Listen: Daran Little pays tribute to Jean Alexander

Daran Little, the ex-Coronation Street writer and archvivist, paid tribute to Jean Alexander on the radio today. Indeed, Daran's voice was the first I heard this morning when I switched on the radio and heard the very sad news that Jean Alexander had passed away.

Daran pays a wonderful tribute to the late actress and to the character of Hilda Ogden.  The interview is only a couple of minutes long and is definitely worth listening to.

You can listen to it here.

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Soap Superstars

I started writing this on the day Anne Kirkbride died. When a few of the tabloids suggested that she was to retire from Coronation Street, I like other Corrie bloggers, started thinking about her impact on Coronation Street and television as a whole, and to ponder life without Deirdre.

If only the big news last week was that she had retired. Still, I've started so I'll finish. Here's what I cobbled together...with a couple of personal memories to finish with.

 ***

They are a dying breed. That truly legendary type of soap star that comedians impersonate, fancy dress costumes are based upon, and for whom the nation goes into mourning after their inevitable TV demise. You know they've made it when they get a waxwork at Tussaud's and their own tv special: Goodbye Blanche, Goodbye Jack, Rita and Me...a celebration of both the actor and the character. Indeed Jack and Vera Duckworth mattered so much to the TV audience of Britain and beyond, that writers temporarily suspended reality, bringing Liz Dawn out of retirement and Vera back from the dead to collect her beloved Jack.

The superheroes of soap become the character they portray and whether on or off screen, Julie Goodyear is now Bet Lynch, Barbara Knox is Rita and June Brown from Eastenders is Dot Cotton - whether they like it or not. Just like to me, Julie Andrews will always be Mary Poppins - that's the character that stuck in my head, no matter what other roles she played later. Anne Kirkbride, in the same way, will forever be Deirdre Barlow. 

The secret to becoming a soap superstar is in part down to the type of longevity and work ethic you see less and less of in continuing drama. Just when we see glimmers of a new soap superstar in the making, such as Becky McDonald, played by Katherine Kelly for example, bigger, brighter opportunities are sent their way and it must be difficult, however loyal to a soap, to resist new challenges. We live in a different world, with greater opportunity and increasing numbers of media outlets shining a spotlight on talent.

This is the very opposite of why our soap superstars are elevated to almost mythical status. They tend not to crave limelight outside of work. They are rarely seen at award ceremonies or on television chat shows. Soap superstars go to work to earn a living and once the wig is removed and the makeup is washed off, they are mortal again. Anne Kirkbride once commented in a rare interview that her work at Coronation Street was just a job, and that she hadn't wanted to be an actress at all. How ironic that she became one of television's most recognisable and loved faces.

It tends to be a woman's thing - this soap superstardom. Think of Pat Butcher, Elsie Tanner, Ena Sharples, Dot Cotton, Bet Lynch, maybe even Bianca Butcher and a handful of others. Corrie, probably more so than Eastenders, is based around and would be lost without strong, troubled and formidable women so it makes sense that the women become the real stars. 

The future of soap doesn't necessarily depend on the new alumni of actors becoming superstars, but it certainly helps. Unique characters are Corrie's U.S.P. and it is funnier and generally more enjoyable when they stretch the boundaries a little with characters who are slightly cartoonish but with real world problems. The longevity is the key thing though. If a soap character is as familiar to you as a member of your family, chances are that you will root for that character and become invested in their storylines. We were certainly invested in Deirdre's, and Anne Kirkbride's death has hit us hard as viewers and fans.

We who write and read this blog didn't know Anne Kirkbride, but we loved her work and we will always love Deirdre. I was however lucky enough to meet her when I worked for Bev Callard, Anne's dear friend and familiar to us all as Liz McDonald. Anne would sometimes come in for a gossip with Bev. The two friends would sit in a quiet corner, have a good old laugh about who knows what, smoking away as if in one of those famous scenes from Corrie or the First Wives Club. Two soap superstars sitting in the corner giggling away, like any other pals having a laugh. This was one of the first memories that came into my mind when Anne passed away. 

