Sir Anthony Hopkins loves Coronation Street

Don't know if anyone else saw this one, but I happened to be looking through a pile of old magazines at work last night and I found a Corrie 50th Special freebie, from the People (I'm sorry - it went a-missing, so I can't tell you the exact date, but I'm guessing December obviously), in which various celebs were swearing their undying devotion to Corrie.

Most were the usual "used to watch it eating my tea in a hip-bath while my grandad mended his bike" and so forth, but I was amused by Sir Anthony Hopkins' contribution, which was, "Life wouldn't be worth living without Coronation Street." Nothing like a bit of hyperbole.

Wouldn't it be great if he appeared on the cobbles for a while? Perhaps he could help out at Roy's, cooking up some new recipes.

F-f-f-f.

My own blog is here

Kevin Webster - did he have it coming?

Corrie producer Phil Collinson promised us viewers that we'd see several families' lives changed forever thanks to the tram crash, and clearly the Websters are among them. They've got it all going on at the moment, haven't they? Molly Dobbs' deathbed revelation to Sally about Kevin being baby Jack's dad has been a bombshell and it's given all the cast concerned an opportunity to act their socks off. Sally Dynevor's been especially good and it's been great to see her with more to do than merely look sour-faced and carp at the factory.

Alan Halsall's also been really good as Tyrone. And what about Michael Le Vell as Kevin? He's one of these Corrie characters that have been around for so long, pretty much ticking along in the same old way, that they get taken for granted. Until the Molvin debacle, Kevin seemed a fairly amiable character, despite the several obligatory-in-Corrie affairs over the years, pottering around at the Garage and being a good enough dad and a good enough mate. But that's all over now, and Sally and "the girls" have kicked him out. What's to become of him?

Did he deserve to end up getting thumped and toppling into his ex-lover's grave ? To be honest, I'm still not sure how I feel about that part. It was almost a black comedy moment, but not quite.

It feels to me like the production team are relishing their self-appointed task of doing a demolition job on some of the Corrie cornerstones. Fair enough. But don't go too far, is my opinion. The next few weeks will reveal whether their "chuck 'em into the air and let's see where the pieces fall" approach has paid off.

My own blog is here

Coronation Street weekly awards, December 6 - 10

Hero of the week: Gold Star: Ashley, R.I.P.
Silver Star: (tie) Ciaran and Jason.
Bronze Star: everyone else that helped get someone out from under the rubble.

Chump of the week: Gold Star: John Stape for hammering Charlotte and putting her *into* the rubble!

Desperation award: Gold Star: Becky robbed the shop to get money to pay Kylie.

Beat me with a guilty stick award: Gold Star: Carla, who was the one that sent Nick back to tell Peter about the affair.

Forget men, stick with women award: Gold Star: Carla again. She's lost her brother-in-law, Dean, her first husband, Paul, her lover, Liam, all to sudden violent accidents and her second husband Tony blew himself up. Now the one she is in love with is still not out of the woods after an accident as well and she's lost the one friend she's got.

Private Hell award: Gary and his Afghanistan flashbacks.

That solves that problem award: Gold Star: Molly did say she was leaving Tyrone and she wouldn't be back. She was right.
Silver Star: Charlotte's brain-dead and her parents ask "Colin" if they should take her off life support. Doh.

There's no way to award any stars in particular for performance of the week. They were all astounding, even the ones that I don't normally find all that good.

Lines of the week:
Rita: "What is it wi'me and trams!"
Ashley: "It's a stag night, what's going to happen?" (Oh Ashley!)
John: "Anyone can hit a nail with a hammer" (and a bigger target is even easier)
Dr. Carter: "What's the worst that could happen?" Tina: "Well you might not get out of here alive"
Nick: "That's the last time I have a stag do in here!"
Simon: "It's a bit smoky up there!"
Norris: "The vision of Hell itself"
Molly to Sally: "He chose you because you are beautiful inside and out"
Carla: "You didn't choose Peter. You married him for his expiry date" (Ouch)
Sally: "Did you bother running or was that just fancy dress?" and "Nothing like a tumour in your wife's breast to shake you out of a midlife crisis!"

50th Anniversary Week: Recovery

What's everyone doing this weekend? Have you recovered from the best week of Corrie ever? Are you reliving it? Rewatching it? Are you reading all the media coverage?

Or have you put it behind you, donned your flak jackets and headed out Christmas shopping?

