Greetings and welcome to another weekly update. It's late again
I know but it's all these bank holiday long lazy weekends and it's kind
of hard to get back into the swing of things sometimes. But anyway,
here I am in body if not in spirit (and I'm not even sure about the body
at the minute) without any further ado for another Coronation Street weekly
update.
Poor Steve. There he is at work in Streetcars and there's the thud-thud-thud-ping-wobble-wahey-thud-thud-thud
of the bed in the flat above as Joe and Karen are at it. You know,
it. Helped by Jason and given courage by beer Steve exercises his landlord's
right and goes into Joe's flat while he's at work. He bundles all Joe's
stuff into boxes and dumps it in front of Joe and Karen as they leave work
at the factory. Not that this does any good as Karen promptly moves Joe into
the flat next door with her. Meanwhile back at the Grimshaw's, Eileens'
got more than enough on her plate now that Jason's back and Todd's trying
to study so she suggests that Steve moves into Joe's vacated flat.
She even goes with him to tidy things up, ah bless.
Poor Vera. There she is having her hair done at the salon thinking
she's getting a good deal when really she's getting done over. Audrey leaves
Maria and Candice to get on with the job and Vera ends up with (Cadbury)
purple hair. Anyway, Vera continues to give Gail a hard time over losing
her life savings to that Richard Hillman bloke and ends up throwing a stone
through Gail's front window. David comes to Gail's defence and retaliates
by throwing a stone through Vera's front window too. Jack manages to
calm things down and invites young David into the house to explain himself.
He tells Vera how his mam cries at night over the way Richard ruined their
lives and it isn't her fault that Vera lost her money. It's a lovely scene
and Vera makes up with Gail in the end.
Poor Gail. There she is saddled with debts and the solicitor can
only bring her bad news. Seems as though Richard took out all sorts
of loans on their joint accounts and even the money from the sale of the
flats won't be enough to repay the bank what they're owed. There's
only one thing for it, she'll have to sell the house and when Audrey hears
about it she offers to have them all move in with her. Sarah's hoping
to move into a flat with young Todd-me-laddo but Gail is against it.
Poor Rosie. There she is all of 12 years old and wishes she'd never
been born. Kevin and Sally aren't sure what's happened to their sweet
little daughter when she starts wearing make up, demanding a mobile phone
and brings home her two new best mates, Jezebel and Lolita. While Sally's
a bit more understanding, Kev is furious with Rosie's behaviour, especially
when she gets her belly button pierced, runs off to Birmingham to audition
for a girl pop band, loses her purse and gets brought home by a copper.
Poor Jack. He wins £250 in a competition but needs £300
to pay the phone bill for cover all these competition calls he's been making.
He also wins 3 year's supply of bathroom requisites with his winning slogan:
"Delecto, the lav you must have". There was a lovely scene this week
between Jack and Vera after Vera makes up with Gail. As the Duckies
share a beer and think on about all they have got, rather than what they've
not, Vera gets that glint in her eye and leads Jack up to bed. Flamin'
Nora.
Poor Les. Not. Kirk is so convinced that Les is innoent of
all charges of beating up the copper that he arranges a staged fight in the
Rovers with Swanny the ex-boxer. The plan is for Swanny to pick a fight with
Kirk at the bar, Les will step in and close the fight down and be hailed
as the hero of the hour. Of course it all goes wrong and Les and Kirk end
up with black eyes. No one will act as a character witness for Les,
which is hardly surprising, and his court date is a week on Monday. Curly,
meanwhile, is finding it harder to excuse Emma's actions and when she invites
him for a drink with Janice and Mick in the Rovers, he's clearly unhappy
about having to compromise his principles.
And finally this week Fred looks forward to putting more of his sausage
the way of Petula Peach the abbatoir heiress - but more of that next
week.
And that's just about that for this week.
Glenda
Greetings and welcome to another weekly update. This is my
last update for a while as I'm taking a break from writing the updates.
I love Coronation Street and I enjoy writing the updates but I also have
a life. And for the next three weeks I'm going to enjoy my favourite
telly programme without the notepad and pen. Fortunately, dear reader, the
updater's chair will be kept warm in my absence as Richard Whitbread will
be here next week and John Dean for the following two weeks. But for
now, without any further ado, here we go with this week's Coronation Street
update.
Vera's over the moon when she gets a phone call to tell her Jack's won
them a dream house in one of his competitions. She witters on about
moving up and out of the slums until Jack's prize home arrives on the back
of the lorry; it's a green house, not a dream house. Mind you, Jack soon
sets plan to grow orgasmic vegetables in it and sell them from his allotment.
