Congratulations to Corrie's Jennie McAlpine

The Manchester Evening News has the scoop today on the arrival over the weekend of Jennie McAlpine and partner Chris Farr's new baby.  The baby's name is Albert and he was born on Saturday, November 29. Jennie herself tweeted the news.

“On Saturday our lives changed forever with the arrival of our baby boy Albert. Happiness and pride like never before x”

We here at Blog Towers welcome baby Albert into the world and send congratulations to the new Mum and Dad!


Download our App | Follow on Twitter @CoroStreetBlog | Like on Facebook



All original work on the Coronation Street Blog is covered by a Creative Commons License

The future of Carla's child

Carla's finally resolved her Schrodinger's Womb; until last night's episode she was simultaneously pregnant and not pregnant.  Now that we all know, yes, there is a tiny ball of cells gestating inside the fabulous Ms Connor (given the state of her marriage, there's not really much point in calling her Mrs Barlow, is there?) the question becomes: what happens next?

Carla is not maternal.  This has been long established.  She's terrible with Simon, always has been; her idea of parenting is to lump him in front of the X Box with a packet of Frazzles while she thumbs through the fashion mags in the bath.  She doesn't like children.  She had a terrible childhood.  She loves her home comforts.  She is, in short, exactly the wrong kind of person to have a baby.

Babies should be wanted, desired, loved.  In an ideal world every child would be produced from two loving, caring parents who wanted nothing more than to reproduce and who are willing to sacrifice everything for their newborn.  Life isn't like that; life finds a way.  Life creates children out of drunken fumblings, out of unhappy marriages, out of lonely, scared women, and each unloved child is a little story of sadness in itself.

Here's how I'd like Carla's story to develop.  I'd like Carla to feel regret that this has happened, this accident of genetic material (because it was an accident; you can bet your life that she was using contraception of one kind or another).  I'd like her to experience sadness that this decision, this huge, momentous, life altering decision, has been thrust upon her.  And then I'd like her to get an abortion.

Abortions don't really happen in soap operas.  This is mainly because they are a neat, catch all answer that solves a lot of problems, and a problem means a drama.  If a character in a soap opera finds out she's pregnant, she usually persists with the baby, even if she's not sure who the father is (Molly), or she's only known the father for five minutes (Kirsty), or she's pretty sure the relationship is doomed because he's in love with his former sister in law (Maria), or she's had a one night stand that pretty much everyone regrets (Tracy).  SurpriseChild! is a classic soap opera trope and creates years of drama.

When terminations do appear, it's often as a storytelling device, nothing more.  Think of Katie loitering outside the hospital, waiting to see if Chesney really loves her and will come and save her.  His arrival, and her subsequent decision to give birth, was a "romantic triumph" - even if two teenagers having a baby is rarely a good idea, and they've subsequently split up.  Alternatively, there's Tina aborting David's baby; in this instance, a teenage mother was a bad thing because that way David could go off the deep end and be even more psychotic than usual.  Tina was pretty much forgotten after he chucked Gail down the stairs.

I'd like Carla to make a careful, intelligent, logical decision.  I'd like her to decide that there are too many unloved, unwanted children in the world.  I'd like her to explain to Peter that she wasn't ready to devote the rest of her life to a baby she didn't ask for; I'd like him to support her and her decision.  I'd like her friends and family to hold her hand and look after her while she undergoes the procedure. I'd like her to say goodbye to what could have been, and then look forward to the wonderful life she can live without the stresses and pain of a burdensome child with her.  I'd like the abortion to be presented as a positive in the life of a woman who knows what she wants and what will make her happy.

It's a side of terminations that's rarely presented; women in dramas who have abortions are usually shown to be a bit mad, full of regret, sad at what could have been.  I've known a few women who've had terminations, and in every instance, their life is so much better now than it would have been with a child they didn't want.  Soap operas so often talk about "dealing with issues"; how about we deal with an issue where a woman makes a decision to be happy?  It would be a refreshing, adult decision to show something that happens to thousands of women in this country but is rarely talked about, and to not suggest it's a cause of shame or disgust.  It might not be as dramatic, but life isn't sometimes.  Sometimes a soap opera can simply reflect life as it is.

Download our App | Follow on Twitter @CoroStreetBlog | Like on Facebook



All original work on the Coronation Street Blog is covered by a Creative Commons License

Poll: Music to herald in the new Corrie baby

With the news that Gail is going to deliver Kylie's baby next month, I read with a chuckle some of the suggestions in the blog comments for the song that might be playing in the background as she goes into labour. With that in mind, shall we have a poll? Here's a couple of the best suggestions, and a couple from me but feel free to add your own!


