Corrie Comicals, week ending 28 September 2018

This post and my report of Friday events in the Street have been delayed because I finally got around to my trip to Weatherfield as we spent part of Saturday morning walking just where the above was filmed.  Tracy and Beth have just been discussing the Battersby slapper sisters - straight out of a Carry On film according to R'Adam which leads Beth to do the Kenneth Williams line!

Jenny has reappeared and was given a great line, delivered fondly, when talking about Jim and Liz who were one of those couples that just made sense - like Burton and Taylor in a mad way; in a terrace she says.  (But was she talking about them as themselves or in the film "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"). 

Early in the first episode on Monday (you might have missed it - Steve did) Tracy has free passes for the spa at the new wedding venue and she will not be giving the second one to Mary who is going with her for the menu tasting [if they both go who is running the florist?].  And earlier there was banter about Imran and the Battersby sisters with Steve making reference to two women being many men's fantasy.  Above we see the free pass.  Steve reads the other side "Mr Priority number one.  Have a free pass on me.  No arguments you deserve it.  Enjoy or Else!"  See below.

I think we can all guess how Steve might just get the wrong idea as he folds it without looking at the other side!  Tim cleverly points out that this is Tracy's test of his devotion.

We should mention Eileen reporting on Abi and Steve attempting to learn the secret first dance for the reception "I have seen better coordination in a washing machine full of hamsters"!

For men of a certain age you have to hand it to Ken Barlow.  Over the years he has romanced Purdey of the New Avengers, Jean from dinnerladies, Connie from Connie and now Lintilla of the HHGTTG.  Not many leading men have achieved that collection of partners.

Clearly omitting Evelyn from these reports is going to be difficult as she is deliberately being given the best lines at present.  So this week we see her telling Brian that his talking to plants can only be good for them "nothing like manure to make things grow".  Later on we see her bringing back two french sticks no doubt bought at half price!

A warning.  This is where a single malt whisky leads.  Although I rather think they had probably had more than one each.  Anyway they tell Peter and Tim that Steve says his thermostat is broken, hence the lack of cothing and whilst it appears that Leanne is still wearing tights, evidence later is that they had slept together.  Odd as those two reportedly have no chemistry (although the biology seems to work).

Having earlier been counselled by Roy about the difference between literally and figuratively, Ryan used literally and then realised he meant figuratively or perhaps he meant literally - he is confused.  Michelle has absolutely no idea what he is talking about!

I think this was almost predictable.  Jude went along to the community centre and Yasmeen had suffered a minor cut whilst washing up.  She shows Jude the blood and the budding paramedic passed out immediately!  Another career dead end.

Extras at Work is here again this week:

This week the extra even had a name - it was "Vicky" - she was celebrating her birthday and the delivery of her birthday cake brought this wide smile!

Writers:  Alasdair Morrison & Mark Burt (Monday), Chris Fewtrell (Wednesday), Owen Lloyd-Fox (Friday)
Directors: Ian Barber (Monday & Wednesday), Ian Bevitt (Friday)

And the trip along the Street was awesome!

Kosmo
@Kosmo100

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Corrie writer Chris Fewtrell reveals soap secrets

Coronation Street writer Chris Fewtrell has been interviewed and it's a lovely read. He talks about his modest beginnings, how he went on to writing for Corrie and what goes on behind the scenes of our favuorite soap.

Chris began sending off his pieces to television companies while at uni, which then led to Granada picking up a project of his – making him just 21 when he had his first experience of paid TV work.

He wrote for a number of EastEnders episodes and a football-based soap called Dream Team on Sky One, before beginning work for Coronation Street in 2004.

He says: "I was so made up to be working on Corrie, as I’d always wanted to write comedy but seemed to get stuck with drama jobs because that’s where the money was. But I knew Corrie had a rich comic heritage and it gave me a chance to finally do what I loved best. I’ve done around 250 episodes since then."

Top storylines he has been involved with include Schmichael the great dane's hot tub incident and the death of Hayley Cropper – both of which he cites as his favourites.

"Another of my favourite memories of Corrie was when we did a DVD spin-off called Romanian Holiday, which we filmed in Romania. It was such great fun working on that," says Chris. "We had the most wonderful time. We were really proud of the end result too."

But how is each episode of Corrie created – and how it is decided who will write what?

"Every month there’s a conference where we come up with story ideas, pitch plots and discuss them. And they get rejected or accepted. Then they go away and distil the storyline into episodes. It’s usually spread over around 23 episodes. And then they’re allocated to writers."

Chris was most recently involved in new BBC comedy sitcom starring Johnny Vegas and Elaine Paige – called Home From Home – which he co-wrote with fellow Corrie writer Simon Crowther. It ran on BBC One for six episodes from mid April.

"Simon and I write story ideas together for Coronation Street – that’s how we first started working together," explains Chris. "Then we thought it would be fun to write scripts together." 

