Coronation Street Blog: Coronation Street's lollipop men and women

Wednesday, 5 December 2012

Coronation Street's lollipop men and women

It was great to see Howard from Last of the Summer Wine turn up tonight in Coronation Street as the trainer to Dennis in his new role as Traffic Management Officer. That's lollipop man, to you and me. So let's take a look back at some of the other Coronation Street lollipop men and women who've worked in that role.

Jack Duckworth

Jack's girlfriend, Connie Rathbone

Uncle Albert

Percy Sugden

Have we missed any? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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3 comments:

njblas said...: Although that IS actress Rita May in the photo, she wasn't playing Connie Rathbone then, but a character called Brenda Kelly who appeared in five episodes in 2001.; 5 December 2012 at 22:35
Anonymous said...: I like to see the "STOP children" version of the sign, particularly given the ridiculous number of offspring on the Street these days. Yes indeed, stop the children!; 6 December 2012 at 03:47
Danny-K said...: Psst!
Calling all Roy anorak types, over here....

What's fascinating about the photos in this blog is the evidence of over 50 years evidence of official council mindsets - In every photo, as the years pass, the uniform has been tinkered with.

The one thing that has hardly changed, is the sign (bar for one thing; 'children' being replaced by a visual pictogram of children, but that's all) because that is designed at national level.

I think what we have here is another method of notating historical social change in Britain.

Albert Tatlock, second up from bottom, is actually the oldest uniform there, and the council have deemed a white janitor's style overcoat topped off with a high Russian style officer's cap to be the thing to command the traffic.

Next up is Percy, and he has been 'modernised' by being issued with those early style Day-Glo tabards. Percy, with his WWI background, has focussed on the military aspect of the cap and proudly, but firmly, wears the strap under his chin, 'guards style'. The perfect embodiment of busy-body officiousness. It says:
You WILL do as commanded!

By the time we get to Jack, the white milkcoat/janitor style overcoat has gone and the more updated, but friendlier Day-Glo is in. PC correctness is starting to creep into council mindsets and gone is the overtly military style cap to be replaced by a more civilian-friendly, police-copy cap.

And now with Dennis, with council political correctness a great concern to them, gone completely is any kind of officialdom in the uniform. Without the lollipop stick the uniform could pass as that of an ordinary civilian. However the iniquitous Day-Glo with the fluorescent strips is now universally acknowledged worldwide as the visible domain of someone doing something official. Only the sign remains virtually untouched in over 50 years - bar the pictogram.

Dennis's headgear is no longer military-inspired, nor police inspired, but instead, a simple baseball-style cap - with warm drop down ear-muffs! And look at the matching warm gloves - And that neck warmer - wow!

50 years of social change in Britain - as viewed through the changing lollipop holder's uniform :); 7 December 2012 at 12:04

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