Coronation Street

[Ja'moke]

Yeah, I wonder that myself. I was just thinking the other day that it would be great if there was some fourth wall breaking and they showed them watching Eastenders. Or even better, watching themselves but not quite realising it.

I've always thought that too, like a soap could just totally shatter the illusion of another soap. But the idea I've always wanted to see happen is a character from one soap jumping ship to another soap but as the same character. Has that ever happened? If not it should do, imagine David Platt turning up in Eastenders....imagine it.

[Uncle TechTip]

Around the time of the Emmerdale plane crash a character was shown in Brookside reading a paper with a huge "PLANE CRASH" headline on the front. That's about as close as we ever got.

[Mister Six]

Around the time of the Emmerdale plane crash a character was shown in Brookside reading a paper with a huge "PLANE CRASH" headline on the front. That's about as close as we ever got.

Nope, the brother of that guy who raped that girl in Brookside (that narrows it down) played the same character in Hollyoaks.

[Emma Raducanu]

Are there places in England where there are streets where all the neighbours are involved in each other's lives? It looks quite fun, I'd be the flatcap wearing scamp who just has tea in a different house each night, turns up at funerals and weddings and generally doesn't say very much.

[buttgammon]

Yes, that's the other thing. If such places exist, I don't really knew of them.

I lived in a small village when I was very young and people just said 'hello' to each other in the street and that was about it, so I honestly couldn't imagine there being a street in London or Manchester which has that degree of closeness between neighbours. Maybe there was when Coronation Street first started, I'm not sure, but as far as I know it doesn't anymore.

[jennifer]

I sometimes wonder that, but for me that would make watching it fairly pointless. I know soaps are often fairly predictable but surely you still need something to unfold that you aren't previously aware of?

I went to great lengths for a long time to avoid finding out how The Sopranos ended and it certainly wouldn't have been the same for me if I knew beforehand. Of course, that's a great TV programme that I loved and though I watch soaps I certainly don't feel that strongly about them and it's not as if we are talking about the ultimate ending for a programme (as if to say there will be no more).

Heeha, that whole Skyplus synopsis thing drives me crazy - it's one of the few occasions where it really helps to be shortsighted and having a telly a long distance away.

In my flat I'm officially in charge of 'starting' anything stored on my PVR, (and DVD episodes of the Sopranos (working through the series from the beginning, such bliss) - for some reason you have to open 'episode selection' and the whole screen fills with a plot spoiling synopsis). Everyone else looks away, I whip off my glasses so the screen is too blurry to read, and da-nah, no spoilers.

[El Unicornio, mang]

I remember watching a thing on telly years ago about this bloke who taped EVERY episode of Eastenders and kept them. There was a shot of him talking on the phone to someone about Grant Mitchell, and behind him these huge bookcases filled with tapes, all neatly labelled, in chronological order. I know some people are completists, but for a soap opera?? When will he have the time to watch them all again?

[jennifer]

Aw, I'm rather enjoying David being all suave. For some reason him referring to himself as 'Dave' made me squeal.

[Ja'moke]

Nope, the brother of that guy who raped that girl in Brookside (that narrows it down) played the same character in Hollyoaks.

Ah right, same channel and same creators though isn't it? I was thinking more of a character from say an ITV soap jumping over to a BBC soap.

[Don_Preston]

Does anyone remember the storyline where everyone thought Mike Baldwin had killed his new wife after she disappeared? I can't at all remember how that resolved though (apart from

Spoiler alert

Mike Baldwin dying years later

[close]

)

[vdbn]

I remember that, yes. As far as I know, it wasn't ever resolved. At one point they found a body somewhere but it turned out not be her. A similar dropping off of plot happened with the mother of Martin Platt's teenage girlfriend, who continued to languish in gaol for the murder of the father even after her daughter admitted to it.

[jennifer]

TV Burp prediction for this week:  'Cnut, anyone?'

[chocky909]

Did anyone else think "Dave's" new girlfriend looked a little familiar?

   

Suranne (Karen McDonald) Jones             David Platt's 'piece'

They've got similar temperaments so far too...

TV Burp prediction for this week:  'Cnut, anyone?'

I don't remember that. What happened?

[Deadman97]

SURANNE JONES.



Suranne Jones.

[jennifer]

I don't remember that. What happened?

Jamie was discussing baby names with Violet in the shop, Jamie said 'what about a king's name, you can't go wrong with that' and Dev lurched from behind a shelf of biscuits and bellowed "Cnut, anyone?"

It lacked nothing but jazz hands and a wink to camera.

[Deadman97]

Stupid fucking soap opera, making ME cry. FUCK YOU.

[Xander]

God, I never watch this, but it found it's way on, and I'm finding the death of Vera brilliant and touching. I wish I was joking.

[buttgammon]

It is touching indeed, aye. I've surprised myself by being so moved by it, but they have dealt with it very well.

[Deadman97]

You're both right. I think Corrie's pretty much bollocks, but that cut like a knife.

[Xander]

I think the reason it's so good is because it's a natural death. Everyone in soaps die due to barn fires, cars in canals, being crushed by chimneys or lingering cancer that when someone dies in a soap in their sleep, it is true surprise. Plus, Jack and Vera were always the everypeople of a street filled with murderers, whores and transsexuals, making the death much more poignant.

I do wish they'd have done the credits in silence though. It just broke it.

[quadraspazzed]

*sobs*

That was really well done wasn't it?

(At half-time when watching Eastenders I thought the 'new young thugs about town' were gonna do in Dot to try to outdo Corrie.)

[chocky909]

I haven't cried so completely at telly for as long as I can remember. I feel weird.

[Angst in my Pants]

Blubbed like a babe here, too.  It was the line "We'd had such a smashing day..." that really started me off; a daft little slice of not-quite-thinking-properly, deftly done.

[Deadman97]

It was Jack's "...keep the world at bay" that did me in.

[Xander]

I went as soon as he linked fingers and knew, and we knew he knew. Hell, even the memory of it is setting me off. I hate soaps, but if this doesn't go down in history with the Den/Angie Christmas day thing, viewers are cunts.

[Uncle TechTip]

Thought it was terrible actually, in particular rather poorly acted all round. Of course we all know about Liz Dawn's limitations (probably why they made her spend most of the ep slumped in a chair) but the normally dependable Tarmey was incoherent. Not very affecting at all. Corrie is usually excellent at dealing with death but, as pointed out, they don't even do silence over the credits now. Awful. I must be a cunt.

[jennifer]

Just watching Vera's funeral- loved everyone coming out on their doorsteps to watch the hearse depart and making comments in character "It's a co-op, I recognise the herse" "what did she die of?" "Dunno" "Death I think"

Very touching and Simpsons-esque.

[Lanky]

"what did she die of?" "Dunno" "Death I think"

I made that exact same comment about my headmistress's husband when I was at primary school. Nobody called me Simpsons-esque.

[Marv Orange]

John Lennon used the same joke in a story he wrote at school.

[jennifer]

Yeah, I wasn't saying it was original; I just liked hearing a grown man say 'died of death' rather than 'natural causes'