Cosy crimes and gritty sagas by Corrie Blog editor Glenda, published by Headline. Click pic below!

Tuesday 31 January 2023

Coronation Street Visitor Centre & Event Space prepares to open


ITV Studios completes its first ever public facing building as 'The Coronation Street Visitor Centre & Event Space' prepares to open.

ITV has announced the completion of their first ever purpose built, public facing building.  

The 16, 500 sq ft  Coronation Street Visitor Centre and Event Space is situated on the corner of the programme's 7.7 acre production facility at MediaCity in Greater Manchester and will be open to the public from next month.

As well as being the new entrance to the Coronation Street Tours when they reopen in February, the building is home to a cafe, ITV shop, 64 seater cinema, Corrie exhibition floor and The Inkerman, Rosamund and Viaduct Suites -  3 x conference and event spaces holding from 20 to 150 people.  All of which will be available to hire from April 2023. 

ITV’s Director of Workplace Services & Estates, Ian Jones, said “The ability to create this kind of space as a live viewer experience, as well as for our own business use, is brilliant.  We have designed it as a multi-purpose building giving us the flexibility to not only host events for ITV, including the programme’s story conferences, but also hire out to other businesses and individuals whilst also being home to our Tour’s guests” 

James Penfold, Controller Commercial, Global Entertainment, ITV Studios, said “The Coronation Street Tours began in 2018 and we now welcome up to 1200 visitors a day, seeing the building come to fruition is a great start to another bumper year.  We can now bring guests to the home of their favourite show in style, alongside giving them the ability to see even more in the exhibition area, have a cup of tea and a light lunch and of course visit the gift shop to purchase some unique ITV merchandise”.

The building will have a formal opening this Spring after full completion of the exhibition space and final fit out of the event spaces. 

Glenda Young
Twitter: @Flaming_Nora
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Coronation Street Episode Review Monday 30th January

Coronation Street spoilers: Hope Stape and Sam Blakeman  

Pets are supposed to teach small children about death; unfortunately the vicious murder of Cilla the chinchilla has taught Hope about vengeance. I presume like most murders in Weatherfield, it will be a miscarriage of justice and it's actually Cerberus who's the real canine crim. Hope inveigles Sam into borrowing Vin Weasel from the barbers and makes it bite her, then accuses Peanut of the dreadful deed, only to become upset when she learns the diddy dachshund may end up being put down.

Coronation Street - Max Turner (Paddy Beaver)

In white supremacist news, Max's solicitor (whither Posh Paula?) reckons he's got a good chance of getting off due to having been groomed by Griff, but her fees are higher than David's bouffant (I paraphrase). David persuades Audrey to lend him the money (probably because she knows he'd steal it otherwise) and all seems good until Stephen finds out this would lead to equity release on Grasmere Drive and he talks her out of it. David shoves Uncy Stephen against a wall and there's a bit of handbags between them. Don't know who to be more worried about - Stephen has (accidentally) killed two men, but David's been in prison (twice) and once pushed his own mum down the stairs. All of this is moot anyway as Max decides to plead guilty, saying he needs to face up to the consequences of his actions. I presume unless the prison set is going to be remodelled as a young offenders' institute then Paddy Bever is doing his A-levels?

Corrie Damon

Talking of grooming, Nick is angry when he spots Damon showing Sam how the DJ booth works during their all-you-can-vomit cocktail hour (two things: Boozy Bistro on a Monday? Are they insane? I know Manchester is party town, but still. Secondly, Damon DJing? I thought, legally, only Ryan was allowed to spin the wheels of steel in the M10 area). Nick should be less bothered about drugs king pin Damon and more about Sam's friendship with the devil child Hope.

Daniel and Daisy stood next to each other

Daisy and Daniel have remembered that their housemate and sort of sibling Tracy runs a flower shop and they try to tap her for free blooms. This isn't going to work as Tracy doesn't suffer relatives gladly and secondly, influencer promos need to be site specific, surely? No-one's going to drive across the north west to buy a bouquet just because Daisy's promoted Preston's Petals on her socials. Also, double D want a chocolate fountain at their wedding - is it 2009??

Chesney Brown and Gemma Winter at the hospital in Coronation Street

Daisy should be organising the Chemma nuptial as the wedding pot is missing a few quid since Chesney registered his burger joint with Companies House (and presumably also www,chesburgers,biz). In fact, how anyone's managed to get wed since marriage maven Michelle stopped organising them is a mystery. Gemma looks after Bertie as well as Glory and the quads (Joseph has run away to sea to avoid the potato painting and screaming) but I'm wondering which kid is going to be rushed to A&E in an upcoming episode.

Rachel Stevenson - on twitter







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Spoilers for next week's Coronation Street, February 6 - 10, 2023

Here are the major storylines for the week ahead on Coronation Street, all wrapped up nicely in 50 words or less.

