Conversation Street, the Coronation Street fan podcast,
today celebrates a milestone. It’s their 3000th episode. That’s quite
an achievement! And so we spoke to Gemma
and Michael at Conversation Street all about their
podcast and here's what they said!
Congratulations on
your 300th episode! Are you planning any celebrations for your milestone episode?
Yes! For the 300th episode, we were thrilled to be joined by Nicola Thorp for an interview. We’ve
been big fans of her character, Nicola Rubinstein, since she arrived on the
cobbles last Ssummer, and were thrilled to hear she was up for a chat. We ended
up talking for 45 minutes or so about all manner of things: Nicola’s complex
relationship with her estranged father, Pat Phelan; what it’s like to work
alongside the likes of Connor McIntyre, Mikey North and Harry Visinoni; what
her hopes for the future of her character are (look out, Imran!); and her
recent charity work. Hopefully our listeners will enjoy listening to it just as
much as we enjoyed doing it!
What have been your five highlights of running a Coronation Street podcast?
1) We love interacting
with other Corrie fans, and running the podcast has given us a fantastic
opportunity to get in touch with viewers from all over the world. To be honest,
when we started the show, we had no idea about Corrie’s international appeal,
especially in Canada, and Conversation Street has helped us to make some great
pals, some of whom we’ve met in real life, like your blogger Tvor, and others
who we’ve become firm friends with over the Internet.
Coming along to the
Corriefest five years ago, which you can hear about in Episode 24, was also a great way
for us to meet fellow Corrie fans (including Coronation Street Blog head honcho
Glenda!), as was taking part in last year’s Fans vs Cast quiz at the Black Dog
Ballroom in Manchester’s Northern Quarter (Episode 259).
2) The first time we
realised that some of the cast of Corrie listened to the podcast was a real
highlight. Although we weren’t watching back in the 80s when she first
appeared, Jenny Bradley immediately made an impression on the pair of us when
her character returned to the show in 2015, and we were so excited to receive
some tweets from Sally Ann Matthews saying how much she enjoyed hearing us
praising her character on the show. Since then, she’s become a good friend of
the podcast, along with the likes of Connor McIntyre, Georgia Taylor and, more
recently, Charlie de Melo.
It can be a bit nerve-wracking sometimes if we
criticise parts of Corrie knowing that some of the cast are listening, but
we’ve been told our unfiltered honesty about what we love and hate about the
show is one of the things people like about it!
3) A combination of the first two points, really, we’ve always loved
being able to interview people on the show. Our first one was with Corrie fan
Mark Grant, who came on to talk about his work organising fan events in Canada,
and since then we’ve chatted with fans including Jack Lewin (famous for his
Lego Corrie creations), Paul Lanagan (also known as @CorrieArt on Twitter) and
Inside Soap writer Kate White.
Not only that, but we’ve also been lucky enough
to welcome some of the cast onto the show for interviews. Last summer, when the
podcast celebrated its 5th anniversary, was a particular highlight,
as we got the opportunity to chat with five cast members including Richard
Hawley, Jennie McAlpine and Brooke Vincent. Check out this page on our blog for
all the links to the episodes featuring interviews!
4) Living down here in Southampton, you can sometimes feel a bit cut off
from the Corrie fandom, but since starting the podcast, we’ve made a number of
visits up north to Manchester. Our first big trip was in Episode 90, when we drove to
Manchester to tour the old set, which had recently been opened up to the
general public for the first time in years. We also took the opportunity to
track down some of the Corrie filming locations including the Red Rec and
Audrey and Phelan’s houses, and had a slap-up meal at Jennie McAlpine’s tea
rooms, Annie’s. A few years ago, we also drove up to Blackpool, a town with
many links to Corrie. We stayed in the hotel outside of which Alan Bradley was
knocked down by a tram, scaled the Blackpool Tower and had tea in the Tower
Ballroom, and took a look at the Corrie exhibit at Madame Tussauds. A real
treat for Episode 206.
5) Probably our most memorable moment so far, though, was when we got
the opportunity to tour the Media City set last year, for Episode 250. Connor McIntyre
was kind enough to invite us up to see the set, and we spent the day exploring
the Street, watching some of the scenes being filmed, looking through the prop
store and even getting to have a chat with some of the cast members. It was a huge
privilege, and something we’ll never forget (we even got to take a lollipop
from The Kabin as a memento!).
Well
done, guys! Carry on Podcasting!
See also:
Please read our advice for leaving comments on the Coronation Street Blog
All original work on Coronation Street Blog is covered by a Creative Commons License
