Hit the North

Michelle Collins was on This Morning this afternoon to promote her arrival on Coronation Street as new Rovers' landlady, Stella Price, later this week. She didn't reveal anything of any consequence but they did show a couple of clips of some of her first scenes. I'm sorry to say that stories of her having trouble with the accent are well founded, she sounded barely northern, let alone Manchester born and bred as I believe the character is supposed to be.

As it happens I was watching The Road to Coronation Street at the weekend and in it, great emphasis is put on Tony Warren's insistence that the actors are nothern as a southern actor putting on a northern accent just wouldn't be convincing. By all means have southern actors in the programme, I had no problem with the Baldwin clan for instance, but having them try to fake a northern accent rarely cuts the barm cake.

We'll be bringing you a video preview of Stella's first scene later today, so have a watch of that and see what you think.