Graham Haberfield's unexpected death in 1975 resulted in his character, Jerry Booth, also dying a month later. Sometimes though, it's not the death of an actor that can precede an exit. Back in 1969, Granada blithely went ahead with planning an on screen wedding for Gordon Clegg and Lucille Hewitt. What they had failed to realise was that actor Bill Kenwright would soon be out of contract and that he had no intention of renewing it. The scriptwriters hastily had Gordon jilt Lucille and disappear to London.
The latter may not sound particularly subtle but compared to Australian soaps, it was positively Shakespearean. In 1995, actress Caroline Gillmer was forced to quit Neighbours due to illness. As her character, Cheryl Stark, was involved in a big storyline, the producers immediately cast Colette Mann in the role. Cheryl literally swapped heads overnight.
Possibly the most outrageous method in dealing with a sudden exit though goes to the producers of legendary Aussie soap, Prisoner Cell Block H. During the programme's final year, 1986, Nicki Paull had to quit her role as prisoner Lisa Mullins. Again, the character was central to ongoing plots so in the next episode she was seen emerging from a sink, having supposedly dyed her hair! No one mentioned that she had also morphed into actress Terrie Waddell.
We can rest assured that ITV will not put viewers through that sort of farce and hopefully, the disappearance of a Street regular, whether it be temporarily or not, will be handled well.
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13 comments:
There's also Peter Dudley (Bert Tilsley) and Bruce Jones (Les Battersby) who had to be written out due to the actor's private life. Oh, and Jennifer Moss (Lucille Hewitt).
Just have Kevin visit Rosie and then stay there with Jack. Ideally he could take the ghastly Sophie with him. Puts an end to the rumours of a Kevin and Sally reconcilation! Eddie Windass seemed to disappear very abruptly as well. Its a shame about the Kevin business but the character was hardly in it and rapidly becoming pointless anyway so I doubt will make a very large hole in the programme.
I don't think anyone would really be upset at the disappearance of Kevin Webster. His character was destroyed for me when he started the affair with Molly. Now, he just shows up...shouts the odds and crawls away again. I think the producers might have needed a way to write this character out without too much bother and so he hasn't had much on screen time since he was charged with the same offence the last time. My guess is that they have him and Jack move to another city - a job offer comes his way that he can't refuse. Then, after a couple of months, you won't hear his name mentioned at all.
Personally I'd be quite interested to see what would happen if they had Kevin killed (off screen in a car accident, just known from a visit to Sally by the police) then there would be the ensuing story of baby Jack. Would Sally relent, or would Tyronne take him back, having lost Ruby.
AmandaB
Personally I'd be quite interested to see what would happen if they had Kevin killed (off screen in a car accident, just known from a visit to Sally by the police) then there would be the ensuing story of baby Jack. Would Sally relent, or would Tyronne take him back, having lost Ruby.
AmandaB
I bet if the trial does come back guilty, then he will die suddenly in the fire! As the fire was filmed this last week..
I'm not sure about timeline here but if the actor is found not guilty and he returns to the soap, he would not reappear until the summer. He could either be working in the garage off-screen till then or take on a job somewhere else for a few months. If found guilty, the character could either be killed off or the job becomes permanent. Baby Jack is not vital to any storylines and he could easily be forgotten. If necessary, at some point, Sally could mention that he had been adopted.
I wonder if the producers are hoping he will resign. I think an actor on Emmerdale did when had a similar problem, I believe it was Scot Windsor but i'm not sure.
It might be interesting if Sophie and Sally look after Jack or just Sophie, if Kevin was killed off.
It would give Sophie something different to do and perhaps be a new direction for her.
If Kevin goes, Sophie and Jenna could be adoptive mothers. That would be interesting if well done.
Annie Walker and Minnie Caldwell were two more examples of characters disappearing suddenly with explanations given later. In both cases, it was due to the ill health of the actresses concerned. If the character of Kevin dies off-screen another option for baby Jack would be adoption by his granddad Diggory or great aunt Pam - it's unlikely Jack would remain on the show (we never see him anyway:) Regarding the Neighbours character of Cheryl Stark, the circumstances were slightly more complicated than you have remembered them Clinkers. Colette Mann was only an emergency short-term fill-in when Caroline Gillmer fell ill. Caroline in fact then returned to the role for another six months or so before the character was killed off in a road accident.
Dare I say it but I like the character of Kevin. I sincerely hope the charges against Michael Le Vell are false but if he is found guilty and has to go it wont be for a long time yet so the fire is a no no. He should reconcile with Natalie- Micky
Excellent stuff, thanks David.
very interesting. this case is unusual in that it involves editing existing Corrie episodes. Was that the case with Peter Adamson and Peter Dudley?
Obviously news events in the past have caused similar last-minute edits to Corrie.....often resulting in nonsensical plots. Ashley and Clare's child abduction storyline (during the Maddie disappearance) led to major re-edits and made little sense.
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