Why did Corrie's Lewis change his plans?

This past week on Canadian Corrie screens, we saw the cad Lewis leave Audrey in the lurch, broken hearted, making off with only £4000 (minus the cost of a string of pearls) of Peter Barlow's money. We know that he'd persuaded Audrey to get a loan against her house to buy a little hotel in Greece and we're all pretty sure that he had no intentions of actually going through with that. We all hollered "Don't do it, Audrey" when she organized the bank loan, knowing by then that he was a con man.

As an aside, Lewis took full advantage of Deirdre's crush to rip off the bookies, even going so far as to kiss her in front of the CCTV to distract her from the fact that he was behind the counter where he had no business being. I'm fairly sure Lewis must have known about the CCTV, but probably didn't care, knowing he'd be gone within the hour.

I don't think he'd have been cruel enough to leave with Audrey and her money and then leave her high and dry in Greece, stranded. It's a pretty safe bet that he always planned on not going to Greece with her at all, taking her money and running. So why didn't he take the money?

I think her admitting she loved him must have got to him somehow. When she told him, and when she told him about her Alfeh, I think that seemed to touch a nerve. Perhaps he did have some semblence of guilt, maybe a kind feeling towards her as well (certainly not love, like she had for him) and he decided to cut his losses, leaving her without taking her money. The betting shop money was really only enough to get out of the country, it wouldn't have taken him far. He'll just start up another scam somewhere else.

It was a good storyline though, i do love it when the older actors are featured. You don't remember how good they really are until they get the light shone on them.The scenes with Audrey and Rita back when Audrey discovered Rita hired Lewis were amazing. Even then, you could see Audrey had already fallen for his flattery and was jealous of anyone else that Lewis dated.

Bringing a heretofore unheard of "old friend" Claudia added to the mix. I usually hate these sudden appearances of old friends when we've never heard of them before, but the glamourous Rula Lenska was superb and was a great foil for Audrey. It's a bit of a spoiler, but she *will* be back in the future to reprise her role as Claudia. Yay!

Here's to Sue Nichols and Nigel Havers, who made this storyline work so well and so believably!