Coronation Street Review: "Here's To The Happy Couple"

OK so an episode starting off with Tyrone/Fiz is not the greatest of starts. Partially because they're two of the least interesting characters on the show, and Tyrone's nan leaves such little impression on me I genuinely can't remember her name. There's stuff going on between them, I don't care enough to comment on it.

On Monday you may have noticed that KATE AND RANA GOT ENGAGED IN THE ABSOLUTE CUTEST WAY POSSIBLE. Tonight they're as loved up as ever with Craig taking on the role of official engagement ring photographer because YES! Kana are one of THOSE couples who has to detail ever inch of their lives and take a billion so gross it's cute pictures. Whilst acting as official photographer Craig also broaches the topic of whether he's going to have to move out actually surprise he's even in the flat but whatever. Rana assures him he's got plenty of time for that given she still has to get a divorce from Zeedan (it does pain me slightly not to refer to him but his ever so affectionate nickname, but we've got to try and keep things a lil professional) and Kate jokes about not wanting any 5 year engagement whilst mooning over Rana's hand and her ring.

Away at Sally's prison spin-off she's finding that trying to get the hierarchy to agree to her plans for prisoner activity is not going to go very smoothly. At the factory they're all gossiping over Gina's relationship with Tim which is getting her hot under the collar. Judging from Monday night's events Gina deserves far better than Dev, who truly is too set in his ways and snobby for her. But Tim is not her Mr. Right because Sally/Tim are truly the most unproblematic het couple on this soap and deserve to be left in peace. Fiz is soon realizing that Gina doesn't actually want Sally to come home because she has started to fall for Tim.

Because Coronation Street is determined to put me in an early grave, Paula shows up to Speed Daal dressed......like......THAT. Paula isn't on her own, in fact she's in prestigious company and as a result Paula's talking down to Sophie like the restaurant manager that she is instead of her girlfriend. Sophie doesn't exactly pick up on the hint of that at first, but it's not long before she does and biting her tongue. That doesn't last very long and Sophie's soon storming out of the restaurant extremely unhappy with Paula's attitude, and that of her acquaintance. Paula is soon chasing after Sophie because she is a good girlfriend at heart, and explaining that said acquaintance potentially has evidence that could be useful to their case but Paula has to get it off the record which doesn't exactly please Sophie or Tim who want more immediate action taken.

Am I gonna take a few more moments to comment on how very well Paula was rocking that dress? YES. Am I gonna take a moment to point out how cute it is that as soon as Sophie gets in a huff and storms out, Paula is making her excuses to go after her and explain things? YES. Am I also gonna say that Sophie/Paula have a lot of relationship potential, and it'd be good to see more of them but unfortunately Corrie isn't really good at writing relationships? FOR SURE.

Sophie does eventually return to the restaurant where she makes her apologies, Paula acknowledges her existence and labels the fact Sophie is her partner.

The locals are gathered in the Rovers for Kate & Rana's engagement party and MOIRA IS OF COURSE IN ATTENDANCE. SERIOUSLY THIS EPISODE HAS EVERYTHING! Even Craig commenting on how Kate is always late. Kate and Rana are soon walking in to thunderous applause and CARLA IS SOON EMBRACING RANA AND WELCOMING HER INTO THE FAMILY. Aside from Carla making a quick exit because life is unfair, this episode legitimately meets all the quota's for a Kana engagement party outside Yasmeen being present but I can forgive that because we have Jenny/Johnny. We're then informed by Rana that Saira already knows about the engagement because she was with her when she brought the ring. It's all fun and games....... until talk turns to babies. Or more specifically Kate's desire to have a baby. Johnny is delighted at the prospect, Moira offers useful commentary and Imran is the only one picking up on how uncomfortable Rana looks.

She's soon rushing outside and Kate is following her, but under the impression that Rana is just sad over her mum again. Kate's full of proclamations over how they'd make brilliant parents because they're brilliant people, Rana is still not exactly keen but Kate's just focused on building their own little family and giving her dad something. Imran is soon interrupting the conversation because he knows his sister far too well and knows that kids are not on the agenda for her. Rana's trying to talk herself into liking the prospect but Imran doesn't buy a word of it, Rana's hopeful that Kate could go off the idea but Imran warns her that differences like this can make or break a couple and she needs to be honest before it's too late.

One of the things that Coronation Street has done so well with the Kana storyline is the slow burn and having continuity to it. With soaps characters do usually tend to change in their motives and back story by the episode to fit the narrative of the current plot, but Kate & Rana have so far managed to avoid that. Case in point is reminding us that babies were once discussed between Zeedan and Rana, but that never went anywhere because Rana wasn't truly committed to him. When you're in a loving relationship with a person that you know you're going to be with for the rest of your life? Your life goals and motivations can change for that person, and Rana does tend to be of the belief that as long as they're in love and happy that's all they need and she can deal with the baby talk, but this situation is also another of those times where if Kate & Rana were actually communicating instead of being on the loved up plane, they could be all sorted quite easily.

