Top 3 Best Actors in Coronation Street

We've asked before on the Coronation Street Blog for fans to name their favourite characters. But who are your favourite ACTORS? Which of the cast do you think can act their socks off and leave the others standing.

All we want to know is who you would choose, if pressed to name the three actors in the cast who you feel are the best at their game.

For me, it would be the three in the picture above.

Tina O'Brien as Sarah Platt never fails to impress me with her timing and emotion. She's always believable.

David Neilson as Roy Cropper, well, he's just sublime. Always has been, always will be.

And Richard Hawley, as Johnny Connor, is very believable too. With some of the cast you get the feeling that they're acting, they're saying the lines, going through the motions. I never get that from Richard Hawley and fully believe in what he's doing with the character of Johnny.

I have many more favourites, of course, but it's a good exercise to focus the mind and pick your top three.  Who would you choose?

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Paula Tilbrook's Corrie roles

Today we heard the news that Paula Tilbrook, aka Emmerdale's Betty Eagleton is to leave the soap after 21 years. 

While I'm not a regular Emmerdale viewer, I do have some warm memories of watching it with my Nain when I was a boy in the late 90s/early 00s and so I was and am still fond of characters like Betty, Seth, Alan Turner and Jack Sugden. 

So I couldn't let the announcement of Paula's retirement go by without looking back at the various roles she has played in Corrie over the years.

They have all been minor roles, and so here are a brief synopses of each one:

In episode 665 (1 May 1967), she played a Customer. 

In episode 1351 (26 December 1973), she played Mrs Cleghorn, who rubbed Rita up the wrong way. See a synopsis of the character here.

She then appeared as Estelle Pimpton, an acquaintance of Annie Walker from the Lady Victuallers Society in episode 1741 (21st September 1977) who is amused that Annie's new carpet is from the old bingo hall!

In episodes 1978 and 1979 (17th and 19th of March 1980), she appeared as Olive Taylor-Brown, another friend of Annie Walker. You can see a synopsis of the character here.

Her final role was as Vivian Barford on a irregular basis between March 1991 and July 1993. Vivian was a member of WARTs and was an old friend of Alf Roberts who rubbed Audrey up the wrong way. She successfully persuaded him to re-stand as a councillor in 1991 against Deirdre. You can read a synopsis about the character here.

Soon after her last appearance on Corrie, she began her long stint on Emmerdale. Happy retirement Paula!

by Llifon

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Flavours of the month

The blog post about Kym Marsh signing on for another year of Corrie got me thinking.  While Michelle isn't my favourite character, she's not my least favourite either. What did make an impression is the anonymous source saying that Michelle was the very center of the show. Excuse me???

Smells like a very good publicity agent to me. I know characters like Michelle have been overused on the show to the point where, even if we didn't mind them before, we got sick to the eye teeth of them. Yet their faces are all over the media and their importance to the show is exaggerated beyond credibility. Sometimes, actors seem to be the flavour of the month for years, like Ms. Marsh, and other times they have their time in the spotlight and fade off again.

The saving grace for some of the "flavours of the month" on screen is that they tend to keep to themselves in their private life but then we have actors like Ms. Marsh and former Corrie actor Helen Flanagan who seems to be making a career out of getting her face and body anywhere on the internet that will have her. But acting jobs? Not so much. I've had a ramble about it over here. 




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Which Corrie characters are 'safe'?

Earlier in the week we were assured that Deirdre's future on the show is safe. Some comments in reaction to this began to question if some characters/actors are regarded as being safe, and maybe don't have to renew their contracts every two years like we hear happens to Kym Lomas or Michelle Collins.

It has been said that both William Roache and Eileen Derbyshire have 'iron' contracts, and that they cannot be axed. Since when has this been in force, who knows? If it has been! Bill Podmore once said that Ken Barlow has survived more assassination attempts than J. R. Ewing. Does Barbara Knox have an iron contract and did Betty Driver and Bill Tarmey and Liz Dawn?

Poor Peter Baldwin, who played Derek Wilton, thought that his future on the show was secure when he signed a contract in late 1996. But bang, in early 1997, he was told that Derek was being written out! So, signing a contract doesn't always mean an actor's future's safe!

And did Jean Alexander go before she was pushed? She was unhappy about her lack of storylines and decided to leave. Would producers dare axe the show's most popular character?

A few years back producers also discussed axing Blanche but changed their minds. Even a character as popular as Blanche was not safe from the axe. Helen Worth was considered to face the axe in 2001 but was saved when she became involved in the Hillman storyline. And she had been in the soap for 27 years! So sometimes a character's longevity doesn't always mean their future's safe.

So who do you think should be regarded as 'safe' characters? Characters you wouldn't dream of getting rid of them. Do you think producers should make public reassurances of the future of certain characters like the veterans of the show and acknowledge their appreciation of them?

My list of who should never be axed are: Emily, Rita, Deirdre, Gail, Audrey, Steve, Roy, Sally and Norris.

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Pics: Corrie cast have wheely good fun

Paparazzi pictures appeared this week of some members of the Coronation Street cast having a wheely good time in between takes jusst off the Corrie set. 

Below are - left to right - Alan Hasall (Tyrone Dobbs), Jack P Shepherd (David Platt), Chris Fountain (Tommy Duckworth), Simon Gregson (Steve McDonald) and Charlie Condou (Marcus Dent) all having a go on the new toy. It looks like a skateboard with oversized wheels. Does anyone know what it actually is?

And then it was the turn of Sally Dynevor (Sally Webster) to take to the wheels, and as you can see she needed a bit of help from her Corrie co-stars.