It's the day after the week that was and I'm still coming down to earth slowly. It's still be mostly all Corrie all day as I catch up on the specials and slowly catch my breath. My musings on the subject are here on my other blog as I wonder what's coming up this week on the show.

50th Anniversary Week: Day 5

The week is finally at an end. Dawn will be breaking soon. Truths were revealed, hearts were broken, several types of relationships were blown apart,  and at least one person is taking a huge sigh of relief, thinking his problems are solved. Don't bet on that, mate. My final thoughts on Day 5 of anniversary week to be found here.

50th Anniversary Week: Day 4

I'm busy blogging Anniversary Week, I've just finished Day 4's observations after another emotional ride. One death for sure, one birth and one wedding. Another character's life hangs in the balance as we head into Friday's finale. Check out day 4 on my State of the Street blog.

Call The Doctor!

There's a lovely tribute from one long time BBC tv show to our own Coronation Street over here. Yes, Doctor Who has given Corrie a nod on it's Golden Anniversary and with a little of the Doctor's jiggery-pokery magic, maybe The TARDIS can touch down in Weatherfield to lend a helping hand during the crisis at hand!

Doctor Who and Coronation Street do have a lot in common, with actors appearing in both series over the years. Helen Worth was in it in the 70s, Sarah Lancashire was in it in the season before the one just seen. Suranne Jones will be in an episode in the coming season and Elizabeth Sladen, who played Sarah Jane Smith on Doctor Who in the 70s and now has her own Sarah Jane series was in Corrie for 6 episodes in 1970! Of course, current producer Phil Collinson comes to Corrie from Doctor Who as does director Graham Harper!

Interview with Corrie's producer

Coronation Street goes out live tonight at 8:00 on ITV1 and there will be millions watching. The Manchester Evening News has a short interview with producer Phil Collinson.

He speaks about the increased security around the studio tonight to make sure nobody tries to sabotage the episode (but those reports of preventing terrorist attacks are pretty silly!). They've also pre-recorded one of the dress rehearsals as a backup in case anything untoward happens but he thinks everything will go to plan.

We'll see the deaths of two characters tonight and the busiest actor on the ground will be Graeme Hawley who will be zipping from set to set. It'll be a challenge but I'm sure he'll be up to it. This is likely where he'll be dealing with both Fiz in hospital and the body in his house! Antony Cotton has the first line of the episode and ... away we go!

Happy Golden Anniversary, Corrie

It started out that I was going to post a blog article and link to some of the many news pieces out today in celebration of Coronation Street's anniversary. I ended up writing about my own feelings about Corrie and it grew and grew until I ended up saving it over on my State of the Street blog here.

The links? Oh yes...
BBC has an interview with Jean Alexander remembering her career and her time as Hilda Ogden.
Ian Wylie has a really nice interview with Tony Warren.
The Telegraph has an A to Z of Coronation Street
And then there's this, bloody brilliant, comparison timeline between the early years of Coronation Street and the events on the popular American drama Mad Men over on The Retronaut.. Click on the photo, it'll open up small but there's an "expand" clicky thing to make it large so you can read it. 

(Another reminder about the Corrie Crazy documentary on CBC tonight at 8 pm/8:30 Nfld)

Weekend Corrie reading

The weekend newspapers are full of all things Coronation Street. There are so many that the best thing to do is link to some of the various pieces here all in one blog post. There are tributes, memories and interviews, all in aid of the week celebrating the 50th anniversary of Coronation Street.

In the Telegraph, Harry Wallop makes a good point about how critics always say Corrie doesn't really mirror British society. "But Corrie never pretended to hold a mirror up to Britain. It held a mirror up to ourselves. It was the characters, not the place, that we warmed to." 

The Guardian has a list of 50 disasters and catastrophes, everything from Hilda's muriel getting water soaked to Richard Hillman's murder spree and everything in between.

The MEN has a round-up that goes over familiar territory. There's also links there for fans to add their memories and they have  a survey running here.

The Mirror is giving pretty lousy odds as to the survival of Ashley and Molly, with even odds to Rita. Ken, Dev and Kevin seem to have the best chances of making it though!

Corrie special effects are going to blow us away

The explosion and crash next week that is going to devastate Coronation Street took a lot of planning and detail work to make it look real. With that in mind, the special effects team headed by Danny Hargreaves got stuck in months ago and they're hoping that what they've created is going to be "da bomb" (pun intended!)

