State of the Street - April 2011

Ah, the end of the month and the start of a new one. April was pretty packed full, with a double wedding, a bank robbery, the exit of two characters, more mud slinging from the Websters. It was all Yummy Mummy competitions between Leanne and Cheryl, Maria hand wringing over Frank and the factory, and there's a new cranky old woman to shake up Roy's content life. That's been one of the bright spots of the month, and the thought of daughter-in-law Kylie making Gail's life a misery is another! Read about it in this month's State of the Street.

Corrie weekly awards: April 24 - 29

Abandonment Star: They ran down the hill and left the bear behind!!

Betrayal award: Gold Star: Norris slipped and now Mary knows Graeme and Xin's secret too and she grassed them up to Immigration. This is not going to end well.

All for nothing award: Gold Star: Eddie has left Anna because of Faye and now she may lose Faye anyway.

Make my  day award: Cheeky Star: They should put Tommy and Julie together. She drools over anything in trousers and he flirts with anything in a skirt.

Fairy Godmother award: Sean really made a great Joseph coat! Too bad Smug Cheryl and her spawn were jealous and tried to spoil it.

Dweeb award: Steve is such a terrible liar. How could Becky not see through that fake phone call?

Movie Retcon award: Oscar winning star: Ghost! The Pottery adventures was wonderful! Ken's "jug" looked like a melted ice cream stick. or something.

 

Lines of the week:
Gail about Sophie "She's just having a phase of 'funny'" (Um, no she's not)
Neighbour to John "Who shall i say is callin' " (That's right. i.e. callin' = Colin)
Kylie about Graeme and Xin "If that's an act, I'm a flippin virgin"
Tina "You can sing God Save the Queen in Union Jack underpants. It won't make any difference if Xin's not here"
Mary "When you've traveled alone in foreign lands,  you get used to servicing yourself" (How can they get away with this stuff! Brilliant!)
Deirdre to Ken "Are you going to sit there in that chair all day, reading about old crocks? Mind you, it takes one to know one."
Ken about the pottery guy "What a dilettante, what a phony!" (takes one to know one)
Cranky Government guy "I'll not raise a glass to a Constitutional Immaturity"

Stella saves Leanne from armed robbers

There's a Coronation Street spoiler in The Sun today that reckons new Rovers landlady Stella, played by newcomer Michelle Collins, saves Leanne Barlow from armed robbers in one of her first scenes. 

The paper says that two yobs are about to smash Leanne (Jane Danson) with a baseball bat as they rob the betting shop.  But Stella grabs it and pushes one lout to the ground. She is then hailed a heroine by grateful locals, in scenes to air soon after she joins Corrie in June.

ITV Job Vacancy: Corrie Production Crew Co-ordinator

ITV have a job vacancy for a Coronation Street Crew Coordinator. Deadline for applications, May 8th.
Find out more here.

Spot the Corrie prop - April 29th 2011

Congratulations to craig247 who quickly spotted that it was Graeme, dressed as Liz, who was wearing the bangles last week.

For this week's prop puzzler, where on Coronation Street would you find this wall decoration?

Michelle Collins starts filming at Corrie

Michelle Collins starts filming as Rovers Return landlady Stella for Coronation Street on Monday next week. She says it's "very exciting" to be joining Corrie and is currently acting on stage in the North-West in The Demolition Man.

Stella is strong, feisty and funny, says Michelle and confirms she is going to have to act with a Northern accent. Michelle says she's got a lot of friends already on the Corrie cast and knows Helen Worth but says that she called her Gail in make-up the other day and had to apologise!

Watch Michelle's interview here.

Corrie to have a high drama 'Britain's Got Talent' week

According to Digital Spy, Corrie is going to go late night once more for another special week of episodes, the same week as last year in fact! Though we haven't yet coined a name for the week.

The main story lines will revolve around John Stape's finale and Becky's massive meltdown. Sounds quite interesting, and thankfully it sounds like this week wont be interrupted by any real life similarities, like last years 'siege week'.

Corrie Roy-al Wedding remembered

There's a wedding tomorrow. I know quite a few are saying "Meh" but I'll be up early to watch some of it. (It's on very early here in Canada!) In the meantime, I thought you might like a look back at last year's "Roy-al" wedding on Coronation Street when Roy and Hayley finally had a legal wedding and celebrated in true Corrie style wherein it didn't run quite as smoothly as hoped.

