Coronation Street Episode Review;Wednesday 5th of October 8 pm

Tonight, Billy apologised to Summer for his overreaction and parental panicking. Billy also forgives her boyfriend for his class-c indiscretion, but pseudo-parent Paul can't shift his anger. For Aaron, the problems only worsen when his drunken Dad rocks up at the garage seeking his weed back. As Maria and Fiz tell Tyrone about seeing Tim in his morning glory, the jovial atmosphere is shattered, when Aaron's drunk Dad threatens his son and Tyrone, but Kev soon sends him packing! Kev knows all about alcohol and drug abuse!

Later on, after returning from home, Aaron arrives back on the street to meet Summer and shows her some more bruises, particularly a huge one on his wrist. Paul (ex-jailbird) continues to take his bizarre moral high ground and confronts Aaron about the space cakes, grabbing him on the wrist, and the lad retaliates by punching him one. Billy tries to calm his ex-boyfriend down, and Kevin reluctantly accepts the lad's apology for bringing drugs to the garage. With Aaron admitting the abuse to Billy, Billy relays the info to Paul who decides not to press charges! Later, Paul tells Aaron it may be best to end the relationship with Summer.

Meanwhile, Tim gets ready to celebrate his wedding anniversary! Pretending he’s forgotten the big day, Sally storms off in a huff, and Tim (wearing only a dressing gown) runs out in the street, giving Mary and Fiz a bit of morning glory. Luckily, 'the mouse was still in the house!' - Mary is comedy gold!! Later, Tim catches up with Sally telling her he hadn't forgotten - giving her the gift which Aggie helped him choose. They make up with a hug, which Aggiei sees, she smiles at the loved-up twosome. Later, Tim meets Aggie in Victoria Garden, and thanks her for her help - giving her a gift too. It's a slow burner but, I think we can guess where this is going, right? Later, Sally arranges a special night for Tim, as a thank you. 

Elsewhere in the romance stakes, Ken and Wendy 'Flamin’ Crozier (that's her official title) rekindle that early 1990s flame, as they both realise they’ve been harbouring feelings for each other. Amy finds out (where are Tracy and Steve, by the way?) and promises to keep things a secret from her Mum. Mary isn't best pleased though as Wendy’s presence is causing ructions in the am-dram group (that Yoko line was brilliant). With the romance rekindled, Wendy decides it's best to resign from ‘Roxanna’. Brian also promises to keep their secret too, and Mary becomes the plays leading lady. I love this storyline - it is Classic Coronation Street, in all its glory. 

Over as Speed Daal, Alya is still helping Stu via sneaky DNA mug testing which she's still trying to hide from Zee and Dee-Dee. Dee-Dee and Ayla have become great friends, she tells her that she's not returning to L.A, and she hasn't told her Aggie or Ed, either. However, she's angry tonight, when faced with another lie, finding out that Alya still wants to test the DNA on that mug even though Stu wants it over with. Still concerned by Yas and Stu’s relationship, Alya convinces Zee that her plan is still the best course of action, and he convinces Dee-Dee to go ahead with it. 

Elsewhere, Max gets a great report from the PRU, Shona and David are pleased with his progression, but it's clear he is still getting bullied. David asks Brian for educational advice, and Max avoids the bad boys by helping Maria on a council jaunt.  

 

This past week of Mary-related am-dram comedy, Daisy at the Rovers helm, new gal Dee-Dee, Bernie being brilliant, and some well-written scripts, have made Coronation Street a treat! 

What are your thoughts? 

I am @rybazoxo self-styled cobbles connoisseur & Coronation Street superfan. 

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The Ballad of Wendy Crozier

There really aren't enough songs about Ken's legendary bit of stuff, Wendy flaming Crozier, in the world.  The woman acted as Ken's muse, so it's surprising she hasn't inspired more works of art over the years.

Fortunately a marvellous chap has rectified this with The Ballad of Wendy Crozier.    

We first blogged this back in 2011 but as Wendy is now appearing in Classic Coronation Street, it's time for a repost and so here we go: Download it here.

Fancy writing a guest blog post for us? All details here!  
 

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The year of Bet, Alma and Wendy flamin' Crozier

I've recently fallen in love with 1990. That's Weatherfield in 1990 to be exact. I can just about remember watching Coronation Street back then as a child, although how much I think I remember and how much I've picked up on since I'll never know. Anyway, a recent episode from January of that year was so enjoyable I thought I would blog about it.

