Mel O'Drama
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Episodes 306 - 315
1 October - 4 November 1985
1 October - 4 November 1985
Including Julia, 60% of the Corkhills we’ve met to date are played by actors who’ve previously appeared in different recurring roles. Meanwhile, over at the Collinses’, Lucy’s return signifies half of that family being recast with new actors. While both casting concepts are essentially opposites, they could both be seen as stemming from similar philosophies… that “Joe Public never clocks a darned thing”.
Actors returning in different roles is probably the less challenging of the two as far as the viewer goes. Most early appearances are of the “blink and you’ll miss them” variety. In serialised storytelling they should have little-to-no impact on continuity since they’re noticeable only to the extremely eagle-eyed viewer. Even though Brookside arrived as VCRs were taking off, I doubt it was seriously considered that people would have the time, inclination or opportunity to rewatch (much less binge watch) years’ worth of episodes of a serial that ran twice weekly year round. Recurring actors is a tradition that goes way back. Certainly Corrie had been doing it for decades by this point. And it makes sense that those responsible for casting would want to re-use actors they know first hand to be reliable, who mesh well with their other actors and who have a special something onscreen.
In the very latest episode I watched, Alan Rothwell reappeared, with Heather driving into the back of his MGB six months after Harry and Edna Cross sought advice from him. From memory I know who he’s playing this time. What’s I don’t remember is whether or not he’s meant to be the same character and, even though I watched his episodes less than three months ago, I struggled to get a clear visual memory of something that might clue me in. Which goes to show how easily an actor could potentially slip into a new role.
Recasts are a little more potentially problematic… certainly when it comes to a central character. Lucy is a character who had much screen time in the series’ first year. As much as she’s been missed, it’s hard to believe that Lucy has been absent for twice as long as she appeared. Thanks to Katrin Cartlidge’s performance she made a big impression. Maggie Saunders has been fine in the role so far as the slightly more grown up Lucy, but I do find myself very aware that she’s a different actress. This isn’t a failing on the performance but because I feel the two actresses look rather different from one another. It has dawned on me that Maggie looks rather like a younger Doreen Sloane which makes her a good choice (this got me thinking that Katrin, with her more impish cheeky features, probably looks rather more like Jim Wiggins). As mentioned, it was a nice touch that we were prepared for her arrival by Paul and Annabelle looking at photos which showed the new Lucy. A perfect choice, right down to using photos which were taken very recently and so don’t jar in the way that if the photos were supposed to have been taken years earlier when we know Katrin was playing the role.
Back to the Corkhills and they’re working incredibly well for me. Actually, the whole series feels as though it’s come alive again which may or may not be related to their arrival. Either way, it’s a good thing.
The latest five episodes in particular have been an absolute joy to watch simply because I realised part way in that, no matter which characters we spent time with every single scene just worked.
The interactions within households has been most watchable. Paul and Annabelle’s concern over Lucy’s secretive behaviour has given them some welcome screen time. I’ve particularly enjoyed the scenes with Paul trying to get to the root of it despite Annabelle advising caution. One of Paul and Lucy’s first scenes together was a heart to heart and Jim Wiggins made a fascinating choice of not making eye contact with Maggie Saunders until the very end of the scene. He looked down at the table for most of it. While I’m sure it could yield conspiracy theories about him being uncomfortable with the recast, to me it actually showed great confidence from him towards Maggie. He trusted her enough to be able to fully convey Paul’s awkwardness around the daughter from whom he’s practically become estranged.
At Number Five, Damon’s put his scally ways to good use when he stole a textbook for Karen then had to try and replace it when she didn’t actually need it. And he saved the day after Karen’s drunken student hijinks of stealing the Corkhills new fake alarm box, by returning it for her. For a price, of course. Karen coming home drunk at 5am with her new bad influence friend Pamela was great. It’s so much fun to see some night filming on the Close, and I so enjoyed seeing posh Pamela interact with Karen’s family. This was the scene where I “got” Pamela. When Karen first met her peers, I was willing her to ditch Pamela and spend more time with that sweet shy Welsh girl or the ardent feminist who seemed a better fit. But I’m thoroughly enjoying the chalk and cheese element of this unexpected friendship.