There's a pictorial blog of the day over here.  You can also see coverage of this and other Corrie weddings on our blog here including this lovely photo of Roy and Hayley's cake!

Steve McDonald gurn of the week, April 28 2011

It's Thursday and that means only one thing... time for the Steve McDonald gurn of the week. Thanks go Corrie fan Martin S. for this week's fab Stevie McGurn. If you've captured a good Corrie Steve gurn and want to share it via the blog, do email it in.

To see more gurnage from Stevie McGurn, have a look here, there's loads. Some good, some bad and some really very funny.

Listen: Coronation Street special on BBC Radio 1

BBC Radio 1 DJ Gemma Cairney was broadcasting live from the Coronation Street set in Manchester yesterday.

Gem chats with Antony Cotton (Sean), Sam Aston (Chesney) and Holly Quin-Akrah (Cheryl) in the Rovers Return and Graeme Hawley talks about his on-screen murder spree as John Stape. Corrie half-sisters Katherine Kelly (Becky) and Paula Lane (Kylie) chat about why Katherine is leaving after five  years, how Becky will be written out and her future plans. Samia Smith talks about her 11 years playing Maria and how she feels about the paparazzi attention. Teen couple Sacha Parkinson (Sian) and Brooke Vincent (Sophie) get very excited about Nicki Minaj and life in general.

Listen to it here (but be quick before it goes off line!)  The Corrie bit kicks in at around the seven minute mark.  There's also a photo gallery from the set here.

Charles Lawson is happy to shovel ... er... muck

In an entertaining Sun article today, Charles Lawson has been quoted as saying acting is not as much fun as it used to be. He reckons the "bosses" treat actors like kids and this seems to refer to soap bosses but that could very well be taken out of context.

The interview is quite good, with Charlie's view on his years on Coronation Street, mostly being great. He says that Simon Gregson puts in a gruelling schedule and he thinks everyone does a bang up job on Corrie but reckons acting as a business is getting a bit too serious for him. He spends a lot of his time with his wife on their farm in Cheshire where he describes life as having a lot less bull**** (I guess he doesn't raise cattle, then!)

He is amused at the Facebook campaign to free Jim McDonald but doesn't think the producers really take that sort of thing seriously.

Will he return as Big Jim someday? Well he quips "Let's not forget we are in Never Never Land and Tracy Barlow suddenly appeared after being found guilty of murder. Bobby Ewing could leap out of that shower, you never know." Will Liz return? He and I have the same opinion on that, I wish Beverley very well. But she's a bit of a homing pigeon so I wouldn't write her off.

Flaming Nora’s Corrie Weekly Update, April 26 2011

Greetings and welcome to the Coronation Street Weekly Update. The weekly updates are a Royal Wedding-free zone. And so without any further ado, here we go with this week's Coronation Street update.

Find out more about the Coronation Street Weekly Updates and why they've been written for th'internet since 1995 at

http://www.corrieweeklyupdates.btinternet.co.uk/

Eddie Windass wants to start a new life in Germany, he feels he’s been pushed out of his house by little Faye and he’s got a point, you can see where he’s coming from. Railroaded into adoption by Anna and then having to share his home with a little stranger was just too much for Eddie especially when he asked Anna to choose between him and Faye and she went and chose the wrong one.  The tears shed by Anna, Eddie and Gary when Eddie took his leave and departed for Deutschland looked real enough, and that’s probably because they were.

Gail’s fed up and decides to go job hunting. “I think I’d be good at counseling,” she tells a not-too-convinced Audrey. “Everyone always tells me all their problems, I’ve got that sort of face.” Instead she takes her sort of face, puts some slap on it and goes for an interview as bar manager at Nick’s bistro. She won’t get the job of course. Nick needs someone who can stay up all hours with the energy to run a trendy bar into the small hours till party o’clock, not his mum who falls asleep on the sofa during the ten o’clock news.

Ridiculous story of the week has been John Stape going into meltdown and overdrive when he stops taking his tablets and does a runner.  He takes £500 from a cashpoint using Colin Fishwick’s card and tries stuffing the wad of cash through Charlotte’s parents’ letterbox. They arrive home to catch him in the act, realize he’s acting a bit weird but assume he’s having a breakdown and still coping with his grief over losing his Charlotte. Anyway Fiz is at home having a fit about John’s whereabouts and whatnots and finally gets a call from Charlotte’s parents telling her that Colin is in their house and asking if she wants to go and collect him. No, she wants to throttle him but she turns up, pretends John’s Colin and takes him home. John won’t talk, can’t explain his actions so Fiz thinks about ringing Charlotte’s parents to find out what he’s been up to and why he ended up in their house.

