Karl continued to lie about his drinking habits to Susan, and even cancelled his counselling appointments, despite Susan believing he’d gone off to them. This nearly led to a confrontation in the Coffee Shop when Susan entered at the same time as Karl was living his lie. A quick scarper behind the counter sorted that out but it was proof of how tired Karl’s becoming of hiding his deceit from Susan. Similarly, the end of the week saw Karl get angry at Susan for always wanting to talk about things – his discussions with Izzy led him to realise he preferred to be spontaneous and not plan everything. His recent chats with Izzy began when she came to the surgery and admitted dissatisfaction with her life, and slowly he opened up and revealed the same. Several meetings followed between the two, all in secret and accompanied by alcohol. Karl’s continuing reliance on the demon drink caused yet another bout of concern from Lyn when she took baby Oscar to see him about an ear infection. Karl was visibly drunk, slurring his words and clumsily dropping his instruments. Lyn was worried and later admitted this to Joe and Susan. Karl’s wife, however, was adamant that Karl was just tired and that there was no need for concern. This storyline is very much a bittersweet one. On the one hand it’s fantastic to see the chemistry between Natalie Bassingthwaighte and Alan Fletcher as Isabelle and Karl, as well as the responsible handling of his alcoholism. However, it does of course spell the beginning of the end of the Kennedys’ marriage. Knowing as we do that Lyn and Joe will soon be separated in one way or another, the Kennedys marriage troubles signal the end of one of the street’s only surviving marriages. It has, however, been a most believable story, with Karl’s dissatisfaction reflective of his affair with Sarah and the ‘mid-life crisis’ he suffered a few years ago.

In other news, the Christmas preparations began this week with the Kennedys finding time to write their Christmas cards along with secret drinking and intimate chats, while Lyn had to bake her cake with ‘own brand’ ingredients from the supermarket, causing her to worry about the quality of the ‘Chrissy cake’. She was, however, enthralled by the Bishops’ extravagant outdoor decorations. Suggesting to her husband that it would be nice if they could do the same caused Joe to become a little competitive, however, he needs the money from Lou for building Trixie’s dressing room if he’s to decorate No.26 in a similar fashion – and Lou didn’t seem keen to part with more money with his impending wedding, when asked.

Also at the pub, Rocco’s daughter Carmella was given a job to teach her some responsibility. Needless to say, a beautiful girl with Italian origins soon became subject of Connor’s dreams, and the two flirted, despite the stern warning from Rocco that the Irishman was not to concern himself with his daughter. Love was also in the air among the pre-teens too, with Declan and Summer still selectively blind to each other’s feelings, with some comical scenes showing Declan riding around Ramsay Street waiting to catch a glimpse of Summer, and her riding past his house hoping for the same! And finally, Izzy, keen to build up her new found friendship with Steph further, took her to a lesbians’ bar in town where the two donned brassy wigs and flirted with the girls. Izzy wound Max up upon their return, joking that Steph had been given numerous phone numbers, until he realised they were all from women. However, the friendship didn’t last long with Izzy’s extravagant shopping expedition causing Steph to have a quiet word with her about the loan she should be repaying Max. Izzy took offence to her brother and his partner discussing her finances behind her back, despite Max’s hints to her on the matter. It seems the frosty relationship between Ms’ Scully and Hoyland shows no sign of thawing.

Notes: The first reference since 1996 to Harold’s late wife, Mavis, occurred on Monday, and it was the first time she had been referred to by name since the 1980s.

The BBC finally worked out the method for adding a black shadow to their scrolling credits text on Thursday’s episode – making the credits completely legible for the first time in twelve months.