It’s been a busy time for Heather, what with Tom’s proposal leading to wedding plans and friction over inviting Tom’s secret daughter Rowena to the wedding. She’s now discovered that, in addition to his father Jim not knowing about Rowena, Tom has told Rowena that his father is dead. And, of course, Jim has inevitably begun asking questions about the crossed off name on the wedding list, with Heather cornered enough to reveal about his granddaughter (a truly interesting moment. I found seriously considering asking what I would do in Heather’s predicament).
The cross-household interactions have been brilliant of late. Harry’s been cropping up everywhere, creating friction to great effect. He was the person who spotted the struck-though name on the wedding list. Then there was a nice scene with some banter involving Harry, Damon, Rod and Bobby in the lounge at Number Five, with poor Sheila trying in vain to hear a radio programme for her Open University course on her very Eighties headphones (believe it or not, this felt really suspenseful. I was genuinely concerned that she’d miss something important, so convincing was Sue Johnston’s performance). He’s burst in to Number Ten, getting into some chest puffing with Billy when Harry accused Tracey of a prank involving a fake body under Harry’s Fiesta. Which led to Harry blurting out that he’d heard the grim truth about Billy’s brother (this was almost immediately after Ralph told Harry what he’d heard from Julia. It was never going to end well.
The Corkhills have brought a wealth of cross-household friction in addition to Tracey’s prank. Damon has spent much time teasing Rod over his Everton fandom and crush on Heather. Damon stirring things up by accepting lifts from Heather or giving her a peck on the cheek when he knows Rod is watching are characteristically mischievous. It was difficult not to feel for Rod when Damon revelled in breaking the news of Heather’s engagement to Rod… in front of Tom. Then came Paul’s disapproval of Doreen’s beloved new fake shutters. First came crossed wires when she thought he was speaking about Rod’s Everton posters in the window and willingly took them down. But then he clarified he was speaking about the shutters and changed her tune. Her remark that she took the posters down because she didn’t like them but she didn’t want to take down the shutters down because she liked them made me smile, but also spoke volumes about her character. It’s also really funny to watch Doreen watch her words and try to speak well when she’s around Doreen. One little moment that really made me chuckle was when Annabelle was invited into the Corkhills’ home for a chat. Annabelle entered the empty living room ahead of Doreen, and we saw her cast an eye to take in the room then she appeared to suppress a slightly despariring smile before hiding it as she turned back to Doreen.
On the subject of the Corkhills, something that passed me by as a young viewer was the matriarchal bias within the household. Doreen and Tracey are the ones who get their own way, colluding with one another when necessary and with Doreen showing her daughter how to get her own way with feminine wiles. The contrast between how Doreen treats Rod and Tracey is very telling. Tracey gets the skiing trips while Rod gets the clips round the earhole. I suppose it somewhat reflects the inequity between Bobby and Karen versus Bobby and Barry/Damon. Even in this run of episodes, Sheila challenged Bobby when he said he was less happy about Karen going out on the town than Damon because Damon can look after himself.
One quiet-but-lovely moment in this run came a moment when Harry, Ralph and Jim Curzon bonded over the loss of their respective wives and pretty much just chatted. It’s a convincing situation, since Jim’s so amiable it felt natural for him to chat to Harry. And Harry is fond of Heather and impressed by Tom so it makes perfect sense that he’d reciprocate. The dynamic is far more watchable than the usual Harry/Ralph scenes and I hope we see more of these three interacting. Jim’s great, actually. The one-to-ones with Heather have been brilliant, and not just the dramatic reveal, but the more prosaic scenes of them about the house while Tom’s away.
Of course, it’s equally telling that these five winning episodes haven’t featured Number Seven’s tenants at all, but let’s not look that particular gift horse in the mouth.