Preview of tonight's Coronation Street - Fri 5 June

FRIDAY 5TH JUNE 2020

GEOFF’S IMAGE IS TARNISHED Realising the truth will come out in court, Geoff admits he hired escorts as Yasmeen refused him sex. Sally’s disgusted but Tim reckons it can only help Geoff’s case as it proves Yasmeen had a motive for trying to kill him. Geoff goes to the police to reveal this while Alya worries she’s played straight into Geoff’s hands. When Yasmeen then tells her how he gave her an STI, Alya’s horrified and begs Yasmeen to expose Geoff for what he is and tell the court the truth.

ASHA FINDS HER VOICE After a chat with Nina Dev agrees to go easy on Asha, assuring her she made one mistake, it’s not the end of the world and she’ll get through it. Spotting Corey and his mates, Asha plucks up the courage and heading over she tears a strip off him for the appalling way he’s treated her. Summer and Nina are impressed. Dev’s thrilled to see her renewed confidence

THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME FOR SHONA Roy and David visit Shona at the rehab centre. Shona confirms that she definitely wants to live with Roy. David wonders if he’ll ever win her round.

ELSEWHERE Gary quizzes Kelly about her conversation with Imran and warns her not to tell him anything.


Glenda Young

Author of gritty, family saga novels with Headline

Twitter: @Flaming_Nora

Facebook: GlendaYoungAuthor

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Spot the Corrie prop - June 5th 2020

This week congratulations go to Annie who was the only person to guess that last week's crazy candlestick can be found in Stillwaters Retirement Community. Well done!

For this week's prop puzzle all you have to do is tell us whereabouts on Coronation Street you would find this laundry basket.

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Coronation Street Episode Review; Weds 3rd June 7.30 pm

Since her arrival back on Coronation Street, things haven't been easy going for Shona. With her jaded memory still vaguely remembering Gail's teabag location, she does a quick flit and conveniently returns to Roy's Rolls! It would just be my luck to get amnesia and then end up back at work, but I don't work for Roy Cropper, unfortunately. Surely she’s safe with the ever safe cafe owner? Well, not quite. David’s danger sprees may have subsided now but Shona’s brain injuries are manifesting themselves in uncomfortable social outbursts and she soon burns herself on Roy’s biscuit tray. I doubt this will be a quick recovery?

Oakhill has long since been the posh private school of Weatherfield, yet it's most recent alumni from the cobbles is busty TV presenter Rosie Webster. It's hardly the heights of academic prowess so I do wonder how Asha and Aadi will fare at this new school? I'm surprised it's taken Asha’s scandal for Dev to send the twins there, he has got 3 shops so plenty of cash! Or has he? Asha’s first day doesn't go as planned either and cutting the staff rota at Prima Doner, makes me wonder if there is a plot coming concerning money trouble for Dev? 

Geoff's recent return has seen little recuperation for the petulant pervert. Taking Tim’s hospitality to the extreme, he’s also managed to discard the camera and subsequent scene of crime footage, from his covert CCTV system. Destroying that evidence is good, but Alya’s tenacity means clues seen to be appearing in speed daals accounts ledger and Imran is keen to find out more. It appears Geoff was having lunch at the Byrom hotel (famous Manchester poet, definitely not to be confused with Lord Byron), and Yasmeen reluctantly spills the beans (excuse the pun) and of course, Sally is soon in on the gossip. 

Pleading guilty can hardly do any favours for Yasmeen, though? A busy day for the solicitors, Imran also tells Adam about Kelly Neelan and surrogate gangster godfather, Gary Windass.  Some subtle tension still seems to be prevalent between Dev and Gary too. Could we see these two having a serious altercation or coming to blows, in the future? I know who my money would be on (sorry Dev!) 

At The Rovers ( I love Carla behind the bar) it’s good to see plenty of gossip with Eileen, Brian and Cathy, and Bernie. I like this, it reminds me of the classic corrie, and good to see Beth and Kirk back too. Geoff however, is about as welcome at the bar as Corona, so he soon leaves. Back home, Sally tells Tim that Geoff has been seeing escorts, and it looks like Geoff may have to tell the truth, for once. 

How is he going to get out of this one?  

I am @rybazoxo your {self-styled} ‘cobbles connoisseur’ 

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Soap boss talks Corrie return with facemasks & takeaway hotpots

Guest blog post from Paul Lanagan of @CorrieArt
Fancy writing a guest blog post for us? All details here!  