Monday 6 to Friday 10 February 2023




The Bistro drug deal goes off with a bang, Bernie and Dev enter the rough, Nick makes the right call, Sarah tempts Beth at the factory, Stephen hosts a tour of the factory and Peter tries to crack on with his trading up bet.

See the full week's preview with pictures at Corrie.net 

Note: If you still see last week's previews when you click through to Corrie.net, please refresh your browser.

Glenda Young
Twitter: @Flaming_Nora
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Ben Price interview: Nick in Bistro gun siege


Since Damon arrived and started blackmailing Nick, is he shocked by how quickly the whole situation at the Bistro has spiralled out of his control?

I think he thought, naively, that Damon wasn’t the same as his brother, maybe not as bad or as dangerous. That’s the thing with Nick, he’s just niaive. He was panicked, he wanted the money to get him out of a hole and then it's just got deeper and deeper. And actually Damon is more sophisticated than his brother. Nick was used to the way Harvey played things but with Damon he didn’t see this straight away. Damon operates differently, he doesn’t lay it out from the start like Harvey and the worst part for Nick is that he’s like a boa constrictor, he’s slowly going to suck all the life out of his business and then his family. Nick just doesn’t know how to get out of his hold. He’s almost relieved when Leanne finds out but then it escalates much, much quicker than he thought it was going to.

How exhausting has it been for Nick keeping this from Leanne, is it a relief to finally share the weight of this?

Yes but then it’s just another set of problems. It happens with them quite a lot and they get through it because they rely on each other but I think Leanne is just a bit stronger than Nick in these situations. He’d rather have her in the conversation at the end of the day than not, even if it breaks them. Damon starts to get this weird thing going on with Sam where he’s buying him stuff, giving him advice and it just gets a bit too dark for Nick.

They have to come together then don’t they, even if they fall out about this in the future there’s almost no time now is there?

When it settles down I think it will be different but in that moment she realises they’re both in this together and they need to get out of it. So she jumps straight in then they start formulating a plan to get themselves out of this.

As Damon takes hold the drugs arrive in the bistro and there’s a siege with a gunman. Nick gets a call from Sam to say he’s in there. How does Nick feel when he gets that call?

It’s awful, when it's only affecting him he can handle it, but with Sam and all the trauma he's been through already this is the moment where he's like, I'm about to really ruin my kid's life. He’s a father who wasn't there for 10 years and now he is here he’s making his life worse, putting him at the centre of a gun siege.

Do you think seeing his son in that situation gives Nick a bit of steel to try and deal with Damon?

Yes because he’s got nothing else to lose. He gets pushed so far that he thinks it can't get any worse than this and if he has to go to the police then so be it. It’s escalated so far, having his child faced with a gun, that he thinks it’s never going to be worse than this. 

Do you think Nick and Leanne can get through this?

Yes I do but I think there'll be some caveats. I don’t think Nick’s bad but I think he’s naive, he didn’t get into this knowingly and I think Leanne gets that. He wants this family unit but I don’t think Leanne will make it easy, he’s going to have to work for it. But then there are many times where it's been reversed and he’s been there for her. I think they do need to be together, I think the audience wants those characters to stay together even when it’s hard. I think people want to see them push through when things get really, really hard, like Carla and Peter, like Deirdre and Ken, because that is real. They can go through so much but they can push through and stay together. 

How have you enjoyed playing Nick alongside Damon, is it a slightly darker Nick we’re going to see?

There’s definitely sides to Nick, he stole from his own gran remember! There’s a part of him that still has his dad in him, he can be quite Machiavellian at points, but then he has this family and this sense that because his dad wasn’t there for him he needs to step up. He misguidedly thought taking the money would make everything right for all of them. What he's trying to do all the time is get stability for his family but the way he does it is always wrong. There are sides to him without a doubt but he tries to not show that to Sam or Leanne. I don’t think he’s a complete pushover with Damon, he lets him know he can rough him up and he can threaten him but if he decides he will just go to the police, he has that in his back pocket.

Is there the fear for Nick that he could lose his son here, can their relationship survive this?

Definitely he has that fear about losing Sam but the greater fear here is what damage am I doing to my own son. I hope they will find a way back because I do think they have a bond, he is his dad and Nick wants that relationship. But in the back of his head he’s also aware of at what cost to this young kid. Nick has to see his part in this whole thing.

