Corrie killer turns up in Benidorm tonight

Graeme Hawley, who played serial killer John "I only wanted to teach" Stape in Coronation Street, is on our telly screens tonight.

Graeme turns up in an episode of Benidorm tonight on ITV.  He plays the role of a superfan of the showbiz character Sammy Valentino (being played to perfection by Shane Ritchie).

I love Benidorm. And of course Graeme isn't the only Corrie actor who's been in the show. Have a look here to see who else from Corrie has turn up on the Costa.

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Corrie serial killer stars in new Morrissey biopic

Pic: https://twitter.com/graeme_hawley

Graeme Hawley, who played serial killer John Stape in Coronation Street, is starring as Morrissey's boss in a new film.

The film is called England is Mine, a new biopic based on the former Smiths frontman’s early life.

The first trailer for England Is Mine was released last week, with the film premiering at the Edinburgh Film Festival before arriving in cinemas on August 4.

Graeme plays the role of Mr Leonard, Morrissey's boss.  There's a good review of the film at Julie Hamill's blog and you can also buy Julie's book about Morrissey here.

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Wanted: Extras for film with ex-Corrie stars

We've been contacted by a friend of a friend who is producing a film with ex-Corrie stars Grahame Hawley and Rupert Hill (John Stape and Jamie Baldwin).  Details of the film are here - it's called Leatherbird.

The producer needs voluntary extras for a bar scene next week. It's in the Northern Quarter area of Manchester.  It's for Monday 26th May (the bank holiday) and they are shooting a couple of scenes of Rupert performing upstairs at Gullivers bar in the Northern Quarter and we need to get some extras to be in the crowd. Graeme Hawley is also in the scene.

It's likely to be 2-4 and they're looking for good, sensible people aged 18-45 who can follow simple instructions and behave themselves appropriately.

If you're interested, contact Leatherbird on facebook.

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John Stape and Colin Fishwick - alive and well and on stage together

Coronation Street actors Graeme Hawley (John Stape) and David Crellin (Colin Fishwick) are both starring on the Manchester stage together in the play Saturday Night and Sunday Morning.
For Graeme in particular, landing the role at the Royal Exchange was for him an important clean slate after playing Corrie baddie Stape.

He told the Manchester Evening News: “It's a good way to go, 'that's done' from Corrie, and now for something completely different. I'm excited to come and work at the Royal Exchange, it's a unique space.

"Corrie has been the perfect job for me.  It's worked out great, there's never been a time when I was kicking my heels in the show, I was either in prison, on the run or dying.  From a personal point of view I've been able to go away, do other stuff and return to the role over the months. But it was also important for me that there was a line drawn under the character this time."

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning is at the Royal Exhange Theatre  from March 1 to April 7.
Buy your tickets here.

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Corrie serial killer moves to Manchester stage

Graeme Hawley, who played Coronation Street's hapless serial killer John Stape, can be seen on the Manchester Stage next year. 

Graeme will be starring in the play Saturday Night and Sunday Morning at the Royal Exchance in Manchester. 

The play also stars some other wonderful TV actors including three actors from Shane Meadows' This is England.

Catch the play in Manchester from March 1 next year.

The full cast and details are here.
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Art imitates Life for Graeme Hawley

Remember when Fiz told of meeing John when she was 13 and he was a DJ? Well, did you know that Graeme Hawley does DJ work in real life? Funkademia.net caught up with Graeme after a gig on the weekend, in Manchester.

He started off covering for some mates who were doing gigs and 7 years ago, got a job at a radio station. He'll be joining a new online radio station soon called Radio Republic which goes live later this week.  He's been acting since his teens, as well though we here all know him best from his recent years on Corrie.

If you're in the Manchester area this weekend, Graeme is appearing at the Mint Lounge  in Manchester for Funkademia's 16th birthday. You can get advance £5 tickets here.

John Stape: In loving memory?

And so the Grim Reaper once again pays a visit to Weatherfield and this time collects "Mr Chips" himself. John Stape is no more. Weep for him. Or maybe not. Given that the character had only been around for a few years, he certainly packed a fair bit in. Sometime teacher, sometime café assistant, sometime murderer. It would be fair to say that he didn't particularly excel at any of these. He was a useless kidnapper too as dozy Rosie discovered on two occasions. John was like one of those shambolic supply teachers you used to get in schools years ago. Eyes like Bambi caught in the forest fire, paper trailing from an hastily locked briefcase, gravy stains down his tie.

For all of this though, John retained some sense of humanity and, even to the bitter end, a sense of humour. The character craved normality and a family yet was thwarted in all attempts to secure this - usually thanks to his own stupidity. Will he be remembered as a classic Corrie character or will we forget him? John has certainly been unique - deranged schoolteacher with misguided principles. Will his death be the making of Fiz who can now bloom, free of a disfunctional marriage?

John Stape - Hero or Zero?

Graeme Hawley and Jeff Hordley to launch radio show

Corrie and Emmerdale's baddies, John Stape (Graeme Hawley) and Cain Dingle (Jeff Hordley) are set to team up, to do their own radio show, according to Digital Spy. The show will air on Radio Republic.