In the war of the Websters, Sally and Kevin go halves on Kev’s lottery win which is music to Rosie’s ears.  Will the Webster women spend, spend, spend? And what on, on, on?  Rosie wants to splash out on hair extensions and Sally wants a rattan patio set.  Kevin just wants his missus back.

Over at Underworld, Frank gets arrested on the charge of attempted rape of Maria but is later released on lack of evidence. There’s no doubt he’s a nasty piece and it’ll just be a matter of time until we all find that out but for now, he’s keeping the factory afloat and the girls in a job.

Meanwhile, Eileen gets a nice surprise when son Todd returns with new bloke Jools in tow.  There are many reasons to dislike Jools so let us count the ways. He wears his jumper tied by the sleeves and slung around his neck. He is too posh for words. And his first words on arriving on the Street are: “Toddly, relax.”  That’s right, Toddly.  So Jools and Toddly brighten up Eileen’s day then ruin it with their fancy London ways, there’s a class clash and chaos on the cobbles but it all ends well with a motherly hug, wrapped up with a warm glow for an Easter special episode.

Speaking of which, in that same episode as Toddly came up from London, Sean went south to that London to see son Dylan, whose mum you’ll remember is Violet the barmaid who is partner of Jamie, him who slept with his step-mum Frankie Baldwin. Anyway, Jamie and Violet are going through a bad patch but that doesn’t stop Sean taking Dylan out for the day with old-flame Marcus.  They stop for a coffee and ice-cream, conveniently in a café outside of the ITV Studio Building. What a coincidence. Use of on-location filming however didn’t extend to Victoria Coach Station because as Sean was leaving that London to head back up north to Weatherfield on the bus, Marcus arrived with a big bunch of flowers.  But it was too late, the coach was leaving the depot and Sean didn’t spot Marcus. As the credits rolled, we all sat there telling Marcus to run around the corner where the bus would drive past and he could shake his bouquet at Sean once again, but no, it didn’t happen. And so Sean travelled back alone, not knowing that Marcus really loves him after all.

And finally this week, in another dull storyline, Xin and Graeme grow close ad Tina grows jealous.  Norris foolishly tells Mary about Xin’s sham wedding for the visa and you just know she ain’t gonna stay quiet with a secret that big.

And that's just about that for this week. 

This week's writers were Mark Burt, Julie Jones, Jayne Hollinson, Peter Whalley, Ellen Taylor, Jonathan Harvey.
 Find out more about the Coronation Street writing team at:

http://coronationstreetupdates.blogspot.com/2008/11/exclusive-all-current-corrie-writers.html

Glenda Young
--
Blogging away merrily at http://flamingnora.blogspot.com

Vancouver ping alert for Canadian fans

After the roaring success of their ping in February, the organizers of that event in Vancouver are doing it again! There will be another Vancouver Ping at the Kings Head Tavern in Kitsilano on May 14, 2011. (1618 Yew Street, Vancouver)

Tickets are best purchased ahead of time online here or directly from the King's Head and will cost you $15.00 CA. Once again hosted by Joe Leary of Team 1040, the Ping will be held from noon – 2:00 with doors opening at 11:00 for those wishing to arrive early. Preferential seating will be given to those with pre-purchased tickets. There will be some wonderful prizes, game ideas and door prizes that will be given away as well as another trivia contest, so be sure to study up on your Corrie trivia.
For more information please contact Maureen O’Brien

Kate Ford: "Tracy plans to marry Steve"

Kate Ford, who plays psycho Tracy Barlow in Coronation Street, tells this week's Inside Soap magazine that Tracy plans to wed Steve McDonald.

Kate says: "Tracy loves the idea of Steve.  Whether she actually loves him is another story, though! She's sure that she can tempt him away from Becky.  Tracy plans to be married to Steve within a year - she thinks that she's on the road to success and will play the long game." 

Oh, please, no.

