The faces of Corrie in 2001

If you remember, last year I had a series of posts looking at the top 12 faces of each Corrie decade - the 1960s, the 1970s, the 1980s, the 1990s and the 2000s. For the next few weeks or so, I’ll be looking at the top 12 faces of each year between 1960 and 2013.

With thanks to Corriepedia for the information.

In 2001, 224 episodes were broadcast.

1. Janice Battersby (127 episodes)

2. Gail Platt (125 episodes)

3. Duggie Ferguson (123 episodes)

4. Geena Gregory (120 episodes)

5. Toyah Battersby (115 episodes)

6. Mike Baldwin (113 episodes)

7. Dennis Stringer (112 episodes)

8. Sarah Platt (108 episodes)

9. Tyrone Dobbs (105 episodes)

10. Roy Cropper (104 episodes)

11. Eileen Grimshaw (101 episodes)

12. Sally Webster (100 episodes)

Average age: 35

Note: This is the last time Mike appears in the top 12. This the last time Toyah (to date), Duggie and Dennis appear in the top 12

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The faces of Corrie in 2000

If you remember, last year I had a series of posts looking at the top 12 faces of each Corrie decade - the 1960s, the 1970s, the 1980s, the 1990s and the 2000s. For the next few weeks or so, I’ll be looking at the top 12 faces of each year between 1960 and 2013.

With thanks to Corriepedia for the information.

In 2000, 216 episodes were broadcast.

1. Gail Platt (144 episodes)

2. Janice Battersby (143 episodes)

3. Natalie Barnes (137 episodes)

4. Martin Platt (131 episodes)

5. Linda Sykes/Baldwin (122 episodes)

6. Sarah Platt (120 episodes)

7. Mike Baldwin (116 episodes)

8. Steve McDonald (110 episodes)

9. Jim McDonald (108 episodes)

10. Tyrone Dobbs (107 episodes)

11. Duggie Ferguson (103 episodes)

12. Toyah Battersby (98 episodes)

Due to lack of space, Vera Duckworth and Geena Gregory fail to make the top 12, but they also appear in 98 episodes

Average age: 34

Note: To date, this is the last time Jim, Linda and Natalie appear in the top 12

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Corrie A-Z: R is for the Rovers Return (Part 3)

With thanks to Corriepedia for all the info on the history of the Rovers. Having looked at the Rovers between 1902 and 1984 on Wednesday, 1985 to 2000 yesterday, today we look at the period from 2000 to the present day.

 

Fred Elliott with Duggie Ferguson, Mike Baldwin and Eve Elliott 2000-2006

 

While the three held equal shares, it was Duggie who ran the pub – Fred had his butcher’s shop and Mike had his factory. Duggie soon grew tired of the arrangement and tried to trick them into selling their shares – ultimately selling their shares to him. He ran the pub until the end of 2001 when Fred bought the pub back, with new wife Eve taking over the licence. But in 2002 it was revealed that Eve was a bigamist and she had no legal right over the pub. Needing someone to man the Rovers while he concentrated on the butcher shop, he appointed Annie Walker-esque manageress Lillian Spencer. But she proved to be a bad choice as she didn’t get on with the regulars or the staff and even sacked Jack for being too old to be a potman. Lillian soon left when a better job offer came up and Fred appointed barmaid Shelley Unwin in her place. Shelley’s time behind the bar saw many dramas: she married bigamist Peter Barlow and was manipulated and bullied by her fiancé Charlie Stubbs. He even caused her to develop agoraphobia, where she was confined to her bedroom for weeks on end. Shelley left the street in 2006. Bev and Fred soon fell in love and planned to marry and move away but Fred died on their wedding day. Prior to his death, Fred had made a deal that Steve McDonald would get the pub. Fred’s son Ashley honoured that deal.

