Excellent article by Barbara Ellen in yesterday's Observer about the charms of Coronation Street:

Then as now I loved everything about it - the trials and tribulations of the characters, in particular the 'folk heroes' (Stan, Hilda, Jack, Vera and now Norris, Fred, Roy, Blanche); the unique camp humour for which it is rightly lauded; the superb writing and acting, which too often has been disgracefully ignored. Then of course there are the more subtle hooks. The astonishing, unpretentious, almost throwaway comic writing; the sheer lazy joy of watching characters nurse a pint of beer at the Rovers Return.

How true, how very true. And the Corrie writers even got in an amusing dig at EastEnders and its dreadful gangster-laden plots last week - when Charlie is accused of owning a gun, Shelley cries "Where do you think we are? The Wild West? The East End?" Heh heh heh.