Emily's still worried that she'll lose her house after her dodgy dealings
with that Richard Hillman bloke so Norris obliges by telling her he'll get
a mortgage to buy the house and she can stay on as lodger. He tells
her there'll have to be some changes which include a book of rules and regulations
and redecorating involving a recurring fleur-de-lys motif but it all
comes to nowt after Gail tells Emily her investment is safe and Norris is
told he's too old to take out a mortgage.
Fred has a date with Petula Peach the abatoir heiress but isn't that keen
on her, I say he's not that impressed to find she's got a rather nasty habit
of repeating everything she says. I think she should have stuck
around a bit longer, she had that look of Stella Rigby about her and you
just knew that her car was a Rover. "I thought strees like this only
existed in Catherine Cookson's" she tells Fred when she collects him for
their date.
After Audrey told Gail last week that she'd bail her out by paying off
her debts, she finds out this week that her investments have plummeted (Coronation
Street episodes can go down as well as up). Unable to face turning
her family out of their home, Audrey takes out a loan to give Gail the money
and then worries incessantly about it.
Joe and Karen get cosy this week as he gives her a gold chain (Karen: "Is
it real?", Janice: "It makes you look like Jimmy Saville") and she takes
off her wedding ring in the Rovers in front of Steve. In the
factory, Karen wants to prove her worth and tries her best to understand
Underworld's expenses but Joe's not best pleased she's fishing in the finances.
Karen says she wants to understand computers and has signed up for a Wollie
(Weatherfield Online Learning Initiative) so she can be an online hooker.
"Hacker, Karen" Joe tells her "The word's hacker". Mind you, she was
probably right the first time and will soon be entering data in those financial
spread-yer-legs-sheets. Joe's increasingly concerned that Karen's questioning
invoices from one certain company and eventually has to come clean with her.
He's siphoning off money from Underworld to feather his own nest and wants
her to join him in his plan. Karen takes some persuading but after
he takes her to a show flat and lures her with a roof terrace and designer
kitchen, she tells him she's in on the scam.
Sarah wants to spend more time with Todd but Gail's concerned that she's
not spending enough time revising for her exams. Eileen's cool about
the fact that Sarah and Todd want to spend the night together there but
Gail makes a big fuss then dumps Bethany on the Grimshaws. Then Sarah tells
Gail she's going to move to Oxford with Todd and Gail creates another scene
when all she needs do is let it all pass, calm down and be forgotten.
Overhearing Todd, Jason and Sarah talking about Eileen's favouritism for
one of her sons, Eileen's shocked into taking the comments to heart.
After splashing out to buy Todd a computer last week this week she buys
Jason a car, and this from the woman who can't afford herself a decent perm.
Young Adam up in Scotland returned to the Street this week after being
kicked out of school for drinking. No one knew he was coming so no
one's prepared, especially Mike, and Adam goes to stay in the Rovers with
uncle Peter, where he's given a warm welcome and pie and chips from Bev.
And that's just about that for this week and for the next 3 weeks from
me. Many thanks to Richard and John for their upcoming updates.
Glenda
This week's update written by K Richard Whitbread. Glenda
is away (with the pixies)
Hi Glenda fans. Thanks to Glenda for letting me
slip into the hot seat this week. Sadly after volunteering real life
interrupted and I am little late in making my record of events in Weatherfield.
Central story this week has been trial of Les Battersby. At the start
of the week Les is in despair but his mood rapidly improves when Kirk's advertising
turns up a witness who saw the entire brutal incident. Dave
is homeless and has been in hospital with TB but id clearly an ideal witness.
Once Les has dragged Dave off to see his brief he returns and soon everyone
in sight knows that he has a witness supporting his version of events.
Curly has had numerous discussions with Emma over telling the truth but the
knowledge that a witness exists finally
convinces her to do the honourable thing and eventually she and Curly are
somewhat reconciled once she agrees to tell the truth despite the problems
it will cause.
This week Norris is on jury service and is seen trying to convince another
juror that he should be the foreman - when he files into the courtroom it
is of course for Les's trial so he instantly asks to be relieved. In
the public gallery Blanche congratulates Janice on supporting her husband
- but is corrected. She is there to support
Mick.
Outside the Court it becomes clear to Emma and Mick that Dave has vanished
and Mick leans on Emma to change her mind again. She tries to get him
to relent but she fails. When she enters court to give evidence
she consults her notebook and the agreed story is given. She supports
Mick despite the questioning from Les's barrister. Curly isdisappointed.
