Zeedan to burst soap bubble?

It was interesting, but not surprising, to hear Zeedan express a wish to move on from the gym on Friday’s Corrie, when we promptly saw the managerial mantle pass to Gary.

Zeedan has fast become one of my favourite characters on the street at the moment. His development from a sullen, almost disdainful young man, into an intelligent, considerate, capable, respectful and responsible individual provides us with a great role model and an interesting character who is infinitely watchable thanks to the talents of Qasim Akhtar.

Like all of us, Zeedan is not perfect, and his momentary lapses ensure his complexity. Look no further than his attempt to vandalise Barlow's Buys on finding out Tracy started the fire which killed his father, and his altercation with Jason when the news broke that he had slept with Alya. The important thing about both instances was that he could be reasoned with and talked out of doing any damage.

The finest example of his positive traits, which far outweigh any negative ones, can be found in the support he continues to offer Leanne and his investment in Simon. In addition, his desire to honour his father’s memory by doing sterling work at the gym, and the manner in which he didn’t allow his initial anger at and disappointment in Alya to prevent him from comforting her, offering his support, and reassessing his initial perceptions of what she had done, showed great strength of character.

The question now is, where does Zeedan go from here?

My personal hope is that he honours his potential while remaining on the street. This would involve him breaking the mould and working or studying elsewhere, but returning home in the evenings and/or weekends. 

To be honest, I can’t understand why this isn’t the case for more characters. I know the various businesses need people behind their counters, but we did have a rare instance where Deirdre worked for the Council, and to my recollection, we never saw any scenes filmed there. Nor was the drama the poorer for it; we barely noticed. If anything, talk of somewhere ‘untelevised’ enhanced the realism; how many of us have any personal knowledge of the workplaces our friends and loved ones speak of, aside from their descriptions of them?

I like the fact that filming restricts itself to the street and its environs, with on-location shoots in the vast minority, but there's no reason why its characters can't temporarily inhabit other places.

The most fitting tribute to a character of Zeedan’s quality would be to see him spend his days elsewhere fulfilling his potential while at the same time enriching the street while he’s home with news of beyond its parameters, and his interactions with neighbours, friends and family. This is not to say he would be deprived of a storyline of his own; in our own lives, we find ourselves negotiating plenty of situations outside of work or university.

I think it would be a great loss to the programme if Zeedan’s desire for more meant he had to leave the street, like so many before him. In the wake of The Guardian asking why there aren’t more graduates on Corrie, and Scott’s excellent 2013 post on how young cobble-based folk attempting to better themselves do so at their peril, let Zeedan be the one who bursts this soap bubble.

By Emma Hynes
www.emmahynes.wordpress.com
Twitter: @ELHynes




Deirdre: A Life on Coronation Street - official ITV tribute to a soap icon. Available here.

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Why I'm a big fan of Zeedan

I freely admit it, one member of the Nazir family has grown on me more than all the rest. I have developed a massive soft spot for Zeedan. Before I go on any further, I do admit that this is in part down to the fact he's a fine looking, strapping young man but it goes far beyond that.

At first I really disliked the character. He was sullen, difficult and annoying. Of course that was what the writers were going for and both they and Qasim Akhtar succeeded. He was the last member of the Nazirs to arrive on screen and Corrie has a history of family units arriving en masse and not fitting in. Although the Nazir family have a long way to go before they become part of the Corrie furniture, I hope they do stay around for the foreseeable.

Zeedan was obviously a troubled young man, mainly due to his father's choice of career in the army and the death of his mother. This caused most of the conflict with Kal's new girlfriend Leanne, who's shady past really didn't help matters. I admit I became a bit bored of all the hate flying around in this storyline as sadly we never had the time to drill down into the dynamics of the father son relationship. I did wonder about the longterm future of Zeedan if that was how he was going to be however things have fortunately changed for the better.

I know soap characters frequently have personality transplants and the whole thing is completely unbelievable but in Zeedan's case I think it has been a gradual, sympathetic process that has worked well. The death of his father has obviously affected him profoundly and this has made him a much more palatable character. I've started to really enjoy his appearances and hope we see a lot more of him. He has taken on his father's job at the gym out of respect and is obviously really loyal to his family.

What I really like though, is the thawing of the relationship with Leanne. He has promised to look out for her and the scenes with both Leanne and Simon have been very natural and well played. We knew Zeedan would be the first to discover Leanne's abuse at the hands of Simon and the scenes in Friday's episodes were terrific. I hope Zeedan and Leanne continue to bond, but please writers do not put them together romantically! Let's have a platonic friendship between a man and a woman for a change. It does happen!

