A former soap storyliner with a decade of experience writing murder mysteries for British soaps has criticised Coronation Street's handling of the Theo Silverton whodunnit, arguing the show broke the golden rule of playing fair with the audience by revealing Sarah Platt as the killer.
Coronation Street's masterful build-up
Coronation Street kept the killer of Weatherfield's most sinister scaffolder, Theo Silverton (James Cartwright), under wraps for months, and even hid the identity of the victim. Teasing the kill with a flash-forward of Betsy Swain discovering the body at Swarla's wedding was a master stroke. The show put a target on the backs of Weatherfield's biggest baddies, creating a 'Whogonnagetdun' as well as a whodunnit. Ramping up every villain's story for Murder Night gave viewers bad guy fatigue, but it was worth it for what came next.
After Theo lay slain on the Cobbles, Todd Grimshaw (Gareth Pierce) stood accused of killing his abusive husband. Suspects included Todd's boss George Shuttleworth (Tony Maudsley), his partner Christina Boyd (Amy Robbins), and Summer Spellman (Harriet Bibby), as well as Theo's ex-bestie Gary Windass (Mikey North) and scorned ex-wife Danielle Silverton (Natalie Anderson). Six suspects were presented, but block-by-block storytelling shone the spotlight on one character each week while setting up the next. The post-killing aftermath featured backbiting, paranoia, accusations, secrets, and lies.
The golden rule broken
According to the former storyliner, the golden rule of a whodunnit is to play fair with the audience. The fun is in the guessing; viewers can deal with being wrong but not with being misled. If all photos, press releases, and adverts suggest one of six suspects is the killer, then one of those suspects should be the killer. Throwing in a rogue culprit at the eleventh hour robs viewers of the satisfaction of saying 'I told you so.'
The article points to EastEnders' 'Who Killed Lucy Beale?' as a similar misstep: thirteen suspects were lined up, but the guilty party was Bobby Beale, the one person nobody suspected, driving a coach and horses through a ten-month marketing campaign and turning beloved characters into unlikeable accomplices.
Sarah Platt: soap royalty but wrong for the role
Sarah Platt is soap royalty, a Cobbles Queen with a massive fanbase. Tina O'Brien is an outstanding actress, and Sarah is an everywoman viewers grew up with. However, making Sarah the murderer was a mistake because she was not threaded throughout the story as a suspect. She wasn't with Todd during the Corriedale crash, nor did she have as many confidante scenes as George or Summer. Her major contribution was convincing Gary that Theo was abusing Todd. Her motive, though strong, is not as powerful as Summer's (who lost her stepdad) or George's (who protected the closest thing to a son).
The article also questions why Sarah, if capable of murder, didn't kill her criminal ex-boyfriends Callum Logan or Damon, or the paedophile Nathan Curtis. The killer should have been decided from the start and made obvious in hindsight.
Consequences and future plot
The final rule of a whodunnit is that murderers go to prison. But unless Tina O'Brien is taking a five-year holiday, Sarah is unlikely to face serious prison time. The consequences may come from her boyfriend, DS Kit Green (Jacob Roberts), who is eager to slap handcuffs on Gary. The article predicts bitter infighting between Kit, Gary, Maria, Todd, and Sarah, with Todd horrified that his best friend killed his husband and let him take the blame. The alternative—George killing Theo in a crime of passion or Summer being the killer—would have been more satisfying.
The former storyliner concludes as a lifelong fan: every mystery needs a good villain, and characters need to be smarter than that villain, but they shouldn't try to be smarter than the audience.
