So. Vic Reeves. What was all that about then?
I'll say up front: I consider Vic Reeves/Jim Moir to be a comic genius. Separately and together Reeves and Mortimer have reduced me to tears of laughter on many occasions. So I was excited to hear he would have an extended guest stint on the show. He's a talented, funny actor, and since he was unwilling to commit to a permanent role, absolutely get him in to mix things up a bit.
But something went wrong en route. What was the point of Colin, in the end? He appeared, slightly sinister, slightly creepy, smarming over Mary and Norris at the Mr & Mrs contest and hinting that he'd rig it in their favour... for some reason. He then followed them to Coronation Street where, through manipulation, he encouraged Rita and Norris to sell the Kabin and the flat... for some reason. After he took over, he turned out to be claiming multiple employees for tax purposes... for some reason. Eventually, he got it into his head he was Norris's son... for some reason. Which caused him to sell everything back and run off to Stoke with Moira, a woman he'd known for about a week... oh, you get the idea.
None of it made sense. This wasn't a character arc, it was a rollercoaster of stuff. Stuff happened with Colin, stuff that was entirely unrelated to one another, and then everything moved on. Was he a villain? Was he a funny character? He was a little of both, but no good at either.
If you're going to have a big star make a lengthy guest appearance, plan it out. You've got eight weeks of Jim Moir - you should know what he's there for, who he's going to affect, and how he's leaving. It's going to attract publicity and people who might not otherwise watch the show; have the guest character's appearances reflect the absolute best of Corrie. Make him the funniest the show's been; make him the most dramatic the show's been. Make him something. Otherwise it's a waste of everyone's time.
How about Colin suspected from the start that Norris was his dad? That would explain why he wanted the competition to go in his favour. He wanted to buy the Kabin so that his long-lost dad could finally retire. It'd give him a reason to doggedly pursue this particular newsagents' over any other newsagents' in the world. After weeks of investigating and searching, he finally confronts Norris, finds out the memorable time in Darlington he hinted about was a hospital stay, and skulks off, embarrassed. The same basic parts of what happened during Colin's tenure, but, and here's the difference, it's underpinned by character and with a motivation that actually makes some kind of sense.
The show did this very well before. Ian McKellen came in with a character who affected the lives of the residents, unfurled new facets to his character without dominating the show, and was then driven out of the Street for good, dramatic reasons. He didn't just say "oh, Norris isn't really my dad? In that case I'll sell the shop back to him and return to Stoke."
I'm not sure if there was a plan for Colin that was somehow derailed, a plotline that was abandoned for some reason, causing him to be lost in rewrites. I hope there was. Because the alternative is that the show just didn't know what it was doing.
By @merseytart
Tvor @tvordlj on Twitter
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