After all, the character had to kill his second victim, Teddy Thompkins (Grant Burgin), when he discovered that Stephen had killed his son Leo (Joe Frost). He had to pick up the nearest heavy object, the office\u2019s hole punch, and fatally strike Teddy. Moments later, he tells an unsuspecting Michael Bailey (Ryan Russell), \u201cI think I\u2019ve done enough punching for today\u201d.<\/p>\n
In later scenes, his face turns from pulsating to seemingly slack with shock, his voice ravaged by terror, \u201ccome on.\u201d He implored when the roof box containing Teddy\u2019s body floated \u2014 until he threw rocks at it, it miraculously lowered as a passerby wished him a good evening.<\/p>
Earlier, a neighbourly Abi Webster (Sally Carman) had asked. \u201cBlimey, what have you got in here?\u201d<\/p>\n
This is the simple gift of it all; ordinary life continues around him. His storyline and increasing desperation have been woven through the most mundane realities of family life: as David Platt (Jack P Shepherd) fiercely yearned for a wood chippings bargain. Audrey Roberts (Sue Nicholls) drove to visit an old friend as Teddy\u2019s hidden corpse remained \u2014 though she grumbled about the weight and her son\u2019s nagging. The family simply sniped and bickered on.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also woven around Summer Spellman\u2019s (Harriet Bibby) experiences as an anxious teenage girl still coming to terms with her father\u2019s death, her health concerns and other traumatic events \u2014 diabetes, bulimia, pregnancy, surrogacy, miscarriage. These essential storylines should be on our screens, in ordinary living rooms, to convey the pressures on today\u2019s young people and to give viewers a prod. However, audiences have often felt pummeled.<\/p>\n
Coronation Street has also portrayed some critical issues around Max Turner (Paddy Bever), including raising awareness about the dangers and impact of date rape drugs, up-skirting, and his own vulnerability to alt-right terrorism and propaganda.<\/p>\n
But suspending belief \u2014 shirking reality a little \u2014 is also what Coronation Street viewers need to see.<\/p>\n
![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2022\/10\/stephen-d7d9cdc-e1673007475909.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div> Few moments can better summarise this storyline\u2019s wild nature than when Stephen finally gets the car back from his mother. It wouldn\u2019t start. His nephew David and policeman Craig Tinker (Colson Smith) assisted him. He winced, ashen, but slowly laughed as he realised he had gotten away with the body in his mother\u2019s roof box as it remained locked, and everyone was unsuspecting \u2014 not so much cosy crime as Carry on Corrie.<\/p>\n
Few could claim that Craig was the Sherlock to Stephen\u2019s Moriarty.<\/p>\n
In fairness, soaps have rarely offered a realistic portrayal of the criminal justice system, police officers or detectives \u2014 their prowess with crime detection is hardly equal to Morse or Poirot\u2019s.<\/p>\n
No one has even noticed that he\u2019s developed a sickly pallor and an unhinged manner since he whacked Leo\u2019s head off a railing and watched his body fall off the factory gantry and into a bin \u2014 Stephen has gotten himself into a right state.<\/p>\n
He follows that grand tradition in soap\u2014the unsubtle pantomime villains: the ones who bound onto our screens in a puff of smoke and a black cloak.<\/p>