Reception
In January 1985, David Porter of current affairs magazine, Third Way, criticised Coronation Street's attitude towards employment, stating that being unemployed seemed to not be a problem for some characters as they were either "loved layabouts" or "acknowledged rogues", like Jack. In Dorothy Catherine Anger's book Other worlds: society seen through soap opera she brands Jack as one of the "middle aged men" who "over the years have, stymied their wives' efforts to be accepted as respectable". Dorothy Hobson in her book Soap Opera stated that marriages never seem to last in the genre, but added that Jack and Vera were an exception, in her opinion it was because although he loved her, he was terrified of sex. Ian Wylie of The Guardian branded Jack and Vera as "one of TV drama's most enduring – and real – double acts". Channel Five's soap opera reporting website Holy Soap brands Jack's most memorable moments as being "his Vince St Clair alias" and "when Jack returned home to find Vera had died in her sleep." The website has also branded him a "pigeon fancier" What's on TV describe Jack stating: "Had a famously rocky marriage to Vera but widower Jack Duckworth (William Tarmey) has mellowed over the years. Once a bit of a jack-the-lad, he's now more of a 'Jack the kipper', as he's enjoying retirement and taking life easy."
TV critic Jim Shelley for the Daily Mirror spoke of his regret that Jack Duckworth would be leaving the show: "Soap characters come and go, but it's a genuine shame that, after 31 years, Bill Tarmey is finally leaving Coronation Street. It's hard to think of a more popular or nicer character than Jack Duckworth. Decent people are few and far between in soaps. Viewers loved Stan and Hilda Ogden for example. But you couldn't say that they were as warm or reassuring a presence as Jack. Of course he was part of one of the great loving couples/double acts in Street history." 11.64 million viewers tuned in to see Jack's final appearance.
Jack's final scenes on the show were praised by fans and critics alike. Jim Shelley called Jack's death scene with the ghostly appearance of Vera, "one the most moving scenes ever seen in soap". Mark Lawson of The Guardian described Jack and Vera's last dance as a great piece of social realism. As a tribute to the character ITV broadcast a short documentary profiling Jack's life in the serial. 7 million viewers tuned into watch the show. Stuart Heritage of The Guardian stated that Jack had iconic accessories which are his "golden-era glasses" stuck together with Elastoplast and his vest. They also commented on his pigeon keeping hobby, stating: "Forget Vera Duckworth, the one true love of Jack's life was his flock of pigeons." Lucy Mangan writing for The Guardian reviewed the serial's theatrical piece Corrie!, stating: "The scene in which Terry arrives to take his son away from grandparents Jack and Vera is enough to precipitate a Proustian rush of tearful memories. All those years of misery the wretched Terry caused his parents – oh, Jack's bitter resignation! - come flooding back. In the Morley Observer & Advertiser a columnist expressed their disappointment Jack and Vera were onscreen when he wanted to watch football and opined "difference is that the dramatic acting in the football is better".
Read more about this topic: Jack Duckworth
Famous quotes containing the word reception:
“But in the reception of metaphysical formula, all depends, as regards their actual and ulterior result, on the pre-existent qualities of that soil of human nature into which they fall—the company they find already present there, on their admission into the house of thought.”
—Walter Pater (1839–1894)
“He’s leaving Germany by special request of the Nazi government. First he sends a dispatch about Danzig and how 10,000 German tourists are pouring into the city every day with butterfly nets in their hands and submachine guns in their knapsacks. They warn him right then. What does he do next? Goes to a reception at von Ribbentropf’s and keeps yelling for gefilte fish!”
—Billy Wilder (b. 1906)
“To the United States the Third World often takes the form of a black woman who has been made pregnant in a moment of passion and who shows up one day in the reception room on the forty-ninth floor threatening to make a scene. The lawyers pay the woman off; sometimes uniformed guards accompany her to the elevators.”
—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)