Happy 19th birthday, Summer Spellman. Billy Mayhew and Paul Foreman have bought her a book called The Persephone Veil by Negata Holden. It’s one of those invented cultural items the Corrie scriptwriters occasionally throw into the mix (like the apocalyptic TV series Zombezi). Judging by the title, perhaps it’s a fantasy novel about the Greek goddess who became queen of the underworld (no, not Carla Barlow).
Cassie Plummer offers to treat her son Tyrone Dobbs to a sticky bun at Roy’s Rolls, but he’s too busy working at the garage. She jokes that she’ll steal some custard creams and watch Countdown instead. She ends up going to The Rovers with him at lunchtime, where she tells Dev Alahan and Kirk Sutherland about the time she shared a hot tub with Jon Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen. They were actually lookalikes, she admits, although it’s reasonable to assume the former – lookalike or no – was still slippery when wet. From a distance and in the dark, says Cassie, Dev could be mistaken for Seventies pop heartthrob David Essex. Dev fancies he’s more like Enrique Iglesias, but Kirk has never heard of the Spanish singer.
After Carla learns about how the late Rufus Donahue used to micro-dose himself with LSD, she wonders if acid might have been the cause of her breakdown a few weeks earlier. She shares her theory with Roy, who says he has no idea about drugs. ‘I’m hardly Pablo Escobar, am I?’ replies Carla. Without a doubt, she isn’t remotely like the Colombian drug lord. Compared to clueless Roy, though, she’s Tony Montana from Scarface and Gustavo Fring from Breaking Bad rolled into one. Carla becomes angry when Roy doubts her hypothesis that she was spiked by a business rival, and calls him ‘Pollyanna’ after the perennially optimistic heroine of Eleanor H Porter’s 1913 novel of the same name.
Cassie’s drinking session at The Rovers continues. Mary Taylor is wary of her intentions towards Dev. ‘She’s Weatherfield’s answer to Dorothy Parker,’ says Mary, caustically adopting the American writer and wit’s famous quote about ending up under the table and then under the host to sum up her low opinion of Tyrone’s mum. On a nearby table, Stu Carpenter raises a toast to the Silk Road as Yasmeen Metcalfe announces she’s going to revisit her birthplace in Pakistan. He’s referring to the network of trade routes that connected the East and the West. Suddenly, a drunken Cassie heads due south, falling off her seat and proving Mary right about her ending up under the table. Next stop, Dev?
Bernie Winter has a business proposition for Shelly Rossington. ‘Get you, Deborah Meaden,’ says Shelly. Unfortunately, Bernie’s plan is so dodgy the Dragons’ Den star would say ‘I’m out’ as soon as she heard it. It involves selling laptops that Shelly has scammed out of her former employers. Bernie wants to be Maid Marian to Shelly’s Robin Hood. Manchester may be outside the Sheriff of Nottingham’s jurisdiction, but let’s hope the pair don’t end up well and truly Friar Tucked.
Coronation Street episode 11045/11046. Originally aired 30th Aug 2023.
