Is it time Katy left the cobbles?

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

I'm afraid this isn't going to be a very positive blog. I've tried really hard to like Katy Armstrong over the past few years, but I just can't. Moreover, I just can't see what the point is in keeping her on our screens.

As always, I have nothing against the actress who plays Katy - I'm sure she is a very nice young woman. I just really can't take to the character. I'm afraid Coronation Street has done the usual thing of a complete character transformation on Katy. When she first appeared she was sweet and wholesome, falling for the equally sweet and wholesome Chesney Brown.

When the writers decided to add a baby into the mix I thought fair enough. There are plenty of young families of this ilk up and down the land, so why not portray this in Corrie. However overnight they seemed to turn Katy into a drudge and a misery. I'm sorry to say that when she moaned about not having a life, I did bark at the telly "you were the one who wanted a baby so much!"

Anyway, Corrie has a talent for making youngsters old before their time (see TIna and Tommeh for further examples of that) so things trundled on in a very boring fashion until Katy suddenly transformed herself into...an even more moody young woman with a baby. Only now she was plastered in fake tan which in Corrie tradition means she's about to misbehave. And that she did, with gormless, beige Ryan Connor.

The initial appeal of Katy soon wore thin for Ryan, who is still not Michelle's real son, which has still not been addressed properly on screen since his return. Anyway, Ryan soon viewed Katy'n'sprog with all the appeal of a stale eccles cake and he showed his true colours. This began what seemed like years of repetitive round robin storylining between Chesney, Katy and Ryan. The expressions, situations and dialogue stayed the same, so technically you could have popped off on one of Rita's round the world cruises, come back, tuned in again and thought you'd managed to leave your television on pause for six months.

I wholeheartedly believe that the younger characters really are Corrie's future. Just please don't portray them like this trio of dullards any longer! A half hour devoted to one of Emily's hospital visits at Weathy General would be more entertaining. Let's hope the next character that leaves takes perma-tanned Katy with them.

End of rant!


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