CATCH-UP - Marvellous

All of Corrie's writers are good, but two or three of them (Jonathan Harvey, Daran Little and Damon Rochefort) are, IMO, proper geniuses.

It makes such a difference when the episode is written by one of them. Last night's was by Jonathan Harvey, and it was a cracker. Not much happened, mind: Sean couldn't contain the news that Violet was pregnant so he told (of all people) Jamie, so now Violet has a strop on with him. And the chippy closed down, so now Cilla is waging war on the kebab shop. And Steve came back from his holidays.

But the brilliance of it was in the details - it was a laugh a minute, with some lovely dialogue. I don't think it's any coincidence that I had a dream last night that I was in a spy-reality show with Neil Morrissey and Martin Clunes, because Jonathan Harvey's brand of writing genius is very similar to Simon Nye's in Men Behaving Badly.

I'm aware that this isn't much of a catch-up, but there wasn't all that much up with which to catch. And that's the marvellousness of Corrie - when it's at its best, it doesn't need to rely on sensational storylines. Just great writing, great acting and characters we care about.