Denise Osborne is back on our screens in Canada after nearly 12 years. The last time we saw her, she scarpered with baby Daniel up to Scotland where all of Ken's biological children grow up without developing the accent. Only his grandson Adam came away sounding like a Scot and he mainly grew up with his mother in Newcastle, only having spent holidays in Glasgow with his granny Tatlock. Go figure. Denise Osborne was brought in to be the "next Elsie Tanner" and she nearly had that potential. She seemed to attract men like flies to honey, bringing several of them, including footless Don Brennan to their knees in short order. She was feisty, spirited, in her late 30s and starting to get fed up with men altogether. They then paired her with Ken Barlow which should have had her run screaming to the nunnery. Talk about a mismatched pair! But what happened was Anne Kirkbride (Deirdre) developed health problems and was off the show for awhile so they put Ken and Denise together. At first she found him a nice bloke, safe and unthreatening. Well, he never stopped being that but he also became bland and boring to her. It's Ken Barlow! We viewers never doubted the fact that he was not a dynamic man in spite of the long line of women trailing behind him.
Oops, She finds herself pregnant and isn't sure she wants the spawn of Ken Barlow by this time. Ken is fretful and frustrated. She has a miscarraige which takes the decision out of everyone's hands. But wait! It was twins and she's still carrying one and that was the defining moment when she knew she wanted to keep the baby. Ken is now gleeful but Denise isn't sure she wants anything to do with him. Gasp!
Why i loved her? She always stood up to Ken, both before and after their relationship. She took no crap. She might not be as educated as he was but she was smarter than him, if you get my drift. Ken didn't know what to make of her. He usually always went for submissive women, the kind over whom he could wield his superior intellect and reason and who would meekly accept this arrogance. Then he would turn around and have affairs on these meek women because he couldn't respect them. Denise was different. He didn't really love her because she called him on his shit but she had his baby so he thought the right thing to do was make the effort for Daniel's sake. She tried but realized it just wasn't going to work.
To get her out of the show, the powers that be fabricated a previously unheard of and unhinted at affair with the even blanderThanKen husband of her sister. You wouldn't mind if they'd had him be a macho builder or a dynamic business man but he was an accountant, for God's sake! Not one of life's matinee idols, are accountants. And this one was no different. This stormy affair over the salon books was soon uncovered and they left for the highlands. Ken tried to manage with the baby but she came back and took him too. And the nanny, Kelly, for good measure.
Ken being Ken, tried half heartedly for a few months, driving to Scotland or having Daniel for visits but one or two nights of a cranky child missing his mum had him taking the low road to Scotland and the only time he saw his son over the next 10 or so years was a photo with his Christmas card and a few pounds in a trust fund.
Now he's had a crisis with Deirdre and has discovered that Denise is only living in Stockport. He remarked on having a son not 15 miles away that he never sees. And who's fault is that? And even now, he's wanting to see his son and the lad agrees. Denise is still predicting that Ken will use Daniel to fill that gap in his life and then disappear again when it's all healed over but since Daniel wants to see his father, what is a mother to do? But you know what'll happen. Exactly that. But for the next few weeks, we get to see Denise do what Denise does best. Tell Ken exactly what he doesn't really want to hear and probably instigate Ken and Deirdre's reunion because she doesn't really want him around under her feet.
She's only back for a few weeks so we know we won't see her or Daniel again and the writers will never mention it other than the occasional birthday card or phone call. We won't see Ken coming in and saying he'd been to see Daniel play footy or he'd taken the lad for a pizza and a movie.
4 comments:
I can't say I ever really liked her charactor, although your points are valid. I have been reading on guestbooks a few (quite a few actually) negative comments on how she looks now. For my two cents worth, I think she looks great. I have seen some reunion shows from the states, and the actresses look like characatures of their former selves,, horrible! I like that she looks normal, older, heavier, etc, so much more real to life and believable!
I think she looks fab too. We're all older and i think her talents far outweigh any criticism anyone should have about her looks. She's great!
Tvor, this is great. You should post things like this to Corrieblog too for a wider audience to appreciate. Really good.
The problem is, it was inspired by the Canadian timeline and i don't like to do that too much. I suppose i could, though.
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