 

Steve and Liz McDonald 2006-2011

 

Liz McDonald had been a Rovers barmaid on and off since 1990 and had previously applied to become Rovers owner in 1995 and was chuffed to bits when she finally became licensee, with son Steve being the owner – balancing his time between the Rovers and his cab firm ‘Street Cars’. The McDonalds had their fair share of dramas during their time at the Rovers: Steve’s relationship with Michelle Connor; Liz marrying Vernon Tomlin; Steve having an affair with his later wife Becky Granger and Becky suffering miscarriages and buying her nephew Max from sister Kylie. Liz was absent from the street for about six months and returned in early 2011. Seeing that Steve and Becky were in financial difficulties, Liz saw this as a chance to buy the pub. She was with ex-husband Jim at this point and he went to drastic measures to try and buy the pub – robbing a bank! Jim was arrested and jailed. Liz decided it was time she left the street and left again. Following Liz’s departure, as he wasn’t legally allowed to own the pub, Steve advertised for a manager. That new manager became Stella Price – St. Ella of Weatherfield! An almost penniless Steve then decided to sell the pub to Stella.

 

Stella Price with Gloria Price 2011-

 

Stella moved in with partner Karl and daughter Eva and her motive for moving into the Rovers became clear soon after. She had come to find her daughter Leanne, who she’d abandoned when she was a baby. Over the months, Leanne grew to accept Stella as her mum. Since she took the Rovers, Stella’s been involved in many storylines (which sometimes don’t even involve her!!!) like being hit by Carla Connor’s car, Karl’s gambling addiction and discovering Karl’s affair with best friend Sunita Alahan.

 

In 2013, the Rovers went on fire for the second time. It was Karl who started the fire deliberately in a bid to quash Stella’s relationship with builder Jason Grimshaw, who’d fixed the pub’s electrics earlier in the day. The blame for the fire would then fall on Jason. But things went horribly wrong: he was confronted by Sunita and threw down the cellar steps; and then found out Stella was inside. Karl went to save her and he was deemed a hero. Sadly, Sunita died as did firefighter Toni Griffiths. The Rovers was refurbished again and re-opened in May. Stella had been in financial difficulties due to the fire, and at one time couldn’t pay to get the pub rebuilt. But her mother Gloria gave her some money to cover the costs and so Gloria is now a partner in the business.

 

You can read about the Rovers barmaids here and see who Coronation Street Blog readers voted as their favourite barmaid here.

 

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Anyone else miss Crusher Ferguson?

The recent speculation about Tracy Barlow getting a job at the Rover's (dear oh dear oh dear) made me think back with nostalgia to the halcyon days when Duggie "Crusher" Ferguson (played by John Bowe) manned the pumps and heaved crates of mixers about in the cellar. Now there was a proper Rover's incumbent. A high calibre actor, with lots of presence, who brought gravitas to the Rover's - his unforgettable appearance as Dolly Parton notwithstanding.

Sadly Crusher was well and truly bumped off by Richard Hillman, and can never return to the cobbles except to haunt someone. Plotline, anybody?! If only he could come back!

My own blog is here

50 Years Of Corrie In 50 Days – 2000

Day 40 of our 50 day countdown of Coronation Street - written by blogger Sunny Jim.

In 1999 Granada closed their visitor attraction, The Granada Studio Tours, which included the outdoor set for Coronation Street. This gave the producers the opportunity to expand the set and include the exteriors of some places that we’d only ever seen the inside of and to include some new locations as well. A medical centre and chip shop (sadly not Jackson’s Chippy) were placed on Rosamund Street on the site of the old Graffiti Club and on Victoria Street shops for Elliott & Son’s Butchers, Roy’s Rolls and D & S Hardware were built. Strangely a new viaduct which had never been seen or mentioned before also appeared crossing Rosamund Street behind the Rovers. Photographs of the new additions can be found here.

The year started with the Street’s first ever two-handed full episode, featuring Raquel and Curly Watts. At 2 in the morning, just as Curly is in the kitchen mixing up something to try and help him avoid too bad a hangover, there is a knock on his back door. He thinks it's just the lads and shouts at them to go away, but the knocking persists and he opens it to see Raquel, his estranged wife. Curly hopes that she has returned for him, but although she says she still cares for him, she says she doesn't love him the way he wants and she can't some back. Her first bombshell is that she and Curly have a daughter called Alice, although she didn't know she was pregnant when she left and she didn't tell him about it because she didn't want him chasing after her to Kuala Lumpur. Curly is over the moon that he's a father, but very annoyed that she hadn't told him about her, especially as she returned to England to have the baby and stayed with her sister. In his anger, he makes cruel insinuations, asking if she's really his, but Raquel assures him there was nobody else and that she's told Alice all about her father and she's looking forward to meeting him. On a visit to the bathroom, she takes a look round her old home and sees that very little has changed, her old dressing gown is even still hanging on the back of the bedroom door.