There's an interview with Danny Hargreaves in the MEN today. They used a combination of CGI and real explosions and fire to create a very realistic scenario. He says "I always think it’s nice to have real people and action at the heart of things." which is why the effects aren't all CGI. I agree. I think CGI has it's place but real people and real heat and fire and smoke always work better for me.

They've brought out that tired line about filming several outcomes so the cast "still" don't know who lives or dies which is pretty dumb since they've been filming funerals and other scenes since then and would know already who's for the off.

That aside, it's interesting to read about their approach. I'd love to see a "behind the scenes" special (not just on ITV's website because I can't see that, not living in the U.K.!) on how it all came together!

Corrie tribute on EastEnders

In a lovely gesture and a nod to its rival, a long standing character in EastEnders is going to mention Coronation Street next week.

One of the original characters, Dot Branning, is going to mention that she watches Corrie and never misses it. Thursday, December 9, which is the night of the actual 50th anniversary and will be the live episode, will see her tell Kat Moon that she's spending the night at home with her husband watching Corrie's 50th anniversary show.

The worst ever Corrie couple?

Now that we're approaching the fatal 50th and we've got Molvin rising like a ghastly phoenix from the ashes for a (hopefully) final flourish, not to mention Nick and Leanne (oh dear - it's so horrible I'll just leave it at "not to mention Nick and Leanne..."), it set me to wondering about which might be the most awful ever Corrie coupling.

Me, I'd go for the disturbing "Dev 'n' Deirdre". It's been etched on my mind for years and it won't go away. I'd put Nick and Leanne in their current incarnation as a fairly close second. Then Molvin.

How on earth do they think them up? In the words of Big Jim McDonald - I'll tell you this and I'll tell you no more - the script-writing boffins at Corrie Towers have got some twisted minds! So they do!

Corrie "Royalty" in Hello

There's a wonderful set of photos and some chat with six Coronation Street icons, past and present, in this week's Hello magazine that's on sale now. This is just a teaser but the rest are really great too and it's in honour of the show's 50th anniversary. Between these six, they have 215 years on screen! William Roache, of course, has 50 years. Betty Driver has 41, Bill Tarmey finished 31, Barbara Knox is 38 years and counting. Former Corrie stars Julie Goodyear had 25 under her rhinestone studded belt and Johnny Briggs racked up 30 years as Mike Baldwin. That's pretty amazing, when you think of it! Pick it up this week, it'll be a nice souvenir!

Photo courtesy of Hello Magazine.

The backbone of the Street - where now?

I found this photograph here when searching for another one for another blog post, and I couldn't resist blogging it. I'm sure some of you must have seen it before. Apparently, it's the original cast, taken on the roof of Granada studios in Manchester. I just love it. Lovely to see Doris Speed of course, and Violet Carson looking so proud in the centre, Pat Phoenix fabulous beside her, and William Roache looking very windswept and "Melvin Bragg" at the front!

The death of Jack Duckworth has really made me think about where Corrie goes from here. It's often been said that "the oldies" are the backbone of the Street. Well, we've recently lost a few "vertebrae" in the form of Blanche, Vera, Jack, and we're soon to lose Liz (sorry Liz - you're not old - but you know what I mean). Stalwarts. Corrie needs its stalwarts, and I'm wondering where the next generation is going to come from. Is it even possible, in today's TV and acting world, to have stalwarts? I don't know. I'm just a fan, not part of the machine.

Let's face it. The current incumbents of "the metaphorical snug" are going to move on in one way or another over the foreseeable. Whos' going to replace them? The Corrie powers that be must be thinking about that.

Us viewers get fond of our characters. We know they're not "real people" yet part of us responds to them as if they are. That's why we watch Corrie. We like the characters, and we identify with them. Storylines, serial killers and tram crashes come and go but it's the characters (underpinned by dialogue) that hold the whole thing together and that's why Corrie's lasted for fifty flaming years!

Do soaps like Corrie need to fulfil a social role any more? I'm not sure. The way we use media has changed so much over the past ten, twenty years. We used to relate to the continuity of Coronation Street - it gave a sense of stability, even if it was illusory. Perhaps it's only oldies like me who still look for that! I don't know. Questions, questions.

Anybody else been thinking ahead?

50 Years Of Corrie In 50 Days - 1961

Day 1 of our 50 day countdown of Coronation Street - written by blogger Sunny Jim.

