Why I love Corrie's Craig Tinker

(This post was originally posted by Flaming Nora on the Coronation Street Blog January 2013, reposted to this blog with permission.)

Another fab guest post from Anna Kalinski, who will soon be joining us as a Coronation Street Blogger.  Follow Anna on twitter @annakalinski

For months, I've been slightly bemused by the point of Craig Tinker in Corrie. Clearly introduced as a comedy character, ever since his first appearance around 18 months ago, he seemed to be cast as the teen equivalent of Eddie the Staring Dog in Frasier.

Just as imposing as Eddie and just as ginger and white, except in Frasier it was funny; perhaps because there was the old endearment factor of a dog, rather than of a teenager who in each scene, sat around like a vast slug shovelling Jammie Dodgers and Cheesy Wotsits into his mouth, whilst fixating murderously on Steve McDonald.

I liked neither him nor Beth Tinker when they arrived in Corrie. Beth seemed to be some sort of brash Cilla sub (indeed my mum still calls her Cilla to this day, so there’s at least one person who hasn’t noticed) and for my liking, their scenes were a little too forced. Their comedy moments at first were the equivalent of somebody preceding an anecdote with the words: "Oh, this totally HILARIOUS thing happened to us....". Being told you're supposed to find it funny makes it not funny.

Of course, classic Corrie humour has always been about subtlety and crucially, realism. My comedy stars recently have been Gail and Son and their whole "Daviiid/Mum!!"exchanges as they grate on each other in their co-dependent way. A recent gem was when David walked in on Gail kneeling down to Lewis on the sofa, just at the moment as she leaned over to place a pillow under his back. Right on time, David enters the room assuming the worst mind-bleach moment of any son ever, Max sliding off his back as he recoils: “Mum!! What are you doing?” “Oh David, what?”, says The Mack in all naivety. Alas, too much comedy in Corrie of late has been about as funny as a burning orphanage.

However, when Craig was finally given lines, right before Christmas, ka-boom!, he suddenly transmogrified into a fantastic little addition who injected the sort of humour we love and expect on Corrie - character driven, not "hilarious" ladder/banana skin/underpants set-up incidents which we seem to get of late, interspersed with scenes of rape and abortion.

Colson Smith does a sterling job of playing Craig with just the right mix of cheeky rogueishness and optimism and cockle-warming loyalty to his mam. There is something quite sweet about how he accepts his turbulent world and kind of plods along. He is rendered with all the astuteness of a child passed from pillar to post and, he even made Kirk seem to have a point for a while, which is no mean feat. He's nobody's fool, a wheeler-dealer, who ain't getting up no extendable ladders for less than a fiver. And not before he's fed his rat first.

He is presented now as a nice enough kid, happy to help with a bright "okay then!" as opposed to the grunting obtuse Damien-esque terror he had appeared as initially. Craig Tinker has suffered from the classic lack of direction that characters often have when introduced to the street, before suddenly bursting out of their shell with a totally new personality. Or in Ryan Connor's case, no personality.

Next week: Roy Cropper, tower of attraction to women. Deirdre will be straight in once Hayley goes.

I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to more scenes with Craig, and I'd like to see him interacting more - could you imagine him with Roy? Now we know Hayley is leaving, perhaps with his wisdom beyond his years, Craig would be a nice foil for Roy, and somebody for him to take under his wing. Let's get him a job in the caffy, shall we? Well, them rats don’t feed themselves.


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