My only other personal memory of Anne, although she wasn't directly involved, was when I was in a car with former Corrie writer Daran Little on our way to Blackpool for a day out (to Tussaud's incidentally). We set off on our way down the motorway. Daran was driving and his phone rang so he asked me to answer it. I said hello, and a familiar voice came back: 'Hello Annie?' sounding slightly confused. I know Anne had quite a deep sounding voice but I'm slightly less raspy shall we say. The person on the other end of the phone was Bill Roache and god knows how, but he'd called Daran by mistake expecting to speak to Anne. I had a brief but memorable chat with Bill, who I'd never met and haven't since, and after making it clear that I wasn't Anne, and that I didn't look anything like her, I presume he hung up and went to find his glasses to get the right number. I was then left with the unusual but amazing right to boast that for a split second, Ken thought I was Deirdre. 

I of course took it as a compliment...

@steviedawson 

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Daran Little wins award for The Road to Coronation Street

Daran Little has won the Best Scriptwriter award for The Road to Coronation Street.

The award was given at the Royal Television Society North West Awards 2011 which was held at the Manchester Hilton on Saturday 19 November.

If you haven't seen The Road to Coronation Street yet, I highly recommend it. You can order it on DVD from Amazon here.

The Road to Coronation Street to be repeated on TV

The wonderful BBC drama The Road to Coronation Street will be repeated on TV next week.

So if you missed it first time around, you can catch it on Tuesday 1st Nov at 9pm on BBC 4 and again at 11pm on BBC HD.

Find out more about the show at the BBC website.

With thanks to Daran Little, the writer of The Road to Coronation Street for tweeting about this. 

Follow Daran Little on twitter.

Road to Coronation Street wins BAFTA

It's BAFTA night tonight. That's The British Academy of Film and Television Arts.

And it's great news for the BBC4 drama "The Road to Coronation Street",as the programme has won the Best Single Drama award.

The Road to Coronation Street was written by ex-Corrie writer Daran Little.  Find out more about Daran Little here.

Coronation Street drama wins RTS award

Daran Little's Coronation Street drama The Road to Coronation Street won the award for Best Single Drama at last night's Royal Television Society Awards. 

A most well deserved win for an amazing programme. If you missed it, you can buy it on DVD from Amazon.

However, Corrie lost out to EastEnders in the award for Best Soap and Continuing Drama.

The Road to Coronation Street - what did you think?

I can't recall looking forward to watching a television programme as much as I was looking forward to The Road to Coronation Street.  I'd bought a bottle of good wine that'd been chilling in the fridge since I'd first found out about this BBC4 drama written by ex-Corrie writer Daran Little.

So, did it live up to my expectations? Oh yes, and more. I'm actually sitting here with tears in my eyes after watching it just now. Wasn't Jessie Wallace wonderful as Pat Phoenix and wasn't the rest of the casting spot on?

But never mind me, what did you make of it all?

Video preview: The Road To Coronation Street

Here's a preview of the brilliant 'Road To Coronation Street', written by former Corrie writer, Daran Little (I hear he's in the "East End" now!) 'The Road To Coronation Street' tells the story of how Coronation Street came to be, complete with a star studded cast, and even some well known soap names such as James Roache (Currently starring as James Cunningham in Coronation Street), Jessie Wallace (Returns to the other soap on Friday to reprise her role as Kat Slater) and John Thompson! (aka Jessie the cowboy.)

Though, one real road to Coronation Street was used in the production it seems!

 

'The Road To Coronation Street' airs this Thursday 9pm on BBC4 (right after Corrie finishes on ITV1)

The story of the birth of Coronation Street... on BBC

Here's something to look forward to! Filming starts this summer on a drama about how Coronation Street came to be. The drama is called "Florizel Street", which was the original name of the show, and will be written by the talented Daran Little.

Daran, of course, was the show's archivist and later was on the writing team for Corrie. He's also written many great books on the history of Coronation Street.

The drama, which will be shown on BBC4 as part of their upcoming season featuring Northern life and culture, has yet to be cast. It will follow the story of how Tony Warren fought to bring his dream to life in 1960 and will include legendary characters such as Annie Walker and Ena Sharples. Big shoes to fill but then, it's not trying to replace them, is it? There's no word on when this will air but my thinking is it will be close to the 50th anniversary in December. I'm looking forward to this one!

