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ITV searching for Ultimate Soap Fan

Are you the ultimate soap fan? Know all about Coronation Street as well as you know the other soaps? ITV want soap fans to appear on the telly & take part in a soap quiz. They're looking for the ultimate soap fan - email thismorning@itv.com

Are you ever unfaithful to Corrie?

For this Corrie fan, there's only ever been one soap. Coronation Street has been a part of my life since I was a child, a programme I grew up with and have had positive involvement with, always. That's apart from an intensive, long-term relationship I once had with Brookside (it broke my heart when it went).

Now, I never watch any other soap and I'm wondering what other fans get up to in the soaps world when they're not watching Corrie? Are you and Corrie exclusive or do you soap-hop?

Get your Ken Barlow t-shirt here

He's the longest-running soap character in the world and Ken Barlow turns 70 next week on Coronation Street.

Ladies and gentlemen, pay homage to the icon that is Mr Kenneth Barlow and get your Ken Barlow t-shirt.

See also: Ken Barlow, fashion icon

Corrie - 25 Sept 09: Catfights and spotlights

Last night's Coronation Street was by far the best I've seen in a very, very long time. Parties usually throw up the opportunity for the writers to really shine and last night was no exception.

Graeme Proctor's cack-handed (not to mention, cack-shoed!) pursuit of the seldom-seen-kid, Natasha Blakeman, was hilarious - and she gave as good as she got. For crying out loud, let's see those two sharing more scenes soon!

Catfights are a contractual obligation when scripting a Corrie party and these days, it's usually Rosie Webster who manages to end up on her backside in the gutter. Whilst Teresa Morton did the honours last time around, last night it was Michelle Connor's turn to drag her out onto the cobbles. Rosie may have knocked her... er ahem... knockers ("two fried eggs" - haha!), but Michelle at least proved she's got balls. Nice to see her refrain from moaning/crying/being the victim since her return.

But it was Teresa Morton who delighted. Her random dance moves and sharp banter stole the show. Referring to Piers Morgan, she stated, "I'm not racist, but... red faces make me heave!" More please and thank you. [Sky Clearbrook]

Curly voted character fans want back in Corrie

The first of our weekly polls on the blog asked: "Which classic character would you bring back to Corrie?" The voting's now closed and the results are as follows with number of votes cast at 539.

Curly Watts - 190 (35%)
Martin Platt - 175 (32%)
Hilda Ogden - 150 (27%)
Spider Nugent 114 (21%)
Bet Lynch - 103 (19%)

Take part in this week's poll - it's at the top of the blog in the right hand column.

Anne Kirkbride flees Spanish fires

Anne Kirkbride, who plays Coronation Street's Deirdre Barlow, was forced to flee her holiday villa in Spain after it was threatened by bush fires.
Raging wildfires have been sweeping through the country for the last few days, claiming the lives of six firefighters.

Anne was forced from her villa near Mojacar in the the south east of the country. An ITV spokeswoman said: "The fires in the region mean that Anne did have to leave for a while but she is now back in her villa."

Whole lotta Rosie

The News of the World has this fab picture of Rosie Webster (looking much as I did when I was her age, of course, ahem). Anyway, the story is that Chesney's going to nick Rosie's new sports car after dozy Rosie leaves the keys in the ignition when she pops into the house.

See also: Rosie's Webster's new sports car

Coronation Street competition winner announced

Congratulations to Gail Duncan in Manchester who is the winner of our JW Lees' Coronation Street premium ale competition.

Gail correctly answered the three questions and the prize of a case of the new Coronation Street beer is on its way to her this week direct from Manchester brewer JW Lees. Find out more about the new Coronation Street beer here.

The answers to the questions are as follows:

1. Which brewery manager wanted to turn the Rovers Return into a theme pub in 1990: Mr Newton or Mr Ridley?
This was Nigel Ridley - he wanted to turn the Rovers into a theme pub called Yankees.

2. In addition to Newton & Ridley, what was the name of the other main Weatherfield brewery?
Nuttall's.

3. What is the name of JW Lees’ unique pint glass that it’s recommended you enjoy a pint of Coronation Street premium ale in?
The Grip Glass.

With hearty thanks to the lovely people at JW Lees.

Corrie icons as you've never seen them before

Regular readers (hello, mum) will know I'm a huge fan of Corrie's Yana Lumb and rate her as one of Coronation Street's unsung heros. Anyway, Jayne Bickerton (nee Tunnicliffe) who played Yana has some wonderful YouTubage online now.