What struck me most about this episode, first broadcast on 19 January was that it concentrated on every day happenings. Two bigger storylines dominated the episode - Alec Gilroy being rebuffed well and truly by his long lost daughter and Alma Sedgewick being a flighty piece and moving in with Mike Baldwin. Everyone featured in the episode felt real, like you could bump into them in the street, the pub or the local cafe. If there was glamour it was of the back street variety. And that's what Corrie does best. 

The Gilroys dominated the episode. Alec, played by the superb Roy Barraclough, had started to feel his age and realising the clock was ticking, decided to track down his daughter Sandra. Not having clapped eyes on her for twenty years, it didn't go well. The fact that Sandra was married to a nice middle class man called Tim, with a horse owning daughter in Victoria just jarred even more with Alec, Bet and the back street pub that was their world. It was awkward and doomed to failure. Alec was humoured and then disowned by the daughter he'd disowned years before. It was a tragic story made even more so with the knowledge of what was to come the following year. 

Bet visited Sandra to try and make her see sense but it was all for nothing as Mrs Arden, as she now was, gave her snobby short shrift and showed her the door. Crestfallen Bet returned to the Rovers only for Alec to see through her lie about going shopping. Bet told him where to go in no uncertain terms, reminding me of the power Julie Goodyear could put into a performance back in the day. Glorious stuff.

Meanwhile, cockney charmer Michael Vernon Baldwin was luring the lovely Alma back into his flat and into his bed. He wined and dined her one night, the next day her suitcase was packed and she was cooking his dinner for him when he got home. Of course, being Baldwin, there's an ulterior motive to all this flowers and filet steak malarky. Out of pocket and out of luck, he's realised Alma's doing quite well for herself so it's obviously more than just those big eyes and turned up collars he's got the hots for. 

The reactions of those around them are typical and true to character. Mavis, in pale pink tabard, is shocked at Alma's flighty nature, mostly because she is doing what Mavis never dared to do and probably wished she had. Audrey on the other hand gives Alma a piece of her mind, calling her "lady" more than once and saying it'll all end in tears. Her judgement is probably coming from direct experience, never having been one to don a pale pink tabard. Audrey knew her mate though. "Alma has never seen sunrise in her life. She thinks God switches it on every morning.”

What makes this episode so rich and rewarding are the little gems that are content to appear in the wings of the main performances. Martin, teased gently by Sally and a 'tache wearing Kevin, about his new relationship with Gail. Don Brennan, mad before he went crazy, over his recently stolen cab. 

The original Rovers Tina (Michelle Holmes) all bubbly about a trip to France with her boyfriend Eddie. Phyllis Pearce, at the other end of the romantic spectrum, friskily chasing Percy into the cafe for a cheeky hot chocolate. All joyous cameos.

One of the most fleeting scenes of all sees Emily shopping with pre-devil Tracy, catching a glimpse of Ken and Wendy flamin' Crozier linking arms as they shop for their frozen peas in Reg Holdsworth's emporium. It was brief with little dialogue but spoke volumes nonetheless.

I loved it. I loved every second of it. The characters were all interlinked, you got a true sense that they all knew each other. They all had their own voices. It was comfortable, cosy, funny but also sad, tragic and knowing. The writer, Leslie Duxbury, knew the show and its audience. Not bad for a half hour in deepest January. 


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Deirdre's ultimatum: Should Ken give up his job?

"It's me or your job!" Deirdre told Ken last night in no uncertain terms on Coronation Street after she found out he'd been wining and dining with old flame Wendy Crozier. 

For those of us with a long memory, last night's Coronation Street brought back the ghost of Wendy Crozier from the first time around.  Last night, the very same line of dialogue was used in 1989 when Deirdre had suspicions that Ken had been seeing the woman from the Weatherfield Gazette.

"I want to know where you've been and who you've been with."

You can see Ken and Wendy first time around here on YouTube starting at 3'.36".

But what do you think about Ken and Wendy this time around?  Should Ken give up his job at Bessie Street School? Yay or Nay?

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Ken Barlow and Wendy Crozier - in a nutshell

A summary of Ken Barlow and Wendy Crozier's relationship has been requested, and here it is, with full credit to Corrie.net where it first appeared.  You might also like to check out The Ballad of Wendy Crozier.

Wendy Crozier appeared on Coronation Street for the first time in 1989.  So if you're not familiar with Ken's old flame, we do hope the following will help.

