Duckie shuffles off Ð taking last vestige of soap reality

And so Jack Duckworth joined his old sparring partner Vera for one last dance as he slipped gently into the next life at the end of his 74th birthday – and with that, Coronation Street lost another of the few characters it had left.

Even if you hadn’t read the tabloids, you knew that Jacko wasn’t going to make it to his 75th birthday because if the grim reaper himself arrived in with a sickle on his shoulder, it could hardly have been more obvious.

The Rovers was crammed with more oldies than you’d find in a nursing home sitting room – for starters Ken, Betty and Emily between them could aggregate two centuries – and given that 74 isn’t normally an age you plan a big splash for, Duckie’s days were clearly numbered.

But there was nothing maudlin about his departure; even the dream scene as Vera made one last trip to the Street to take her old hubby over to the other side was handled with realism and sensitivity all too sadly lacking in the world of soap these days.

Corrie’s success was always down to the older characters on the street, but they’re few and far between now. These days, it’s all leg over and lesbians; who’s the father of this child, who’s carrying on with who. You miss a week and the world of soap has moved on without you.

And while Nick and Leanne go back over old ground – or their other halves Carla and Peter establish new friendships of their own – you yearn for the simpler times when Elsie or Alf or Bet Lynch or Annie Walker or Stan and Hilda were the recognisable mainstays, and storylines evolved gradually as opposed to faster than a speeding train.

Over on EastEnders it only seems like days ago that Jack Branning was left paralysed and on the point of death after he was shot in the world’s smallest nightclub – now he’s trotting up the aisle like a show pony.

For more, read this week's Connacht Sentinel.