Joe McIntyre: 2008-2010

spoiler alert: this post makes reference to the Dec 14 episode on CBC

Well, fellow Corrie lovers, it's official. Joe McIntyre's highly-leveraged body has washed up on the shores of Lake Gitchi Gumi (are you sure that's correct? - ed) and the Cumbrian police have put up enough yellow police tape to cover the entire Lake District ('Swallows and Amazons' was never like this... except for the time that Titty and John stole a car - ed).

Could there be a mistake? A horrible case of mistaken identity? I don't think so, especially after watching Gail and Tina huddled together like James Taylor & Carly Simon as Tina sadly warbles 'Mockingbird'.

So what can you say about Joe? That he was an independent businessman with a thriving kitchen fitting company called 'Klever Kitchens' (I don't get it? - ed)? That he got stiffed by the Windasses (he wouldn't accept payment in cakes - ed)? That he gave David Platt a job (his first big mistake - ed). Yes, we can say all these things but his major contribution to the show was his romance with Gail.

Joe fell hard for the mysterious charms of Her Gailness (still a mystery to me - ed). Their romance was short and largely Chardonnay-based. But Joe also had a problem (David? -ed): clinical depression. Then he had more problems (David? - ed): clinical recession. Then, after he snagged a shady job and borrowed money from a shady character, he had another problem with a loan shark:  clinical repossession. Mixed into all that was his back injury and addiction to painkillers: clinical break & enter.

It was a sad journey from bad luck to bad luck mitigated only by the unconditional (well, sort of) love of his daughter Tina. In a previous post, I talked about how I found Joe frustrating in many ways. I doubt if anyone will read 'Stop all the clocks' at Joe's funeral -- but I do hope someone will say a kind word about him, preferably not Rick the loan shark.