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Coronation Street’s Rita faces potential dementia storyline

Viewers of the soap think her forgetfulness does not bode well

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Coronation Street fan favourite Rita Sullivan could be on the brink of a heartbreaking health crisis.

Fans of the soap fear that Rita (Barbara Knox) could be in line for a dementia storyline as incidences of memory loss begin to creep into her scenes.

Monday night’s episodes showed Rita forgetting that she had bought a Little Miss Trouble mug for Gemma Winter (Dolly-Rose Campbell).

When the shop owner commented on how perfect it was for her, Gemma was forced to remind her that Rita was the one who had given it to her as a gift.

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It was a worrying moment for fans of the soap stalwart, and the bad news is it’s going to get worse next week.

Viewers will spot Rita’s memory failing her again as she struggles to remember what she ate for breakfast that morning.

Rita starts to worry about it, but thinks she’s managed to cover her concern, and her friends fail to notice that anything is wrong.

Fans of the ITV series are already beginning to panic about what may be in store for the character, knowing that her forgetfulness would not be included without reason.

One tweeted: “Please don’t tell me Rita is going to get Alzheimer’s on @itvcorrie ?! I don’t think I could handle it… will be worse than Hayley!”

Another agreed: “Rita forgot she bought Gemma a mug on #Corrie Don’t you DARE corrie!!! Don’t you Dare do that storyline to Rita!”

Someone else wrote: “Oi! You’d better not be thinking of giving our Rita dementia!”

Knox, 83, first appeared as Rita in 1964 and has played her continuously since 1972.

As the character becomes increasingly concerned about her failing memory, is a dementia plot really on the cards – or is something else going on?

Is it just old age? Or has she got some other horrible disease that could be causing her forgetfulness?

Let’s hope she seeks help sooner rather than later to get to the bottom of what’s going on.

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If it is dementia, it wouldn’t be the first time soap has tackled the huge storyline. Emmerdale’s Ashley Thomas died earlier this year after suffering early onset Alzheimer’s.

The show won critical acclaim and numerous awards for the plot and rightly so.

It would be heartbreaking to see Rita suffer the same fate as Ashley, though.


Carena Crawford
Associate Editor (Soaps)

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