Coronation Street drama nominated for three BAFTAs

This year's BAFTA nominations have just been revealed and Daran Little's drama The Road to Coronation Street has been nominated for Single Drama.  It also has two nominations in the Supporting Actress category for Jessie Wallace and Lynda Baron who played Pat Phoenix and Violet Carson. This is the first nomination for both actresses. Lynda Baron’s comes after over 45 years in the industry.  

The nominations are very well deserved and let's hope they get their awards when the Philips British Academy Television Awards, hosted by Graham Norton, are broadcast on BBC 1 on Sunday 22 May 2011.

Sneak Preview of next week's Corrie, May 1 - 6

Without any piffle, here's the storyline for the week ahead on Coronation Street, all wrapped up nicely in 50 words or less.

Week of Sunday 1st May to Friday 6th May
Note extra episode on Sunday 1st May at 7.30pm

Steve and Tracy grow close in Blackpool, Becky and Steve argue over Tracy, James moves in with the Barlows, Mary’s motorhome goes missing and Xin gets news on her visa.

The full weekly preview, with loads of pictures, will be uploaded on Thursday this week to Corrie.net

Missed last week's Corrie?
Catch up with the Coronation Street weekly updates

Another taxi, another departure

And so it goes. This time, a Streetcars cab rather than a black cab but the end result is the same. Eddie's gone and leaving us all bereft.

I've just finished watching tonight's episodes and I have to say, I was more upset watching Anna and Eddie split up than I expected. Watching them, watching Gary's upset and Anna's and Eddie's tears, I could feel a suspicious dampness in my eye region myself and was really sorry to see him ride away in the cab. As sad as I was to see Liz go, I wasn't swallowing hard. That's probably because Bev Callard has been absent more than she'd been on screen over the past year or two and her return and leaving storyline was kind of naff really.

Eddie's leaving storyline was also somewhat abbreviated but it made more sense. He only went along with the adoption for Anna's sake, not really expecting it to happen and got backed into a corner when it did. Because Faye was not an easy child to settle in, he found it overwhelming. He had the chance at a fresh start but Anna wouldn't go with him and that was it. She loves him but not enough to marry him, something he's wanted for awhile but only started asking her after it was too late. She's found the courage to be alone where she never had it before.

It's a very sad breakup because you know they both still love each other but want very different things out of life as they approach middle age. As others have said, Steve Huison turned Eddie from a stereotype ignoramus into an ignormamus we all adore, one with layers and a big heart under all that hair and string vest. We'll all miss him here at Blog Towers and wish Steve the best of luck.

Keep in touch with @SteveHuison on Twitter. If you pass him on the street, remember, he looks like this now.

Happy Easter in Weatherfield?

Well, had the Easter bunny arrived in Weatherfield this weekend, he would have probably thrown himself under the nearest tram. Misery was alive and kicking on the cobbles as we settled back for a doom-laden couple of episodes.

Previous comments this weekend have mentioned Misery Maria and I have to agree, she seems to portrayed as one of the next generation of sour-pusses. Will she be the Gail of the next decade? Personally I can cope with Fiz at the moment as we are promised that she will be delivered from the millstone of a storyline that has hampered her progress for so long. With her demented hubby out of the way, here's hoping that Fiz emerges from the shadows in a positive way.

It was sad to see the excellent Steve Huison depart as hapless Eddie Windass. I'm with him on this one though - I'd run to Germany to escape that Devil Child! When Eddie first arrived in the Street I'd anticipated abother version of Les Battersby. However, Huison's portrayal fleshed Eddie out from being a stereotypical slob. Yes, there were definitely layers to Eddie and, sadly, we won't find out how many more. Here's wishing Mr H the very best in the future.

The rest of the evening seemed to focus on the unloveable Xin and her "when I'm cleaning windows" routine, Steve and his giant egg plus the return of the chavvy Platts. Welcome home . . .

Common-law-son-in-law: Sun Apr 24, 2011 Corrie Episode Review

Written by Jonathan Harvey, directed by John Anderson

Eileen’s cleaning her place from top-to-bottom-bottom-to-top for son Todd’s arrival, not that Rosie noticed.  Eileen suggests they have breakfast in the cafe so as not to dirty her tidy home, and Jason reminds her that it’s not as though “The Queen” is coming, the corrects himself on poor word choice.  Eileen wants to make a good impression on Todd’s new fella, Jools.   Todd arrives with his snobbish new squeeze, Jools who remarks at the tiny stature of the terrace houses on Coronation Street.  Toddley begs Jools not to judge him, but Jools says everything will be fine.  Todd sees Gail and tells Jools who she is.  This somehow sparks a row with Gail saying they’re talking about her behind her back and they should say it to her face.  Then, comes Eileen who puts her leg in the spat causing Gail to call Todd a “gay gold-digger” before she retreats from being “outnumbered by weirdos.”  What?!  Rosie and Jason meet Jools as well for dinner, er, lunch.    

