The wounds inflicted by Tracy McDonald leaving Steve still haven’t healed. He complains to Tim Metcalfe that his mundane existence pales in comparison to the glamorous lifestyle Tracy is enjoying with Tommy Orpington in Spain. Tim doesn’t help matters by suggesting Tommy is James Bond to Steve’s Jimmy Tarbuck. But no one who’s familiar with his storied, incident-packed 35 years on the cobbles could truly regard Steve’s life as mundane.
Toyah Habeeb meets up with Rowan Cunliffe’s ex-wife Una, in a bid to dig up dirt on The Altovalent Institute. When Una proves to be loyal to her former husband, Toyah likens her to one of the fawning robots in Ira Levin’s 1972 novel The Stepford Wives. Tim has another iconic cultural touchstone in mind when he discovers the person he’s picking up in his taxi at Weatherfield Precinct is Demi Mansfield. ‘Of all the cabs in all the world,’ he says to her, partially quoting Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca. Presumably he considered and dismissed alternatives like ‘Here’s looking at you, chuck’ and ‘We’ll always have Prima Doner’.
Following an attack on Nathan Curtis by a mystery assailant, Sarah Barlow accuses her brother David Platt of doing the deed. He denies everything and sarcastically thanks her for the TED Talk. Meanwhile, Kevin Webster isn’t sold on the idea that his garage needs a website. And he definitely doesn’t agree with his sister Debbie’s suggestion that the site should have a sexy vibe. ‘I’m a mechanic, not Magic Mike,’ he declares, incontrovertibly. Debbie observes that consumers no longer want to deal with an actual person on the phone. They prefer ‘instant bookings, with a side of TikTok’, she says, but none of this gets Kevin any closer to oiling himself up and squeezing into a pair of budgie smugglers. Finally, in more family-family territory, we get an update on Bernie Osbourne’s reading habits. After recent mentions that his favourite book is The Little Prince, we learn the youngster is also a big fan of Benji Davies’s 2013 book The Storm Whale.
Coronation Street episode 11266/11267. Originally aired 15th May 2024.
