* conversation with Missus Ken (Deirdre).   On and off, Ken has been in a reliable but unexciting relationship with Deirdre for millions of years.  Since he's been retired, he spends as much spare time as possible at the library.

Well, until he finally took the ghastly, foul smelling dog Eccles for a walk down that towpath after it had disappeared from Corrie for two years.   There he encountered Stephanie Beecham and her barge and her drapey grey cashmere cardigans and her bohemian outlook on life.  This was a heady taste of the exotic to poor emotionally famished Ken.

The affair was a slow burner, and Stephanie said she was calling it quits when she found out that Ken was married.  Except, what with her being a woman and all, she has now offered Ken an ultimatum: come with her as she chugs off to Tamworth to see some friends ... or get out of her life forever.

It will all end in doom and Ken will be even more frustrated, which will give him the chance to *get his teeth* into some *real acting*.

My guess is that Stephanie will head all the way to London with Ken, then will dump him for a young black actor who is playing Othello.

Still, only time will tell.  Maybe they'll reach their own crossroads at Bagnall Lock.  Watch this space.

TEDIOUS INTRODUCTION

This is yet another Coronation Street blog but this one is different from the other ones, oh yes. The reason that it is different is that there will be a number of inaccuracies, because I usually watch *Britain's Best Loved Soap* through beer goggles, shouting at the screen.

I should imagine that I'll be fairly opinionated rather than objective. That's the way I've been on other blogs, so why change a failing format, eh?

The opinions expressed in no way reflect the opinions of anyone who gives a fuck.  Carry on reading if you want to.