[Redway]

The way Corrie’s mostly been plodding along in mediocrity at best since the spring of ’05, with only a few genuinely captivating, well-crafted periods approaching the quality of the better of the first 44 years. There are probably years within these last 20 years that have been more alien to Corrie’s core than this current misery-drip of police-drama (2011-12 was marmite-like but I thought most of Collinson’s era was horrible, likewise the infamous bad-comedy summer of ’05) but it’s mostly strayed between that level of horror and just-plain mediocrity since.

2006 wasn’t exactly the best year for EastEnders because of the cast-turnover of 2005-06 and it took a while to get going again in more solid blocks after Sharon goes to Florida but there’s actually quite a lot that’s good about this year, and it’s solid in terms of characterisation for certain key characters. I know we’ll never forget what they did to Pauline, and Sonia was beyond insufferable this year, but characters like Jean (before she became a sausage-surprise caricature) and Bradley were better served by Kate Harwood than Diedrick Santer, with some genuinely good arcs to root for (Denise/Owen/Libby abuse, Billy and Honey’s wedding and Janet’s Down-Syndrome, Sean/Stacey/Jean, the beginnings of things like Stacey/Max. and Stella bullying Ben.) to boot. It had edge and genuine drama amongst the crap (Sonia/Naomi, Johnny Allen getting wasted into cardiac oblivion, “killing” Kathy off for 9 years to give us the repugnant divvy that is Ben Mitchell).

One thing that the current “classic” Corrie reruns (currently on October 2006) have pointed out is how flat and stale it feels by comparison to Easties, and like I say 2006 wasn’t exactly a golden year for them, either. Just … Jamie having an affair with his step-mum, Sean (who’s improved as a character just-lately, thanks to Dylan) prancing around convinced he’s straight-acting, Bev. drunk-acting very badly and crying over a gravy-jar, David at his absolute teenage-psycho. worst (even if it did give us that *epic* Gail/David showdown), it … ya. The only stories from this year I really like are Rosie/Craig and Emily Bishop coming face-to-face with her Ernest’s killer (and even that was wrapped up in the first quarter of the year). No real danger of sinking ship at the time, better in hindsight now a lot of icons (like Deirdre) aren’t with us anymore and it’s watchable enough but no more than that. Just so, so painfully average.