Mortification Street

I came home late from work last night and sat down to watch Coronation Street before bed. What followed were some of the most mortifying scenes I've witnessed in Corrie's long history. Right up there with Tracy's "sexy" dance before offing nasty Charlie Stubbs, worse that Dev's naked form being displayed on the side of the posh flats and almost giving anything "Molvin" a run for its money.

The mortification levels were so high in our house thanks to the delightful hen party storyline which saw Weatherfield's finest personal trainer, Kal Nazir, overexcite some rather unpleasant females by serving their microwaved puds half naked. The sight of Kal, stripped to the waist and slathered across the midriff with chocolate mousse was not only a waste of pudding, but a waste of my time as a Corrie viewer. Quite why this got Leanne's pulse racing I'm not quite sure, but it did and they snogged and nobody ever saw that one coming. 

It was just so tedious. My complaint about last nights scenes comes in two parts I'm afraid, so buckle up.

First of all, and possibly most importantly for the reputation of the programme, this storyline was just incredibly contrived, hackneyed and disrespectful. How many times has the dreadful male stripper plot been used? The mild titillation afforded by half naked men in the 7.30pm time slot really isn't worth the effort. It really doesn't do the writers, actors or viewers any favours. It's not funny, it's not dramatic, it's not clever.

I blame the arrival of Brian Park back in the 1990s for this phenomenon. When he introduced Adam Rickitt to the viewing public back in 1997, Corrie would never be the same again. The female characters were soon to drool over his physique which was amply displayed, whether essential to the plot or not. Ever since, there has been a long line of muscular young men fulfilling that role. Yawn. Time for some new ideas I think.

My second complaint is not directly about Coronation Street itself. I've been dismayed but not altogether surprised by the reaction to Jimi Mistry's role in the aforementioned storyline. Never mind whether you like the character or respect the actor, it really is totally unpleasant to pass such scathing judgements on someone else's appearance. Some of the comments I've read on internet forums and comments pages have been really out of line and I only hope the actor himself hasn't seen them. Fair play to the man for making the most of a lousy script and a bad idea. He did his best. I'd like to see how some of the people posting such negative comments about his appearance would cope if they had to endure such treatment. 

So enough with the half naked waiters and the sticky toffee pudding. Judging by the content of last night's Corrie, they should've been serving up Manchester tart instead.


Follow the Bluenose CorrieBlog on Twitter and Facebook