Casting has been announced - full details here.

Corrie writer defects

Cor blimey! Would you Adam and Eve it? Corrie's Daran Little has only gorn and packed his bags and headed south to Walford.

He started off on Corrie as its archivist in 1988 and in that role wrote some of the best books available on all things Corrie. Later, he moved into the writing team as a storyliner and then as a script writer, where he wrote 95 episodes, introducing the first openly gay character in Todd Grimshaw. His background as fan and archivist meant that he had a real feel for the history of the programme and his scripts would regularly contain references to characters and events from the past.

Looking for new challenges he went on to write and produce a 20 part series Hollyoaks: In The City and when it wasn't recommisioned, he moved on to Hollyoaks for a while.

He then went to try his hand in America as creative consultant and associate head writer on All My Children, returning to the UK last year to write 9 further episodes of Corrie.

Twittering yesterday evening, Little wrote: "Ta ra Weatherfield... 'ello Walford... happy to say I'm now writing for EastEnders."

Have a look at Daran Little's Coronation Street writer profile.

Coronation Street Weekly Update - January 18, 2010

This week the update has been wondering if spring is in the air or if it's just feeling warm 'cos it's having its first hot flush. Is it hot in this update or is it just me? And so without any further ado, here we go with this week's Coronation Street update.

Big story of the week has been Sally Webster, who's been the talk of the Street but not in any way that she'd have liked. She has her lumpectomy in hospital but before Kev drives her there for her overnight stay, the factory girls want to know why Sally's been given special leave from work when they can't even have an afternoon off. They rage and rant, grunt and moan until finally Rosie snaps at them all in the Rovers and tells them the truth about Sally. It was good to see Rosie lose her temper with them all, taking a break from pouting and preening for shouting and screaming in defence of her mum.

Kelly Crabtree doesn't turn a hair. "I never liked Sally before she had cancer and I don't like her now." You have to see her point, even if you don't agree. Sally's let loose from the ward the next day as her lump goes for tests and she'll find out the results this coming Friday. Until then, Kev and the girls close ranks around Sally and support her as best as they can.

Sunita and Dev draw closer this week as it's the twins birthday party and Dev hosts it in his flat. Jesse provides the entertainment with Sean finding his calling as Jesse's new Hiyalowa. And after the warm glow of green jelly and Jesse have settled after the party, Sunita only goes and calls Dev again when she thinks their little girl has come down with meningitis. Myself, if I had a child showing symptoms of a life-threatening illness I would have called the doctor not a feckless ex-husband, but each to their own. Fortunately the kid turns out to be ok and Dev's really happy to be back in Sunita's good books. Not long now and he'll be back in her pants.

Over at Chez Platt, Gail tries out her new name, writing her signature over and over - Gail McIntyre, Gail McIntyre, Gail McIntyre. Well, she probably has problems remembering what surname she's got. Joe watches and learns how his new wife signs her name. "It's got a big whoosh on the Y," Gail tells him, and Joe copies that whoosh as he fills in life insurance claim forms for himself and Mrs Mc but conveniently forgets to tell her he's done so.

In the back lane of the Street, there's rubbish-rage going on. The binmen refuse to take any bins that are over-full and so Eddie Windass spreads his rubbish around in other people's bins while wearing the most disgusting dressing gown ever to sully British TV. However, Eddie redeemed himself somewhat this week when he baked a farewell cake in the shape of a hand-grenade as the Street waved off Gary Windass to his army basic training. Anna's upset at losing her son, convinced that he'll get blown to bits and sent home in a coffin. David doesn't add to the party spirit or Anna's nerves when he puts a target on Gary's back.

David also scuppers Gail's hope of a house sale when he puts off potential buyers by telling them the truth about their neighbours; well, there's ex-cons, sex-fiends, fighters, druggies, drunkards and prossies. And as if to prove his point, the house-hunters leave with David's words ringing in their ears only to run into a ruckus on the cobbles as Michelle has shouty words with Sian's dad who's come to give Ryan what-for after he finds out from Sian's Facebook page that she's been sleeping with Michelle's son.

