Love On Coronation Street

I don't often drift into Coronation Street philosophising on here but bear with me for one post. There's something niggling me about one of the storylines - and I bet it's not the one you think either.

I love Rita Sullivan. Definite Corrie legend and one of those characters who you feel deserves a bit of happiness. After all, she's had two husbands die on her, been pursued by a madman through the streets of Blackpool and had a tram dropped on her head: let her enjoy a few years of peace, eh? Well, the producers may have had a similar notion (I say 'may' with deliberate cautiousness because this is Corrie, after all). Rita has just become engaged to Dennis Tanner, following a year of friendship that always implied it would become something more. Now, I love Dennis as much as I love Rita. He's a neat link to a bit of Coronation Street history and he's a funny character, always having a pop at Norris in The Kabin. Ah, there lies the problem - Norris.

Quite a while ago - in a post about longing - I suggested that I wanted Rita and Norris to settle into a happy retirement strangling each other. Part of me still does. I'm torn between enjoying the couple actually on screen and wishing that irritating curmudgeon Norris would get the woman he so clearly loves. My prevailing memory of the tram crash isn't linked to a death but is Norris plainly saying 'all I care about is you' when Rita's brought out of the rubble. But now Norris is trying to hide his emotions under a thick layer of sarcasm as Rita and Dennis celebrate their engagement. I just find the situation difficult to watch! How can you like two couples with equal weight? And, more to the point, how can the engagement of a pair of pensioners be trumping the drama of murders, affairs and family meltdowns for me? I really am a funny one. And I'm looking forward to the wedding.

One final point about the engagement episode - I was really impressed with the script and the whole 'where were you when JFK was shot' conversation. Set aside from the mayhem of the current murder plot, the party was a gentle reminder of Corrie's comic capabilities, a hat tip towards its past and a demonstration that wonderful characters can still be sensitively written. It's odd the things that I look for in my soap viewing.