Bob jokes

There was one brief, shining moment this week on Wednesday. As I said to my husband when updating him: We saw Joe bob up. Then I almost fell off the chair laughing as he looked at me searchingly, perhaps a bit fearfully. 

I do hope I’m not alone in finding it funny: the beautiful calm lake at night, silvery in the light spilling out from a cottage window, then sproing! “Hi, my name’s Bob.”

Poor Joe. Even in death he gets no dignity. Pawed by a Border Collie trying to get him back with the flock. Ostensibly sending flowers to his daughter, and the flowers being the kinds she most dislikes. Ever more convoluted stories being told about his absence, surpassing even his considerable ability to spin complicated and silly lies. You’d hope at least your one talent would stand out at the time of your passing and not have to compete with the efforts of Johnny-come-latelies. It’s just awful, and I’m sure it’s going to get worse, much much worse.

Corrie Crazy on CBC

In happier news, we had Corrie Crazy on CBC this week. So wonderful to see Tony Warren and hear the largely unknown story of original producer Harry Elton’s part in the creation of Corrie Street. When I talked to Mr. Elton many years ago, he was proud of his role in it, but didn’t regret leaving when he did. He believed, I think, that he had done his part in it. That’s pretty much what Tony Warren said to me too. They created it, saw it successfully on its way and passed it on to new people. But I don’t think they, or anyone, ever expected it would last this many years.

The wedding that was being taped when Debbie Travis was there was pretty much given away. I was avoiding thinking too much when the first scenes were shown because I didn’t want to know. But she gave it away near the end. Too bad. Doing so wasn’t necessary for the doc at all.

I loved seeing the Canadian fans, especially Corrie Street society such as the viewers’ club and the Ping that Travis visited. I’ve never been a “social” Corrie watcher, but it looked like a lot of fun. Hearing that indeed CBC knows how much fans hate having the schedule disrupted made me wonder only, well, then why do they do it so often!

Why we watch

I’d have liked to see something new on why people watch, other than “they’re people just like us.” But maybe that’s the sum total of it. It’s certainly what I’ve been told and maybe it’s no more complicated than that. Tony Warren told me that people come back to it, maybe during low periods in their life when the familiar faces and places give comfort. Certainly the British Columbia journalist fan who was interviewed found that out, both for herself and from the response she got from readers after writing about her Corrie watching. So maybe that’s it: it feels like ‘home’ and sometimes we really need that. It was a joy to watch. Now, if we can get CBC to bring us the recent BBC movie, The Road to Coronation Street, about the beginnings of the show! That would be wonderful.