Coronation Street: From here to maternity

(This post was originally posted by Graeme N on the Coronation Street Blog in March 2013.)

Apart from the debate over who is Corrie's best mum, there has been another interesting theme running through my recent blog posts - those Coronation Street mothers who did not feature in my poll. It seems everyone has an opinion!

So I thought on the eve of Mother's Day itself, I would take a look at some of the other mothers on the Street.

Some of you may have wanted Eileen Grimshaw included on the list. She may not be the best judge when it comes to men, but she has raised two sons well and is a strong source of support to both. She defended Todd to the hilt when he came out - who can forget her wonderful scrap on the cobbles with a dressing gown-clad Gail? One of my favourite Corrie moments ever! And I for one would love to see a rematch in the future.

Then there are young mums like Fiz Stape and Maria Connor. Should they have been included? Fiz has been a great mum so far to baby Hope although perhaps her involvement with John Stape rules her out. She has also acted as a surrogate mum to brother Chesney and was in many ways a better role model than their dreadful mum Cilla! 

Maria is another good young mum, although like Fiz she did get mixed up with a crazed psycho in my fellow countryman, Tony Gordon. 

And what of the other, lower-key mums on the Street? There's Roy's barnstorming mother, Sylvia Goodwin. Their relationship is certainly touching if at times very strained. What about Gloria Price, mum to St Ella of the Back Room. Nah, giving birth to St Ella rules her out straight away in my opinion! 

Kylie Platt has certainly improved as a mother, especially since she tried to sell son Max to her sister Becky. There is also Beth Tinker who gave us the superb Craig; Katy Armstrong who is currently putting us all off kebabs; Sunita Alahan who is soon to go up in smoke and Crazy Kirsty, though I fear even Tracy Barlow might get more votes than her. 

Have I missed anyone out?

I think so. One of the interesting things to come out of this discussion (well I think so anyway) is that sometimes the best Coronation Street mother figures are actually not mothers at all. I'm looking at three lovely ladies in particular. 

Emily Bishop has never been blessed with children but has acted as a wise mentor to many younger Street residents such as Kevin Webster, Curly Watts, Spider Nugent and Sophie Webster. Hayley Cropper is also a character seen as a wonderful mother figure by many. Despite Roy and Hayley's many attempts, their dreams of fostering or adopting never quite worked out. A great shame as I think they would have made terrific parents. Hayley has been like a mother to Fiz and Becky and is the kind of character many Street residents turn to in times of need.

However, I think the best mother figure has to be Rita Tanner. It was always a great sadness to Rita that she had never had children which led to the Faircloughs fostering kids in the early 1980s. There was John Spencer, Sharon Gaskell and finally Jenny Bradley. Sadly Rita didn't have much luck with any of these in the long run. Since then Rita has acted as a friend to many younger characters such as Sally, Leanne, Tina and Tommy. She is always there to  dole out the common sense with the sherbet lemons. Having been there, done that and bought the diamante studded jumper, she always knows exactly what to say.


So do you agree that the best Coronation Street mother figures aren't always mothers in the traditional sense? 


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