What a toe-rag, that Ken Barlow! 'Touch of the Melvyn Braggs about the hairline' indeed! I thought he was truly rumbled when mother-in-law Blanche heard about the special 'Pinot' (my favourite, if it's Grigio) Of course, I can sympathise with a free theatre seat for 'Streetcar' but felt sorry for poor Deirdre, waiting at home with his 'favourite lasagne'. And what about Stephanie, thinking he's still grieving but hinting her floating caravan may be moored in pastures new if he doesn't pull his finger out and give her a good seeing to?

Sheila

LOL!!!! What a minx she is!

Jem, I started off thinking she was a predatory femme fatale, but now I'm blaming him. After all she's a free agent of apparently independent means - that acting job can't pay much- but he's supposed to be married and he's lying to her, although apparently not willing to go the whole way. She's obviously gagging for more than a passionate kiss on the cheek.

What a hypocrite he looked when she said she understood it was 'too soon' after his wifes' death. I'd have loved to see the episode where he told her, the snake.

I'm glad Deirdre let him have it with both barrels, too, when he was refusing to paint Blanche's bedroom and scuttled off to get the wine at the corner shop. Loved Blanche's surmise :'I feel another novel coming on'.

He's going to be found out soon, and then he'll be properly in the soup - and it won't be his favourite leek and potato.

What's the chances that Martha turns out to be a right bunny boiler and seeks revenge?

Meantime I've advised my husband to come straight home from the bridge club and stay away from canals. At a mere 72 he's almost a toyboy compared with Ken.

Sheila

Meantime I've advised my husband to come straight home from the bridge club and stay away from canals. At a mere 72 he's almost a toyboy compared with Ken.

Hilarious, Sheila!

I do have some sympathy with Ken. It's the old "Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive" again, isn't it? If only he'd have owned up to the fact that actualy it was his first wife who'd died but that he'd got a second who was very much alive, then we'd have had none of this.

And as much as I love the character of Blanche, the thought of sharing a house with her would send me wandering off down tow-paths too!

Yes, perhaps I haven't looked at the issue from all sides. I expect the best thing is just to watch and see what happens.

Sheila

It's an awful long time since Val died, isn't it? I liked her, but she did go on to greater things.

Much as I never thought I'd agree with Blanche, she hit the nail on the head with praising 'Howard's Way', that series set on the Isle of Wight where they 'had trouble fitting their shoulder pads into the cabins.'Hard-working Jan Harvey ( I think she ran a fashion boutique) had trouble keeping her man out of the clutches of a femme fatale too - Kate O'Mara.

No wonder Ken looked guilty at the mention of boats. I was thinking that as I'd been out of the loop for a week things would have progressed, but Martha seems to be working her way through the Boatyard Cookbook to very little effect. What a skunk Ken is - 'Setting a new standard in scrambled eggs' indeed! And rolling his eyes at the addition of a few chopped chives as if she rivals Nigella. I hope he gets chopped when Deirdre finds out!

But I've missed the trial and Simon going off on a cruise with a new woman - presumably someone he met in rehab.It's like father like son, sneakily sending the cute little boy to change Lianne's mind. That boy deserves an Oscar.

Best, though, was the very funny scene at the Platts, with everybody competing to reveal the worse secret and vilifying one another like mad.

I'm never going away again.

Sheila

I thought the Platt scene was a tour de force in scriptwriting, Sheila! How to bring stuff up from the past just in the right way and at the right time. Lovely. I can't believe I'm going to miss the wedding on Friday!!!!! Going to see Anthony Scher in The Tempest at Stratford. (Though I'm sure he'll be good too! ;}

What!!! Antony Sher in The Tempest? Has the theatre been rebuilt? It was just rubble in October when I passed through Stratford. Surely not Prospero? Maybe the Duke D'Orsino? Green with envy here. I was reading about John Gielgud as Prospero and Michael Feast as Ariel at the Old Vic in 'Peter Hall's Diaries' while I was on holiday.

I saw Judi Dench (aged about 18) as Miranda at Stratford in 1959, with Richard Pascoe as Duke D'Orsino but can't remember who was Prospero.

Recently watched Anthony Sher in a TV adaptation of 'The History Man', very good in a reptilian sort of way, and some years ago read his diary of when he played Richard 111 - he's a very good writer.

Yes, it would be a pity to miss the wedding so you must get it recorded.

Sheila

<Added>

Sorry, I meant Judi Dench was Viola in 'Twelfth Night' opposite Richard Pascoe as the Duke. I think she may have been Miranda as well. It was the bicentenary year so star-spangled. Olivier was Coriolanus.

<Added>

Yes, I love Ken's ex-wife in 'Dinner Ladies', together with another old Corrie favourite, Thelma Barlow, or Mavis. I bought my husband the boxed set for a Christmas present, but I admit to some self-interest.

Yes it's been rebuilt and yes he's playing Prospero. He's getting on a bit now, remember!

Hope you enjoy the play - I must try to get to see the new theatre soon.

Sheila