The Beatles on The Street – Streetlemania!

Did anyone see ‘The Nation's Favourite Beatles Number One’ the other week? If not, then I would highly recommend streaming it from the newly renamed ITV Hub, where it will remain for another 6 days (link here).

I watched it on the train to Manchester for the Coronation Street Blog Christmas Do. It’s a cracking rock doc and I was particularly pleased to discover that when The Beatles weren’t busy shaking the world, the Fab Four liked nothing more than to watch a bit of telly and, according to former Granada Producer Johnny Hamp, Coronation Street was one of their favourite programmes.

Hamp produced the TV special ‘The Music of Lennon and McCartney’, which was filmed at the former Granada Studios on Quay Street, a site that we bloggers visited earlier this week for the very last time.

The Beatles show went out in December 1965 - when Corrie was just five years old. A lot of it can be seen on YouTube and it really is fascinating footage. During the performance, John Lennon played the harmonium on ‘We Can Work It Out’ (which came in at number 17 in the ITV poll).

But it wasn’t just any harmonium that Lennon used that day at Granada. Oh no - it was the very same instrument that Ena Sharples played in Coronation Street! Have a look at this:

Apparently, when the Granada special was being recorded, the Corrie cast kept on sticking their heads around the door to catch a glimpse of The Beatles. The cast could have got a lot closer to the band, though, according to a wonderful article I stumbled across on a Beatles fansite (available here).

The story goes that there was a proposed plot which would have seen The Beatles’ tour bus break down in Weatherfield while the band were on their way to a gig in Manchester.

Naturally, Beatlemania would soon take over and with the police unable to control the crowds, the band would knock on Ena's door in search of sanctuary (and possibly a harmonium?!!). Ena would take them in and the Fab Four would file in past her, bringing the episode to a close.

In the next episode, Ena would persuade The Beatles to perform at the Over-Sixties club. The gig would be gate-crashed by a load of teenagers and two generations would come together for an amazing concert, after which The Beatles would rush off to their other show in Manchester!

The Beatles were apparently very keen to do it but weren’t able to fit the rehearsal dates into their schedule and so the plans were scrapped. What a shame!

I like to think, though, that in the parallel universe of Coronation Street, The Beatles did in fact play Weatherfield in the 60s. Perhaps that would explain the signed Beatles programme that the Peacocks found in the attic of Number 13 a few years ago!

When I arrived at Manchester Piccadilly to catch my 7am train back to London, everything came full circle when I saw an advert for a new collection of The Beatles’ chart-topping hits.

It made me think about the vital contribution that Coronation Street and The Beatles – two great institutions that emerged from 1960s Northern England – have made to the UK’s cultural history.

And then I thought about the original Cavern Club in Liverpool, which was knocked down. It was a decision that city leaders would soon regret and the Cavern was later rebuilt using many of the original bricks.

I don’t want Manchester to make the same mistake by demolishing the old Corrie set. Wouldn’t it be great if the developers decided to keep at least some of the magic alive? 

Coronation Street is in our ears and in our eyes. It is also in our hearts. There is so much history in those cobbles and it would be a tragedy for it all to be bulldozed for flats and shops.

By Martin Leay

You can follow Martin on Twitter @mpleay

You can listen to Martin on the Happy Sundays show on Croydon Radio

Deirdre: A Life on Coronation Street - official ITV tribute to a soap icon. Available here.

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Scousers on the Street

The Liverpool Echo have a good feature today, all about Scousers on Coronation Street.

It chimes with the arrival of Liverpool actor Mark Moraghan, who turned up on Corrie last night to play Eileen's new fella Adrian Mortimer.  And the fact he's already been given a surname sounds like he's going to be sticking around for a while!

The Echo pays an affectionate tribute to those from Liverpool who've been on Corrie playing characters such as these:

Michael Rodwell, played by Les Dennis 2014-present
Michelle Connor, played by Kym Marsh 2006-present
Lloyd Mullaney, played by Craig Charles 2005-present
Frank Foster, played by Andrew Lancel 2011-2012
Jerry Morton, played by Micky Starke 2007-2008
Hilda Ogden, played by Jean Alexander 1964-1987
Eddie Yeats, played by Geoffrey Hughes 1974-1987

Read the full article here.

