Hope Dobbs is pestering her parents Fiz and Tyrone for a new pair of trainers. Tyrone wishes they had a daughter who cared more about the planet and less about owning the latest fashion craze. However, Fiz points out that force-of-nature Hope turning into a perma-demonstrating Greta Thunberg would only result in them paying a fortune in legal fees to keep her out of prison.
Damon Hay may have been raised on playing basic games like Tetris on his Game Boy, but that doesn’t stop him getting excited about the hi-tech VR headset he’s bought Harry Platt for his birthday. Sarah Barlow tells Damon her eight-year-old son is too young to use it, but Damon is sure he and Sarah can find a use for it. She dons the headset and fulfils her ambition to be Ariel from The Little Mermaid. At The Rovers, there are more opportunities to live the dream at Karaoke Night. David Platt is first up to the mic, peeling the paint off the walls with his take on Hanson’s 1997 hit MMMBop. Paul Foreman and Billy Mayhew are next, raising the bar with a moving attempt at Stand By Me. Ben E King co-wrote and performed the song in 1961. More than 400 artists have covered it since, making it the fourth most performed song of the 20th Century. Paul jokes that the lyrics are inappropriate because of his Motor Neurone Disease, which prompts Izzy Armstrong to suggest she could sing Walking On The Moon by The Police.
Gemma Winter-Brown goes back to the Eighties for her karaoke offering. Her rendition of Don’t You Want Me by The Human League offends the ears of Daisy Midgeley, who – while working in the pub – winces when she hears the tale of a waitress working in a cocktail bar. Some fans have been grumbling recently about the proliferation of violent storylines in Corrie (seemingly forgetting that the soap has always portrayed life’s darker side, with serial killers like Richard Hillman, John Stape and Pat Phelan regularly stalking the cobbles), so Gemma’s brutal murder of the 1981 classic will no doubt lead to further complaints.
Damon enjoyed exploring a virtual world earlier, but he’s less keen on events in the real one. He lets out a deep sigh when Harvey Gaskell calls from prison and orders him to carry out a hijacking job. Harvey says he’s behaving ‘like a little teenage girl at a Taylor Swift concert’. Damon shakes off the criticism and reluctantly agrees to do the deed. Later, we discover that Damon sets limits on the kind of things he’s prepared to do. A hijack is OK, but he tells Sarah Barlow he would rather disembowel himself than sing Islands In The Stream with her at Karaoke Night. Let’s hope he doesn’t eviscerate the organs from his gastrointestinal tract all over the snug at The Rovers, because the viewers who object to violent storylines will have a field day.
Evelyn Plummer grills her daughter Cassie about her past as a sex worker. Cassie says the incessant questioning feels like she’s being interrogated by Jeremy Paxman. Meanwhile, Paul and Billy relax at home while listening to Oh Happy Day by the Edwin Hawkins Singers. Concerned about the deterioration in his health, Paul tells Billy the 1967 gospel masterwork will one day be his signal that he’s had enough of this world. When the time comes, he explains, he’ll request the song that soundtracked their wedding.
Coronation Street episode 11220/11221. Originally aired 22nd March 2024.
