Coronation Street and Rochdale

As soon as I was old enough, I darted out of my home town and went to live in the big city. The older I got though, the fonder I became of the place I grew up. That place is Rochdale in Greater Manchester – a former cotton town that was central to the industrial revolution. Nowadays, Rochdale is often in the news for all the wrong reasons, but I’ve recently spotted that the town has become a regular fixture for location filming on Coronation Street, particularly in and around the town hall. Rochdale has quite a few links to Corrie actually…

AIDAN’S INQUEST

Last Friday was the emotional final part of Aidan Connor’s story. The family gathered to hear and share details of his final hours. Much of Friday’s episodes were filmed at Rochdale Town Hall, both inside and out. Here you can see a stunning stained glass window inside the gothic building, which depicts the Kings and Queens of England and was reportedly admired by Adolf Hitler, who basically wanted to nick it:

BILLY IS STABBED

Billy’s graphic stabbing several months ago took place not far from the Town Hall next to Rochdale police station.

ROCHDALE POLICE STATION

MADISONS (ranked 19 of 325 restaurants in Rochdale)

ROSIE’S BACK

Shortly after Helen Flanagan returned to the Street, the Websters were spotted filming in and around Rochdale Town Hall. The Manchester Evening News reported them being spotted back in February 2017.

CURRENT CAST MEMBERS FROM ROCHDALE

Sinead Tinker is played by Katie McGlynn, who is from Rochdale. She actually went to the same high school as me but clearly benefited from the teachings of Drama head Mr Carroll more than I did.

Katie McGlynn

FORMER CAST MEMBERS FROM ROCHDALE

Michelle Holmes can currently be seen in old episodes of Classic Corrie on ITV3, playing Rovers barmaid Tina Fowler. Michelle was also in Emmerdale and most recently Hollyoaks.

Michelle Holmes

Emma Edmondson  played Mel Morton, part of the short lived Morton family in Corrie. She also went to Wardle High School in Rochdale and was in the year above me. Come to think of it, I’m starting to think Mr Carroll had favourites at that school. Although he did give me the part of Charlie Bucket in a production of Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory and if I remember rightly, Emma was an Oompa Loompa. So I win.

Emma Edmondson, bottom centre right

Bob Mason, a writer from Rochdale, started his Corrie journey as character Terry Bradshaw (brother of Renee Roberts) in the seventies. Then in the eighties he became the soap’s first regular writer. According to Corriepedia he is one of only eight people to both write and appear in the show. Bob died in 2004.

Bob Mason

And of course the great Julie Goodyear, Corrie’s Bet Lynch is from Heywood just outside Rochdale. Last year Julie was awarded the Freedom of Rochdale, whether she wanted it or not.

Julie, who last appeared in Coronation Street in 2003 said of the gong: “I am honoured, delighted and thrilled to accept this award from Rochdale council. I was born in Heywood and lived here all my life and never wanted to leave and live anywhere else so this is a very special award from the council. Rochdale is one of the best-known towns in the country and some very famous people have come from here so it will be truly wonderful to be given this honour.”

Julie Goodyear with the Freedom of Rochdale

Aside from it’s stunning town hall and the founding of the Co-Operative movement, Rochdale is also famous for actor Anna Friel, singer Lisa Stanfield, the first global superstar Gracie Fields...and my legendary blogs. 

What's the Coronation Street connection to your home town?

@StevieDawson

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Why my dream of seeing Bet Lynch return to Corrie will never come true

I’m tempting fate here, but I doubt we will ever see Julie Goodyear back in Coronation Street. Despite many maybes, you-never-knows, misleading tabloid headlines and recent newspaper reports, there’s no indication that I’m wrong.

              

Corrie Boss Kate Oates hasn’t been afraid of embracing the past and bringing back old characters, or focusing on much-loved and feared dead characters in storylines. And as the Blog has reported, we are soon to see the return of some familiar faces - the latest list of who's coming and going is here.

