Joy and hope combine in the wonderful world of soaps

CHANNEL-HOPPING:

IN the wonderful make-believe world of Corrie — as in politics — hope can turn to joy in a heartbeat.

Recent events had most viewers hoping someone would cave vile Tracy Barlow’s head in. Then, hey Bisto – before you could say “whodunit”, our Trace was sucking on straws in Weathy General.

Next there was the moment Claire (don’t forget to brush your teeth boys) Peacock hatched a plan to flee the country. What joy for little Josh and Freddie to be heading to Paris — because the Frenchies just don’t do blue minty gel.

Conversely, however, when John Stape welcomed baby Hope into the world, he couldn’t resist saying goodbye to Joy (Bet old Mrs Warboys couldn’t believe it).

Colin Fishwick’s elderly mother became the latest victim of John the Ripper when the Stapeliser actually told the truth for once — coming clean about killing her son and burying him under’t knicker factory.

“I can’t go back to prison,” he pleaded before making sure Joy’s dodgy ticker tocked no more.

Covering his tracks in front of the busy-body from next-door was yet another Grade A performance from the struck-off teacher in what must rate as one of the funniest Corrie scenes ever.

Talk about thinking on his feet. If Stape was standing for MP in Oldham East and Saddleworth last week, he wouldn’t only have broken a few promises, failed to answer questions and squirmed out of tricky situations . . . he’d have secured his deposit.

EastEnders take note —that’s how you handle death in Soapland. After all, it’s not real, you know.



SHAMELESS has returned to our screens with more haphazard capers than you can shake a rude and amusingly-shaped stick at. What a shame. It used to be good.



DALE Winton, The National Lottery: In It to Win It, Saturday night – “Let’s take a look at my red area.”

Er, I’d really rather we didn’t, Dale.



Soap roar: “You’ve stood on Joanna Trollope” — a nosy neighbour takes note of John’s swift exit from Joy’s, as the bumbling Mr Bean-esque mass murderer inadvertently treads on the day’s mail.



Soap bore: “Do you remember last year, when you wanted to be an actress? Well, this could be your big chance.” — Becky persuades Claire to go through with leaving Weatherfield, despite the fact that Ashley’s departure from the cobbles only led to a stint on Dancing On Ice.