puerperal psychosis." In August 2007, TV critic Jim Shelley wrote that "Coronation Street has become unwatchable", partly attributing the show's downfall to Claire, who; "is going mad – again – this time because she is suspected of kidnapping her baby and attempting suicide by burning the house down, two good ideas, as it goes." Conversely, Guardian reviewer Nancy Banks-Smith deemed Claire the "voice of reason" at the climax of the storyline which saw her son Freddie abducted by former friend Casey Carswell (Zoe Henry). However, commenting on the re-write of the plot strand because of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, Banks-Smith asserted that it had "never made much sense, even by soap standards", using the depiction of Claire as an example of the show's over-embellished writing: "Even in a tragic episode, the writing in Coronation Street is like a stone skipping across deep water. The script, like a Victorian pub, is so embellished with grapes and roses that you know the stonemason is just indulging himself. Claire, originally a mouse, has taken to flashing her eyes, floating her hair and calling herself the Madwoman of Shalott, a very literary joke. Like Knickbocker's Gloria, this is just the writer, Jonathan Harvey, playing with words." References External links Character profile at ITV's Coronation Street homepage Character profile at What's on TV Coronation Street characters Fictional nannies Fictional bus drivers Fictional taxi drivers Television characters introduced in 2003 Female characters in television Fictional characters with psychiatric disorders