Our blogger Graeme posted a blog about Barbara Knox (Rita Tanner) on Wednesday and made a link to an article on Digital Spy.
The article on Digital Spy is based on an interview Ms Knox had with Dan Wootton on the Corrie set that was shown on Lorraine Kelly's show on ITV on Wednesday morning.
It is a fabulous interview where Barbara talks about when the Queen and Prince Philip visited the new set in 1982; talks about how her late mother inspired her on how to play Rita; shows Dan around the Kabin set and admits she doesn't know how to work the till and says that the drawer till in the old Kabin was much better; stating that being cast as Rita changed her life; talks about Lorraine's Inspirational Woman of the Year Award that she is heavily involved in; and also talks about reaching a birthday milestone.
There are also wonderful clips of Rita back in the 1970s which are great to watch.
You can watch the interview here on YouTube.
What annoys me is that the press and media constantly state that Barbara has been on the show for nearly 50 years. She hasn't been. She made her first appearance in 1964 as Rita Littlewood, but that was only one appearance. She didn't reappear until 1972 when she played Mrs Bates, and producers remembered she'd been in the programme eight years prior and decided to give her the name Rita so it was the same character. She has been in the show for 41 years. Ok, her association with the show goes back nearly 50 years but she hasn't been on the show for that long. Get your facts right! Right, rant over.
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