Glenda Young
Twitter: @Flaming_Nora
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Monday 30 January 2023

Coronation Street Episode Review Thursday 26 January 2023


Over on the mean Street in Weatherfield we find that Alya has come out of surgery for a punctured lung and has not yet breathed her last.  We get a brief visit to the Kate Oates Memorial Hospital with Alya coming round from her operation.  She is clearly still in a lot of pain when Daryan turns up.  Despite the operation and pain the pressure for beds is immense and Alya comes home where Sarah tries to get them to accept that Max was not responsible.  Alya is not interested but is later well enough to spot that Speed Dahl is closed and she sends Stu and Yasmeen back to work.


Fiz and Tyrone are home again and apparently last night went well.  Hope hits them with a shopping list for Cilla but Ty is not impressed telling Hope that if she wants to spend money on the chinchilla then she has to find a way of earning it.  A little later Kirk is looking for a dog sitter for Peanut and Fiz suggests that Hope might be interested.  Kirk and Peanut visit but Peanut is not entirely sure about Cilla and there is some apparent growling.  Hope is offered £5 for the night's dog sitting and ups her demand to £10!  However the girls come downstairs and find that Cilla has escaped from her cage and it appears that Cilla is no more.  Peanut is prime suspect - but there are no bites or any other evidence that the dog is to blame.  Cilla is buried in Victoria Gardens and Hope delivers a touching farewell and a spine-chilling threat that her death will not be in vain.


Max believes that Blake will tell the police that he only attacked Alya because of Max's videos and there seem to be an inordinate number.  David tells Adam (with a man bun) and the latter reluctantly agrees to find a solicitor if the police take the allegations seriously.  Even Gail becomes concerned having watched some of the videos.  Dee Dee is not happy with Adam helping Max in this way and whilst I accept that is her view, as a solicitor she also should accept that everyone is entitled to proper legal representation - a point which Adam makes and she storms out of their office.  Max's fears are justified when he is arrested and taken for questioning on the grounds of incitement to an attempted murder.  Max's fears are realised.


Gemma is babysitting Glory for Michael and tells him that she does not have the qualifications or insurance - Michael is desperate and suggests that she minds the baby as a friend and he pays her on the sly.  Chesney has taken some money out of the wedding fund and has put together his own super tasty BBQ sauce, following Dev's encouragement on Wednesday.  Eventually Chesney - under threat from a pair of tongs - admits to Gemma that he has used some of the wedding fund money - but before he can really explain why she tells him he can sleep in Prima Doner tonight.  

In the Rovers, Michael suggests to Daniel that perhaps Gemma would take on Bertie as well and then asks if she would consider it.  Daniel, his mind elsewhere agrees to contact Gemma to discuss it.

Stephen has to grovel to Carla and explains that Gabrielle has ripped him off and uses this to explain his "consulting" role.  Sally has rung in sick and there is a desperate need to ship an order - which is still needing machine time, so Stephen gets stuck in stitching to ensure that the order deadline is achieved even offering to buy a round of drinks in the Rovers once the last 25 pairs of knickers are stitched.  Having made Stephen sweat Carla does not actually sack him.


Christina Boyd has decided to go as she is making no progress with Daisy but Daniel is not prepared to give up just yet when Christina shows him her mother's necklace to be given to Daisy.  He makes a date with Daisy in the Bistro and when Daisy arrives dolled up to the nines he leaves as Christina appears but before going suggests they should at least talk for once.  Daisy tells her mother that she wants to hear nothing she has to say - but does stay.  Christina passes over the necklace but Daisy rejects it.  Christina admits that she was not a good mother and blamed everyone else.  She just did not want to be a mother - she did not like it and could not handle it and she knows they have missed out on everything - but feels that Daisy has had a better life without her and Christina admits that she would do the same again - because she loves Daisy.  Later Daisy returns to Number One wearing the necklace and Daisy admits that her mother was at least honest and is coming to the wedding.  Daisy's stalker is still stalking and finally gets blocked.  


Max believes he has a rubbish life and that whilst he was born in this country no one - including David - ever stands up for him and takes his side.  He had no idea what Blake was planning.  He denies being a racist and he did not want anyone to be hurt.  Max observes that to DS Swain he is just stupid scum.  Swain does not deny the allegation.  He has never had a handout, or a leg-up or extra help.  He has ADHD and cannot get back into his school.  His mother was murdered outside his house when he was nine.  He has had to learn to fend for himself.  He is lonely, so when someone tells you that you are not mad, and that you are not worthless and you are not alone - the hidden subtext is you listen and get sucked in.  A little later it appears that the CPS have been consulted and Max is to be formally charged with incitement to attempted murder.  

Which wraps it up for tonight.  I advise Peanut to go into hiding urgently.  Max needs a real lawyer and quickly.  And given that I assume Daniel's teaching remains reviewable by Ofsted I am not at all sure he would be that keen on handing Bertie over to an unregistered childminder.

Written by Cameron McAllister and Nessah Muthy.  Directed by Miguel Guerreiro.

Kosmo
@Kosmo100






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