Obviously there has been A LOT of tabloid speculation over where exactly this baby storyline is going to go. Obviously I am NOT going to address said speculation, because as I'm reliably informed we here at CONTROLRadioUK only deal with facts. However and whenever events do play out on screen, that's when I'll discuss the matter in depth. Going off the subtle crumbs in Friday's episode added with tonight's and it's clear that there's more to Kate's desire to have a baby than just thinking she and Rana will make good parents.

Whilst I'm not allowed to discuss speculation I can discuss a rather wonderful confirmed fact: IMOGEN IS RETURNING!!!! That news was wonderfully broken by Duncan Lindsay at Metro yesterday and I won't deny it, last night I was re-watching old Kate & Rana clips once again because I truly do love Imogen. Honestly you know a fandom is pretty chilled when they recognize an ex-girlfriend as a savior of their ship.

We're then treated to further commentary from Moira on how much she and Liz like a brooding man. Have I mentioned how much I love Moira? Because I do truly love Moria! She is the gift that always gives, be it making comments about Toyah, how hard it is to get pregnant or subtle comments that help fly the true ship that is Liz/Moira. It's far more enjoyable and interesting to watch than Gina pouring her soul out to Fiz. She eventually comes to the conclusion that she doesn't have any feelings for Tim, who is at the prison with Faye filling Sally in on the good news and Sally is looking forward to her yoga class. Tim on the other hand is slightly worried that another prisoner is eying him up, and I think his concerns would be better kept closer to home.

The reason why Carla ducked out of Kana's Kate and Rana's engagement party so early is because she's putting on her Detective hat and trying to work out just what exactly Nick has been up to in Nottingham. He has rebuttals for her and Carla warns if he brings anything to her door he will regret it. Honestly the only thing I'm regretting is Nick returning, and background Kana Kate and Rana is not enough to ease that blow.

Back at Speed Daal and Sophie, Paula and their acquaintance have another person to smooze in the hopes of getting Sally an easy ride in court. Honestly I know that we're supposed to care that Gina is ever so hurt over Sally's words to her in Monday's installment, but it's so hard to when Gina has developed feelings for her husband and it's not as though she and Sally have always been super close. Usually when your relative is in prison and you know you're developing feelings you shouldn't be, you seek to distance yourself, not hop onto every word that they say for hidden innuendo, bite your tongue and show them that you can do everything their better half can't whilst locked away.

Whilst Paula's acquaintance might be a knock on the park, their other friend is not so kind. Sophie is soon getting into yet another argument because they just follow her where she goes, and she's soon being left behind in the conversation. Said other friend is soon patronizing Sophie and because she's a Webster she can't hold her tongue especially in the restaurant that she's managing. It's just unfortunate that the guy she decides to stand up to happens to be the person who'll play a key role in Sally's case. Sophie's still sticking to her guns that just because he's a judge doesn't mean that he gets to talk down to her, and she shouldn't have to stand by and take it and it's hard not to agree with her. Having said that given she is dating a lawyer? Sophie is going to occasionally come across a patronizing snob who has no time for her, and she can't give all of them the third degree.

Because life continues to hate Rana, Johnny/Jenny/Liz/Geoff are bonding off at the bar over potential babies much to her discomfort, Kate is chatting away in Imran's ear and because he can't resist he does attempt to meddle and plant the seeds to Kate that this isn't quite what Rana wants. Unfortunately Kate is just too far off in baby land to be able to process any thoughts outside of BABIES ARE GOOD, BABIES ARE GREAT, LET'S HAVE A BABY. If everyone wasn't riding the high of the engagement party, they would probably be questioning why a woman who has just got engaged is already thinking about babies when the wedding hasn't even been planned.

Rana however is very much not happy with Imran's interjection and puts him in his place. Imran has his heart in the right place, and we have seen on far too many occasions that Rana will put her happiness aside for other people and with something as big as a baby? Can't really do that. Kate and Rana of course shoot each other heart eyes across the pub with Rana convinced that her love for Kate means that she can do anything, because when you love someone that is just what happens. She may have also mentioned about how she knows what she has with Kate is THE REAL DEAL. Am I ever gonna be board of these two #soulmatesgonnasoulmate shooting each other heart eyes and sounding off poetry on each other?

Absolutely not, it's what the good people deserve!

The night ended though with Geoff trying to gently nudge Tim on the fact Gina has feelings for him. That's something Tim still isn't quite computing and will obviously come back to haunt him, which feels like the theme of the night.