But the return of Bet Lynch would be BIG. And it would make all my soap dreams come true. My favourite character in Coronation Street is and has always been Rita. She reminds me of the women that brought me up when I was a toddler – warm, northern women with big hair and brassy personalities. Rita’s warm, caring, but no-nonsense approach to life has been much needed in Corrie over the years and I hate to think of the show without her in it. But Bet Lynch is an icon. In my opinion the greatest ever soap character. She sits alongside other iconic creations like Deirdre Barlow, Jack and Vera, Eastenders’ Pat Butcher and Dot Cotton, and the handful of soap legends that graced television screens before I was born such as Elsie Tanner and Ena Sharples. But Bet, for me, stands out. Everything came together perfectly. Her unconventional beauty, the peroxide blonde hair, thick Lancashire accent and famous fashion sense or lack thereof. Little things like the cigarette holder added to her uniqueness. And then there was the lifestyle – married to little fat Alec, working in a backstreet pub but always aiming for better, dreaming of Tenerife but ending up in Blackpool or Brighton. Bet’s was the ultimate working class struggle to get on and be better off.

Classic Corrie

That said she was perfectly happy a lot of the time on Coronation Street, standing proudly behind the Rovers bar, surrounded by friends and sometimes family. Coronation Street suited her more than she’d like to admit, even if she stood out like a sore thumb.

But what would bring Bet back to Coronation Street today? Sadly, probably very little. Sure she has girlfriends and former acquaintances. On meeting Liz it would be like no time had passed at all. Last time they were on screen together Jim McDonald was on the run and the women were at a Newton and Ridley function in Blackpool. Word is that Jim is heading back to the street some time in 2018 so could this be a way of bringing Bet back? To support Liz in whatever trouble Jim brings with him…which of course he will.

Bet would inevitably catch up with Rita. Fifteen years has passed since they sat awkwardly in Audrey’s house on one of Bet’s previous visits back to the cobbles. It was proper telly. Two matriarchs reminiscing, putting the world to rights, setting each other straight. Bet pretending she’d moved on from Weatherfield. “It’s just a tatty little back street pub” she said of the Rovers. I could cry now hearing those words. Bet and the Rovers are one in the same for me.

Legends

What else could tempt Bet back? So many new families she’s never met, many fewer ties than she’s had in a long time. Betty’s gone, and Julie Goodyear didn’t even manage to get back when Betty Driver died in real life. The great Roy Barraclough also passed away last year so it couldn’t involve a reunion with Alec. Although there might come a time when writers want to mention the character’s death. Could he have left Bet something in his will, could it bring Bet and Vicky back to Weatherfield?

There’s a very obvious and likely reason for Bet not coming back to The Street again – Julie Goodyear might be perfectly happy in retirement. Julie’s always been great with the fans and we’ve seen her on our screens in the past few months as a special guest on Stephen Mulhern’s Big Soap Quiz on ITV. Julie can never escape Bet and she came dressed in her famous leopard print and beehive. Cheers from the audience, current cast members (and me from the sofa at home) proved she is still very popular. But little treats such as guest appearances might be all we can hope for now. Julie also does the odd ‘official engagement’ and was recently given the keys to Rochdale, in a ceremony at the town’s beautiful Town Hall. And she might do a few more TV ads. Like this one for…er…Shredded Wheat?

"Shredded Wheat cock?"

Julie herself admitted after her last return to the cobbles that she regretted it and wasn’t made fully aware of the demands of the new schedule, which were too much for her. And that was well over a decade ago. She’s 76 now so would find it even harder. That’s not to say a return couldn’t be written cleverly and they took into consideration her concerns over workload. But then there would be accusations of diva behaviour and special treatment. It's a very different culture at Coronation Street now, and behind the scenes most cast members are treated as equals - a far cry from the days of early Corrie when the younger actors feared even going near the 'stars'.

One last thing that could prevent Julie from returning to Coronation Street is that the public might not actually want it. There's a much younger audience enjoying the show at the moment, and with the arrival of social media, popular characters are never more exposed to the viewer. Today's Corrie fan already knows what they like and what they don't like, and many of them will never have got to know Bet Lynch properly. I'm sure there have been online polls to gauge people's opinion on the matter. I didn't bother doing one, mainly out of fear of the result!

When you weigh up all the possibilities of a return, all the things that would prevent it from happening, the lack of reasons FOR it to happen, it looks very likely we’ve seen the last of Bet Lynch. Julie Goodyear gave us three decades of heart-rending, tense, emotional and hilarious scenes which we can go back and enjoy on the internet or ITV3’s brilliant Classic Corrie every afternoon. So we should be thankful for that. But I see no good reason, if Julie was up for it, the writers could find a way of doing it, and it entertained the viewers, why it shouldn't happen. 

So if there is any small possibility we could see that leopard print and beehive strutting down the cobbles one more time, this Corrie superfan would be very happy indeed.

Come on soap Gods – make it happen.

@StevieDawson

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