Wendy Crozier worked for Weatherfield Council and took minutes at council meetings. She started passing her inside information to Ken Barlow who was the editor of The Weatherfield Recorder. Suspicion over the source of the leaks soon started to fall on Deirdre, who ended up having flaming rows with Ken over the invidious position that he had put her in as a councillor. Convinced that she was the source of the leaks, her fellow councillors tried to exclude Deirdre from a meeting of the council, but she decided to leave of her own accord and insisted that this be minuted. Later on that evening, Ken met up with Wendy and she passed over documents from the meeting that Deirdre had left and when Ken printed a story based on this information, the Chief Executive of the council apologised to Deirdre and asked her to spy on Ken to find out who was passing him the information, but being loyal to her husband, she refused to. Suspicion then turned to another councillor, Steve Rafferty, who had been caught passing secrets to The Gazette in the past. Eventually, Ken told Deirdre who his mole was, but this didn't improve their relationship, though Deirdre was at least now able to get her fellow councillor off the hook after she met with the Chief Executive and gave him Ken's strictest assurance that Steve wasn't the source of the leaks.

Despite promising to sever links with Wendy, Ken continued to receive and print stories from her and Deirdre got so incensed that when she was called up in front of the Chief Executive and blamed again, she dropped Wendy in it. Wendy was immediately suspended from duty, then sacked and whilst being very supportive to her while she was going through this crisis, a twinkle started to develop in Ken's eye. Having lost her job at the council, Ken gave her a job at The Recorder, much to Deirdre's chagrin. The relationship between Ken and Wendy started to become much more than that of employer and employee and Wendy ended up cooking dinner for him on his birthday, despite there having been a perfectly adequate celebratory meal waiting for him at home. In order to keep their blossoming affair secret, Wendy resigned from the newspaper and of course this left Ken short staffed at work and gave him all the excuses he needed to be "working late at the office". Wendy asked Ken to leave Deirdre, but he refused and so Wendy decided that they should stop seeing each other, but she still wanted him and of course they ended up together again. Deirdre got suspicious of the late nights and confronted Ken, but he of course denied it and, with the support of Tracy, Deirdre believed him. But then Christmas loomed on the horizon.

Unable to stay apart, Ken spent Christmas Eve at Wendy's, but eventually went home after making sure he left behind the painting that Wendy had given him. On his return Deirdre asked him where he had been and who he had been with and Ken confessed all and after Deirdre told him that she didn't care where he slept but it wouldn't be in her bed, he broke down and cried. As usual Ken wanted the best of both worlds and his inability to make a choice between his mistress and his wife and family ended up with him spending a lonely, uncomfortable, sleepless New Year's Eve night tossing and turning on a chair in his office. The following morning, Tracy rang Wendy to speak to her father and Deirdre was convinced that Wendy was lying when she said that she hadn't seen Ken since the night before. Wendy guessed where Ken was and went round to his office and convinced him to go home with her.

As they were now together as a couple Wendy started to help out at the paper again and using her old council contacts managed to secure a contract for the printing of Public Announcements, but things soon turned sour when Deirdre found out that since Ken had mortgaged the house to buy the paper, and she owned half the house, she therefore owned half the paper and was entitled to half its profits. Wendy offered to lend Ken the money to buy Deirdre out, but he refused, despite Deirdre having given him the option of buying her half of the house and having received an offer for The Recorder from its rival, The Gazette. Despite Wendy's support and encouragement, Ken eventually had to face up to the fact that the paper was in dire financial straits and after much heartache, Ken had to sell up to The Gazette to settle things with Deirdre, though both Wendy and he kept their jobs.

Tracy still wanted to see her adoptive father and much to Deirdre's displeasure started to form a good relationship with Wendy, even going so far as to defend her to Deirdre, which of course only made things worse. As part of her council work, Deirdre went away on a course which meant stopping away overnight. She arranged for Emily Bishop to come in and look after Tracy, but Tracy took her bags and went to stay at Wendy's with her father. When Emily told Deirdre what had happened, she immediately phoned Ken and told him she didn't want her daughter anywhere near THAT WOMAN, but by that time, Tracy was in bed and so Ken was not prepared to wake her up and take her home. Ken's new boss at the paper had not been happy with taking on Ken along with the paper and after Ken missed a meeting with an advertiser because of his 'personal problems', he manouvered him into resigning. This made Ken very bitter, doubly so, when he found out that Wendy had stepped into his shoes and for less money. Ken kept the fact of his new unemployed state from Deirdre, but she soon found out after Wendy bumped into Mike Baldwin and let it slip that Ken was no longer employed at The Recorder.

Ken's devotion to Tracy and his bitterness over Wendy stealing his job had started to take their toll on their fragile relationship and soon Ken realised that he deeply regretted leaving Deirdre and Tracy and so he packed his bags and moved into digs in Chepstow Street. Nothing was ever seen again of Wendy Crozier, but her name was to be mentioned many times in the future as Ken and Deirdre raked over the burnt out coals of their relationships.