The pair used to work together on a radio show a few years ago. Hawley told PA that "We're both very much into our music, so we'll be playing everything from folk to soul and funk and a bit of rock 'n' roll and a bit of everything really."

Finally, the picture is from Emmerdale in 2005, when Graeme played a copper investigating Alice Dingle's death, which was a very good storyline. Who knew he'd go on to be Corrie's most bonker's villain?

Graeme Hawley on John Stape's return

Fiz's trial starts soon and John Stape is on his way back to Weatherfield with a typically twisted plan to get her off. As we know, he's going to kidnap Rosie and try to make her repeat his confession to the courts but will be badly injured in a car crash first. Because, you know, he couldn't very well go to the police and turn himself in like any normal person, right?

ITV have a video montage of John's history here along with an interview with Graeme Hawley about the storyline. Oddly enough Graeme was in Anglesey this summer before finding out that's where John Stape has been hiding himself and he jokes "As usual with John Stape there are two things you can be certain of; one his cunning plan will be not be very cunning and two somewhere along the lines it will involve doing something bad to Rosie Webster"
 
This fan thinks it's going to be a suitably bizarre ending to a bizarre storyline. But you know? I've enjoyed every twist, turn and bump in the Stapewich saga.

Fiz and John do Calgary

There's an interview with Jennie McAlpine and Graeme Hawley in the Canadian Calgary Herald today. Jennie and Graeme where there a couple of months ago for the Banff World Media Festival. Corrie was up for an award for a Best Soap Opera but lost to a Spanish soap. They were interviewed for  the newspaper.

For Canadian Fans, currently 10 months behind the UK shows, there is a minor spoiler about Stape's future but for those of you reading here regularly, you'll already know. Graeme talks about John Stape and describes him as a good man, really. He describes John as mulit-faceted and "he was the bad guy but he kind of wasn't the bad guy,". He also says that in spite of the sensational storylines that are not going away, Corrie still manages to "maintain what is essentially the (core) of the show: this slice of kitchen-sink life."

Don't forget, Canadian Fans, CBC is going to start showing 1 hour of Corrie every week night starting Monday, September 5 and airing a Sunday repeat from 7:30 a.m. onward. It's a lot to keep up on but these first two weeks of September lead up to the Tram Crash on September 15.

John Stape found alive and well on Shooting Stars

Before he comes back to kidnap Rosie Webster for a second time, Coronation Street actor Graham Hawley, who plays John Stape, was a panelist on the BBC comedy quiz show with Reeves and Mortimer, Shooting Stars this week. 

If you missed it, you can watch it again on the BBC website.

John Stape returns to kidnap Rosie Webster - again!

There's a Coronation Street spoiler in today's Sun that says John Stape will return to the cobbles and kidnap Rosie Webster, for the second time.  Graeme Hawley will return as John Stape in October and tries to sneak back without being spotted by locals. But Rosie spots him and John grabs her. He will then confess to murdering Colin and Joy Fishwick - as well as Charlotte.

The Sun says that Corrie fans will learn later this year that Stape fled to his homeland Ireland and has been living rough. But he has managing to keep track of Fiz's case through newspapers.

John Stape, DA (Deranged Abuser)

He's an abuser. He's an abuser as much as if he was physically violent.  He's emotionally beaten Fiz down until she thinks she's the bad one, she's no good and it's partly her fault. She was even willing to run away with him up until she discovered he'd kidnapped Chesney and the Hoyles and she heard him admit to murder. I have hated John Stape for a long time but it's reached new levels this week. How DARE he!!?

He dares because he's completely snapped. His guilt and desperation have driven him into madness. When he tried to snatch Hope from Maria, I think he felt that if he had the baby, Fiz would follow and she'd do what he wanted. And she nearly did, too!

He's put her in one impossible situation after another. She might have been naive and loyal but she didn't deserve this. I don't know what's going to happen on that hospital roof, but if I was Fiz, I'd be sorely tempted to push him off! Oh, I know, that would make me as bad as Stape but wouldn't it be a crime of passion or something? Temporary insanity?

Huge, massive, immense kudos to Graeme Hawley who has pulled out all the stops and then some and it's only half way through the week!

The end of the Stapewick Saga - will it be worth a look?

As a long-time Corrie fan, I'm sorry to say that I've been so uninspired by Coronation Street recently that I've been stuck for anything positive to say.
However - I'm hoping that next week's Stape marathon will be worth a look. I'm saying nothing about the McDonalds - apparently that storyline will be receiving a lot of coverage next week as well, but frankly I have no interest in it whatsoever and will definitely be clicking "mute" when Becky, Kylie and/or Tracy are on screen.
Back to Stapewick. I know a lot of people are sick to the back teeth of it all. Personally, while I thoroughly enjoyed its black comedy, farcical aspects until probably shortly after the tram crash, I do feel it has been milked dry and then some. But I am willing to stick with it till the end, to see if the Corrie team do justice to what has been a really extraordinary plotline and a half.
I've really loved Graeme Hawley as Stape, and thought all the related characters such as Charlotte, her parents, Kung Fu Dave, and Fishwick himself, were superb. I'm sceptical about a rooftop drama, but I'll keep an open mind and hope for the best.

