Coronation Street and EastEnders, great rivals for the nation’s attention, were head to head, this week past, on grief. Coronation Street (ITV1, Monday) showed Jack Duckworth, a regular for nearly 30 years, come to terms with the death of his wife, Vera: after decades of a brawling, mutually unfaithful and scandalous marriage, he summons a speech of great dignity at the crematorium.

EastEnders went further: Dot Branning, whose husband Jim has suffered a stroke, records a tape to send him in hospital – an action that filled an episode (BBC1 Thursday), and had no other character.