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Deirdre catches Ken at it with Wendy Crozier

I can't wait to see this, I just can't wait 

The Daily Star reveals today that Deirdre's in for a shock when she catches hubby Ken kissing his ex-mistress Wendy Crozier - – now the widowed Mrs Papadopoulos.

A Coronation Street insider tells the Star: ­“Deirdre has been married to Ken long enough to know when he is up to something. So when she suspects that he’s lying to her about where he’s going, she decides to follow him. As she spots him getting into a cab, Rita is about to leave the street in her car. So Deirdre ropes her in to help with her snooping. 

When Ken arrives at his destination they follow on foot and are both stunned when Wendy opens the door of her house. The pair kiss to say hello but whether there is any more to their relationship than school business remains to be seen.”

Deirdre catches Ken and Wendy on ITV1 a week tomorrow, Monday 8 October.

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Singalong to The Ballad of Wendy Crozier

Now that legendary 1980s strumpet Wendy Crozier's returned to the cobbles, it's time for us to revisit TV Cream's classic tune, The Ballad of Wendy Crozier.  It's a heartfelt tribute to the Weatherfield Gazette's finest secretary/bit on the side, and you can hear it here.

It's written and performed by my very talented friend Ian, and you can hear more of his compositions at this site.

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First Pic: Wendy Crozier back on Coronation Street

The official Coronation Street website at itv.com/corrie has the first pictures of Ken's ex-lover (and Deirdre's nemesis) Wendy Crozier, who makes her return to Coronation Street.

From the official website: "Ken Barlow's about to be thrown off-kilter was he meets his former lover Wendy Crozier again after 20 years, but what will Deirdre have to say? When Bessie Street school head teacher Brian Packham hears the sad news that the chair of his governors has died he instantly decides that Ken would make the perfect replacement. After being well and truly buttered up Ken agrees and Brian informs him the emergency meeting to elect the new chair is that night. At Bessie Street School, Ken is introduced to the other governors and Brian reveals that in absence to any other candidates Ken is willing to stand as chair.
Ken’s about to accept when Mrs Papadopolous, another governor, breezes in late offering to throw her hat into the ring. But Ken’s thoughts couldn’t be further from school matters when he sees her. Ken remembers Mrs Papadapolous when she was known under another name - Wendy Crozier - and they had an affair.
Wendy is once again played by actress Roberta Kerr and whilst Ken decides it might be wiser to keep Wendy's return a secret from Deirdre, the stage is set for one of Corrie's must-see storylines.

Wendy will be on screen on Monday next week, 24 September.

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See Wendy Crozier before her Corrie return

As we all know by now, one of Ken Barlow's ex-lovers, Wendy Crozier, is set to return to Coronation Street soon.

Roberta Kerr is the actress who plays Wendy in Corrie and fans can see her on stage in Manchester next week.

Wendy is starring in My Arms - a new one hour play by James Leach as part of Manchester's 24:7 Theatre Festival.  My Arms is a drama inspired by stories of the wives of men who go to prison: how sudden it is and how can it leave an indelible mark on a family.

Roberta Kerr plays Helen, and she returns to 24:7 this year having performed in the winner of last year’s Audience Best Play Award, True. She has appeared in plays at Library Theatre, the Lowry, Oldham Coliseum and Bolton Octagon, as well as countless regular TV roles including Eastenders, Coronation Street and Emmerdale.

You can watch a trailer of the play on YouTube.

My Arms will be playing at the 3MT, Northern Quarter, Manchester from 20-27 July. Tickets from www.247theatrefestival.co.uk

For further details visit: http://talkingpropstheatre.wordpress.com

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Ken Barlow's ex-lover Wendy Crozier to return

The official Coronation Street page over at ITV.com has revealed that Wendy Crozier, Ken Barlow's ex-lover from the 1980s is set to return to the show this summer. She will return as Bessie Street Primary School is looking for a new governor and Ken finds that he and Wendy are up for the same role!

If you find yourself unfamiliar with the character, check out the page for her character over at Corrie.net

It will be good to see another classic character returning to the cobbles.

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The ballad of Wendy Crozier

There really aren't enough songs about Ken's legendary bit of stuff, Wendy Crozier, in the world.  The woman acted as Ken's muse, so it's surprising she hasn't inspired more works of art over the years.

Fortunately those marvellous chaps at TV Cream have rectified this with their latest opus - The Ballad of Wendy Crozier.  You can listen to its magnificence - and download it for your iPod - here.

While you're there, check out their brilliant 50 Great Things About Coronation Street podcasts, all of which you can find at this page.

Anyone out there fancy writing Martha Fraser: The Opera?