Qasim Akhtar is proving himself to be a great addition to the Coronation Street cast. He is doing an excellent job as Zeedan and I hope we see him in many more storylines in the months and years ahead. 

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The Corrie Roller-Coaster

The Coronation Street juggernaut powers on. This year we've had fires, destruction, deaths galore. The usual secrets and lies, extra episodes dropped in without so much as a warning, precious little Rita, far too much Platt and the campest villain known to man. 

Watching Corrie these days is a roller-coaster in quality control. Most of the time one scene featuring Eileen Derbyshire being majestic in The Kabin or the Community Centre is enough to wipe out the glaring holes created during the Jenny Bradley kidnap drama. I don't know why, but it's just very up and down these days. It's been a joy to see Beverley Callard take centre stage as Liz, the best Rovers Landlady we've had in eons. It's been much less pleasurable to see forty odd years of Helen Worth's hard work dribble away as Gail becomes a permanent twittery waste of space.

Alison King can do no wrong as Carla, but her recent storyline seeing Mrs Connor's descent into self pity and gambling addiction just hasn't worked. Neither has her newfound lust for Gail's oldest off-spring and the fruit of Brian's loins, the whimpering Nicholas T. These two briefly worked together when the Nick with this face joined five or so years ago. At the time people wondered if they'd stick them together and thankfully they didn't. So why now? Have the storyliners run out of options? As the only two residents of the posh flats, can they only mix with fellow characters with balcony and fancy window shutters? 

Also added to the mix is the arrival of yet another Connor nobody has ever mentioned before but everyone knows so well it's as if they only saw him last week. I was prepared to hate Aidan on sight. This was partly down to the casting, following as it did hot on the heels of Sarah Harding's brief stint. More importantly it just felt like the latest in a long line of flashy businessmen in nasty suits, driving shiny motors and ramming their male selves into the back office at Underworld. We've had Paul Connor, Liam Connor, Luke Strong, Tony Gordon...blah, blah, blah. Nobody has come close to equal the sublime Baldwin years as far as I'm concerned.

Anyway, despite my worries, I've actually taken to Aidan Connor. I know it's early days but I rather like the character, I like his dynamic with Carla and I'm quite impressed with Shayne Ward's acting. It also helps that he's fairly easy on the eye. I guess time will tell but it's showing promise.

Sadly, I'm still struggling with another newcomer to the cobbles. I know our wonderful editor Flaming Nora is loving the Roy and Cathy story but it's just not clicking for me. I don't even think it's anything to do with Hayley or the memory of Roy and Hayley together. I just don't think the characters work. Melanie Hill is an excellent actress with a strong career but somehow Cathy Matthews is just leaving me cold. I don't care enough.

Unfortunately the Platt family are going to dominate the September live episode. Well, it makes sense given that they've dominated the entire year. I don't mind the individual members of the Platt family, it's just when they move as a pack I get concerned. We've had so many family meetings, threats from Callum and dewey moments when Gail has said the worst is over. You'd think the woman would learn by now. It's become so tedious I just wish Callum, Gemma and Max would be spirited away somewhere t'other side of the Pennines.

I loathe Callum. He's a laughable character, played in a bizarre fashion. All the stuff with Sarah was dire. I also loathe Gemma although I know she has her fans. I sincerely hope whatever happens to Callum happens to her too as I don't want her as a long-term Rovers regular. Weirdly, Bethany has grown on me. Putting the stroppy eye-rolling aside, the character has come on of late and is actually the best of the Platt bunch at the moment. I may live to eat my words...

I've also found myself sighing a lot whenever Fiz and Tyrone appear on screen together. Ok, they will never be as beige as Sinead and Chesney (a traditional old before their time Corrie couple), but since they settled into domestic bliss they've become irritating and smug. Tyrone I'll always love but Fiz has morphed into a character I love to hate. She's become domineering, self-righteous and over-bearing. Vera Duckworth could be all of these things but we always forgave her. I struggle with the forgiveness when it comes to Fiz. 

I live in hope that Audrey and Rita may emerge from the Corrie Cupboard soon, all Deansgate frocks and scarves, freshly coiffed and ready to camp. Whatever the writers do, please DO NOT put Aud with Kenneth Barlow. The return of the glorious Jenny Bradley must surely mean more screen time for Barbara Knox as Rita. She's been noticeably absent this year and there is so much they could do with these two wonderful Weatherfield women.

Apart from that I hope Lloyd leaves Andrea-free, Craig's lovely girlfriend pays him a visit, Anna takes Faye on a long trip...somewhere else, Kevin shaves off his scraggly beard, Gary finds someone better than that Alya (me), Steph and Luke get a proper storyline as siblings and Zeedan finds himself in an episode where all his shirts are in the wash (hint).

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