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Lisa George's Beth signs up for another 6 months on Corrie

Lisa George's contract to play Beth Tinker has been extended a further six months. She will continue to stitch knickers, torture Tracy Barlow and have her oh-so-blunt say until at least October. This is great news as she's quickly turned into one of my favourites!

She's appeared in Coronation Street before in short parts, as a family liason officer after Tommy Harris was killed and in 1997, a non-speaking extra as a colleague of Martin Platt. She's thrilled to bits to be part of the iconic Corrie. Recent gigs have seen her touring nursing homes around the UK as part of an entertainment act.

In this interview, Lisa says she loves playing Beth who's quite different from her. She's much braver and Lisa loves that Beth says what she thinks, even if she doesn't actually think before she speaks sometimes!

"Beth is cross, brash and bold. She is a soft touch, though, and unfortunately she doesn't think before she speaks!"

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Famous faces on Coronation Street

Two posts here today got me thinking. First there was the news that well known actor Sue Johnston may be joining Coronation Street as Stella's mother. Then there was Scott's great post about changing Stella's character to inject a bit of her inner cow but perhaps not changing her into Cindy Beale mark II, Cindy being the character she played on that Other Soap for many years.  Michelle Collins is still identified with that role after a long time away from it and Sue Johnston is also well known for her previous roles.

Corrie has sometimes cast other parts with well known faces, both for long term characters and short term "guest" spots. They may be known for other soaps, other tv shows or even films. They've also recast characters with new actors, sometimes successfully and sometimes not. Over the years I've read comments on blogs and forums about this and in many cases, the feedback is negative. People seem to prefer unknown actors rather than see someone they identify as a different character.

My view? Why not use a known actor? You don't have to cast them all the time, but by the very nature of the business, actors play a variety of roles. Sometimes they get known for a particular role and sometimes we are used to seeing them as all manner of characters.

I've blogged a bit more about it over here. I say, bring it on.



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Kym March releases autobiography 'From the Heart'

Kym Marsh has been busy during her maternity leave. She's penned an autobiography that is being released on June 23 and it's called From the Heart. There are a few exerpts from it in today's Daily Mail where you can read about the ordeal she went through last year with the stillbirth of her son, Archie.

The book is about more than just that. She also describes her childhood growing up in Wigan, her experiences being bullied in school and an eating disorder that she struggled with. 

It's interesting that the medical procedure they had to do is one that a friend of mine also had. While it wasn't successful for her pregnancy with Archie, it was with her pregnancy with her new baby Polly.

Kym will be back on our screens in the fall. Her book will be out next week.

Corrie Originals

I was looking up the character name of the recurring character of the detective who's been on Corrie recently in conjunction with the Stapewich mess that Fiz is in.  That's D.C. Redfern, if you're interested. Anyway, I was scrolling down the cast list on Imdb.com and the name of Dennis Tanner slid past my view.

Philip Lowrie plays Dennis and he is also the same actor that played Dennis when Corrie first started in 1960. In fact, he was in the very first episode along with current long standing record-breaking William Roache. Now, I know Mr. Lowrie isn't going to break any records as far as that goes, but isn't it cool that there are now two actors who originated their roles over 50 years ago on the very first episode who are on the current cast list playing the same characters?

There's a third actor, Eileen Derbyshire who has been playing her role for over 50 years as well. She first appeared as Miss Nugent on our screens in January, 1961. That's quite an achievement! In fact, if you watch episode 4 of Coronation Street, you will also spot a woman with Leonard Swindley (see photo right) and he distinctly refers to her as Miss Nugent though it's not the same actor, just a non-speaking extra. So you could argue the case of Miss Nugent being a character in the show even before Eileen Derbyshire played her as a speaking part.

I think that it's wonderful that the original actors have been available to revive old characters such as Dennis Tanner and, a year or so ago, Jed Stone. There aren't too many of them left alive from those early years or who are able to revive the part.

Peter Barlow...Meet Peter Barlow!

A sharp eyed fan, MartinS who is one of our regular readers, spotted this actor on Friday's and tonight's Coronation Street. David Lonsdale played an investigator who was looking for John Stape, if you will recall. But where have you seen him before? Some viewers may recognize him as David Stockwell from Heartbeat but even sharper eyes may recall him as one of the former incarnations of Peter Barlow on Corrie. David played Peter from 1986 to 1988 during the period that his twin Susan was married to Mike Baldwin. All we need now is  for this guy to nip into the betting shop for a wager on his way back to see Fiz or for Ken to come out of the house and spy this man, stop, and shake his head wondering where he has seem him before! Wishful thinking!

See also: Where have you seen...?
Charlotte's Parents, Ken Barlow's grandson James, Ken Barlow's son Lawrence, Dr Matt Carter, Saucy Charlotte, Izzy's dad Owen Armstrong,The Corrie coppers, Colin Fishwick, Trevor the binman, Connie Rathbone, Uncle Umed,Julie Carp's mum, Luke Strong, Sophie Webster's boyfriend, Eileen Grimshaw's dad, Norris' girlfriend, Graeme Proctor,Molly's Aunty Pam, Maria's mum and dad, Gail's dad, Scary Brian, Tina's dad, Tony Gordon's henchman, Little Simon Barlow

Elsie Tanner and Pat Phoenix - Unforgettable

In the UK last week, there was a half hour special on Pat Phoenix who played the wonderful Elsie Tanner, one of the most iconic Coronation Street characters ever. It has been shown before, originally airing in April 2000,  but not in Canada. Thanks to the magic of YouTube, however, you can see this documentary that is chock full of interviews from coworkers and friends who knew her. It's great stuff to see old photos and interview footage of Pat and to hear what she was really like. This photo is from her pre-Corrie days when she was acting in reperatory theatre around England. No wonder she was able to instill that air of glamour in Elsie!
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3