Friday 14 April 2017

The trouble with Toyah

(This post was originally posted by Flaming Nora on the Coronation Street Blog March 2017, reposted to this blog with permission.)

Are you, like me, old enough to remember Toyah Battersby the first time around when she was on Coronation Street?  If you'd like a recap on Toyah's major storylines, they're all here.

Yes, I'm old enough to remember Toyah from the good old days. I remember her fondly, as I suspect, many of us do. She had a spark about her. Battersby by name, of course, but not a real Battersby by nature. She was Janice's daughter, less noisy than Leanne, daughter of Les.

I liked Toyah a lot. And when it was announced that she was returning, with the same actress too, I couldn't have been more pleased. Yes! Let's see that sparky young woman again, the Toyah who slept out under the stars with Spider. Let's see the Toyah who wanted to be a journalism student. Let's see the Toyah who went off to live in that London with Spider.  Let's see the Toyah who went on protests to save the red rec, the Norweigan prawns at Frescho, the hairy (whorey) ground wort, the planet.   Yes! That's the Toyah I was looking forward to having back.

So who have they sent us, instead?

Since Toyah returned to Coronation Street she's been defined by her failure to have children and by the IVF treatment needed to become a mother. 

She's been back and forward between Toby and Peter, with no mention of Spider. There's also been little, if any, interaction between Toyah and those who knew her first time around, apart form a spat with Maria in Roy's Rolls.  There are still plenty on the cobbles who knew Toyah from first time around - she and Roy went on protests together, yet I don't know if they've said a nice word to each other since she returned?

Come on, Corrie, let's have a bit of the old Toyah back. The emotional pain of wanting to become a mother and going through IVF has undoubtedly taken its toll, but there has to be more to a character than that.

And there certainly has to be more to Toyah.







Tvor @tvordlj on Twitter

1 comment:

kib said...

I too was looking forward to seeing Toyah again but am so far disappointed. Not only has the old spark gone, but what happened to the job she had in Liverpool? Isn't she a social worker? Are we supposed to believe she'd drop that job to be a barmaid? It would be okay if she was dispensing wisdom a la Rita from behind the bar, but I haven't really seen that. I'd like to know what happened while she was gone. I do expect her to be vegan or at least vegetarian, and involved in all sorts eco charities.

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