See also: Our blogger Scott's post: Long-haired losers from Liverpool

Glenda Young
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Long Haired Losers From Liverpool

I don't know if you noticed, but Liverpool beat Manchester United 3-0 yesterday.  Even if you don't like football, you'll know that this is kind of a big deal.  Liverpool and Manchester have a bitter, bitter rivalry, one that makes Alexis and Krystal look like conjoined twins.

Liverpool has the history and the excitement; it's got architectural delights on every street, and showbiz glamour through its decades of producing top entertainers like, erm, Jimmy Tarbuck and Cilla.  Manchester, meanwhile, is bigger and has more money; its skyline can't compete with the Liver Building and two cathedrals, but it's got a tram system and a Harvey Nicks and the BBC.  It's a bit more 21st Century than its near neighbour, a bit more forward thinking and less likely to coast on past glories (seriously Liverpool, the Beatles split up forty odd years ago; let it be).

Manchester also has Corrie, which gives it the perfect opportunity to get one over its Scouse rivals.  It mainly does this by ensuring that anyone with a Liverpudlian accent is, at least, a bit dodgy, and at worse an out and out thug.  Right now Pat Phelan is providing the show's dark underbelly, sexually harassing Anna and blackmailing Gary and Owen.  He's bent as a nine bob note, with years of financial impropriety and questionable deals behind him.  Owen should never have palled up with him, not least because their first meeting resulted in a motorbike being held hostage; that might have given a normal person a hint they were dealing with a crook.  That and Phelan's got a Scouse accent so thick you could sit on it and row across the Mersey.

Go right back through Corrie's past, and you get a parade of Liverpudlians who are a little bit wey, a little bit woo.  Think of Kenneth Cope as Jed Stone, a former borstal resident who had a string of nefarious schemes under his belt, convoluted plots that would net him a nice tidy profit without him having to do an honest day's work.  He was finally locked up for robbing blankets, which is exactly the kind of petty, low-level dodginess Scousers on the Street seem to get up to.

They're never Machiavellian geniuses, lording it over the lives of residents with their evil brilliance.  They're just a bit grubby and criminal.  Jed's replacement as Scouse schemer was Eddie Yeats, who arrived on the Street fresh out of Walton nick.  He spent the rest of his time on the show handling stolen goods, being sent back to prison, and puffing on Woodbines while he picked his feet at Hilda's dining table.

That's not to say that Scouse characters are charmless; even Phelan has a bit of a twinkle about him.  Michael Starke, who played Jerry Morton and who will forever be Sinbad from Brookside, managed to keep his terrible character and awful family afloat pretty much on charm alone.  He seemed like he was going to turn the tide of naughty characters from Liverpool - he had his own business, his own home, a deeply unlikeable set of children covering a bizarre range of ages.  But what's this, in a news report written about Starke's casting?  Jerry, in his 40s, is described as a hard-working man who dotes on his family and has no qualms on dodging the taxman.  Yep, even before he'd arrived, we were told he was crooked.  Of course, we already knew that, because he was born in the L postcode.  Also, he was Sinbad.

The one Scouse character who's managed to keep his nose clean is Lloyd or, as he's better known, Craig Charles.  This is mainly because what Craig Charles is doing can't really be described as "acting"; he's basically just playing himself.  I love Craig, but Lloyd isn't really a stretch for his talents.  Seriously, I keep expecting Lloyd to start reminiscing about his performance poetry days, or to call Steve a smeghead.  He's just a naturally charming, funny man, and his double act with Steve is one of the greatest in the show's history.  It's a real-life double act too, which makes me wonder if some of the writers take a shortcut when they write the scripts, e.g.

INT.  TAXI OFFICE

(Just film Craig Charles and Simon Gregson having a chat for five minutes.  We'll stick the best bits in the show.)

Lloyd's been a bit of a love rat, but that's pretty much the worst thing you can say about him.  He is a taxi driver though, a profession which is not exactly renowned for its high moral standards.  I bet he's not above taking a roundabout route so he can add a few more quid to the meter. 

Still, I suppose it's good that we finally have a Scouser who isn't a criminal, a tax dodger or a bankrupt on the show.  And with Les Dennis soon to join, that'll mean there's two! 

What's that?  He's playing a burglar?

Never mind.

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