Who wants to be a millionaire? Well, Samia Smith, Jennie McAlpine, Sally Whittaker and Michael Starke do. They're all lined up to take part in a celebrity version of the ITV gameshow and are playing for charities of their choice. The show will be screened on ITV on August 16.
I started this blog as a creative Corrie outlet and that's how it stays. The blog has never gone out, hunted down and shot people to come and visit. And it's not even linked to from any of the big guns. No, it just sits under the radar, enjoying itself nicely while garnering great feedback like this and this.
Went to the flicks last night to see Batman: The Dark Knight and couldn't help noticing the similarity between actor Aaron Eckhart and Coronation Street's Ken Barlow. Anyone else seen the film and spotted Ken's doppelganger on screen?
The sensational Steve McDonald hasn't been in Coronation Street much this week so there's no gurn to blog. However, let's not be put off by something as simple as that and go for a gurning blast from the past.
It's not often that my twin passions of Coronation Street and Sunderland are mentioned in the same news item. So while I tend to leave the news to the fine ladies at Corrieblog, I couldn't let this one pass.
So if you fancy bidding to win Kevin Webster's outfit, the auction takes place in the Black Bull pub in Sunderland city centre on August 12. Other prizes included a weekend in Manchester. Entertainment on the night will be provided by host Miss V and drum band The Bangshees. Doors open at 7.30pm. No ticket is required, just deep pockets for charity please.
Voting closes in the National Television Awards on Friday August 1st. If you haven't voted for Coronation Street yet, why not pop over to the NTA site and start voting now?
Greetings, sun-seekers and welcome to the hot and humid world of the weekly update office. The update’s a bit late this week as I was out on the razzle last night. Tomorrow night it’s Batman and the night after’s the weekly shop, but I’ve kept tonight free just you and I to spend our weekly time together. Come on in, close the door, put your feet up and crack open those biscuits. Yes, dammit, the chocolate ones. And so without any further ado, here we go with this week’s Coronation Street update.
Molly’s Aunty Pam is brilliant and I want one too. In fact, every home should have one. You get the feeling Aunty Pam’s been spirited in from somewhere else, somewhere more fragrant where everyone’s fridge is packed with cheap meats off the market and they’re happier for it. It can only be a matter of time before Aunty Pam wiggles her nose, clicks her heels together three times and chants the mantra “There’s no place like Holby City” and then she’ll be gone, her work in this world done, leaving everyone who met her with a smile on their face and a vacuum pack of minute “give it ten minutes, it’s got history” steak in their hand.
And so it came to pass that Aunty Pam got Tyrone to propose to Molly this week with the help of some knock-off, naff Fabergesque eggs. “There’s not a girl alive who could say no to a talking egg,” muses Pam. And do you know, I think she might be right. The gaudy, plastic eggs had a recording button and Tyrone recorded his proposal to Molly. But when he got down on one knee in the Rovers with everyone watching and he pressed the button on the egg, it was Kirkeh’s voice that floated out after he’d scrambled the egg. “Where do you put the batteries, then?” the egg asked Molly and it’s not a phrase most women want to hear on a proposal, although some women might. Anyway, the joy of the Fabergesque egg is that you can re-record which Tyrone duly did, the egg popped the question in front of a burger van on the cobbles which Aunty Pam decorated with fairy lights that twinkled. She didn’t plug them in, she just wiggled her nose. And Molly replied via an egg of her own. As the two of them kissed to celebrate their engagement and Tyrone slipped Vera’s ring onto Molly’s finger, the camera panned around the cobbles as the spectators took in the scene. Vernon looked across the street, lovingly at Liz who was giving Harry the glad eye as he was watched over like a hawk by soon to be ex-wife Clarissa. John Stape 
leered at Fiz who looked troubled. And Jack must have got something in his eye because he came over all peculiar and had to look away, memories of his marriage to Vera all too apparent. It was darn good this bit, it really was, and both Sunny Jim and I had tears in our eyes.
