and that...
Seconds out..for the ultimate ding-dong between Kevin and Greg this week. Yes, it's got really nasty.Things were bound to come to a head--or one of their heads--sooner or later. For weeks now, ever since Kev's well-aimed pint rearranged Greg's famously perfect hair, the grease monkey and the smooth operator have been building up to one of the year's big soap punch-ups.
It happens this week when the love rivals finally come to blows.
On the face of it, the main problem between Kev and Greg is what will happen to the Webster girls.
After banning Sally from No. 13 and changing the locks, Kev is finally persuaded--by ex-lover Natalie--to give in and allow Rosie and Sophie the chance to visit their mum at Greg's flat.
Sal's over the moon, Kev is still suspicious, and Greg....well, he's less than pleased. Especially when Rosie spills juice all over his busy laptop--the computer, that is.
Although both men seem to want to play a part in Rosie and Sopie's lives, its for very different reasons.
Kev may be as dim as a light bulb that's just burned out, but nobody can deny he loves his daughters.
Even at the height of his affair with Natalie, it was easy to see he was totally torn between his role as a dad, which suited his character well, and his stint as sex stud--which frankly, didn't.
Greg, on the other hand, can hardly be bothered to muster a grin for his lover's kids. It's the size of their mum's inheritance which interests him most...and starting up, of all things, a knicker business.
Poor Sal. You just can't help feeling sorry for someone too blind to see how much she's putting at risk--her family, her fortune, her friends.
For Sally Whittaker, the actress who plays her, the past year on screen--since she began that first ill-fated affair with Kev's workmate Chris--has seen her character totally transformed.
She's gone from mousey, there-must-be-a-life-out-there young mum, to a confident young career woman with a new wardrobe, hair cut and busy sex life.
It's a challenge that Sally Whittaker, as an actress, has enjoyed. But as real-life mum of Sophie, aged three and one-year-old Sam, she feels her current storylines--with about as much sex as you can show before the 9pm watershed--are a bit 'too adult' for her kids to watch.
Presumably, she also banned them from seeing the scene a few weeks ago when Sal was confronted by an angry Maxine, after she discovered Sally had pinched her bloke.
However, this week's fisticuffs is man's stuff.
Still in the middle of his preparations for a prolonged custody battle, Kevin's incensed that Greg upsets the girls after the ridiculous juice incident. So he turns up at the love nest furious.
Grease monkey and smooth operator end up exchanging punches over the bonnet of a car in the street. And, just to add fuel to the fire, Rita turns up with Rosie and Sophie to witness the final blows.
The punch-up may well bring back memories for Stephen Billington who plays Greg. The 30-year-old actor lived in South Africa until he was 12, then came to Lancashire.
"Most of my youth had been spent in South Africa, so I spoke with an accent. As soon as I went to school here I stood out from the crowd, and that meant I got beaten up until I learnt to speak like everybody else."
"The bullying was horrible, both physically and mentally, and I was forced to adapt very quickly," says Stephen.
Kev and Sal, of course would do anything to protect their daughters from childhood horrors like bullying.
Although they've both found their recent bits on the side have spiced up their 12-year-marriage, the kids are still the centre of their lives.
In the aftermath of the punch-up, however, it's Sal who has to make a decision about how she's going to make sure she has control of her beloved Rosie and Sophie.
And she may well find the answer--with or without Greg--when she collects the girls from the childminder this week. Hold on to your hats--this one's going to run and run.
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