This one and this one are my favourites, it's Jayne as stand-up comedian Mary Unfaithful in a self-penned show for Granada from 1997 about her female Corrie role models, including Elsie Tanner, Bet Lynch, Ena Sharples and Hilda Ogden. Jayne filmed these on the Coronation Street set seven years before she got her part in Coronation Street as Yana Lumb.

Why not check out more of Jayne's work as Mary Unfaithful when she's working with Paul O'Grady as Lily Savage. There's a few YouTubes here, here, here and here and a short clip of Jayne when she was recently on the Paul O'Grady show with her Burlesque art work t'other week.

Carol Vorderman joins Coronation Street cast

Carol Vorderman was on the set of Coronation Street today to launch the Daily Mirror Pride of Britain Awards 2009. Carol joined some of the Corrie cast on the cobbles to urge people to nominate unsung heroes for the Pride of Britain Award. Find out how to nominate at the official website: http://www.prideofbritain.com/ and you can also pick up forms at your local Co-op stores. More details here.

Meet Jennie McAlpine this Saturday

Yet ANOTHER Poundland store is opening. As the nation slides into recession, this is one success story that just keeps on going.

Jennie McAlpine, who plays Fiz Brown in Coronation Street, will be opening the new Poundland store in Kings Heath in Birmingham on Saturday, 2 May. There's a family fun day in store that begins at 10am. So if you'd like to meet Jennie, get yourself to Kings Heath on Saturday and remember to take your pound to spend on something nice.

Click here to see pictures of other Coronation Street cast members doing their bit to open recent Poundland stores.

Katherine Kelly wins favourite female soap award

Katherine Kelly, who plays barmcake Becky Granger on Coronation Street, won Favourite Female Soap Star at the Irish TV Now Awards 2009.

The awards ceremony was held in Dublin on Saturday 18 April. Katherine's award comes hot on the heels of her scooping this recent award too.

See red-carpet pictures of the Corrie cast at the awards bash, here.

Ex-Corrie stars in Dinnerladies - the stage show

When it was shown on TV, Victoria Wood's comedy Dinnerladies included a handful of wonderful ex-Coronation Street actors (see pic, right).

The show is now on tour and a couple of the original TV cast are starring in it too. Shobna Gulati, who played Corrie's Sunita Alahan, and Andrew Dunn, who played Roger the plumber (no, that's not a game) star in the new stage version. Sadly, Thelma Barlow (Corrie's Mavis) and Anne Reid (Valerie Barlow) aren't in the stage cast this time around. For a full listing of where you can catch Dinnerladies on stage, click here and it hits London's West End in April.

Coronation Street Weekly Update, January 12 2009

Did you know that you can have the Coronation Street Weekly Updates emailed to your inbox each week? Click here to find out.

Here we are with another winter warmer of a weekly update. Huddle round and keep warm as without any further ado, here we go with this week’s Coronation Street update.

Big story of the week has been Mol and Ty’s wedding. It’s also Amber’s 18th and Tara’s arranged a joint party with Molly’s hen night up in Dev’s flat. It starts off well, there’s nibbles and a hunk but then it goes pear shaped, as you knew it would. Jackie Dobbs spots Graeme in the Rovers, he’s doing the food for the girls and Jackie asks him if he knows where Molly’s do is taking place as she hasn’t been invited. And in a wonderful scene with perfect comic timing, Graeme and Jackie introduce themselves to each other. “Buffet,” Graeme says by way of introduction. “Hiya Buffy, I’m Jackie, pleased to meet you.” Anyway, Jackie ends up stripping Graeme half-naked at the party, he prances about waving his sausage, things get smashed, food gets squashed on the carpet and the whole thing gets well and truly Jackie’d.

Over at the Flying Horse things don’t go much better at Tyrone’s stag do. There’s Jack with his words of wisdom and the lads raise a glass to Vera, which was nice. There’s Jason with his drinking head on and Kev in his best shirt with Ashley and Dev looking on. Tyrone gets a call in the pub from Aunty Pam who tells him she wants him to make contact with a shady fella called Dave in the pub who’s buying some fake sunspecs, RoyBans, from her on Monday. Monday? But that’s Tyrone’s wedding day! Anyway, Tyrone turns up in the pub trying to flog shady Dave the sunspecs but he turns out to be an undercover cop and he slaps the cuffs on Tyrone just as Molly’s about to set off for the church. And set off she does, in her own little carriage with a view of the backside of two white horses plodding in front. But when she reaches the church, there’s no sign of Tyrone and the carriage has to do a few rounds of the grounds during which Molly ends up in tears of worry over where Tyrone’s gone, Amber’s hangover kicks in and Aunty Pam’s fascinator no longer does what it says on the tin.