And finally this week, Molly leaves Tyrone. She takes her suitcase and leaves him with tears in his eyes and a stupefied expression on his face: "I'll go on a diet," he whined. Ooh, the bitch. I hope she doesn't come back. She picked her moment too, it was only the second anniversary of Vera's death, which Tyrone was already upset about. Talk about hitting a man when he's down. Molly lies and says there's no-one else, she just doesn't love Ty any more but he remains suspicious that there's someone else involved.

And that's just about that for this week.

Coronation Street writers this week were Joe Turner, Martin Allen and Daran Little. Find out more about the Coronation Street writing team.

Find out more about the Coronation Street Weekly Updates

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

Coronation Street Weekly Update, January 11 2010

This week the update’s settling into the swing of things of a New Year. It’s gone with the New theme. New cushions, new wallpaper, new kettle for the tea. But fear not, it’s the same old updates, nowt new there. It’s worked well for 15 years - you think I’m gonna change? And so without any further ado, here we go with this week’s Coronation Street update.

Big story of the week is Gail’s wedding, her fifth, to her fourth husband (she married Brian twice in a fit of optimism over experience). Nick returns and meets his granddad Ted for the very first time. A tearful Ted tells Gail how pleased he is for the opportunity to give her away on her big day. Well, he did miss the first four times. With Gail dolled up in a lace frock with a high neck she exchanges oaths at the altar with Joe. “Repeat after me…” the registrar says although Gail should surely know the words by now. Joe says his vows too and when he got to that bit where he goes: “I do solemnly declare…” I thought he was going to finish that bit off with “…myself bankrupt” but instead he went on about love and honour and stuff that brought more of a tear to Ted’s eye. The reception was held at the Rovers, where else, with Twiglets and Cava keeping the very small amount of people who were there, quite happy. An appropriate tune played on the jukebox, it was Madness. Nick eyed up Tina who pretended not to notice. David watched Nick eye up Tina and in a wonderful moment in the smoking room in the Rovers’ yard, David winds up his big brother Nicky over being a mummy’s boy and eyeing up his new step-father’s girl. “Never call me Nicky again!” yells, er, Nicky as he throws David up against the wall of the pub with a sneer on his face. The happy couple then set off on a one night honeymoon to a cottage in The Lakes with Gail as happy as can be and Joe scared stiff that the loan-shark fella will be paying him a visit any day soon.

Back on the Street, Peter’s plans to open the bar forge ahead when he’s given the all-clear from the Council. George is the sort of fella who’s in the funny handshake brigade, if you ask me and he’ll have met someone from the department, probably Mr Shifti Bakhanda to ease Peter’s planning permission through without any delay. Ken’s up in arms but when is he not? and Deirdre’s scowling again.

It’s Molly and Tyrone’s first wedding anniversary and Molly goes through the motions of playing the dutiful wife. Molly decides that Tyrone will take another job he’s been offered on the other side of town although even Jack can see it’s not such a good idea.

Graeme shed a few tears this week when he comforted Rosie. Well, the poor girl was distraught. She’d had 200 glamour pics taken and the one that the advertising company decide to go and use only ends up putting her bust on the bus-stop in a full frontal poster advertising drain cleaner called Sump. Rosie cries her eyes out and so does Graeme. He’s great. She then goes home to tell Sally and Kev that she wants to get a boob job. This was a wonderful scene, very well acted, as Sally struggled, really struggled, to remain calm while her tactless daughter twittered on.

Over in the factory in a late night one-to-one, Sally tells Carla about her cancer and Carla admits that she too has been through a breast cancer scare but she came out ok. Meanwhile Sophie and Rosie are certain that Kev and Sally have something on their minds and assume their parents are going to split. They confront Kev and Sally and so Sally tells them both the truth too, there’s much crying and hugging and it’s really very sad.

And finally this week, the opening bars of Sheena Easton’s 9-to-5 ring out as Mary returns to the Street. Norris was a little upset when she went away last time so I don’t quite understand why he’s so uppity and scared now that she’s returned. She invites him for dinner in her four wheel drive but Norris turns her down, preferring the Rovers instead and calls her motorhome: “A venus fly tray with central locking.”