At dinner, Jason notices that Jools calls Todd “Toddley” and Todd explains that Jools’ surname is “Creme”, hence “Toddley and Creme” but Rosie didn’t get this.  Neither did I, I had to Google it.  Eileen’s insulted to hear that Toodley and Jools have checked into a boutique hotel.  She tries to insist they stay there, but Jools says he’s got this thing for nice little hotels.  Jools insists they to go the “little pub on the corner” but Todd tries to avoid it, saying there’s nicer pubs than the Rovers.  Eileen accuses him of being a snob, and Jools says he’s full.  At the Rovers, Eileen shows off Jools, her “common-law-son-in-law” to everyone who’ll listen.  She introduces Jools to Sally, as Rosie’s mum and Jools makes some tacky joke about Rosie being a character from some dirty film and Gail wonders if she’s going to put up with that.  Sally doesn’t seem to care in the least, semi-accusing Gail of being a homophobe.  Apparently, according to Gail, Sophie is only going through a “phase of funny” whereas, Toddley is full on funny.  Toddley is embarrassed by his mum having a few in the Rovers and is being a complete snob.  Even Jools thinks he’s being a snob.  Eileen drunkenly drops her glass and Todd has had enough and gets up to leave. 

Back at home, Eileen finds Toddley in the kitchen and accuses him of being a snob and all he does is turn down his nose at her.  She says that he’s changed, or that he’s acting up for Jools.  She reminds him that she’s his mother and he’s treating her like something he’s trod in.  He says his life’s changed, but Eileen says hers hadn’t.  Todd says he wants Jools to like him and is afraid his mum is embarrassing him.  The next morning, Toddley wants to leave ASAP without saying goodbye, and Jason gives him an earful.  Jools isn’t happy to see this side of Toddley and insists that they’re staying until Todd works things out.  Todd returns inside and tells his mum he’s sorry.  He says that he loves Jools and was worried at what he’d think.  It seems that Jools really loves Eileen and Weatherfield, even though he’s rich and has chilli-infused olive oil.  Eileen thinks that she failed Todd and Jason, but Todd says he always felt loved.  He promises to call his mum at least once a week, since it was he who failed. 

Sean’s got what has to be the largest stuffed bear (who will be known simply by the title of “The Bear” for the rest of this review) en-route to London to visit his son, Dylan.   He makes his way to Violet’s hoping she’s in.  He didn’t say he was coming?  Violet looks shocked to see Sean and The Bear.  Violet looks exactly the same, except for some new fringe, and she also looks just as worried as when we last saw her.  She tells Sean that he better come in.  When he does, he meets an equally rude Jamie Baldwin.  It appears that Jamie and Violet are breaking up since Violet allegedly cheated on her with some gardener, er, tree surgeon.  How random?  Somehow, their spat turns ugly on Sean for no good reason.  What did Sean every do to anyone?  Sean says he’ll take Dylan out for a bit while they settle their rift. 

Sean enters the kitchen looking for Dylan, and is shocked to find Dylan in there with Marcus.  Sean must be thinking this is all a strange dream at this point.  I’m certainly wondering if it is.  Marcus explains that he’s been mates with Jamie and Violet for ages – really?!  Sean invites him on a walk with Dylan and he accepts.  Sean, Dylan and Marcus tour around London to the tune of “London is Calling.”  Their tour of London involves seeing London’s tourist attractions, street performers, buying William & Kate flags, taking a series of awesome photos, and eating as much ice cream as possible in a day.  The day was lovely, albeit a bit overcast, but it has been every time I’ve ever visited London in the spring!   