But anyway, Tyrone finally gets there and after fainting at the altar through stress and nerves, he goes through with the wedding and Molly Cozette (I know! Cozette?) and Tyrone Sylvester become the new Mr and Mrs Dobbs. Jack walks Molly up the aisle and a right big tear found itself in the corner of my eye, it really did. The only thing Tyrone need worry about now is how to tell Molly he’s been nicked for selling stolen goods and instead of partying at the Rovers to celebrate the wedding he has to go to the cop shop to turn himself in.

Elsewhere this week, Steve tries and fails to come to terms with Lloyd lusting after his mum. In the bookies, Lloyd puts a tenner on a horse called ‘Sexy Mother’ to win. It’s probably a right old nag but Lloyd’s in lurve and Steve’s not best pleased that his mum and his best mate are at it. You know, it.

Steve’s got more problems when he lies to barmcake Becky that he’s finished with Michelle when he hasn’t. Becky’s over the moon that she and Steve can get together at last but feels, like, really sad for Michelle. So she’s more than a little surprised when Michelle gets dolled up with a new hairdo and a new frock to take Steve out on the town. Realising that Steve’s lied to her, Becky’s in tears in the Rovers and it’s left to Liz to dry her tears and pat her hand over a stiff drink.

Elsewhere, Peter pretends he’s off the booze and lies to everyone that he’s sober. But he can’t pull the wool over Blanche’s eyes. “You would have been good in the Gestapo,” he tells her. Leanne pops round for an afternoon of drink and DVDs which prompts little Simon to wonder out loud who’s looking after the bookies. It’s Dirty Laura, apparently. I wonder if she knows Fat Brenda? And has anyone ever seen the pair of them in the same room at the same time? Enquiring minds need to know.

And that’s just about that for this week.

Coronation Street writers this week were new writer John Kerr, Joe Turner, Damon Rochefort and the man who married off Molly and Tyrone – Mr Jonathan Harvey, Esq.

Glenda
--
Blogging away merrily at http://flamingnora.blogspot.com/

New Coronation Street Treasures book

From the publishing company which brings you Coronation Street: The Saga (updated for 2008 by yours truly), is another update of a current Corrie book.

Carlton Publishing have updated Tim Randall's The Treasures of Coronation Street book and it's now in the shops just in time for Crimbo. I have to admit I was no fan of the original Treasures book as I felt it was way overpriced and once flicked through on the day of purchase, was put on a shelf and never read again.

However, the new Treasures book has been updated and reissued in a different format making it easier to handle, nicer to look at and therefore more fun to read. More importantly, it's half the price of the original book. Get your copy here.

Coronation Street Weekly Update, October 20 2008

Before I start with the update this week, there’s a bit of housework I’d like to get sorted. Firstly, the weekly update cushions need plumping and I’m interviewing soon. To apply, please email pictures of cushions you have plumped. Secondly, the weekly updates mailing list on YahooGroups has hit the 3,000th member this week. It’s a milestone and I’m over the moon that the list still proves as popular as ever although the membership is still short of the 4,500 who were registered before the server (looked after voluntarily by Corrie fan Peter Flint) buckled under the strain and I had to start the membership all over again. And thirdly, the Coronation Street Weekly Updates are now on Facebook with their own groups page right here: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=28696296887 And so, without any further ado, here we go with this week’s Coronation Street update.

It’s been murder week on Corrie this week, or as they say in Hart to Hart, it wuz moyder. Yes, pretty boy Connor met his maker on the tarmac when he was hit by a car on Tony’s stag do. At the same time as the drama unfolded, back at the Rovers a male stripper was putting a smile on Rita’s face with his full frontal frippery as the girls gathered to celebrate Carla’s hen night. Carla had a ‘Learner’ sign strung around her neck but I’d reckon there’s not many new tricks that one could be taught. On the stag and hen night, Carla realised she loved Liam, he realised he loved her and she was just on her way to tell him when Maria announced she had Liam’s bun in her oven. Carla knew that if it came to a choice between Liam’s child and her, she’d lose out so she pretended she didn’t love Liam after all, and had a few tears and a fag outside of the pub. Deirdre joined her, for the fag part, and asked Carla if everything was all right. “Nowt a bit o’lippy won’t sort out,” Carla replied. “Now that’s a motto to live your live by,” noted Deirdre.