Emma admits she was scared of the consequences of telling the truth - she
was a coward. At this point Dave arrives and gives evidence. His
story contradicts the police. Even the judge is
sympathetic to Dave. Finally Les decides he has to have his say. Although
warned not to do so he gives his side of story and not surprisingly this gives
the prosecution the opportunity to parade Les's past convictions, including
his previous conviction for assault.
Mick is re-examined but his past good record and commendations are paraded
to convince the jury that the police are always to be believed and after a
short period they return and announce a guilty verdict. The judge takes
into Les's lack of remorse and his desire to blacken the reputation of police
officers to underpin his vendetta. She sentences him to six months.
Les knows it is all wrong.
Over at Underworld meanwhile the next crime of the century steps up a gear
as Joe identifies a way of speeding up the fraud. Having got Karen working
with him he now convinces her that faking Mike's signature on a
cheque paying one of the unreal Artrek invoices will speed up their wealth
increase.
Anyway Mike's eye is off the ball as he is distracted by Adam, the latter
using every known skill to attract attention from his family members.
Mike suggests a holiday away with Adam but the latter refuses and tries to
chat up Candice - who is having none of it and she hands out some great put
downs every time he tries his luck. Peter is feeling bad about his treatment
of Adam and the latter plays on this talkingPeter into taking him to Plymouth
for a few days and taking Shelley with them. Eventually Bev convinces
Fred that she is a safe pair of hands to
run the Rovers whilst Shelley is away after defusing yet another row between
Joe, Karen and Steve. Bev is in her element and she has decided to stay
with Shelley for the foreseeable future (hooray says I - a great
addition to the Street) and not become remote with only odd phone calls.
Mike without Adam around decides that all of the paperwork at Underworld
needs a full audit and tells Joe and Karen that it was about time their systems
arrived in the current century. Given Joe's ongoing scam this
gives Karen a chance to start worrying. Mike sets about the paperwork
and they give him the April invoices - where all is well. After a while
Mike realises he is looking at last month and asks for May. Joe says
May and thinks about it before asking Karen to find them. She prevaricates
and both look as guilty as sin (Mike really is going off the boil completely
- normally he would be boiling staff in oil for this sort of treatment).
Eventually Mike is given the May invoices.
There are a lot of Artrek invoices and oddly none of the delivery notes
are attached. So Mike asks for the delivery notes from Joe. He
saysthey should be attached - Mike agrees - where are they he says.
Then he asks Karen - has she actually got these materials in stock.
She looks and sounds confused before admitting that they must be somewhere,
it is just that they are so busy and there are so many different materials
- but she did not convince me!
At which point the phone goes. Adam asks Mike to join the rest of
them in Plymouth for a holiday and Mike's forgets the invoices, praises Joe
and Karen on the job they are doing and departs at high speed to the south
coast. Joe re-assures Karen that they will get away with it - especially
if they (she) signs some more of those cheques.
Katy and her father are at the hospital - he is in for a check up on his
recovery and surprise, surprise they run into (no not Cilla) Martin who tells
them about an upcoming fun run to raise money which he is going to join.
Katy volunteers as well and later Sarah, Todd and Jason join them on a training
run. Candice goes for a bacon butty. Martin and Katy return but
everyone else has gone missing. After several training sessions it is
just the two of them, so they don't go. And then later on they meet,
banter and decide to go running just the two of them. (Martin would be had
up for child molesting if the actress playing Katy was not about 25).
Steve and Joe and Karen continue the three way discussions from time to
time in the Rovers. But is Karen completely over Steve - is she doing
anything about that divorce? In particular Steve winds Karen up by
puttinghis arm round the nearest girl (Tracy this week) to give her something
to think about.
Whilst everyone was at the court Sunita was looking after Ben the babyand
working in the shop. Eventually whilst Deirdre is shopping it all becomes
too much and the latter offers to take over the shop. Dev returns from
his holiday a day early (does anyone do this ever?) andfinds Dreary in the
shop. They exchange polite even friendly
conversation and Dev thanks her (and agrees to pay her) for her unexpected
contribution.
Blanche is getting on well with Wally and tells us what a nice place he
has - she anticipates more out of this relationship than Archie.
And the new family who were under witness protection decide that they like
it round here and so will be staying. And they won't be Nelson any longer
- it will be Harris and they should have a house warming party.
And the invitations and preparations go on in the background during the
week.
And that is it from me - John Dean will be here for the next two weeks -
good luck lad.
K Richard Whitbread