You can follow us on Twitter @CoroStreetBlog and Facebook: CoronationStreetBlog


All original work on the Coronation Street Blog is covered by a Creative Commons License

The Rovers Return Maternity Ward

It's a soap standard that very few babies are born in a hospital in the maternity ward. It's just not as dramatic as giving birth in a remote shack on a beach or in the back of a taxi, is it? Even in Corrie's early days we heard characters talk about having their babies. Ken Barlow himself was born in 1939 at home by Ena Sharples when his mother, Ida, went into labour suddenly.

It is no surprise, therefore, that the Rovers Return, the heart of the Street, has been the scene of several births over the years. The first one, as a character back story, was Elsie Tanner's daughter, Linda, who was born in the back room and delivered by Ena Sharples. Corriepedia verifies this.

The first birth on screen was the son of Tricia Armstrong who had baby Brad in the back room. Betty Turpin delivered him. Tricia had had a one night stand with Terry Duckworth. She was "in lurve" but Terry didn't want to know and he even questioned whether he was the father of the baby she said was his. Terry took off again for parts unknown and Tricia and her son Jamie moved into the Rovers with Jack and Vera. Tricia gave birth on February 14, 1997 though we were not witness to the actual labour and birth scene.

Things sure change in the course of a decade. Sweet Violet Wilson began working as a barmaid in 2004. After a few non-starters in the love stakes, she fell for Jamie Baldwin but they eventually broke up. She had no idea at the time that Jamie was romantically involved with his step-mother Frankie. Violet discovered she was pregnant but when she told Jamie, she discovered the truth about Frankie. Needless to say, they didn't get back together and Violet soon miscarried as it was an ectopic pregnancy.

It seemed that the motherhood gene was triggered in Vi. She and best mate Sean decided to have a baby together and since Sean was gay (ok, still is gay!) they went the turkey baster route which was successful.Violet wanted to keep the pregnancy secret for a few months but Sean was so excited that he let the secret slip...to Jamie! Sean was overwhelmingly enthusiastic about the baby and it made Violet feel crowded and she was having regrets. Too late to turn back now, my dear! Soon, however, she and Jamie rediscovered their feelings and reunited, much to Sean's chagrin. He wasn't happy that Jamie might be bringing up his son and that Jamie and Vi planned to move to London.

Violet was caught in the middle between Sean, the biological father of the baby and Jamie, the man she loved. More and more, she resented Sean's interference. On 22 February 2008, Jamie was en route to London to start moving some things when Violet went into labour. Sean and his boyfriend Marcus, a midwife, delivered the baby in the pub, in one of the booths. Sean began to bond with the baby, called Dylan, straight away making things even more difficult. Vi and Jamie ended up sneaking off to London a week or so later, breaking Sean's heart. Several years later, Sean has finally made up with Vi who has since broken up with Jamie and sees his little boy, Dylan, regularly.

Let's skip ahead to 2012 shall we? Tyrone Dobbs has already been a dad and lost that child to his former best friend, Kevin Webster who, as it turned out, was the biological father of baby Jack. Tyrone's wife Molly and Kevin had an affair and the resulting baby turned out to be Kevin's, not Tyrone's (and was born in the front room of Number 9, delivered by Sally Webster, ironically). Molly died in the tram crash and the next summer, Tyrone met Kirsty Soames, a police officer. They began dating but Kirsty rubbed Tyrone's friends the wrong way with her obsessive jealousy. Tyrone planned to break up with Kirsty who chased after he and mate Tina in her police car, causing an accident.

In hospital after the accident, Kirsty found out she was pregnant. Tyrone was over the moon when Kirsty promised him the baby was indeed his and they reconciled for the sake of the child. Kirsty lost her job and took a menial job at the factory. Her resentment built more and more and she began lashing out physically against Tyrone. He was not willing to fight back nor to leave her but Tina found out and it caused further confrontations between she and Kirsty. In one last physical confrontation, a nearly-nine-month pregnant Kirsty baited Tina who pushed her. She fell back against a table in the pub and then went into labour. There was no time, yet again, to get to the hospital and Marcus delivered another baby, this time in the back room. Little Ruby was none the worse for it.

Now we find out that Tina McIntyre, who is carrying a baby for Izzy and Gary may become the next in line to give birth in the pub. If true, this is starting to get a tad tedious and unimaginative, ITV, especially with a medical centre 20 feet from the pub door.

You can follow us on Twitter @CoroStreetBlog and Facebook: CoronationStreetBlog


All original work on the Coronation Street Blog is covered by a Creative Commons License

Pregnant Pause

Actors are - and this may come as a shock to you - human beings.  They breathe, eat, defecate.  Obviously they do all this in a much classier, more inspiring way than you or I, but they're still people after all.  Some of these people (experts call them "women") even get pregnant.  This can cause a few problems.

