Michelle Connor's age - who's counting?

(This post was originally posted by Sunny Jim on the Coronation Street Blog in November 2011.)

During last night's discussions between Michelle and Ciaran about their future, Ciaran came out with a startling revelation. He informed us that Michelle is 33 years old. Yes, 33!  You could have knocked me down with a birth certificate. So Ciaran, if that's what she's told you, let's do a little maths. If Michelle really is 33 then that means that her son, Ryan (or Alex if you can't block that horrible storyline out of your mind) was born when she was only 14.

Now I know Coronation Street is no stranger to the problem of underage pregnancy, just ask Sarah-Lou and Bethany, but if Michelle was another instance of the phenomenon, you'd have thought we'd have heard, especially with mammy Connor around. So, no Ciaran, your fiancée isn't 33, she's 36. She was born in 1975, it's out there on the interweb. She and her husband Dean may have been childhood sweethearts and married young but they didn't break the law to do so.

And speaking of Ryan, where is he? He disappeared off to Scotland to study last year and since his mam got back from her cruise, he's not even been mentioned. The two of them are very close, so I would have thought that Michelle would have been up there to visit him after such a long absence or he'd have popped back to Weatherfield with his dirty washing. Still it's Scotland that he's gone to and so like Susan and Peter Barlow before him, he's destined not to return for a very, very long time.