The Good, the Bad, the Flamin' Useless
Let's take a trip down memory lane. The
curlers are in, the HP sauce, thickly buttered bread and a steaming mug of tea
form the centre piece of a lovingly furnished dining table. Stan Ogden sits in
wait until the fry-up eventually arrives accompanied by the chirping sounds of
wife Hilda, mid-anecdote. She flutters about putting the world to rights whilst
he pretends to listen, nodding every now and then to show he's paying
attention. In what could be described as a typical working class marriage of
that era, the Corrie husband served a purpose however useless he was and Stan
was the epitome of that.
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| "Pull my finger" |
Following in Stan's footsteps, Jack
Duckworth also personified the bone idol, but loveable Corrie male. The
fondness for a pint or three at the Rovers, an eye for the ladies and an
apparent allergy to a hard day's work meant that wife Vera was the ultimate
long-suffering spouse, a situation which often led to a vicious cycle of
misbehaviour, a rollocking from the missus, followed by a few pints to
alleviate the stress caused by the rollocking from the missus, followed again
by another rollocking from the missus for coming home blind drunk. It was
glorious to watch and one wouldn't be the same without the other.
Also from the school of bone idol - Les
Battersby. Although perhaps jail of bone idol is more accurate. The Battersbys
were cartoon-like in how stereotypically common they were. With the family
causing trouble right from the start, hapless Les was often at the centre of
their problems. When put with Cilla that familiar Corrie theme of male failure,
female disappointment and all the corresponding sound effects (screaming,
shouting, insults etc) fall into place.
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| "I asked for two halves but they only had one glass" |
Coronation Street is and probably
always will be dominated by the female of the species, but without the lazy,
good-for-nothing, bone idol slobs who test their wives to the limit, the Street
would not be the same. A more modern example of the flamin' usless
is Kirk. Debateably a few cobbles short of a full street, Kirk is a more
modern take on the sloth-like Corrie male. Not so much letting the women do all
the cooking, cleaning and going out to work, but not entirely reliable in an
emergency. He respects his better half though and
isn't afraid to show that
respect, something the more old fashioned Corrie men weren't so comfortable
with.
In what seems to be a bit of a
transitional period for Coronation Street, the type of man described above,
that has always been a staple of the show and that have helped make the strong women
so prominent, seems to be dying out. New castings have meant that the Street is
fully stocked up with new families such as the Connors and lots of new and
younger male faces to see Corrie into the future, but will it be the same
without the Jack Duckworths, the Stan Ogdens and even the Kirk Sutherland's of
this world? If a couple of the most recent long term arrivals are anything to
go by, probably not.
Take Andy. Entering on a great
storyline of deceit, blackmail and heartbreak - literally in Michael's case -
the character had promise. They dragged the initial storyline out a little bit
too long but that gave us more time to get used to Andy (or Gavin as he
temporarily was), but now he just seems to hover around the periphery of the
show, contributing very little. He does indeed seem useless, but not in the
comedic, scripted way we like, he's just a bit wet.
Another floater is Robert. The scenes
this week with Simon in the Barlow's yard were touching, and gave us a little
insight into Robert's own past, but again he seems weak and a little bit
pointless. Perhaps when turbulent Tracy finally sends him over the edge we
might see a bit of oomph from the sexy chef.
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| "It's like talking to a brick wall" |
All is not lost however. Tyrone and Fiz
have the potential to follow in the footsteps of Jack and Vera. Still quite
young, they are already veterans of Coronation Street and the writers have the
potential to make them true soap legends. Just imagine Tyrone is his 50s,
complete with string vest and pigeons . And THANK GOD for Tim. And Sally for
that matter. Their pairing is genius and the new comedy element to Sally's
character is just perfect. Tim has quickly become a Corrie favourite and
certainly shows elements of that classic, henpecked Corrie bloke.
We've been a bit obsessed with men on
the Coronation Street blog recently. Llifon has been counting down his all time favourite Corrie men, and over the summer Emma gave us some of her thoughts
about Corrie's Mithered Men. I also wrote about What Makes a Corrie Man last
year. Enjoy.
@StevieDawson
Deirdre: A Life on Coronation Street - official ITV tribute to a soap icon. Available here.
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