In regular jobs, if a woman gets pregnant, it's quite simple.  She gets bought a load of chocolate, people pass round a card, then everyone complains that she isn't pulling her weight round the office just because she's up the duff.  "She says that the baby's pressing on her bladder and that's why she has to go to the toilet six times a day, but I saw her take an OK! magazine in there, so I think she should be penalised for taking unauthorised breaks".  Then the woman goes on maternity leave and everyone steals the office supplies from her drawer and she comes back after six months to find she now has the desk in the corner beneath the rattling air conditioner that probably has Legionnaire's Disease festering inside.

On a soap opera, things are different.  The old way to deal with an actress getting pregnant was to make her character pregnant as well; after all, it would save the make up department money on prosthetic tummies.  This method went out of favour after Jill Chance on Crossroads was pregnant for over a year (the actress lost her first baby, but then became pregnant again shortly after - the writers just extended the character's gestation accordingly).  The other inconvenience is that the actress tends to want to give birth to her own child just as the character is due, which means her availability for huffing and puffing in Weatherfield General may be limited.  Natalie Barnes was pregnant in real-life and on the show, but she disappeared to the Cotswolds when it was actually time to force it out.

You also have the problem we currently have in Corrie: a character who definitely, absolutely can't have a baby is suddenly six months gone.  Poor Julie went through the trauma of having her reproductive organs removed last year.  I bet the writers wish they hadn't bothered now Katy Cavanagh is asking for maternity leave.  We've yet to discover how they're going to write her out, but let's hope it's as imaginative as the fate that befell poor Hayley.  For obvious reasons, Mrs Cropper could never have a child, so the character was sent to prison while Julie Hesmondhalgh dropped her sprog.

The current default is simply to disguise the baby bump.  The trend was started by Michelle Collins over on EastEnders: the Cindy Beale Memorial Handbag has rightly passed into legend.  No matter what she was doing - arranging for the murder of her husband, having illicit sex, abducting her children - Cindy's four-foot wide handbag remained close by her side.  The handbag has since been passed around, with Carla Connor being a particularly keen user.

Costuming has a part to play in all this.  We're used to Julie having eccentric taste in clothes, so her sudden fondness for a cape doesn't seem out of character, and those puffball skirts can hide a multitude of sins.  Similarly, Carla married Tony Gordon in an Empire line wedding dress - handy for concealing a tummy, not so good at hiding enormous pregnancy breasts.

If all else fails, just give the character a job that requires her to stand behind a lot of things.  Leanne Battersby was working in Underworld the first time Jane Danson fell pregnant; cue her wandering around amidst shoulder high racks of knickers and deploying careful use of a clipboard.  For her second pregnancy, Jane was put behind that high counter in the bookies, leading us to conclude that if she decides to have a third baby Leanne will take up a job inspecting sewers and will spend three months with just her head poking out a manhole.

Eventually, the actress will have to leave to actually have the thing.  If it were up to the producers they would work until the mucus plug fell out, but those lawmakers at Westminster have gone and intervened and demand a proper period of rest.  A sick relative is always a good option to get rid of a character; Sally Webster disappeared for months to look after her mum, despite previously showing absolutely no inclination to even phone her on Mother's Day.  The payback for this uncharacteristic bout of generosity was Kevin ravaging Natalie Horrocks in the inspection pit, so she never did that again.

A good trauma can drive a character off somewhere, no matter how unlikely it sounds.  Maria finally managed to assemble four brain cells in a line and deduce that Tony Gordon was a wrong 'un, sending her scuttling off to Ireland long enough for Samia Ghadie to have her baby.  A similar revelatory moment drove Carla to sun herself by the pool in Los Angeles; I can't help thinking Maria must have been a bit annoyed by this. 

You have to remember that a pregnant actress is a fragile thing, too; you have to give her some interesting storylines, but you can't chuck her character under a tram or in a burning bus shelter.  Over stress her and you end up with the disaster when Kym Marsh Ryder Marsh Lomas had to be written out sooner than expected due to her delicate health.  Her storyline had to be rewritten with Maria, presenting us with a world in which Maria - a woman who has to be repeatedly told that curling tongs get hot - became a high powered business woman.  Admittedly, this is only slightly less believable than a universe in which Michelle Connor is the new Hilary Devey.

