How do you solve a problem like Gail?

(This post was originally posted by Clinkers (David) on the Coronation Street Blog in November 2013.)

On the heels of some excellent blogging and feedback over the past few days, it seems that one name crops up over and over again. Step forward Gail Potter Tilsley Tilsley Platt Hillman McIntyre.

There is something very wrong in her universe, aside from a son who looks like a pensioner, another who is psychotic, a never-to-be-seen-again daughter and a mother who manages to remain flighty in her dotage.

Admittedly I've never been one of Gail's greatest fans. As a kid, I observed her as some kind of permanently grinning scruff bag, schlepping across the cobbles in her tatty sheepskin coat. Teenage Gail really came into her own when she was nurtured by Elsie 'I've been there kid' Tanner and the worldly Suzie Birchall. Three very different women sharing a house and supporting each other. Not only did this relationship work but it worked well. This seemed to mark the end of Gail's golden era. Her marriage to numpty Brian and the never-ending battles with Mother Inferior Ivy both seemed to have a detrimental effect on her character. Gail became something of a young shrew. Only Brian's death gave her the freedom to move on and enter what was perhaps her imperial phase. Gail's collaboration at the café with the initially feckless Alma was a smart move and Mrs Platt formed a strong bond with her colleague.

Since Alma's dad demise though, Gail has been virtually friendless. Instead, the character became more inward-looking and her interest in her sons is unhealthy to say the least. The caring mum became overbearing, meddlesome and harsh. In recent years, Gail's personality seems to ricochet between twee and loony. Her ridiculous Mrs Mopp persona was probably supposed to be whimsical whereas in reality, she appears to be a village idiot in a tabard. If Gail is to survive, all of this has to stop.

How do we rescue Gail? Well firstly she needs to be surgically removed from number eight. Yes she can still be an involved parent and grandparent but she does not need to be at the centre of their lives. Gail needs to move out into a flat of her own. She's spent her entire adult life as wife, mother and grandmother. Now it's time to let her breathe a little.

Gail also needs a friend. Okay, so it isn't going to be Eileen or Deirdre. The latter has always been a puzzle, especially back in the 1980s when both women were bringing up kids at the same time yet never even spoke to each other. Gail needs someone to have a laugh with in her middle years. Bring back Tricia Hopkins! Let's have Gail trawling social media sites and meeting up with Suzie again. Anything to get her involved with life outside number eight. Give her a hobby, an interesting job but maybe not a new man. Some things are best left alone.

In her mid-fifties and single, Gail should be enjoying her family but not in such a dominant way. She should be there to offer wise words when necessary but other than that, Gail should be celebrating her life. If the character is to survive she needs to show a bit more spirit. What we don't need is the slightly loopy, slightly little-girl-lost hybrid that Gail has become.

Cometh the hour, cometh the relatively new producer. It's down to you Mr Blackburn!

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