The boys return home, but Sean sees Jamie rush off into a cab before they arrive.  They ask Violet what happened, and she says that Jamie is gone for good but is coming back to get his stuff and to say goodbye to Dylan.  Oh, another child on Corrie who has to say goodbye to a parent/kind of parent.  Violet says she’s been bottling in how unhappy she’s been for so long as Sean comforts her.  When Sean suggest that he could take Dylan up North for a few days to give her some breathing room, she accuses Sean of stealing her son and turns on him like a rabid dog.  Sean tries to remind her of how good friends they used to be, but she says she’s changed.  And indeed, she has.  She accuses him of being so gay that she doesn’t want her son around it, and Sean is so insulted that he leaves.  But not before Violet tells Sean to take “The Bear” with him, since it’ll give Dylan nightmares.

Later, Marcus, Sean and The Bear sit on a park bench overlooking London’s city-line.  Sean thanks Marcus for trying to cheer him up.  Marcus admits that he lost his job and it’s been Sean cheering him up.  Sean gives The Bear to Marcus as a consolation prize.  Both Sean and Marcus tell each other how they’ve not had any romance in their lives for a very long time.  Sean says he just wishes somebody would for once do a big romantic gesture.  Sean gets back to his hotel but not before Marcus challenges him to a run down the hill to the tube, leaving Mr. Bear behind on the bench to enjoy the rest of London’s night-time views. 

Sean boards his coach, but little does he know, Marcus was running after him with a bouquet of roses.  Marcus ran out of time, and the coach went off without even a glace from Sean as Marcus was left holding that big-romantic-gesture in his hands as Sean and the coach motored off.  Will this be the last we see of Marcus?  I hope not.  

HIGHLIGHTS

- Marcus is back!  I loved him and he’s so cute, I hope we see more!

- I know Jamie will probably never be back, nor do I necessarily want him to be, but it was nice to see that face again.  ;-)

- “The room’s lost weight and stuff.” – Rosie, after Eileen has tidied.

- “Todd’s coming from London, and Sean’s on his way to London.  Imagine they crossed each other’s paths on the motor coach, I mean how FREAKY is that?” – Rosie Webster.  Rosie is thicker than her makeup!!!

- Little Dylan was cute as a peach!

- Rosie somehow being the comedic upside (and positive note, besides little Dylan) to this entire episode!

LOWLIGHTS

- As if Violet was SO rude to Sean like that?  They were really good friends once, she seems to forget that.  Didn’t miss her much, I’ll tell ya that.  Also, what a rude welcoming to Sean when he arrived at their place.  Jamie didn’t even say “hi.” 

- That Toddley is SO snobby and annoying!

- I didn’t particularly care for a lot of this episode.  I know it was a special, but it just didn’t seem very “Corrie” to me.  I don’t see the point in Gail and Eileen spatting back and forth anymore, it seems rather unprovoked.  Also, was it just me, or was everyone’s acting particularly rubbish in this episode?!

- Ew, I don’t blame Jools for scoffing at Eileen’s tuna-casserole.  It did NOT look very appetizing. 

Xin's Coronation Street wedding dress

If you're looking to get married and you'd like a Coronation Street sham-wedding inspired frock to wear on your big day, just like Xin's, then look no further.

With thanks to the lovely costume lady at Corrie, we can confirm that Xin's wedding dress is the Anoushka G Dorena ruffle detail wedding dress which was bought at House of Fraser.

Cost? £395.00 which would leave you £5 change from £400 so you can buy a ticket for the Weatherfield Wayfarer to do a runner when the Home Office want to speak to you.  

The dress is online here.

Sparks fly when Stella joins the Street

There's a Coronation Street spoiler in today's Daily Star that says newcomer Stella, played by Michelle Collins, wastes no time in stirring up trouble when she arrives on Coronation Street. Her character Stella immediately sparks a spat with Tracy Barlow when Tracy assumes she's the manager of the pub but finds out that Steve's hired Stella instead.

Dressed to the nines, Tracy is shot down by Stella, who tells her: “I’m sorry, Tracy, but you’ll have to change that dress before you come bar-side.  We don’t want customers thinking they’ve walked into a brothel, do we?”

When Tracy realises she’s been conned, Steve tells her: “Oh, I’m really sorry for any misunderstanding but I’ve decided to give the job to someone else.”  

Wahey!  Steve does have a pair of balls after all.

Fat Brenda's London adventure

Loveys, I managed to sneak out, past the handsome young men on security at the cobbles, and bring you some exclusive pictures from within the dungeon of ITV's This Morning in London.

On the first picture you can see that Steve Huison is well chuffed to see me!

