The appearance of Tommy’s long-lost dad Terry
in Weatherfield got me thinking about other ‘long-lost’ family members that have
suddenly appeared without thought or foremention at the door of an unsuspecting
relative on the street.
Stella is the latest in a long line dreamed up
by the writers to fill a hole where another has left (in this case two pairs of
boots to fill with the departure of Liz and Becky). When she turned up as the new
feisty, blonde landlady of the Rovers (sound familiar?) nobody would have
suspected she was harbouring a dark and awful secret. Many, many, many years
ago, when she was very young, she had slept with ... Les Battersby! Oh and a
little less shockingly she had abandoned
her baby daughter Leanne- leaving her to
be brought up by Les ‘Neanderthol’ Battersby. Thirty years on and with a life
filled with teenage marriage, divorce, abortion, terrible streaks, prostitution
and ... (well you get the picture), Leanne isn’t best pleased when Stella
announces that she’s finally back to play mother hen. But, in true Corrie
style, after a rocky start all is forgotten; mainly because Leanne’s only
friend Carla sleeps with her husband and she hasn’t got anywhere else to go
apart from the Rovers back room. Lucky Leanne also got a new long-lost sister
thrown in to boot in the form of big-boobied
Eva – double whammy!
Last year, in scenes akin to ‘Who Do You Think
You Are’, Ken managed to unearth a whole long-lost family in the form of posh toffs
Lawrence, a long-lost son – who swiftly disowned his crossword-puzzler father -
and conman grandson James, who managed to swindle thousands from born-again
Christian lesbian Sophie Webster in a soup kitchen scam. James gave Ken a bash
on the head and was never to be heard of or mentioned again. Where Ken is
concerned he is best off sticking to the family that he has already got. Murderer
Tracey, alcoholic Peter, pottery loving Deidre, who blatantly can’t stand him,
and pushed from pillar to post curly haired Simon – surely with this lot he’s
got enough on his hands?!
Back in 2009, Fawlty Towers’ Manuel entered The
Kabin wanting more from Norris than his lemon bonbons. Manuel had been living in Australia for the past 100 years and was back in Manchester to make amends with his long-lost
brother Norris because he was dying from a brain tumour. Unfortunately, Norris blamed his sibling
(inexplicably as it turns out)for his mothers death and spurned him to the
point that he gave up and left, breaking Emily and Rita’s heart in the process.
Manuel, or Ramsay as he was known in the Street, died on the plane back to
Australia from said brain tumour, leaving the embittered newsagent £175,000 in
the process. I think we could all do with a long-lost relative like that! In
some touching scenes Norris then posthumously discovered that it was actually
his mother that was to blame for the family rift, but sadly it was too late.
Gail McIntyre/Tilsley/Platt/Hillman met her
long-lost father in 2008, Ted. After revealing he was gay he then befriended ‘intellectual’
Ken Barlow causing Blanche to believe that her son-in-law was also gay because
they shared a common interest in literature. Humourous storyline over, Ted then
gave Gail away at her wedding to Joe and swiftly disappeared and has never
been heard of or mentioned again - not even when she was up in court for Joe's murder ... very strange.