Now don't get me wrong - historically I'm more of a Corrie fan than an EastEnders fan, and there was a period of about five years when I abandoned EE altogether.  It was just.  Too.  Depressing.  But I have to admit that, at half time, EastEnders is beating Corrie in its topical representation of World Cup events.

I'm talking about those clever little vignettes like the one the other day with Gary & Minty coming out of the arches celebrating England's 2-2 draw with Sweden.  You know these scenes are recorded specially the day of the broadcast and edited in to what was recorded weeks before.  They don't have any connection with any other unfolding storyline.  But it doesn't matter.  They're cool.  They're now.  The production team is making the effort.

By contrast, over in Weatherfield, the World Cup is totally passing them by.  It's as if it isn't happening at all.  None of the houses or cars have any flags on, there's no big screen TV in the Rovers or the Flying Horse, and none (count them) of the characters give even a single mention to any results or matches.  Come on, guys!  Nathan, Tyrone, Les, Steve, Jack - they would ALL be talking about the competition.

So it's 1-nil at half time.  Two weeks of the tournament left.  Let's see if Corrie can catch up with its cockney rival.