Soaps all have their archetypes, and Coronation Street is no different.
You have your heroes: Carla Connor (Alison King), Kevin Webster (Michael Le Vell) and Ben Driscoll (Aaron McCusker), your underdogs: Debbie Webster (Sue Devaney) and Tyrone Dobbs’ (Alan Halsall) and a couple of wise sages in Roy Cropper (David Neilson) and Ken Barlow (William Roache) amid many more character types.
Becky Swain (Amy Cudden) filled a particular kind of villain slot. Unlike rage-filled abuser Theo Silverton (James Cartwright), paedophile Megan Walsh (Beth Nixon) and entirely selfish sleaze, Carl Webster (Jonathan Howard), Becky’s evil was driven by a goal: the unrelenting pursuit to reclaim her family.
Other people were collateral damage in her mission to reunite with wife Lisa (Vicky Myers) and daughter Betsy (Sydney Martin).
With Becky’s reign of terror officially over, it seemed fans were looking forward to a break from a Machiavellian femme fatale, though Becky’s exit tied directly into the emergence of Jodie Ramsay (Olivia Frances-Brown).
In a few short weeks on screen, Jodie’s established herself as deeply manipulative, devious and both willing and able to tear the new life her sister, Shona Platt (Julia Goulding), has built for herself apart. Although, unlike Becky, her true motives have yet to be revealed, the way she approaches things have been incredibly similar.
She lies, she twists and emotionally manipulates those around her, and has set to work spinning a web of deceit around the Platt family.
Is it a case of villain fatigue, though? Even with Becky gone, there’s no shortage of baddies, with the aforementioned Theo desperate trying to keep his killer secret under wraps, Megan actively abusing Will Driscoll (Lucas Hodgson-Wale) and Carl desperately trying to ensure his secret mum, Debbie, goes down for his role in the Corriedale pile up.
Fans on the Metro Soaps Facebook page certainly think so.
Tracy Robinson lamented: ‘Wonderful! Just what the show needs…another newcomer who isn’t a nice person. There’s already Carl, Theo, Maggie and Becky. Why can’t she just be there because she wants to reconnect with her sister? Escape whatever nightmarish life she was leading? Kate Brooks lacks imagination, doesn’t try new directions and insists on ramming it down people’s throats.’
Ouch.
Carol Jerred replied to her comment, pointing out even more Weatherfield wrong’un’s: ‘And Megan. Not to mention the old school Tracy and Hope, and looks like Roy could be heading for trouble’
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Lynn Turley urged the show to move away from all the villains and bring back some more light-hearted fun: ‘Already had enough of this storyline. The show seems to be stumbling from one tedious thread to another. How about some faithful happy marriages and more importantly some humour’
Cheryl Simpson didn’t mince her words: ‘Enough of this nonsense. More humour and happiness please – not one new character introduced to Corrie recently is very nice.’
Is there too many baddies in Corrie?
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No! I love villains!
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Yes! Kill a few off!
Carol Williams commented: ‘Can we purleeese just have one happy ever after…what would be so wrong with that? We really don’t need Corrie dragging us all down in the dumps as well as everything else that’s going on around us’, while Jessie Deegan said: ‘This is another awful situation.Get Steve, Tracy, Glenda and Mary all back to bring some joy.’
It seems that with all the darkness in the world currently, Corrie fans want some levity and escapism. While all soap heroes need a villain to combat, are there simply too many on the Street right now?
As mentioned by Jessie, and while all capable of carrying meaty plots, Steve McDonald (Simon Gregson), Tracy Barlow (Kate Ford), Glenda Shuttleworth (Jodie Prenger) and Mary Taylor (Patti Clare) are four of Corrie’s most hilarious characters, all with brilliant comic timing and the ability to swerve from side-splitting laughs to gut-wrenching emotion at the drop of a hat.
Perhaps we’d like to see more family warmth, love and soapy hi-jinks than evil? It seems the Metro Soaps commenters definitely would!