Above all, she has to be written out in a way which means she can come back as if nothing happened.  Maria returned from six months in Ireland and went straight back to the flat above the hairdresser's; Carla returned to be amazing in very high heels all over again; Hayley went back to wearing that duffle coat.  Their time away was discussed but it was made clear that no matter how wonderful that sunshine and swimming pool was, it couldn't compare with a tatty back street sweatshop.  What you really don't want to be is Claire Peacock.  Julia Haworth must have realised that her character was doomed when she was told how she would be written out during her pregnancy.  "We're just not going to mention it.  You'll just disappear for six months and then afterwards we'll just have you say you'd been working nights in the cab office all that time.  Fair enough?"  I bet she was straight onto her agent to update her showreel after that...

You can follow us on Twitter @CoroStreetBlog and Facebook: CoronationStreetBlog


All original work on the Coronation Street Blog is covered by a Creative Commons License

Overpopulation on the Corrie cobbles

We've never had this many young'uns at one time on Coronation Street that I can remember.  There are seven school aged children attending Bessie Street school and there are four rugrats and one soon to be born. Add in to that a possible surrogacy storyline which would contribute another baby.

Are there too many babies and children on Coronation Street? Yes, I think so. Read about it here, along with my speculation on the near future.

Follow the Coronation Street Blog on Twitter and Facebook

Becky's Exit Revealed

This comes from the Daily Star so take it with a grain of salt. However, it sounds feasible. They're saying that Becky is going to wreck Tracy and Steve's wedding before she jets off in first class with her new fella, Danny. Karma's a ... well, let's just say Tracy had this coming ever since she ruined Steve and Karen's wedding.

We know that Tracy is going to suffer a miscarraige and blame Becky for it after accidentally falling down the stairs a few days later. Steve is going to believe Tracy over Becky and at some point, proposes to Tracy. Becky is going to break into the health centre and steal Tracy's records which prove that she lost the twins before she said she did and she'll present them to Steve as proof on his wedding day. Becky isn't doing it to get Steve back, though, she just does it to get back at Tracy.

She heads to the airport with her new man, Danny and his son and they are about to leave for Dubai when Steve tries to stop her, hoping for a reconcilation but Becky says it's a non-starter. She's ready for a new life with a great man. End of.

I like the idea of Becky going off happy even if it's difficult to imagine it will be long lasting. Becky's a loose cannon and she shoots herself in the foot more often than not but maybe she'll have learned a thing or two and matured a bit and this will be the making of her. We may never know.

Corrie Christmas baby tradition continues

Christmas on Coronation Street doesn't feel like Christmas without either a wedding or a baby and this year, we get the latter. The latest in a line of Christmas babies to be born on or very near the day is baby Brown/Armstrong when Katy goes into labour at a Christmas party at the community centre where Chesney and Gary are both dressed as elves. As you can see here, the baby appears to be born before Katy gets to hospital. There are more photos here. 

Past Christmas babies include Rosie Webster, David Platt, Billy and Becky Mallett and Ben Watts. Hope Stape was born December 9 and Nick Tilsley's birthday is New Year's Eve and Katy McDonald was born and died on January 1.  Statistics thanks to Corrie.net


Photo copyright Eamonn and James Clarke/Daily Mail online.

Corrie babies at Mamas and Papas new shop

Corrie babies were out in force at the opening of the new Mamas & Papas baby shop at The Trafford Centre in Manchester.

As you can see from the gorgeous picture above, guests included Alison King (Carla Connor) who brought her daughter to the event. Sally Lindsay, pregnant with twins, was also there along with Jack P Shepherd (David Platt) and girlfriend Lauren Shippey with their daughter Nyla Rae. Unfortunately, Jack and Lauren have since split up because Jack's got a PR girl pregnant. Read that story here.

Corrie on the hunt for new baby star

I was up in Manchester for a special weekend with Coronation Street fans and spotted this Manchester Evening News headline, which I just had to take a picture of and blog.

Coronation Street are looking for a new baby to join the show and they've posted adverts in hospitals around Greater Manchester. The adverts ask future mums and dads if their baby 'could be the next Coronation Street star'.

Show bosses are looking for a white baby boy, born in June, to take part in filming the following month.

The advert adds that: 'Identical twins would be great'. Under employment restrictions, child actors can only spend a small number of hours in front of the camera each day, so it's common practice for identical twins to be used.

Future mums and dads interested in taking part are asked to contact the Bolton-based talent agent, Orr Management.

Granada TV bosses remained tight-lipped about which role the new actor would play, though shop assistant Molly Dobbs is pregnant after cheating on husband Tyrone with best friend Kevin. A Corrie spokesman told the MEN that the show did not comment on future casting arrangements. He said: "The posters are one of the ways we would look to cast a new baby. We don't want to reveal who we are casting for because we could give away future storylines."