And that’s just about that for this week.

Coronation Street writers this week were Peter Whalley, Julie Jones, Daran Little, Jan McVerry and Mark Wadlow.

Find out more about the Coronation Street writing team.

Find out more about the Coronation Street Weekly Updates http://www.corrieweeklyupdates.btinternet.co.uk/

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

Weighing in on Friday's double episode

Just a few thoughts on Friday's double episode while we wait for Yoork's update. I didn't catch the writer credits at the start but as I watched it, I had my ideas who wrote it. I went back and looked and sure enough, Daran Little was behind the pen! A nod to history, (Gail and Audrey), gossip in the salon with wonderful stuff from Betty (Daran always writes great Betty scenes!) and bittersweet scenes with Liz and Lloyd. You really feel like they should be together.

Veteran writer Peter Whalley wrote the second episode and it was as good as the first. More Lloyd and Liz longing looks, and the unlikely spawning of a connection between Claire and Becky. They don't seem to have anything in common but maybe there's more there beneath the surface than we think. The more I think about it, the more I think maybe it could work though it would be a long and bumpy row to hoe before they become best friends. The back and forth between Teresa and Liz was wonderful stuff. I agree with Flaming Nora, Teresa is thoroughly enjoyable these days! And finally, some lovely scenes with Roy and Hayley. Roy really has been thrown by all this Tony Gordon stuff and has really been having a hard time dealing with it. Maybe now that the cell door has slammed on Tony, he can find a way to put it behind them.

There were little touches, like Janice exchanging a word with a builder, Tyrone turning into a Jack Duckworth clone at the breakfast table in his vest, Claire and Graeme doing the Charleston in the butcher shop, much to Ashley's horror, Claire wincing over the taste of cider. Even the Windass second annual Christmas light and music show extravaganza wasn't objectional, especially Eddie's line when it stopped for the second time, "Folk are gonna be that disappointed" took me off guard and I actually found myself laughing! That's a first!

The Kevin and Molly stuff was awful but only because I just don't like that storyline but even on Friday, it seemed like it was moving on a bit more. We already know it's not going to be as easy as it sounds. Kevin wants Molly to leave Tyrone but circumstances are going to prove that it's not going to happen just yet.

Coronation Street Weekly Update, November 2 09

Welcome and here we go with another week’s worth of words from Weatherfield. Or to put it another way, another load of old cobblers from the cobbles. And so, without any further ado, here we go with this week’s Coronation Street update.

You know when you’ve got the house to yourself and you’re treating yourself to a bubbly soak in the tub? Don’t you just hate it when a fella comes crashing through your living room window and you have to stand there with Matey bubbles covering your embarrassment. I know, it happens all the time round our way. “I’m Jake by the way,” (which I thought was a bit of an odd surname) says the fella to Michelle when she gets out of her bath to let him in through the window. Jake by the way has been sent by Dev to fix her leaky roof and when he spots Ms Connor in the altogether he lunges in for a kiss on her fireside rug. She throws him out, half-heartedly, and calls the police to report him for harassment. That’s before she goes to dinner with him and later shows him the stitching on her duvet of course. And then he tells her he’s off to Glasgow but just like thrush and cold sores, he’ll be back. When Dev refuses to pay Jake’s bill for fixing the roof, Jake gently threatens Dev in his soft-spoken way. I wondered what kind of threats a weird but gentle soul like Jake would exact on Dev – come round and lick his shop carrots when no-one was looking? But no, Jake means business and he rips off half the tiles from Michelle’s roof before scarpering to Scotland, leaving a bemused Michelle home alone. Well, she’s not exactly alone, she’s got Ben staying with her and Ryan while Ben’s folks are on their hols. Ben’s got the hots for Michelle, you can tell by the way he fiddles with his Xbox.

Over in the Kabin, Norris sacks silent Joan and there’s a lovely scene when he takes a phone call from Rita who’s still on her cruise. He pulls up a chair in the Kabin and gets down to a right good gossip with her. She’s been invited to sit at the captain’s table, no less, although she’s a little disappointed that he looks like Ronnie Corbett. She’s much missed, not only by Norris but by this Corrie fan.