Harry Mason, a man whose dress sense has clearly been informed by the mafia clothing catalogue for men Bada-Bling. Advertising tagline: Yer want it? Yer wear it! Or else! Delivery tagline: We send da boys round witcha oyder. It’s all soft woollen knits worn loose around the shoulders, braces to hold up trousers and glasses on a string round the neck. I bet his socks have got diamonds on them. Or as it’s Bada-Bling, diamonds in them. Anyway, Harry’s socks are included on a list of complaints that his soon to be ex-moll Clarissa passes on to Liz in the Rovers. But is she his soon to be ex? Liz was clearly hoping so but then Clarissa won Harry round with some of Aunty Pam’s cheap steak and a bottle of red and it was left to Harry to break the news to Liz that he and Clarissa were back together again. Liz lost control and yelled at Harry to leave but when he wouldn’t go, 
Vernon turfed him out and sent Liz to her comfort zone (aka smokers shelter) for a fag to calm down. He followed her outside where he promised her they’d always be friends. Liz pulled Vernon towards her for a hug but he was hoping for a snog and his face crumpled up in despair.
His mum hadn’t forgotten his birthday and had sent tickets to join her in Vegas. Chesney was off like a shot to see Cilla in the city of sin, leaving Fiz to fend off John Stape as best she can, but she’s folding, you can tell. Norris, bless him, refused to serve John in the Kabin. I say Good On Yer! - that’s Norris, not John - and everyone’s bemused by the fact he’s now a driver for Streetcars - that’s John, not Norris.
David turns paranoid when Tina giggles as she’s typing and she won’t tell him who she’s emailing or what she’s doing online. He doesn’t understand the concept of friends, never mind virtual ones called PIXOCUTIE! and DUFF_37. I don’t know if they’re called that, it’s just a guess on my part.
“I have no problem with the gays…” Blanche tells Deirdre but when people start a sentence like that, you know their problem is a big one, “… and I’d walk over hot coals for that Paul O’Grady”, but it doesn’t look like she’d do the same for her own son-in-law. Not that Ken’s gay, at least we don’t think so, but Blanche thinks he is when he goes to an art auction with Ted and starts reading 
Armistead Maupin. Deirdre took the news with her usual exasperation and Ken exploded in a camp sort of way: “I am not a homosexual,” by the dining room table. Anyway, his night out with Ted has fired Ken up to reignite the inner flames of passion that made him want to be a writer. He dusts off his old novel that’s been fermenting in the loft and sits down with a pencil in his hand and an idea in his head of becoming the famous novelist he always wanted to be. I think I could do with a night out with Ted.
Deirdre might have found the thought ridiculous, but with a look like this, Ken Barlow might just make it into the running as the next gay icon of Coronation Street.
If you're outside of the UK and want to know how to watch Corrie online, here are some suggestions.
As well as the Coronation Street cook-book with Betty Turpin's recipe for hot-pot, you can buy all sorts of good Corrie stuff on eBay.
Coronation Street's Julia Haworth, who plays Claire Peacock, has given birth to a baby girl today and hearty congratulations go her way.
Coronation Street's Angie Freeman was one of my favourite Corrie women. She was feisty, ambitious and was the first woman to drink pints in the Rovers. She also broke Curly's heart when she left the Street to find her fame and fortune but I think we can forgive her after all these years.
Kym Marsh, who plays Coronation Street's Michelle Connor, looks right smart in her specs, I reckon.
Isn't Deirdre Barlow supposed to have a PA job at Weatherfield Council? Then why's she never there? And while I'm asking, where's the Coronation Street Post Office gone from The Kabin? And where's Eccles gone? And Schmeicel? Are they with Doreen Fenwick? Enquiring minds need to know.
I've had a nice email from Laura who's started a fan history of Coronation Street online and she's asking Coronation Street fans to help update it.
Liz might have kicked him out and his paradiddle might have lost its oomph but there’s a place behind the counter at Roy’s Rolls where Vernon fits in perfect. Roy takes him on as he’s short staffed in the caff and needs an extra pair of hands, even a pair that keeps belting out a five bar rhythm section on the table tops every half hour, on the hour, come rain, come shine. It's just that this time, he's doing it in a pinny.
