Permanently Peevish: So it's #GoodbyeHayley and goodbye to yet another crass #Corrie storyline

Tuesday, 21 January 2014

So it's #GoodbyeHayley and goodbye to yet another crass #Corrie storyline

So Hayley Cropper gave herself the chop in last night's episode of Coronation Street and I have to say that I think this storyline was misguided and heartless from start to finish.
Okay so I know pancreatic cancer is a horrible disease and research into its treatment is woefully underfunded. I also know that there is a body of opinion which says that putting it on the forefront of a soap plot is a good way of "raising awareness". And I also know that a television soap is supposed, almost by definition, to be family entertainment. It's what we pay our licence fees for and why we put up with ever increasing amounts of cretinous adverts. So I sincerely question whether it is justifiable or fair to use television for this kind of purpose when we are constantly bombarded by junk mail and our progress upon the high street is impeded by continual demands for our awareness concerning one cause or another. Anyhow isn't it really more the province of one-off dramas? And furthermore any television programme which requires the setting up of a "help line" has lost it's right to be called entertainment of any but the most sensationlist and voyeuristic kind.
I have also got to say that the role Hayley Cropper was never one of Coronation Street's deftest bits of casting. This is no slur on Julie Hesmondhalgh's acting. But I have always wondered what part of gender reassignment treatment is used give a man the ditzy character and posture of a finnicky and nasally challenged middleaged woman. What I mean is that Julie was never a convincing transsexual. And so her marriage to Roy was also unconvincing. So far as I have seen it does not matter how medically proficient or expensive the reassignment procedures are, they never completely succeed in creating a totally passable female. And Julie Hesmondhalgh as Hayley Cropper was certainly that.
All in all I'm glad she's gone bringing to an end that particular vein of misery. I am also glad that the suggested storyline of Roy assisting in her suicide did not transpire as that would simply have dragged the story out well beyond human endurance.
I will end by saying that I am sure I am not the only one to have lost a loved one and who found the whole story a completely unnecessary and distressing reminder.

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Causes of Peevishness

These are the things which get up my nose in day to day life. OK they're maybe not serious in the grand scheme of things but they make me shout at the television, change channels and raise my blood pressure to dangerous levels. The first of these is Estuary English. Of course I know that people who speak this uneducated and lazy form of English cannot help it and I'm fine with them using it in their own homes etc, but why do they have to bring it into my home? They really should be banned from getting jobs in television (apart from cleaning jobs obvs)
The use of particular words annoys me too and the people who overuse these are often (but not always, speakers of estuary English). These include:- Amazing: Vastly overused and mostly completely inappropriately too. To me an 'amazing' thing is something that is so jaw dropping that there are simply no other words to describe it. It should certainly never be used to describe your friends, relatives, babies or holidays etc. And certainly not the prices of furniture in a DFS sale. There are millions of other words so get a dictionary or thesaurus. And if you're too lazy or stupid to do that then STAY OFF MY TELEVISION FFS. And don't write anything I'm likely to read either (on Facebook, Twitter, Radio Times etc).

Then come a couple of words and phrases which are completely unnecessary in any sentence: At the end of the day,Basically, Go for it and Do you know what I mean The last of these is perhaps the most irritating of them.
It also annoys me when anyone uses the word Delicious to describe anything other than a taste or smell. How can a colour or design possibly be delicious FFS?

And then we have: To Die For: I've been with people who were dying and I know that not one of them would have said that it was a price worth paying for a pair of shoes, plate of food or whatever fashionable colour. It's a stupid unthinking thing to say.

I don't understand the use of the word: Like in this kind of context - "I was like, she was like" and so on. I don't know what purpose it serves. I know it probably means that the perpetrator has spent too much time watching American television but is that any reason to inflict it on the rest of us?

Utterly maddening is the use of Floor: instead of ground. It's just laziness. Isn't it easy to tell whether you are inside or outside? Think before you speak goddammit!

Can I get I hear this all the time in shops and pubs and I think it's the height of rudeness so I assume it's American in origin. Of course anyone with any manners would say, "May I please have."

Trust me: The last thing I will ever do is trust the person who says "trust me".

Yeah: Obviously not when it is used as an affirmative but when it is used to end a sentence as in: do what I tell you, yeah? Or: Have a good day, yeah? And especially - You need to cheer up, yeah?..... No I fucking don't, you twat!

Poo: I've never understood what exactly is wrong with shit or crap. We all know what is meant and the word poo is just childish. There is also manure or dung for the animal variety. And if you simply must be polite you can always fall back on ordure or even excrement

Then we come to what I call unnecessary abreviations such as: Ciggie: This makes me cringe every time I hear it and Goss: Seemingly favoured by continuity announcers on the second rate television channels. And I quite often find that when "goss" is used, there is little or no real gossip involved in the publication or television programme concerned.

I hate the insidious way Americanisms are creeping into English usage. Such as: Gotten and Snuck and Dove. And there are many more that have snuck in so sneakily that we are hardly aware of them being Americanisms any more e.g. Campus which is something to do with a university or college. and Intern It used to refer to a junior level of hospital doctor in the U.S but it has become to mean some kind of unpaid employee.

Tuesday, 21 January 2014

So it's #GoodbyeHayley and goodbye to yet another crass #Corrie storyline

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