Aunty Pam stuck her nose into something nasty this week when she tackled both Molly and Kevin about their affair. Kevin comes up with a plan to lie to Aunty Pam that the affair’s ended but will their secret remain safe for much longer? Oh, do you know what? I don’t care. I just want it finished, I really do.

At Underworld, Tony collapses with a heart attack outside of the factory. Hang on, haven’t we been here before with Mike Baldwin who collapsed and died on the factory steps? They should put up a sign or something. Anyway, Roy’s passing by with his bag in his hand and is the one responsible for getting Tony to hospital. Thinking he’s at death’s door, Tony confides in Roy that he was the one who killed the bats. This doesn’t strike Roy as such a surprise but when Tony then says he also killed Liam, Roy comes over all peculiar and has to sit down. Maria flies back from Cyprus and Tony recovers, but not before Roy tells Hayley about Tony’s words. Now that he’s not dead, Tony knows he has to cover his tracks about his confession to Roy and offers him £5,000 to donate to a charity of his choice. “A gentlemanly agreement,” he says, offering his hand to Roy. But Tony’s no gentleman, and Roy, a gentle man, knows it’s hush money.

Peter Barlow got a surprise visitor this week when Simon’s other granddad turned up. He’s George, dad of Lucy the florist who died, and Peter takes some persuading that George should be allowed into Simon’s life. Unfortunately, little Simon got a bit of bashing when he stood behind the door of the flat and was banged in the face when Peter threw the door open. So it was a bloodied Simon who George first meets and he assumes Peter’s been bashing the kid up. Peter reminds Simon that he’s already got granddad Ken, the one who takes him to school, reads him stories and throws in a bit of wishy-washy liberal idealism with his CocoPops.

Jesse and Julie meet at four for frolics and fun and Eileen’s suspicious when she spies them together. She assumes there’s summat funny going on between her sister and her fella but the two of them are just playing Cowboys and Indians. But from the look on their faces when Jesse brings Julie back to the Street afterwards, it looks like frolics and fun might turn into snogs and some more. Jesse’s such a wimp anyway, he doesn’t deserve Eileen and I wish the writers would put a proper smile on her face.

And finally, there was good news for Claire Peacock as Ashley finally had the snip.

And that’s just about that for this week.

Coronation Street writers this week were Daran Little, John Kerr, Joe Turner and Carmel Morgan.

Find out more about the Coronation Street writing team.

Find out more about the Coronation Street Weekly Updates

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

Coronation Street Weekly Update, August 3 2009

Greetings fellow Corrie fans and welcome to another weekly drop of the good stuff. I hope you've had a good week. Me? Well, as you ask, I've had me hair done, the kettle's just boiled and I'm ready to settle down with a cuppa and a biscuit, which is always a good thing.

And so, without any further ado, here we go with this week’s Coronation Street update.

Chesney acts out his angst about his sister and Stape when he finds Fiz’s engagement ring. He nicks Rosie Webster’s new sports car and lurches around on the cobbles trying to contain the monster on wheels. I’m much the same with the shopping trollies at Morrisons. Anna Windass comes to his rescue when he almost runs her down, she gives him good advice when she finds out he’s robbed Rosie’s car. “Get out, wipe your prints off and leg it.” But he’s left Fiz’s engagement ring in the car when he legs it and Rosie finds the ring when she’s cleaning the car. Note to self: must buy high heels, short shorts and a blouse that unbuttons down to there next time I’m cleaning the car. Second note to self: also buy a car.

Anyway, Rosie gives the ring to Sally, telling her it’s an expensive gift she’s bought for her mum and the factory girls go ‘aah’ as they see Sally enthralled and then ‘oooh’ when they see her humiliated as Fiz nicks the ring back. And that’s when the Stape hit the fan as the factory girls find out that Fiz is engaged to be married to the no-mark that is jailbird John Stape. As they say round our parts, he’s a dodge-pocket. Don’t ask me what it means, but he’s one, all right. Rosie and Sally know that this means Chesney must have been the one who nicked Rosie’s car but Fiz protects her brother and tells them that she’s the tea-leaf.