You can read the full interview at The Express and Star 

Find out about all of the Coronation Street writing team

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Five Things We Learned In Corrie This Week

International sex kittens have the best tales.  Ken got Claudia round to steal info off her for his plagiarised serial in the Gazette, but she was far more interested in telling filthy stories of her decadent past.   Apparently, in 1973, Claudia Colby was a photographer's assistant on Capri who had an encounter with Sacha Distel; this is the kind of glamorous filth I would never get bored of hearing.  I can just picture her sprawled on a lounger, sharing champers with Kate O'Mara and peering over huge sunglasses at oiled up waiters in tiny Speedos. It's no wonder Ken turned to the bouffanted hairdresser's ideas when the papers turned down his latest misery memoir - nothing in his life could compete with that level of uninterrupted glamour (by comparison, in 1973, Ken Barlow was complaining to the brewery because they'd put a fruit machine in the Rovers and he was worried Albert Tatlock would fritter away his pension.  Scandale!). 

Parental guidence is needed.  Ryan v Ali is an interesting contrast.  They were born at the same time in the same hospital yet their lives took such radically different paths.  Ali is responsible, clear-headed and mature, with the intelligence and drive to train to be a doctor.  Ryan has trouble opening a cupboard door without knocking himself unconscious.  You'd think Michelle might reflect on the differences in the pair, and wonder what it says about her parenting skills, but as she is Exalted Queen of the Universe that level of self-analysis is beneath her.  She demonstrated her excellent mothering at the climax to Friday's episode, taking milliseconds to formulate a plan to lie to the police and dragging poor Ali into her web of lies.  At once point she used emotional blackmail and said "if you care anything about this family" to him; frankly I'd have replied "I care exactly as much as you care about me" and then not contacted her for ten years.  See how she likes it.

Patti Clare can do no wrong.  It takes a great actress with skilled comic timing to render an obscenity harmless.  Play it too hard and the viewers are shocked; go too soft and the joke is lost.  All credit then to Patti, who, on hearing Tim had helped Steve with a fitting for his wedding band, was able to say "perhaps Steve's ring is a two-man job" without causing grandmothers across the country to spit out their Horlicks.  If you knew, you giggled, and if you don't know, don't Google it.

Don't give the homeless money, they'll only spend it on alcohol.  Sean has seemingly recovered from his al fresco period and is firmly installed on the sofa above the florist's.  It seems some of the bad habits he picked up haven't left him completely, though, as his idea of a few drinks for a quiet night in with Billy and Josh was a bottle of wine.  Each.  And when they were finished, he took himself off to the pub for a few more.  You're not under a viaduct now, Sean; you don't have to drink to numb the pain, unless it's the pain of another of Summer's impromptu Powerpoint presentations about the life span of the fruit fly.  I suppose we should be glad he's drinking wine.  All that time with the drunks has given him a taste for the hard stuff, and he might have come back from Dev's with a pot of paint thinner and three straws.

The landlady's got potential.  "You should've seen them in the old days," reminisced Jenny Bradley about Liz and Jim.  "They were like Burton and Taylor."  Yeah, except it was Burton and Taylor in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf.  Jenny had a barnstorming week all round, in fact, effortlessly bantering with the pub's clientele and floating around blissfully unaware that her husband is an adulterous blackmail victim.  She also had a brief but iconic moment at the mic singing along to Ariana Grande.  If only she'd performed her signature tune, What I Did For Love.  No, I will never stop sharing that video.

If Tyrone wants some way of keeping Hope from causing havoc that doesn't involve a spanking from Maureen Lipman, he should contact the author on Twitter @merseytart.  I have a cattle prod and some barbed wire fencing going spare.

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Where to buy Bethany Platt's flowery green top

If you liked the look of Bethany Platt's flowery green top, our friends at Soap Style have found where it was bought from. It looks like it's now out of stock  but they do offer advice on where to buy clothes seen on Corrie.

Find out more here.

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Conversation Street Podcast Episode 329

Our latest podcast covers the episodes of Corrie shown in the UK between the 24th and the 28th September.

This week, Steve gets caught in a compromising situation with local good-time girl Leanne, following a misunderstanding with Tracy. He's not the only McDonald up to his neck in lies either, as Jim certainly seems to be having a few doubts about scamming Liz out of £10k. Fortunately, though, another source of income comes up just at the right moment.. Meanwhile, evil Josh has got Billy in his sights (and it's not even insensitive to say that anymore since he's apparently getting his vision back now), and as the Connors get themselves involved in a dangerous coverup, another deception gets exposed as Hope and Ruby discover the truth about Santa.

After Street Talk, we have a character profile on one of our personal favourite characters of the moment, Billy Mayhew, taking a look back at his ups and downs over the past four years on the show. For the second week in a row, it's been a quiet news week, so we skip The Kabin again and go straight into the feedback section, where we hear about some listeners' opinions on recent stories.

You can subscribe to our podcast on iTunes, or stream all our episodes over on our blog.

Street Talk - 00:15:21
Character Profile: Billy Mayhew - 01:42:45
Feedback - 02:23:46

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