Once I'd softened him up with a bit of gin he was a lot friendlier and even told everyone that he'd be playing me in a one wo(man) play next year!

He had a haircut by that Jamie Stevens - a lovely lovely fella AND celebrity hairdresser of the year - and I must say, Jamie did a belting job that takes years off my Steve.

If any of you like that Loose Women, Steve's on that later today an' all (at 11:15) and he'll be talking more about his favourite switchboard operator, his charity dolls and stuff like that.

So there you have it loveys, me in a play, it's the most belting news I've had since I found out Bernice had a big win on the bingo!

I'll let you know how it's all going while we're doing it and I'll be writing me 'Cream Horns' an' all so you'll not be getting rid of me! Sorry that this bloggy post looks rubbish loveys but I'm not very good on the into-net!  Hopefully the lass that runs this bloggy will wave her magic bloggy wand and make it look better!

Brenda

x

The 'London Calling' Montage

Here's the montage from Corrie's Easter Special, with The Clash song, London Calling, which played as Sean, Marcus and Dylan enjoyed their day out in London.

That London

What a fantastic little treat tonights episode was, so much drama packed into thirty minutes, was great seeing Violet, Jamie, Marcus and Todd back on Corrie.

I especially loved the London montage, as I worried that it would end up focusing too much on scenes in each location, but the montage did the trick.

These episodes left the doors wide open to quite a few returns, but seemed to close a door on Jamie Baldwin's future in the show. Corrie should definitely do more episodes like this, it makes the show and Weatherfield seem a little more realistic

Corrie weekly awards: April 18 - 22

Bill Webster! Where have you been and what's that on your face!!

Flip Flop Award: Gold Star: Kevin for letting Rosie mind the baby she forgot and got mixed up; and for giving Sally all his money even though he didn't have to. Trying to buy her love but it's too late.

Impatience award: Gold Star: Anna wants it to be happy families for Faye. Now every little thing Eddie does annoys her 5x more than it used to.
Silver Star: John is in too much of a hurry to get off his meds and back to work. He's only been out of hospital 5 minutes. It's no wonder he went off the rails so soon.

Lying is second nature award: John is back to lying to Fiz already about the meds and how he got his job back.

Yes he *could* sink lower award: Muck raking star: Kevin had no right to be upset his solicitor used Sally's affair in the hearing. He had to have heard it from Kevin first after all.

Fashion award: I loved Anna's "Wishes come true" tshirt!
Stylista award: Eddie's plaits!!


All better award: Gold Star: Peter was using a crutch last time we saw him and now he's not even limping!

Blown out of the water award: Gold Star: Just when Frank was going to sign the partnership deal, Maria has him arrested but it doesn't stick. I kind of thought that would happen.

Incapable Award: Gold Star: Gail "Capability" McIntyre? Really?
Silver Star: John couldn't handle the stress and he's gone right off the rails again.

Lines of the week:

Hayley "You must be shattered" Sylvia "Why? I sat on the bus, I didn't push it"
Tyrone "Meat and potato pie" Sylvia "Yes, you don't look the salad type. Sit!"
Sylvia "I can't rattle around in this bone shaker another minute. You're like Eddie the Eagle!" Hayley "He was a skier not a driver" Sylvia "Precisely!" (HA!)
Sally "...unless he's (Kevin) gone home, filled the bath with cash and got in for a wallow" Gail "I got a bottle of white in the fridge?" Sally "Shall we get a scratch card on the way?" :)
Roy about his mother "Rude is her default setting"
Sylvia again: "Excessive displays of emotion make me nauseous" (And that explains Roy in a nutshell)
Gail "People tell me things, I've got that sort of face" (there's really nothing I can add to that)

It might have been background music in the bistro but it sounded like Church music!

How do you solve a problem like Maria's

Friday night's episodes had Frank pull back from the factory partnership deal and then reconsider, much to Carla's delight. Maria doesn't know about that yet. There were some lovely scenes this week, between Maria and Sean and Maria and Kirk. I love it that Sean is so protective of her but Maria, oh Maria... it's all a bit of a mess, isn't it, girl?

Did Maria overreact? Was she justified in going to the police? Should Carla take on any of the blame for this situation? Yes, Yes and Yes, I think.

Life's not much of a laugh for some ...