Back in the Rovers, the stripper brought out his whipped cream. “Ooh, we have this on our apple crumble!” screamed Deirdre although I doubt Ken’s Cox’s Pippin was ever as big. The girls partied hard at the pub, Carla put a brave face on and the stags went hunting for some semi-naked tarts. They found them at the TT Bar but best man Liam had forgotten his wallet and so Tony demanded he go back to the last pub they were in to find it. Liam turned to walk back to the pub and that’s when a car screamed out of nowhere, straight for him and ran him over in a hit and run. As the stags gathered round Liam’s dead body on the ground, Maria turned up with her baby news only to find her husband, dead, but still nice and warm. She took Liam’s hand and pressed it to the baby bump with tears in her eyes. It was too much for the other lads to bear and they turned away as Maria told a dead Liam that he was going to be a dad. And later, just in case we were ever in any doubt that Tony Gordon had anything to do with the loss of Liam, we see him throwing Liam’s wallet into the canal and giving his henchman a wad of used notes. Liam’s parents fly in from Ireland and Maria’s are coming in from Cyprus for more tea and tears than they all know what to do with. It’s going to take more than a bit o’lippy to sort this one out.

Elsewhere, there were more tears when the police come to interview Kevin about Rosie’s disappearance. After they leave, Kev tells Sophie he’s failed as a father and despite his youngest daughter telling him he’s the best dad in the world, he reaches out in desperation for the whisky bottle while The Cars’ song, Drive put a lump in my throat and tears rolled down Kev’s face. Earlier that evening, he’d been treated to home made stew by Aunty Pam and after a few of her beers told the story of When Kevin Met Sally: he drove through a puddle in his van, splashed her and offered to clean up her boots. “And you’ve been licking them ever since,” noted Sophie, who was in tears herself this week too. She had to fess up to Sally and Kev that she was the one who sent the threatening “Sophie’s Next” postcard because she was sick of Rosie being the centre of their universe while she just orbited like a rusting satellite.

Meanwhile, we found out this week that Rosie’s being held captive by John in the attic of his gran’s house in the middle of a field. “I’m going to feed the cat,” he tells Fiz as he takes a bag full of stale bread to feed Rosie. “Where’s me HobNobs and Heat Magazine?” she yells at John when he turns up with the food, clearly their relationship not reaching Stockholm Syndrome just yet.

Up in the new flat at Victoria Court, Amber gets set for seducing Darryl. She tells Molly that she’s ready to go all the way which I guess means she wants to go to Rosamund Street, but what do I know? However, any hopes of a romantic night in are thwarted when David and Tina turn up to spoil their fun but that doesn’t stop the young couple going for another try on a much quieter night when Dev is out smooching Prem’s daughter Tara.

Tina started work in the Kabin this week which comes as a relief to Rita but Norris isn’t pleased, no. David joked about Tina’s new job, telling his girlfriend: “I can just see you in 40 years time, hair up in a beehive, dispensing sherbet crystals!” Ooh, we can only hope so, and then she can retire to The Lakes. Tina’s also noticed that Gail and her dad Joe have started getting cosy. Ted’s already in on the secret, of course. He knows everything, does Ted, he’s great.

And that’s just about that for this week.

Coronation Street writers this week were Jan McVerry, Simon Crowther (the man who killed off Liam Connor), Chris Fewtrell, David Lane and Mark Wadlow.

Glenda
--
Blogging away merrily at http://flamingnora.blogspot.com/

Corrie writer profile: Julie Jones

Sources: IMDB.com

In addition to writing episodes of Coronation Street, Julie Jones has also written episodes of Brookside and Britannia High and, ahem, Shaun the Sheep. Oh yes.

Unfortunately, there's not much more information about this Corrie writer that I'm able to find. Can you help?

If you can help update any of the Corrie writers’ profiles or provide their up to date pics, do please let me know.

You can find out more about your favourite Corrie writers by clicking on the links below:

Jonathan Harvey, Carmel Morgan, Debbie Oates, Mark Wadlow, Damon Rochefort, Lucy Gannon, Simon Crowther, Mark Burt, Jan McVerry, Chris Fewtrell

Corrie hunk wins Rear of the Year award

Ryan Thomas, who plays Coronation Street builder Jason Grimshaw, has won the Rear of the Year Award 2008. He said his prize gave new meaning to the phrase “builder’s bum”.

“I would like to thank my mum and dad,” he said. “Without them, winning this fantastic award would not be possible, it brings a new meaning to the phrase builder’s bum.”

This year’s awards supports Jeans for Genes charity which helps fund research and care for children with genetic disorders.

Michelle Keegan wins Best Soap Newcomer Award

Michelle Keegan, who plays Coronation Street's Tina McIntyre, won Best Soap Newcomer at the TV Quick and TV Choice Awards, held in London last night.

Michelle's was the only win for Corrie and the soap lost out on the Best Soap Award to EastEnders.

For a full list of winners, have a look here.