Why my dream of seeing Bet Lynch return to Corrie will never come true

I’m tempting fate here, but I doubt we will ever see Julie Goodyear back in Coronation Street. Despite many maybes, you-never-knows, misleading tabloid headlines and recent newspaper reports, there’s no indication that I’m wrong.

              

Corrie Boss Kate Oates hasn’t been afraid of embracing the past and bringing back old characters, or focusing on much-loved and feared dead characters in storylines. And as the Blog has reported, we are soon to see the return of some familiar faces - the latest list of who's coming and going is here.

But the return of Bet Lynch would be BIG. And it would make all my soap dreams come true. My favourite character in Coronation Street is and has always been Rita. She reminds me of the women that brought me up when I was a toddler – warm, northern women with big hair and brassy personalities. Rita’s warm, caring, but no-nonsense approach to life has been much needed in Corrie over the years and I hate to think of the show without her in it. But Bet Lynch is an icon. In my opinion the greatest ever soap character. She sits alongside other iconic creations like Deirdre Barlow, Jack and Vera, Eastenders’ Pat Butcher and Dot Cotton, and the handful of soap legends that graced television screens before I was born such as Elsie Tanner and Ena Sharples. But Bet, for me, stands out. Everything came together perfectly. Her unconventional beauty, the peroxide blonde hair, thick Lancashire accent and famous fashion sense or lack thereof. Little things like the cigarette holder added to her uniqueness. And then there was the lifestyle – married to little fat Alec, working in a backstreet pub but always aiming for better, dreaming of Tenerife but ending up in Blackpool or Brighton. Bet’s was the ultimate working class struggle to get on and be better off.

Classic Corrie

That said she was perfectly happy a lot of the time on Coronation Street, standing proudly behind the Rovers bar, surrounded by friends and sometimes family. Coronation Street suited her more than she’d like to admit, even if she stood out like a sore thumb.

But what would bring Bet back to Coronation Street today? Sadly, probably very little. Sure she has girlfriends and former acquaintances. On meeting Liz it would be like no time had passed at all. Last time they were on screen together Jim McDonald was on the run and the women were at a Newton and Ridley function in Blackpool. Word is that Jim is heading back to the street some time in 2018 so could this be a way of bringing Bet back? To support Liz in whatever trouble Jim brings with him…which of course he will.

Bet would inevitably catch up with Rita. Fifteen years has passed since they sat awkwardly in Audrey’s house on one of Bet’s previous visits back to the cobbles. It was proper telly. Two matriarchs reminiscing, putting the world to rights, setting each other straight. Bet pretending she’d moved on from Weatherfield. “It’s just a tatty little back street pub” she said of the Rovers. I could cry now hearing those words. Bet and the Rovers are one in the same for me.

Legends

What else could tempt Bet back? So many new families she’s never met, many fewer ties than she’s had in a long time. Betty’s gone, and Julie Goodyear didn’t even manage to get back when Betty Driver died in real life. The great Roy Barraclough also passed away last year so it couldn’t involve a reunion with Alec. Although there might come a time when writers want to mention the character’s death. Could he have left Bet something in his will, could it bring Bet and Vicky back to Weatherfield?

There’s a very obvious and likely reason for Bet not coming back to The Street again – Julie Goodyear might be perfectly happy in retirement. Julie’s always been great with the fans and we’ve seen her on our screens in the past few months as a special guest on Stephen Mulhern’s Big Soap Quiz on ITV. Julie can never escape Bet and she came dressed in her famous leopard print and beehive. Cheers from the audience, current cast members (and me from the sofa at home) proved she is still very popular. But little treats such as guest appearances might be all we can hope for now. Julie also does the odd ‘official engagement’ and was recently given the keys to Rochdale, in a ceremony at the town’s beautiful Town Hall. And she might do a few more TV ads. Like this one for…er…Shredded Wheat?

"Shredded Wheat cock?"

Julie herself admitted after her last return to the cobbles that she regretted it and wasn’t made fully aware of the demands of the new schedule, which were too much for her. And that was well over a decade ago. She’s 76 now so would find it even harder. That’s not to say a return couldn’t be written cleverly and they took into consideration her concerns over workload. But then there would be accusations of diva behaviour and special treatment. It's a very different culture at Coronation Street now, and behind the scenes most cast members are treated as equals - a far cry from the days of early Corrie when the younger actors feared even going near the 'stars'.

One last thing that could prevent Julie from returning to Coronation Street is that the public might not actually want it. There's a much younger audience enjoying the show at the moment, and with the arrival of social media, popular characters are never more exposed to the viewer. Today's Corrie fan already knows what they like and what they don't like, and many of them will never have got to know Bet Lynch properly. I'm sure there have been online polls to gauge people's opinion on the matter. I didn't bother doing one, mainly out of fear of the result!

When you weigh up all the possibilities of a return, all the things that would prevent it from happening, the lack of reasons FOR it to happen, it looks very likely we’ve seen the last of Bet Lynch. Julie Goodyear gave us three decades of heart-rending, tense, emotional and hilarious scenes which we can go back and enjoy on the internet or ITV3’s brilliant Classic Corrie every afternoon. So we should be thankful for that. But I see no good reason, if Julie was up for it, the writers could find a way of doing it, and it entertained the viewers, why it shouldn't happen. 

So if there is any small possibility we could see that leopard print and beehive strutting down the cobbles one more time, this Corrie superfan would be very happy indeed.

Come on soap Gods – make it happen.

@StevieDawson

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