Thank you for reading my first blog last week and for all your kind words. Let's crack straight on with this week's, shall we?

Gosh, it can be hard when you feel as if the whole world’s against you – as Maria does right now – but you have to believe in what you know to be the truth – no matter what awful things people are saying about you, don’t you?

She's not having a lot of fun right now, but it did cross my mind that I can’t actually recall having ever seen Maria laugh. Oh wait … no, my mistake; that was only half a smile in that Episode from June 2006.

I smiled – nay, laughed – as Rosie tottered across the road and wailed to Sal “Oh mum, have you seen my hair? It’s like a rat’s nest. I totally need some hair extensions. I’ve always wanted to be able to sit on my hair.” Wouldn't you just love to go to work in the mornings knowing you were going there to write lines like that?

Now that Sally’s got half of Kevin’s money, Rosie’s working hard on both of them to ensure she’ll be getting a cut - even offering to look after baby Jack for the afternoon. Wish we’d seen a bit of that!

Talking of manipulative kids: next door to the Webster’s, Eddie Windass has already had enough of devil-child Faye and is packing his bags. What's that? "Far-fetched and unbelievable storyline?" Answers on a postcard to Mr. E. Windass, somewhere in Germany.

Things run like clockwork in Germany – so they’d have us believe – but they’d be hard-pressed to beat the Health Centre for efficiency. As John/Colin went in for his 5.00 appointment the clock said 5.00. Now that’s impressive. They missed a trick though. Wouldn’t it have given us eagle-eyed viewers a chuckle (and been more realistic!), if the clock had said maybe 5.30 - like in a Doctor's in the real world?

The funniest thing this week though has been Roy’s mother Sylvia. She’s another Blanche in the making. When a character has so many great one-liners that you don’t know which to choose, that’s when you know you’re onto a winner, but my Grin of the Week has to be this gem:

Kevin: “Wondered if you wanted a lift to the hearing?”

Sally: “I’d rather be driven by Stevie Wonder.”

Do we think there’s the hint of a reconciliation on the cards? I wouldn’t be surprised. Let’s hope so. Kev without Sal is like seeing Peter Barlow sober … strangely unsettling.

Corrie couple snapped holding hands

The News of the World have a picture today of Coronation Street couple Samia Smith (Maria Connor) and Will Thorp (Nasty Chris) together. 

They were snapped strolling hand-in-hand near the soap's Manchester studios.  

Have a look at it here.

Becky smashes up Barlows' front room

The Mirror reports today that Becky McDonald is going to berserk and smash up the Barlows' front room. The paper says that apparently Anne Kirkbride, who plays Deirdre, had an on-set meltdown last week as she struggled to cope with filming the scenes where the Barlows living room gets smashed up.

Anne, the paper says, had to be helped off the set in tears because she could not bear to see madwoman Becky ­McDonald (Katherine Kelly) smash up her front room with a hammer. Onlookers told how Anne, in the show since 1974, started crying: “Look what they are doing to my house… look what they are doing to it. It’s so horrible… I can’t bear to see this…” Cast members including Kate Ford, who plays Deirdre’s wayward ­daughter Tracy, and Bill Roache (husband Ken) had to lead her away from the smashed-up set in an effort to calm her down. They took her to the Green Room, where Anne eventually composed herself and ­completed the scenes, which took SIX HOURS to shoot.

A Corrie source said: “Anne is known to be emotional but these scenes ­really got to her and she obviously found it very hard to handle seeing the Barlows’ house being trashed. “It’s only a set, but in fairness she has spent a large part of her life in that front room. She was in a terrible way, absolutely ­wailing her eyes out. These were some of the most violent scenes many can remember. In all Anne had to take about four or five breaks.”

Viewers will see the drama next month as Becky launches the ferocious attack on love rival Tracy Barlow. The writers took inspiration from the Jack Nicholson horror film The Shining as Becky smashes in the Barlows’ front door yelling: “Heeere’s Becky!”

What do Corrie fans think of Michelle Collins joining Corrie?

The jury seems to be out on Michelle Collins joining Coronation Street.  In the latest poll here on the blog we asked fans to vote on how they thought ex-EastEnder Michelle would fit into our favourite soap.

Over 200 fans voted and the results came in as follows in response to the question:
How will Michelle Collins fit into Corrie?

Let's wait and see - 52%
She'll have a terrible accent - 29%
She'll be great - 17%