The Joel twists have saved Coronation Street’s Lauren storyline

“Lauren, where are you?” “Free Roy Cropper!” exclaimed Coronation Street, eager to build excitement around what the show’s executive producer claimed to be their biggest story of the year, but I was unable to follow along.

In February of last year, rising star Cait Fitton’s character, Lauren Bolton, vanished, leaving behind a demolished apartment and a few bloodstains.

The routine of misdirection, death threats, erroneous arrests, bizarre coincidences, and subpar police work would recur in the months that followed.

After being revealed as a far-right terrorist’s tool and enticing Max Turner (Paddy Bever) to join the group that carried out bombings and racist attacks, Lauren was a relatively new character to the show.

Following in the footsteps of show legends like Katherine Kelly’s Becky, she was taken under the wing of our beloved and patient café king Roy Cropper (David Neilson), as with every damaged waif and stray.

It became evident that Lauren had a great deal of potential as a character; Cait demonstrated her abilities in the far-right grooming narrative, and it was only fitting that Corrie would stand by her side.

However, Lauren’s past continued to haunt her, and by the time she vanished and was subsequently thought to have been murdered, her redemption story was far from over.

I was excited when show producer Iain MacLeod first hinted at the year’s big story to Metro.co.uk in January. The main selling point for me was the assurance that it would feature a variety of cast members.

However, it’s very hard to get these mystery whodunnits right, or where-are-theys, and the saga started off very formulaically.

It wasn’t nearly as horrible as I could be portraying it. It revisited events like Roy and Hayley’s decades-old kidnapping of Wayne and woven in elements like Daniel’s prior accusations of inappropriate behavior with younger girls and women. I love continuity and find it annoying when significant events in a character’s life are never brought up again, so this was very appreciated.

The plot featured talented actors like Rob Mallard, Channique Sterling-Brown, David Neilson, and Alison King, so how could it not be strong in terms of acting?

For me, though, it completely lost direction when Roy was taken into custody and accused of murder.

I can see why Corrie wanted to bring back the Free the Weatherfield One frenzy that even seized parliament during Deirdre Rachid’s 1997 jail sentence.