CORONATION STREET
What’s with the obsession to put Toyah centre stage in so many big storylines? She’s the sponge that keeps on giving.
Seriously, how much more can they wring out of her? First, she started banging on to Leanne about the Institute, then she acquired a dead baby that she had mysteriously failed to mention to anyone ever before, and now she’s in hospital, receiving not just one, but two bits of shocking news in quick succession.
Alas, neither shock is bad enough for her to need an anaesthetist to shut her up for a few hours.
By ‘storylines’, incidentally, I mean ‘unnecessary padding for a show in deep crisis’. Soap is reliant on unlikely scenarios, we all know that; it’s the nature of the genre. But they still need to carry an air of believability, and nothing surrounding Toyah’s many current crises does that.
![Toyah's Hospital Shocks 2 What's with the obsession to put Toyah centre stage in so many big storylines? She's the sponge that keeps on giving](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/06/25/16/86548543-13567725-image-a-2_1719327774718.jpg)
What’s with the obsession to put Toyah centre stage in so many big storylines? She’s the sponge that keeps on giving
For someone purporting to be a great counsellor, for example, she isn’t half making a mess of her own life. Sleeping with Nick? Seriously? In the very flat she shares with him and Leanne? Is anyone buying this?
Nick walks around in a state of somnambulance bordering on rigor mortis most of the time; the idea that he could summon up the energy for an afternoon of rumpy pumpy is utterly ridiculous.
And why, when Toyah initiated the event with a kiss, did the couple stand at the open door in full view of everyone – not least, Rowan’s spy, who just so happened to be there to photograph the event?
It’s a shame that Rowan is such a baddie whose days are inevitably numbered, because Emrhys Cooper, who plays him, is not just very easy on the eye, he’s an actor with gravitas.
Maybe he could end up sleeping with Toyah, too. Come on, there must still be a few drops left in the old sponge yet.
Joel is up to no good again when he sends Betsy, on work experience at the factory, a flirty text. He’s clearly a Richard Hillman/Stephen Reid in the making. Is Dee-Dee heading for a fall? Careful, love; I mean that literally.
EMMERDALE
People have been lying prostrate on the church floor for years – invariably in compromising positions, getting down and dirty in the vestry (remember Harriet? She couldn’t pass a stack of hymn books without sleeping with the man next to it).
This time, it’s Laurel who, following a row with Jai, collapses. Unable to reach her phone, she’s found by Gabby, who infuriates Jai with her incessant calling. Will he soften when he hears the reason? Or is this curtains for the pair? Wasn’t life easier when you were hitting the Smirnoff every night, Laurel?
![Toyah's Hospital Shocks 4 Unable to reach her phone, Laurel is found by Gabby, who infuriates Jai with her incessant calling](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/06/25/16/86547921-13567725-image-a-3_1719327792541.jpg)
Unable to reach her phone, Laurel is found by Gabby, who infuriates Jai with her incessant calling
It’s another bad week for Belle, when she resists the opportunity to open up to Charity about her problems with Tom. Worse, behind Belle’s back, Tom applies for a job in a rural part of Wales then offers to take her on holiday to a remote cottage (cue sinister music).
What could possibly go wrong? Nothing good ever comes of remote cottages in Emmerdale.
There’s light relief when Paddy invites Marlon and Rhona to a games night (alas, not those of the vestry kind). Mandy expresses concern that Rhona is not the most scintillating company. Er, she’s met her other half Paddy, right?
Softly, softly, please Sophie
Newly appointed producer Sophie Roper has been instrumental in crafting some of Emmerdale’s biggest plots – Maya’s grooming of Jacob and Meena’s murderous rampage, to name but two.
Sophie says, ‘As a soap fan, I feel privileged to be part of such an iconic and well-loved programme. I look forward to bringing more bold and groundbreaking drama to the Dales.’ Please, no more shootings and car bootnappings!
EASTENDERS: Will Priya regret her deal with nasty Nish?
Priya has never been one to shirk from her responsibilities when it comes to her fairm-ly but has she bitten off more than she can chew when she tries to help them by making Nish an unconventional offer – especially when he wants to hold her to it?
![Toyah's Hospital Shocks 6 Anyone else think Nish is not really terminally ill? That the hospital have either muddled up his records, or he’s paid people to falsify information?](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/06/25/16/86548551-13567725-image-a-4_1719327827692.jpg)
Anyone else think Nish is not really terminally ill? That the hospital have either muddled up his records, or he’s paid people to falsify information?
With her son Nugget collapsed in hospital (how do soapland folk find beds so easily?), will Priya come to regret her actions?
Anyone else think Nish is not really terminally ill? That the hospital have either muddled up his records, or he’s paid people to falsify information?
Although Nugget regains consciousness, Priya and Ravi learn that his kidneys are not responding and he may need long-term dialysis. Give him a Happy Meal from that McKlunky’s he’s so fond of; he’ll be right as rain in no time.
What’s with all the fathers and sons stuff – again? George and Eddie, Billy and Stevie, and now Billy and Will, after Billy shares an emotional moment with his son. Dear lord. These scripts could give Turgenev’s novel Fathers And Sons a run for its money.
Thank goodness for all this male bonding for Sharon, who appears about to get some grubby action with Teddy.