Eccles flakes

Do you know who I feel sorry for at the moment? Eccles. Who? Corrie initiates will know that little Eccles is in fact Ken Barlow's dog - and from a dog we never once saw walked, she is now being put through her paces every day. And what paces! Ken is using the dog walk as cover for his assignations with Martha, the liveaboard boater whose literary and cultural bent has taken the old lothario's fancy. But Martha moors at what looks suspiciously like Worsley and it must be a fair old trek from there to Weatherfield (maybe Ken is from the Caxton school of walkies?). Surely dreary Deirdre will get suspicious when her pooch is permanently exhausted and two inches shorter than she was six months ago?

But fair play to Corrie. Any soap that manages to get the word 'recondite' into the script has my vote.