Millions of Coronation Street fans around the world breathed a sigh of relief this week when the news broke that ITV were soon to resume filming on the famous cobbles.  Viewers had been enjoying a weekly ration of three episodes a week but were very well aware that the bank of recorded episodes was slowly depleting.  Many were worried that the stories being played out on screens across 104 countries would finish abruptly leaving those watching to wonder whether the devious Geoff ever did get his comeuppance for the abuse he had metered out on poor Yasmeen.
But all those fears were allayed when the news came in that filming would recommence from Tuesday June 9th.  The production team had carried out a safety induction to familiarise themselves with the new safety measures and social media and daytime TV soon became awash with Corrie cast members sharing their excitement at the news of their imminent return to Weatherfield.

John Whiston, Managing Director of Continuing Drama for ITV, appeared live on Good Morning Britain with Lorraine to talk about the good news, today Wednesday 3 June.  John, standing in front of a witty backdrop of the ‘CORRIEWOOD’ hills of California, said, “We have been doing so much work to get back as we were determined not to go off air.  If we get back next week, we will manage that.”

John talked about the new safety protocols and techniques for filming, many of which had been devised in-house.  He said, “We have put Perspex shields on the cameras, like a motorcycling cowling, but we have had to make a lot of this up ourselves.  The guidelines have now come out but when we were starting no one had done drama in a socially distanced way.”
He then said, with a hint of humour, “We have people with poles who will go around prodding actors to make sure that they stay two metres from each other and the cameramen.  One of our production managers has a retractable pole that was given as a present, which he will whip out!  The two metre distance is paramount.”

John went on to explain the painstaking lengths needed to record even a simple piece of action.  “When somebody is handling a letter, the other cast member can’t handle the same letter, so they have to put it down on the table.  We then stop filming, take that letter away and put another in its place for the other cast member to pick up.”

These measures and the diligence of the cast and crew were already paying off in recently filmed episodes of Emmerdale and John said he was pleased with the work produced so far.  “It doesn’t look as if everyone is two metres away from each other and I think I’ll get complaints that the characters are too close when actually it is where you put the cameras and how you stage it!  The episodes look great.”

Back over the Pennines, John confirmed that the COVID-19 pandemic would be referenced lightly in Weatherfield and it would be easier to feature the looser restrictions we are now seeing compared to a full lockdown scenario.  Viewers should expect it to be more interesting than a character popping to Dev’s once a week, with the Rovers Return offering takeaway hotpots while the staff of Underworld could be making PPE equipment to reflect real businesses joining in with the national effort.  John also said, “The odd person will be wearing a mask.” meaning the Weatherfield residents in general and not Roy Cropper!

John acknowledged the need for a balance between reflecting the real world and giving viewers an escape during these challenging times.  He said, “You need something that takes you out of it.  Lots of people have been saying it is their one little bit of normality in the day, and they really appreciate that the continuing dramas are still on.”

The older cast members, which are at the heart and soul of Coronation Street, are of course considered to be at higher risk and John gave an update on what viewers should expect to see to Corrie veterans on screen.  “It is their safety that we are most concerned about but Coronation Street wouldn’t be Coronation Street without those characters in it.  We will do whatever we can to film them safely.  We may have some scenes where they film themselves at home.  There is a process to go through before we can decide if the clinically vulnerable cast can come back but if they can’t come into the studio we will find a safe way to bring them into the show.  The senior people in our cast are really important so we are determined to have their presence.”

John joked that Weatherfield would be like ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’ with an absence of the Weatherfield youngsters owing to the restrictions on the number of people allowed on set.  He said, “Unfortunately for a while we won’t have many children in the show because children come with extra people, chaperones and tutors.”  With actors Elle Jade Mulvaney (Amy Barlow), Tanisha Gorey (Asha Alahan), Matilda Freeman (Summer Spellman) and Millie Gibson (Kelly Neelan) being adept at using video conferencing from home, as their recent recreation of ‘Mean Girls’ showed, the potential is there for younger characters to be featured on screen one way or another.

John then addressed the all important issue of how to film characters having affairs.  “We will have to use our imaginations a little bit.  We will have a lot of smouldering and our actors are particularly good at that!”  This will be good news for newlywed Adam Barlow who is rumoured to be flirting with Kelly’s mum in forthcoming scenes.  John said the filming techniques could hark back to 1920s Hollywood with scenes of waves crashing on the sea, fireworks going off, or a train going into a tunnel.  It seems that the viaduct on Rosamund Street could be featured in more scenes than ever before!

John ended his interview with a glimmer of hope for a full return to a regular schedule of Coronation Street.  “We will get back to six episodes a week as soon as we can.”

PAUL LANAGAN, @CorrieArt


Glenda Young

Author of gritty, family saga novels with Headline

Twitter: @Flaming_Nora

Facebook: GlendaYoungAuthor

Fancy writing a guest blog post for us? All details here!  

Like to receive Corrie weekly updates by email? Subscribe here

Read more Corrie news, interviews, gossip and spoilers  

Follow us on Twitter and Like us on Facebook

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