Yay or nay - Gail Platt

I seem to have inadvertently sparked off a bit of a heated debate about the merits or otherwise of Gail Platt, by publishing a critical comment from Kathy R, which was objected to by Chris H, and now Kathy R is objecting to the objection. It's times like this when I really miss having a proper comments facility (are you listening over there at Shiny Towers? We want our comments link back!), so that people could pitch in and have their say.

Anyway, this is what Kathy R thinks, and then we'll have a quick poll to see if you agree [then click the continue reading link for comments that have been emailed in].

"I wasn't directing my comments at the actress who plays her, but the FICTIONAL character. And yes, Gail is majorly annoying and quite stupid in her insistence on never thinking David capable of wrong doing. She has had to face the consequences of his monstrous actions quite a few times where he has deliberately hurt others, yet she still won't hear a word against him. Well, people are rightly suspicious and mistrustful of him now, apart from Saint Gail. He has earned every bit of their scorn and dislike. I know motherly love is strong, but she does David no good by her incessant blindness and tolerance to his evil ways. Quite the opposite; he knows he can always get around Gail with a few more lies and a fake smile, and she's so eager to believe him."

Comments:

"I voted Nay here because Gail isn't a good mother. She has inadvertently ruined David's life, though he did help himself along. She feels such a desperate motherly need she has already forced away Sarah and Nick already. David has very little respect for his mother left because he always feels 'betrayed' by her and the only reason he accepted her relationship with Joe was because of his relationship with Tina, otherwise that would have been yet another ongoing battle. Such is Gail's need to mother someone she jumped at the chance when Joe was injured. Gail is a poor excuse for a mother, misguided and narrow in her outlook on life and her children." [Peter]

"I love Gail! She's stubborn, headstrong, and she's a survivor. Unfortunately she's also Ivy incarnate and has her blinders on where her sons are concerned. You notice she never really made many excuses for Sarah? Think about the time she tried to get Social Services to take Beth away! If that had been David's child she'd have bent over backwards to help. I'm only surprised she actually approves of Tina since she never approved of any woman Nick was ever with and Leanne wasn't all that different from Tina when she was young." [Tvor]

"We all have characters we don't like or agree with, but sometimes in an episode it depends who's writing it. I do think its high time we had more fun or comedy with Gail, she has been in corrie for over three decades, she is a legend to it and Helen Worth who plays her is brilliant and bubbly. But maybe its time her character went in a new direction, more scenes with Eileen or something like that, and I hope the writers take note of this." [Chris H]

"I have been watching Corrie for many, many years and I remember when the young Gail Potter first arrived on the Street as a ditzy, boy crazy 16 year old teenager. Then she and Brian Tilsley got married and Nickie was born just about a year later. What I recall at that time was an early interview with Helen Worth in which it was clearly stated that in her role as Gail, Helen was to be developed as portraying a poor mother. The role was conceived to show a mother who has no idea of how motherhood is done. Helen has done a brilliant job over all these years playing the overly protective, my-child-right-or-wrong ("oh, but NEVER wrong, he would never do that!"), a mother without the slightest idea of how to help a child become self-sufficient and capable, in short, to grow up to be a responsible adult. Helen herself is described as a bright, bubbly, warm, and sensitive woman. Gail is a Corrie construct and shows us just how fine an actress Helen really is. And by the way, Sue Cleaver's Eileen Grimshaw is deliberately placed in an antagonistic role to Helen/Gail specifically to show what a naturally good mother is like...a wonderful and quite successful juxtaposition, I think. There, that's my two cents---for all of you who think Gail is so awful and want her gone. I love her because she plays a very difficult role so supremely well that many, many viewers actually hate her for it... What an actress!!!" [Lee Rowe]

"I do agree with Chris [above]. Gail's scope and environment have been very limited of late. We see her mainly as David's mum orJoe's sometime companion. She seems to have been given no dimension of her own, or any friends or social life. When she manages to get to the pub, it's usually with her own mother, Audrey. Living across the pond, unfortunately I haven't been a long time viewer of Corrie. Because of this, I have never seen Gail "Light" But I'd love to! . :)" [Kathy R]