Gail, Audrey and the Eddie Stobart game

I was on my way home recently when I spotted an Eddie Stobart lorry with the name of “Gail Audrey”. Surely, this truck must have been named in homage to the Corrie characters, I thought?

After all, we know that Gail is a Stobart spotter. In this wonderful scene from October 2012, a dozen road hauliers’ wives turn up at the Bistro for a Sunday roast and Gail reveals that they used to play “the Eddie Stobart game” in the Tilsley/Platt/Hillman/McIntyre/Rodwell family:

“It used to make long journeys fly by”, says Gail before recalling how they counted forty-eight on that last trip to Cromer. I can relate to this. When I was a kid, we did a lot of motorway driving and one way to make the time go slightly faster was to count how many Eddie Stobart lorries we would see on any given journey - just as the Platts did on the way to Cromer. 

There was never a road trip that went by without clocking at least one of the iconic trucks in Brunswick green and Post Office red. Each lorry is christened with female names painted on the front. For example, “Rebecca Emily”, “Eleanor Joanne” or indeed, “Gail Audrey”. Part of the fun is looking for the name.

Eddie Stobart is a national institution and believe it or not, the company has a fan club with 30,000 members. There are many Stobart spotters out there and according to the book ‘Eddie Stobart: The Ultimate Guide to the British Trucking Legends’, famous spotters include Corrie’s Alan Halsall (Tyrone Dobbs) and Simon Gregson (Steve McDonald) and also Suranne Jones (Karen McDonald) and Brian Capron (Gail’s husband, Richard Hillman).

Now that Corrie has a much bigger set at Trafford Wharf, with the street twice as wide as previously, I reckon there is scope for a storyline that sees the Gail Audrey truck drive along the cobbles. Perhaps once Underworld is back up and running, the Connors will need some help with logistics and warehousing.

I can see it now… Gail Audrey pulls up outside the factory and is seen by Roy Cropper the Stobart Spotter on his way back from the Cash and Carry. Roy immediately jots down the name and number plate (KX16 FLN) before scuttling off to tell Gail and Audrey about his sighting. 

Audrey isn’t bothered but Gail is delighted by the coincidence and forces her way into the driver’s cab to take a closer look and get her hands on the dinky little curtains. Scriptwriters - I’m available.

By Martin Leay, on Twitter @mpleay

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