Over at Emily’s the lights are off and she’s cosy on the sofa with Ramsay, tea, and a slideshow of the Lakes and a picture of her wedding to Earnest. Norris comes home to find the cosy scene and he’s not best pleased, especially when he finds out that Ramsay’s eaten his pie. Rita suggests to Norris that the cosy scene he’s seen could mean Emily and Ramsay have a thing for one other. Perhaps it’s another pie?

Joe’s grizzly this week when David refuses to give him the painkillers unless Joe tells Tina to get back with David. Joe tries, he really does, but his words choke him as Tina questions why he now thinks David’s the best thing since sliced bread. Joe loses his cool with David – Joe: “I do not have an addiction!” David: “Joe, take a chill pill!” - and he pins him up by the scruff of the neck against the wall in Gail’s house. Apart from Martin Platt and Ted, has there ever been a fella living in Gail’s house who David hasn’t had the displeasure of that position with?

But Tina’s got more on her mind than her dad being peculiar about Psycho Dave. She and Jason are getting a joint mortgage to buy the flat at No. 12 after Eileen loans them the money she’s received from cashing in her dad’s shares.

Becky and Steve plan wedding v.2.0. The date’s August 14th, the cake’s being made by Eddie Windass, the maid of honour is Hayley and Becky’s £200 richer when Roy gives her a gift of hard cash, always the best kind, don’t you find. She offers some of this to Slug when she spies him coasting on the cobbles but he declines the dosh and slithers off. She then heads into town with Hayley to a posh wedding frock shop but the snooty assistant insists Becky wears gloves before touching the gowns. Becky storms out in a huff and wanders back in later with Steve and his credit card. In a Pretty Woman moment, he tells Becky to buy the dress of her dreams which costs so much it’ll give Steve nightmares for years. She also buys a blue garter: “It’s for keeping me fags in,” she tells the snooty cow behind the counter.

Michelle Connor returned this week and immediately has Peter Barlow on the sniff. He buys her a drink in the Rovers and says he wants to start off where they left off but Michelle sticks out her new boobs and says she just wants to be friends. Then Luke spies Michelle and you can tell his tail’s wagging, his nose’s wet and he’s panting for a stroke under the chin, or anywhere really. Rosie’s not pleased, as you can imagine.

And that’s just about that for this week.

Find out more about these Coronation Street Weekly Updates.

Coronation Street writers this week were Julie Jones, David Lane, Daran Little, Martin Allen and Mark Wadlow.

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

Corrie writer profile: Daran Little

Sources: corrie.net, corrie.net interview, The Guardian, The Sun, imdb.com,

Daran Little joined the Coronation Street production team in 1989, taking over from Eric Rosser as Official Archivist. In 1996 he became Manager of Drama Serials, working with producers and writers to build up profiles of characters, organising awards ceremonies, parties and handling viewers queries. He then wrote most, if not all, of the Coronation Street reference books available including the 35th and 40th anniversary books, four other Street reference books and two prequel novels. He co-wrote Betty Driver's autobiography too.

In 2000 Daran joined the storyline office as a scriptwriter and his first episode was aired in April 2001. Daran was the writer responsible for Corrie's first gay storyline when Todd Grimshaw kissed Nick Tilsley. You can read more on that in Daran's interview with The Guardian and he revealed to The Sun that he was Corrie's first openly gay writer, baseing Todd's kiss on his own experiences.

As well as writing for Corrie, Daran was writer and producer of Hollyoaks in the City and has worked in the US on American soap All My Children.

In 2010 Daran Little joined the writing team at BBC soap EastEnders. He also scripted the BBC4 drama The Road to Coronation Street.

If you can help update this profile or provide a recent photo, do please let me know.

Read about all of the current Corrie writing team here.

Daran Little returns to Coronation Street

Coronation Street writer Daran Little has returned to writing for our favourite soap after his stint on a soap in the USA. His first episode on his return will be aired next week.

Read more about the Coronation Street writing team here.

Ex-Corrie writer starts work on US Soap

There's an interesting comment here on the Soap Opera Network site in the US. It says ex-Coronation Street writer Daran Little has been hired as a creative consultant on the daytime US soap All My Children.

If it's true, Daran would be taking the Mancs to the Yanks. It might just work.