Goodbye Claire Peacock

(This post was originally posted by David (Clinkers) on the Coronation Street Blog January 2011, reposted to this blog with permission.)

And so, then, the feisty Claire Peacock has taken her leave of Weatherfield. It's been a bumpy seven years for the tiny tyrant. Despite working her own kind of magic on the hapless Ashley, Claire was often portrayed as a bit of a harridan. She seemingly carped on about bettering both herself and her family in a way that perhaps only Sally Webster could appreciate. Arguably, Claire was one of t'Street's most irritating characters but for those traits we applaud the performances of Julia Haworth. Her portayal of a bereft widow has been mesmerising and Haworth has fittingly been given a good send-off from the Street.

Will Claire Peacock be remembered warmly by fans in years to come? Or are we glad to see the back of her?

Claire Peacock - an under-rated character? (Contains possible spoiler)

I'm curious as to how the current storyline about Coronation Street's Claire Peacock (played by Julia Haworth) is going to develop.

They've brought out some pretty powerful stuff with this one, not least regarding distasteful attitudes towards mental health. Claire's been suspected of harming a child - Dev and Sunita's son Aadi - and because of her history of mental health problems many people are more than willing to jump to the wrong conclusion. I think this is really interesting and I hope that the writers find a way to play this out to a satisfactory conclusion, without allowing the Sophie/Sian storyline to swamp it.

(SPOILER warning)
I'll be very sorry to see the Peacocks leave (that's if they DO leave!) Ashley has been really enjoyable to watch, and I think Claire has been under-rated. I've always admired the way she's handled some really heavy-duty storylines.  Apparently she is a keen writer and has recently made a short film. Info. about post natal depression and other mental health issues here.