Elsie Tanner was probably the most gossiped about woman on Coronation Street. 1961 saw her first screen kiss, in a telephone box with Bill Gregory who was to whisk her away from the cobbles to Portugal 23 years later. In between she attracted the attention of an endless supply of men and fell in love and had her heart broken countless times. She married 2 of these, Steve Tanner and Alan Howard, and was proposed to many times by Len Fairclough, who she regarded more as a best friend than a lover and refused to marry him for fear of losing his friendship. But he was always there to pick up the pieces after another disastrous affair.

Having been through the mill herself Elsie was more than happy to keep a motherly eye on young women passing through Weatherfield and give them the benefit of her years of experience. They never listened of course but she’d be there to provide tea and sympathy and a shoulder to cry on when the inevitable happened.

Behind the scenes, 1961 saw a crisis that nearly saw the end of the Street before it really got started. A strike was called by the actors’ union, Equity, for a new pay deal to reflect the success of commercial television. Fortunately 14 of the 25 cast members had signed contracts before the strike started and so the programme continued to run twice a week throughout the strike. However Granada were unable to employ anybody new or any extras so places like the Rovers suddenly seemed deserted.

As the strike continued into 1962, contracts that had expired couldn’t be renewed and at one point it got to the stage where there was nobody to serve behind the bar at the Rovers and a props man had to slide a pint into view. By the time the strike ended after nearly 5 months, the writers were having a hard time trying to find stories for the remaining 6 or 7 cast members. Bizarre stories were dreamt up that included the appearance of a chimpanzee and some performing sealions as they didn’t need Equity cards.

Also in 1961: Paul Cheveski is born; The Cheveski’s emigrate to Canada; Ida Barlow is run over by a bus; Joan Walker marries Gordon Davies; Concepta Riley marries Harry Hewitt; Violet Carson switches on Blackpool Illuminations with a Corrie theme; and Coronation Street is fully networked.

Filming pictures: Massive explosion on Coronation Street

The Daily Mail has pictures of the moment the tram crashes into the street (that is what the article says, though the viaduct is still standing in the pictures) and causes utter chaos. I won't post the pictures directly here, due to the secrecy surrounding the storyline, but I will say this, it looks epic, very epic.

Picture credit: Inside Soap

Update: The article has now been updated with an arial picture of the set. I feel slightly disappointed in the Daily Mail for trying to spoil it.

Russell Hobbs reveal Corrie's 50th range

Russell Hobbs have revealed their Coronation Street range, you can get a Corrie toaster or even a Corrie kettle!

The design on the items is the legendary Ogden logo (the three flying ducks), and the Coronation Street logo.

So now you can have a Corrie cuppa during the advert break of Corrie!

Coronation Street upcoming DVD releases

There are some DVD collections that are available now for pre-order through both Amazon and HMV.com. These include several that are compilation sets of previously released material packaged for the 50th anniversary. Here's a list:

Up first, Coronation Street Golden Anniversary Collection. This is a 12 disc box set. Amazon describes the product as "The complete Coronation Street anthology, featuring all the pinnacle moments of life on the cobbles. The ultimate collector's box set, celebrating the past 50 years on Coronation Street, this very special box set includes the following programmes: The Stars of the Street--50 Classic Characters, the very first episode, 30 other key and ground-breaking episodes featuring familiar faces young and old, including the most memorable episode when Prince Charles was on set, six Coronation Street family albums, Corrie Controversies, eight special programmes focusing on different families and events central to the past 50 years and The Street Undressed. " This set retails for £48.99 which is about 20 pounds off the regular price and will be released on October 11.

Should you not want the whole 12 dvd set, for £11.99 you can purchase The Stars of Coronation Street - 50 Years, 50 Classic Characters which is being released separately. (It's included in the 50th Golden box set) It includes some classic episodes from the 60s through 80s like the older box sets released for the 40th anniversary had, but it also has some classic episodes from the 90s and 00s. This is to be released on October 11.

Coronation Street, A Knight's Tale is also available for pre-order at Amazon and will be released November 1. It's retailing for £11.99 as well.

Also, an HMV exclusive, The Road To Coronation Street, that wonderful Daran Little-written drama that was just aired on BBC will be released on DVD on October 4. It will go for £7.99 with free UK delivery.

Win afternoon tea with the Corrie cast

To celebrate 50 years of Coronation Street, Typhoo tea has "a host of jaw-dropping prizes for all you die-hard Corrie fans out there".

Recreate the theme tune using only "oos" and you could win an exclusive chance to tour the Corrie set with five friends, and ten runners up will have afternoon tea at the Lowry Hotel with some of the Corrie cast. Plus, every video entry will win a limited edition set of 3 Coronation Street tea caddies.

Full details here.