Over at the factory, Rosie wheedles her way in with Tony Gordon and gets Sean his job back. Well, it’s the least that Tony can do after Rosie nicked her dad’s customer files from the garage last week. Sean’s been great this week. He walked into the café (see para 1 above) with the girls’ cake order (and it wasn’t even Wicked Wednesday) while George Michael’s Faith was playing on Roy’s wireless. Sean sang along in style: ‘Cos I gotta have cake, cake, cake.’ He should've started at the top really with "Well I guess it would be nice, if I could touch your barm cake, you know not everybody has got a barm cake like you."
Anyway, there’s more than cake, there’s hot gossip at the factory when John Stape turns up in his little blue car. He tells Fiz he still loves her and he wants her back. He also wants her front, the side bits and the bits that stick out. Ah, but would he love her if she had bingo wings? Sigh. She gives John what for and slaps him across the chops but he’s not put off. News spreads that “John’s back on the Street” and it’s Chinese whispers a-go-go as his return hits the factory floor and goes from Sally to Rosie to Kev in the garage who finally hears: “John’s snake’s bagged and asleep.” Kevin plays to his strengths and brandishes his spanner. And then right, then, John only goes and gets himself a job as the new driver at Streetcars. Well, they were kind of desperate after their interviews produced two no-shows, one manic depressive and a woman who crashed her car on the way there. I say bring in Big Brenda from Levenshulme, she’s the only woman for the job.
In the Rovers, Blanche isn’t best pleased to hear that Ken’s going to see a play with Gail’s dad Ted. I’d love to go out for an evening with Ted. Along with Molly’s Aunty Pam (of whom more later) I think Ted’s the best thing to hit Corrie in a long time. Anyway, Blanche pursed her lips and spilled out some thinly disguised homophobic vile. Gail returned from the land of sun dried tomatoes and multi-coloured ice-cream (you can tell I’ve never been) to find her living room redecorated and her son with a new hairdo.
date erased? Anything. She’s fab, is Pam. She’s like a breath of fresh air and she’s turned up just in time to see Molly and Tyrone get engaged this coming week. Tyrone tries, bless him, he’s all ready to pop the question with Vera’s engagement ring (this bit brought tears to my eyes, I’m such a sad muppet). But at the chi-chi La-La Lounge, as recommended by de-de-desperate Dev, Tyrone’s planned sparkler and cake 
failed to compete with another guy’s proposal to his girlfriend which included fireworks and a marching band. Never mind Tyrone, there’s always next week. Tyrone’s engagement sparked memories for Jack of asking Vera to marry him way back in the day. Apparently, Vera was up the stick. And that’s not a phrase you hear enough of these days.
Someone who’s having less luck in the lady love department is Steve McDonald. Michelle throws the £7,500 engagement ring back at him and he has to search in a skip until he recoups his investment. She knows he’s been up to no good and throws him out of his own home and pub, which I found a bit odd. Steve takes to sleeping in the Streetcars office, whiling away the hours with the Rubik’s cube.
Elsewhere this week, Dev and Vernon went golfing together. Dev was in his Pringle jumper and sensible trousers, Vernon was rock and roll with his hat on back to front. The whole point of this set up was for Dev to bump into Prem Mandal, another Asian businessman who’s big in floor covering and carpets, a bit like shag pile. The actor who plays Prem once played Dev’s dad but he didn’t seem to recognise him, which is just as well as Dev’s going to end up adding Prem’s wife to his own shag pile.
With thanks to my Canadian pal tvor for alerting me to this picture.
Liz McDonald had better watch out, she's got competition for the attention of bookie Larry Grayson - whoops, sorry - Harry Mason.
Ok, this isn't strictly Coronation Street-related although it does contain an ex-Corrie actresss but a new online soap launched today at Spinning Jenny.
Actress Alexandra Boyd is doing a grand job on Coronation Street as flame haired Clarissa Mason, soon to be ex-wife of Harry the bookie.
Coronation Street has its fair share of gay men in it now and a transsexual too so featuring a lesbian has been long overdue.
