And for the next 35 years I tuned into Corrie, trying never to miss an episode.
In the early 90s I spent a few years overseas where I missed Coronation Street a lot. This was in the days before iPlayers, before the internet, before Sky+ and high-tech as we know it today. And when I returned to live in the UK I couldn't get enough of my Corrie.
By this time, the internet was starting to take off and the usenet newsgroup (now owned by Google) rec.arts.tv.uk.coronation-st was born in 1995. The first two words I ever typed into a search engine (such as they were then) were Coronation + Street, and it lead me to usenet. I realised then, reading the newsgroup, that Corrie fans were worldwide, especially in Canada, the US, New Zealand and Australia. And the ones overseas were asking us UK fans what was going on in real-time on home soil in the UK.
I started off writing a couple of paragaraphs once a week for the newsgroup to keep the fans happy, and then those paragraphs grew as word spread about the Corrie weekly updates. Now, 15 years later, those Coronation Street weekly updates still go out worldwide, once a week by email, to far flung corners of the world. I've got a farmer in Israel who can't get them quick enough, a Canadian airline cabin crew who used to print the updates off and pin them up in their staff cabin for airline crew to catch up on and even one Canadian man who has printed off every single weekly update for the last 15 years and keeps them in a binder!
And now here I am, writing about Coronation Street on the blog and sharing my own Corrie joy with other fans. This has been the most remarkable week on Corrie, and I can't thank you all enough for choosing the Coronation Street Blog for your Corrie news and views.
And the newsgroup is where i first "met" you! (was Sunny Jim on the early early newsgroup, as early as you and i were?)
ReplyDeleteratucs began May 1995 and Sunny Jim came on the newsgroup in 1996 and was at the very first London ping with Mike and Graham.
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely post! Really love this blog - it's the only place on the internet I go for my corrie news :)
ReplyDeleteAw, thank you Adam!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome :) Im just catching my breath before going back to make sure they dig Rita out!
ReplyDeleteEver been had?
ReplyDeleteBy that, I mean that these are just two of the 'officially blessed' leaked storylines headlines from back in July of this year that were typical of what's been leaked continuously ever since:
"Coronation Street bosses are planning a massive cull of characters after a viaduct collapses and sends a tram careering off a bridge to mark the show's 50th anniversary."
and:
"Coronation Street bosses are planning on killing off masses of characters when a viaduct carrying a tram collapses at the end of the street to mark the show's 50th anniversary. . . Fans had hoped the shows 50th anniversary celebrations would see their old favourite characters returning to the cobbles, but soap chiefs have decided to use it as a chance to kill off large numbers of the cast."
We've all read and seen the reports, even on here, it's not under-reported news.
So at the end of the week, what's the tally of this 'mass character cull'?
Why just two - Ashley and Molly.
With Charlotte possibly a third or maybe even continuing to breath after they turn her life support system off, maybe? Besides as she's in hospital as a result of John's actions does she count?
What a great and romantic exit, one of the best - had they let Peter go - but the slight of hand in the lie that is the 'mass cull' showed when after flat-lining - he miraculously recovers, however tenuously.
This week has been top notch drama - whatever it was, it wasn't Corrie - more like an action/thriller/disaster movie than a soap. Which suggests someone might be using Corrie as a CV stepping-stone opportunity for a later move into the movie making world of Hollywood. The immediate seconds before the explosion and tram crash were pure Hollywood with a dizzyingly quick 'Cut to' close-up of each character as a way to indicate their lives were about to change.
So why the need to big-it-up with leaks of a mass character cull? (Which now turns out to be an outrageous exaggeration if not an outright lie?)
The drama stood well enough on its own. Corrie is as commercial product as Cadbury's. And you won't hear, say, Cadbury's announce they're going to have a mass cull of their award winning products as a way to celebrate an anniversary of theirs, now, would you? I should have realised that sooner.
So a massive cull equals two deaths.
Just two.
Like I asked: Ever been had?
To be fair, a leak about a tram crash can send the media into a frenzy, predicting those masses of culls. We were told by ITV themselves a few months ago that it would be four deaths and a wedding. There have been three, presuming Charlotte is one and i think she will be. The fourth may be a cop out of the unnamed guy in the car. But there are still more characters leaving, Claire, the two boys, Janice and Liz, and if Liz is going i doubt we'll see Jim either because i am predicting they'll go off together.
ReplyDeleteAnd I can't thank you enough, Flaming Nora, for all the perks you provide to go along with my Coronation Street fascination. Write and they will come.
ReplyDeleteFlaming Nora, thank you for this trip down memory lane. I remember ratucs and reading about "pings" and the Blackpool "contress" and the flame wars (just sometimes)and reading the funny and clever musings of you and TVOR (The Voice of Reason) and Mike and Graham and Nigel (who wrote very funny updates). And now you've given us this wonderful blog. Thank you so very much. I very much enjoy visiting this site.
ReplyDeleteAnd aren't we glad you did start writing. Reading this blog makes me smile, so it does.
ReplyDelete