Yes. That's how fascinated I was. I went bin spotting.
The first thing that grabbed me was its position. That's not a very wide windowsill for a bin to go on. And who puts a bin up that high anyway? You're just asking for spillage.
The second thing that grabbed me was that it said "City Council" on it. Is Weatherfield a City, I wondered? It was always a Borough Council in the past. Had it changed? After all, Salford, the place Weatherfield replaced in Greater Manchester, is a city now. Maybe they had a change as well and it just wasn't mentioned.
But then my confusion deepened. Computer, ZOOM AND ENHANCE.
Admittedly, it's harder to see when it's not on a 55 inch LED screen. But that definitely says Salford under the flap of bin bag. That's a Salford City Council wastebin. It's a bin from the real world, and it could destroy everything.
The show fractures around the bin. There is no Salford in Coronation Street's world: Salford is Weatherfield, Weatherfield is Salford. This bin cannot exist in Weatherfield and yet, there it is. It's crossed over from another world, another universe, another galaxy. The Nazir's kitchen is now the fulcrum of a collapsing fiction. What next? Audrey calling Gail "Helen"? The viaduct toppling over in a strong wind? The beer in the pub turning out to be non-alcoholic? The whole show could fall apart in front of our eyes, destroyed by this one, misplaced bin. All is a lie.
Or alternatively nothing will happen and I'm just being melodramatic. One of the two.
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You really need to grab that anorak and get out more!!
ReplyDeleteI'm sure I remember an episode a few years back where one character referred to himself as a "Salford lad". I particularly remember it because I don't recall Salford being referenced before. Think it was a Jonathan Harvey script.
ReplyDeleteI noticed that straight away, as us Salford residents have had them for a few years now. Maybe, as they film in media city now, someone swiped it from one of the many posh flats in the area. Just wondrin
ReplyDeleteThe beer in the pub is non-alcoholic. lol. Read this. Supposedly to keep the actors from feeling good.
ReplyDeleteLol! Scott, I noticed that bin too, but not having a 55 inch LED screen, missed the 'Salford" bit. It is a strange place for a bin, but I figured it was for kitchen scraps for making compost. Think of all the worms in compost for the Nazirs' chickens!
ReplyDeleteMaggie Muggins. Yeah, it is for food waste, but not for making compost. City of Salford collect the waste weekly to recycle. My day for collection is Friday, but dunno what day they collect rubbish in Weatherfield
ReplyDeleteSalford became a city in 1926,90 years ago, so it's not a recent feature.
ReplyDelete70s Street Fan: Your memory is correct - it was Episode 7799 on 10th February 2012 and there was an outcry afterwards that Jonathan Harvey's statements within the script and afterwards on Twitter were incorrect. The great H.V. Kershaw said back in 1981 in his autobiography that Coronation Street is definitely NOT set in Salford. They created the fictional borough of Weatherfield so as not be tied down by real-life events and by-laws. I spotted the bin too and took the discrete covering to be an indication by the team that what HVK said all those years ago still stands.
ReplyDeleteOk, anorak time...Weatherfield is a town, Coronation Street is based on a street (Archie Street) in Ordsall in Salford. Salford Is a City comprising many boroughs (Worsley, Pendleton, Eccles etc), Weatherfield has never 'been' Salford, although there are stronger links with the city of Salford than the city of Mancheter. (Darren Little's All Around the Houses). But Corrie is certainly set in the Salford/Manchester conurbation.
ReplyDeleteWeatherfield is a borough. That's why there's a Mayor.
ReplyDeleteCity of Salford has a mayor. Two actually, a ceremonial mayor and a newly elected mayor, and Salford isn't a borough
ReplyDeleteI love melodrama, particularly your's, Scott ;)
ReplyDeleteThank you John from Corriepedia. Just read the notes on that episode page on Corriepedia. I didn't realise that there had been a bit of a furore,but I remember thinking it strange to hear it not once,but twice,in the same script. Have you across any other Salford references in any other episodes? Not in HVK's time,I suspect!
ReplyDeleteThere have been some but quite clearly stating that Salford was a different place to Weatherfield. A good example is the boarding house run by Poppy Watts where Rita stayed for a couple of weeks in January 1980 when she split from Len. See eps 1960 to 1963.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info. John. Interesting that Jonathan Harvey hasn't done that since!
ReplyDeleteSo if there is both a Salford AND a Weatherfield, and the walls of fiction aren't about to crash to the ground, this raises another question: why have the Nazir's nicked a bin off another council?
ReplyDeleteMaybe they brought it with them when they moved ;)
ReplyDeleteAnon 16:11 - Salford is a borough. Greater Manchester is made up of 10 boroughs which include the City of Salford and the City of Manchester.
ReplyDeleteI haven't watched the show or been on this blog in over a year and this is one of the first posts I see. It's ridiculous, hilarious, and great content and brightened my Friday afternoon! Thanks for the chuckle! I'm already a fan again.
ReplyDelete