As Deirdre settles
herself on the sofa with her book The Treasures of Ancient Greece,
Tracy mopes around wondering how she let Steve stitch her up. She's
signed the contract giving him access to Amy on the grounds that she
thought Steve was going to offer her the bar manager's job at the
pub but he only goes and gives it to Stella and Karl, Stella's
fella, the new couple who've moved into the pub. Stella's blonde and
brash with a Northern accent that wavers in the way that Whitney
Houston's singing voice wavers, using forty-seven notes when you
only need to hear one. Maybe it's because the actress who plays her
is a Londoner and well, we're just going to have to get used. First
impressions of the new couple, the Price pair, are good. Stella and
Karl are joined by Stella's daughter Eva, a blonde bit who enters in
tears, always a good start. Best line of the week
was Steve interviewing Stella for the job and he asks Tina to
bring them some coffee , some biscuits. "What's this? Downton
Abbey?" replies Tina with a snarl that would have made Betty
proud. Becky tries to flirt with Karl and accuses Steve of
sleeping with Eva, not a great way to ingratiate herself with the
new incumbents and it's all too much for Steve to take and he tells
Becky he's filing for a divorce. By ?eck, that solicitor of
his is being kept in funds. Oh, and Karl starts work as a cab
drive for Streetcars, in that same way that any new bloke in town
who likes a pint, does.
Sean's son Dylan moves
into Eileen's with Marcus and Sean. So that's a baby, two
blokes, Jason the dumb son and Rosie the glamour model cohabiting
with Eileen, Salford's mother earth. "She's had more gay men
through her front door than attended Judy Garland's funeral," sniffs
Norris. He does a lot of sniffing, does Norris this week. He's not
best pleased about Sean and Marcus' parenting skills and even has a
go at Maria and little Liam. He's nasty is Norris. He almost lets on
to Sylvia about Hayley's past, until Rita gives him a kick under the
table and warns him: "Purse your lips any tighter and you'll swallow
your chin." But it's not Nasty Norris who breaks the news to
Sylvia, it's toxic Tracy who tells Sylvia the truth about Hayley's
past. In an excellent scene, Sylvia refuses to get her head
around it all, telling Roy he was always a disappointment to her.
She takes to the flat upstairs, doing more miserable moaning than a
bitter and twisted Daily Mail columnist. "She's Hayley
Cropper, it's as simple as that," Becky tells her. And indeed it is.
Over at the Rovers, Dev
gets down on one knee to propose to Sunita. He's done up to the
nines in black suit and tie, it's double-oh-Dev, licensed to thrill
and sell intoxicating liquors from a back street shop. He opens the
box and pulls out a sparkler of a ring. But Sunita turns him down,
much to the aunties' dismay and they go back to Mumbai in a bad
mood.
And that's just about
that for this week.