Coronation Street: who is really to blame for Tyrone punching Chesney?

Tyrone Dobbs has always been one of the gentlest men on the cobbles, which is exactly why Monday's episode of Coronation Street felt so uncomfortable to watch. After weeks of quiet pressure from his estranged father Ross Wilkes, Tyrone finally lashed out, and the person on the receiving end was one of his oldest friends, Chesney.

The trouble began at home. Tyrone and Fiz noticed a large bruise on Dorin's arm, and the little lad told them that Chesney's son Aled had punched him. Any parent would be rattled by that, but it was Ross who turned a playground scrap into something far more serious.

He pushed Tyrone to go round and have it out with Chesney, insisting that it could not be allowed to happen again.

Tyrone did go round, and for a moment it looked as though the matter might be settled calmly. Chesney and Gemma did not treat it as a big deal, and Tyrone was on his way out when Ross turned up and told him he could not simply let it go.

ITV's own preview described Ross as purposely igniting the row, and Tyrone, desperate to prove he was not a pushover, punched Chesney in front of a stunned Gemma.

What made the scene so unsettling was what came afterwards. Rather than being horrified, Ross was proud of his son, and he whisked him off to the pub for a drink while Fiz was left to make sense of what had just happened.

When she did challenge him, Tyrone played the whole thing down, which is not the Tyrone viewers have known for decades.

Who is really to blame?

ITV framed the week's teaser around a single question: who is really to blame? Tyrone threw the punch and has to own it, but it is hard to watch the build-up without seeing Ross's fingerprints all over it.

Since arriving on the Street this year, Ian Burfield's character has steadily chipped away at the way his son sees himself.

He bought boxing gloves and tried to get Dorin to use them before making Tyrone put them on himself, and when Ruby wanted to join a boxing club and Tyrone tried to stop her, Fiz and Hope accused him of sexism.

Each of those moments looked small on its own, but together they have shown a man being taught, slowly and deliberately, that being a good father means being hard.

Why it matters more for Tyrone

That is why the story carries more weight with Tyrone than it would with almost any other character. Long-standing viewers will remember that he was the victim of domestic abuse at the hands of Kirsty Soames, a storyline that ran through 2012 and into 2013 and ended only when Kirsty admitted at his trial that she had been the abuser.

We looked back at that chapter in our piece on what happened to Tyrone and Kirsty, and it is part of the reason this turn feels so jarring. Tyrone knows better than most what violence does to a family, and yet the estranged father who has only recently come into his life has managed to make him doubt his own instincts.

Chesney's place in all of this matters too. He and Tyrone have stood by each other through years of upheaval, and a row over two boys squabbling should never have ended with a fist.

If Ross can drive a wedge between friends that close, it raises real concern about what else he might push his son into, particularly with Dorin and Ruby watching and learning from the men around them.

The coming episodes should reveal whether Tyrone can see what is happening before Ross does lasting damage to his relationship with Fiz, his friendships and his children.

For now, Fiz looks like the one person who can reach him, if he is still willing to listen.

Coronation Street continues on ITV1 and ITVX.

Images: ITV.