I have finally booked to go on the Corrie Tour 2014. I am so happy and excited. I remember as a child my Grandmother going to do the Granada tour and coming home with a VHS recording of her reading a script superimposed onto a scene in The Rovers with Betty. I watched it a few times, each time becoming more and more jealous. I was so desperate to go and walk down the famous cobbles.
Even as a child, I think I understood the enormity of Corrie and what it stood for. I remember being on a car journey with my Mum to do a big shop and hearing on the radio that a big storyline was coming to a climax that evening. I asked my Mum if I could stay up late to watch it. My first episode of Coronation Street. I'd heard about it so many times now it was my chance to see it. That night I stayed up later than I ever remember and watched Rita being chased through Blackpool and Len Fairclough meeting his end under and tram.
I was hooked. I've watched it ever since.
I have dabbled in the other soaps but Corrie always prevails. It's the one thing in life which is constant. It's been on in every house I've lived in, during every relationship, and the break ups, and everything else life throws at you. Corrie for its viewers is like The Rovers for the characters, somewhere with a friendly face at the end of a bad or good day.
But I digress. The Tour.
In 4 weeks I will have walked down the cobbles on my own two feet and stood at every doorway for a photo or selfie, and even posed inside The Rovers Return set itself. My friends and family (apart from who I'm going with) have called me sad, but for me it's like visiting a friend. It's even more of an occasion for me as it's the first time I will have been away from my adopted son for more than a few hours. So with the anxiety of leaving him (with my husband!) the only possible place I could go is the place where daily life has been played out in front of my eyes for a couple of decades.
The thought of walking down Coronation Street, a place where not only the characters I know and love have walked, but where Hollywood stars, musicians and even royalty have walked too makes me more excited than Sally Webster at the thought of being Carla's PA.
I'm sure for a lot of fans, this is a dream come true, and in my excitement I wanted to tell the world that me, the kid who asked to stay up late to see Alan Bradley killed by the tram all those years ago is finally going to be stood outside the most famous newsagents in the world looking at the row of terraces in a backstreet of Weatherfield remembering all the arguments, kisses, back of cab waves, and hurses turning onto Rosamund Street with my own two eyes.
Jimmy Parker Taylor
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5 comments:
Jimmy hope you have a wonderful time on your tour! I'm in Canada and am so jealous. But if I may be so bold to correct you...it was Alan Bradley who was killed by the tram chasing after Rita. Len Fairclough was killed in a car accident on the way home from visiting his girlfriend. Please have a great time! Cheers.
I think you'll find it was Alan Bradley who died under the tram. So many years, so many memories no wonder we get confused.
I also have a video shot in the Rovers with Betty, we couldn't wait to get home and play it. Shame they don't do something similar now.
What a great post! I am happy for you (a bit envious too I must admit) that you are going to satisfy a long held wish. That sounds so exciting. I hope you post the pictures!
And don't listen to the naysayers who call you sad. They just don't know how lovely it is to be in the Corrie Club!
Your excitement just leaps off the screen! I know you'll really enjoy it! It really is magic when you step out on those cobbles the first time!
I know how you feel! I have watched since I was 10 in 1977. I still have two months to wait. My son who is 12 is coming with me having recently become a fan. So proud!
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