My own blog is here.

Corrie actor news

There's a new series about to start, starring former Corrie actor, Suranne Jones. It starts Sunday at 9 p.m. on ITV and is called Scott & Bailey. In fact, Suranne and another former Corrie star, Sally Lindsay (Shelly Unwin) came up with the idea some years ago. It's sort of a "Cagney and Lacey" with two Northern women. Sally was going to co-star but she became pregnant with twins so Lesley Sharp has taken the other role. Yet another former Corrie actor, Amelia Bullmore (Steph Barnes) is also in it. I've seen the trailers and it looks quite good. You can read an interview with Suranne about it here.

Another tidbit that came through my inbox this morning heralds the good news that Graeme Hawley, our John Stape, has become a dad again for the second time. They've had a little boy last Wednesday and called him Henry.  Henry joins his older sister, Audrey. On screen, John Stape's story peaks next week.

The end is near for John Stapewick

I'm really getting back into Corrie again, what with Dennis returning, and John Stape's story coming to it's thrilling climax. I'll be really sad to see John leave the street, his storyline has been a really enjoyable (and very unpredictable) ride.

The way last nights episode ending was brilliant, I was expecting to see a scene where John either kills or ties up the Hoyles, but when the scene opened with John stirring a mug of tea in the Stape household, I loved it, I only wish I didn't know what was coming up next.

From the looks of things, the next three weeks of Corrie are a must see, with a week of nightly Corrie episodes, beginning at 9pm on Monday 30th May and carrying on in the same slot for the whole week!

Coronation Street actors have joint leaving party

Graeme Hawley, who is leaving Coronation Street as John Stape, choked back tears at his leaving do when he said a sad goodbye to his Corrie pals.  The Mirror reports that Graeme became emotional as he told co-star Jennie McAlpine, who plays Fiz,: “I couldn’t have done it without you.”

Graeme had a huge turnout for his goodbye drinks which he shared with Craig Gazey, who is leaving as Graeme Proctor. 

There's a picture gallery of some of the Corrie cast on their way to the leaving party.  Have a look at it here.

Coronation Street: The end of John Stape

Reposted with permission from fab TV blog PauseLiveAction.

Yes, sadly it’s true. After months of speculation, the Stape-inator has been revealed as a departing member of the cast, confirming rumours that a dramatic exit is on the cards. Graeme Hawley, who plays the identity-stealing, schoolgirl-romping, pensioner-suffocating, body- burying, youngster-kidnapping, hammer-time chief, filmed his final scenes today. Scenes have already been filmed which see John threaten to jump from the roof of a hospital, with aptly named baby Hope in tow. The dramatic episodes do culminate in John taking a tip over the edge but the fact that the actor only finalises filming today leads me to suspect that rumours of John surviving and going on the run could in fact be true.

So how do we feel about losing the Street’s king of wacky plotlines? John has grown on me a great deal and, now that I’ve given up on realism and taken the story as it is intended, I’ve been thoroughly gripped and will be sad to see it end. I do fear that writers are missing an opportunity to take it in even more bizarre and entertaining directions but I suppose all good things come to an end and no Corrie villain, unless their name is Tracy Barlow, gets away with their crimes forever.

How do you feel about the storyline? And how do you feel about Coronation Street’s current reliance on dramatic plotlines such as Stape’s ending, Jim’s bank robbery and Sophie’s church roof fall? With news of a further armed robbery on the cards, is it becoming too much?

John Stape to be killed off?

John Stape is set to commit suicide, says a Coronation Street spoiler in today's Daily Star.

The paper says that it all becomes too much for John and the pressure increases when a disaster at Underworld sparks fresh building work.  Fearing Colin’s body will be exposed, John decides to end his nightmare once and for all.

It's the only way I feel. All killers need their Corrie comeuppance!

Who's the fittest bloke on Coronation Street at the moment?

Never mind all the hoo-ha about holey plotlines, slumps and so forth. Let's get completely shallow for a moment and contemplate Coronation Street's line-up of fit male totty. After all, we might as well, till the storylines pick up.

I'm speaking as an older woman, so my personal choices might not chime with everyone else's. Putting it mildly.

Top of my list is always going to be Eddie Windass (Steve Huison). That's just a given. He's had everyone's hearts a-fluttering, parading around in his pants and *swoon* dressing gown. Well - mine anyway.

Second, would probably be John Stape (Graeme Hawley). Living dangerously, I know. But there is something weirdly attractive about him. Dimples, perhaps?

Thirdly, Peter Barlow (Chris Gascoyne). Needs no explanation whatsoever. Devastatingly good-looking chap. But this has all been said before.

Now we're moving into new territory. I'm throwing Kevin Webster (Michael le Vell) into the mix. What's not to fancy? He's dark and handsome (not sure if he's tall...) with a rapidly-developing world-weary charm. And it's always handy to be on good terms with a feller who knows his way around a motor.

Owen could be up there too, rough and ready along with Bill Webster - only I find him far too alarming. Anyone else got any favourite Coronation Street fellas just now?