Friday, April 07, 2006
The end of the road (well, Street)
DEATH! Coronation Street, ITV1, 7.30pm
We can actually remember the point in the storyline a while back where Mike just started to randomly forget things every so often. The best thing about it was that it was slipped into the script really subtly and never really made that big a deal of, but several extremely quick-thinking soap addicts predicted an Alzheimer's storyline in the making. This came to pass, and we admit we haven't been watching it that much recently so we don't know if it developed as well as it started, but we couldn't let today pass without paying tribute to the soap institution that is Mike Baldwin.
Tonight's episode sees his death (SPOILER! - oh come on, it was on the front of the Radio Times, and people have been talking about it for weeks, so shush), back on the Street having escaped from hospital. In that true poetic way that only ever happens in soaps, some of his last moments are spent with former arch-enemy Ken Baldwin. We're wondering if there could possibly be a better time for Mike to ask "so, does Deirdre always do that thing in bed where she...?", but we're quite sick and wrong like that. Mike's time on the soap has been well-spent: he's employed about 75% of the Street's residents at one point or another, he's bedded a selection of lovely ladies, several of them young enough to be his daughter (we miss Linda), and he's fathered quite the litter of children (we miss Mark, too).
He leaves the legacy of the younger generation of the Baldwin family (who, perhaps ironically, were brought into the show so that his character wouldn't seem so isolated) and hopefully remains a magnificent bastard to the very end, leaving a very large hole that will need to be filled. Michael Vernon Baldwin, we salute you and wish you a safe journey into the soap afterlife. Say hello to Anne Malone for us if you see her.
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2 Comments:
Yes, it has been carried out exceptionally well.
This is pretty good too - the RIP Corrie Cockey Geezer article on http://www.corrieblog.tv today
By 
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2:07 pm
