There’s a neat plug for another ITV show when Stu Carpenter protests his innocence to Dev Alahan over his murder conviction. ‘They all say that, don’t they? Have you watched Vera?’ Dev asks, cuttingly. Elsewhere on the Street, love’s young dream Summer Spellman and Aaron Sandford are at a loose end, so they try to buy a kite at The Kabin. They’re out of luck, although we do learn The Kabin still stocks the saddle-stacking game Buckaroo! that was a big favourite of Dougal’s on Father Ted.
At The Rovers, Brian Packham is quoting Galadriel from The Lord Of The Rings to Ken Barlow. ‘It is what will come to pass, should you fail. The Fellowship is breaking, it has already begun,’ says Brian. Ken thinks it’s a line from King Lear. Considering how much Corrie co-writing Shakespeare has been doing recently, it’s an understandable mistake. ‘The heart wants what the heart wants,’ Brian adds, mixing up a fascinating quote-cocktail that contains equal measures of Emily Dickinson, Woody Allen and Selena Gomez.
Summer and Aaron may have failed in their attempt to fly a kite, but Bishop Greg Townsend gets as high as one when he unwittingly consumes a space cake at Archdeacon Billy Mayhew’s flat. Todd Grimshaw drives Greg home and quotes from a stoner legend in the process. ‘The Dude abides,’ says Todd, in the manner of The Big Lebowski’s titular character. Still in the realm of acting (just), amateur thespian Brian is using The Method (initially employed by Russian theatre director Konstantin Stanislavsky) to stay in character for the play he’s appearing in. Unfortunately, he just succeeds in freaking out everyone else at The Rovers. This explains why Robert De Niro and Al Pacino have never appeared in Coronation Street. Yet.
After the erroneous Shakespearean dialogue earlier, Wendy Papadopoulos makes a genuine reference to the bard when she asks Ken if Tracy McDonald has been ‘dripping poison’ in his ear about her. Hamlet spoiler alert: that’s how Claudius killed the king.
Coronation Street episode 10761/62. Originally aired 4th Oct 2022.
