Sunday, 3 June 2018

9 Coronation Street hidden gems - No. 5


Here we go with the fifth of nine guest blog posts from David at Corriepedia as their site celebrates 10 years online!

Hello! Flaming Nora has kindly agreed to host a blog post from me relating to the tenth anniversary of Corriepedia, the Coronation Street Wiki. After some thinking, I've decided to expand on something my friend and fellow admin John brought up in his interview with the wonderful Conversation Street podcast last week.  

To help readers understand why these episodes are so special, and why David from Corriepedia rates them as hidden gems, you might want to read his original blog post here which explains all.

Here we go with the fifth of nine. The remaining four gems will be blogged every morning over the next few days.

Dennis meets loverdoll (#466, 31/5/65)

"Just a word of advice from one who knows, keep yer trap shut while she's talkin', it's safer."

A comedy classic from the pen of Jack Rosenthal. This episode falls in another period of cast changes, with Florrie Lindley due to emigrate to Canada in the next episode, Swindley departing here to star in his own spin-off and Lionel Petty arriving as the new Corner Shop proprieters. Surprisingly, it's the latter of the three that makes this episode a standout (Swindley is only a cameo - did he pop over during the ad break on Pardon the Expression?)

Lionel's daughter Sandra had appeared in December 1964 in another Rosenthal farce where, after having her hair cut by Dennis, Sandra declared her love for him and gave him a lock of her hair he'd previously cut off her head. Dennis was scared to death of her so Elsie and Len helped him let her down gently by fooling her into believing that Dennis was engaged to Irma Ogden (and that Len was a refugee with a glass eye that Elsie took pity on). Now six months later, Sandra is after Dennis again and has persuaded her dad to view the shop two doors down.

The laughs here come firstly from Ena sending Minnie to the shop to spy for her and then the anticipation of Dennis bumping into Sandra once the mystery of Florrie's buyer is solved. Dennis is the last person to know that Sandra is back but keeps missing her. When they finally meet at the cliffhanger, Sandra declares that she's going to marry Dennis no matter how long it takes. Phyllis Pearce has nothing on her!

A laugh-a-minute romp with a real lightness of touch in the writing.

See also:
Hidden Gem 1

Hidden Gem 6 will be blogged tomorrow. And don't forget to check out Corriepedia and follow them on Twitter too.

Fancy writing a guest blog post for us? All details here!   

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