As they look at the star that Curly bought for her, he says he's prepared to forgive and forget and that they can start again, but she drops her second bombshell when she tells him there's someone else. When she was in hospital having Alice, she befriended a French couple, the wife of which was dying of cancer. She's been working as a nanny looking after their 2 children as well as Alice and now lives in a chateau, 'a real one, detached and everything', in the Loire valley (she even speaks fluent French and knows a bit about wine). The wife died 2 years ago and since then she's helped put Armand, the husband, back together again, got him loving his children again and the pity she felt for him when his wife first died has blossomed into love. Curly realises that the next thing she'll be asking for is a divorce, which she duly does and she knows he'll give her one, because he's a nice bloke who still loves her and wants her to be happy. She finally drops her third bombshell, announcing that she's pregnant and needs to be married in case the child is a boy, for inheritance purposes. Curly opines 'Why can't it be me, why can't it ever be me', but as Raquel predicted, Curly agrees to the divorce and seems to be finally accepting that it's over. She says she wants Alice to get to know her real father and that he can come over to France any time and that when she's older, she can come over and stay with him during the holidays and they set the first visit for Easter. As dawn is starting to break, she says goodbye and leaves by the back door with tears in her eyes.

Another landmark this year came in the form of the 40th Anniversary of the programme. Rather than celebrate another decade with a special TV Times supplement and a couple of TV specials it was decide to broadcast an hour long episode featuring the culmination of a campaign to save the Street’s cobbles which the council was threatening to tarmac over. But more than that, the real headline grabber was that this episode would be broadcast live for the first time since February 3rd 1961. The only members of the cast remaining who had ever known what it was like not to be able to redo a fluffed line were Bill Roach and Eileen Derbyshire. There were significant logistical problems with the shoot as well. All the action was taking place on a single day so most outdoor scene had to be crammed in to the first part of the programme before it started to get too dark. The final scene was a major problem too as it took place outside the Rovers after everyone had emptied out of the pub, so the final interior scenes for the Rovers had to be filmed in the shell on the outdoor set. Despite all the problems the programme was a great success and the cobbles were saved when Stan Potter (played by Noddy Holder), turned up with a fake preservation order for them.

Also in 2000: Steve McDonald borrows money off Jez Quigley to start Streetcars; Bethany Platt born; Mike Baldwin marries Linda Sykes; Kevin Webster marries Alison Wakefield; Alison Wakefield commits suicide; Peter Barlow returns; Terry Duckworth sells a kidney for £25k and does a runner; Vera Duckworth donates a kidney to Paul Clayton; Eileen Grimshaw makes her first appearance; Jim McDonald kills Jez; Jim McDonald and Liz remarry; Curly Watts and Emma Taylor get married.

More Duggie in Drag

I'm not John Bowe's mum, agent or anything, but here's another photo of him looking good in a frock.

His turn as Dolly Parton in the Rover's Return must surely have helped him snare his current role in Priscilla Queen of the Desert.

I THINK that's him in the middle. He looks very svelte compared to the burly ex-rugby league player Crusher I remember from his Coronation Street days (she says with just a hint of disappointment).

The man's man on Corrie

Coronation Street has always had its quota of the testosterone fuelled, hairy chested "man's man". We've got Big Jim MacDonald coming back (remember when he was in the wheelchair by the way, and Liz had the affair with the physio?!). We've got newcomer Owen, who I fully expect to go "mano a mano" with Big Jim out on the cobbles. He's doing pretty well so far - gruff voice, hard hat, stubbly chin, bit of a glad eye for the ladies. I reckon Bill Webster is a bit of a man's man as well - and by the way Bill - DON'T go for the lowlights. Grooming's all very well but you'd only be letting yourself down.

But I think my favourite man's man was Duggie "crusher" Ferguson, played by John Bowe. Regular commenter Gadgee mentioned recently that he did a cracking turn as Dolly Parton. I remember that too, and looked for a photo, but the best I could do was this I'm afraid - the late lamented Crusher, done in by Hillman. It's such a shame that he can't return to the Street.