Corrie Comicals episodes to Sunday 24 March 2019

Nothing Comical with our first clip this week.  Merely a paean of praise.  For reasons I could explain at length my handwriting has always been illegible.  In my first year at University I acquired a typewriter and in those days could think logically enough to prepare and type my output (except in exams of course).  I have always held in awe those with an ability to precisely control a pen and of course we rarely these days see magnificent manuscripts.  So Rana's work above is a joy and delight to my eyes and I have no doubt will soon be a great source of comfort to Kate.

We know Beth has pulled an all-nighter working on Rana's dress.  Here Alya is defending Beth - she might be "lazy" but she is good with a machine.  The Corrie team obviously liked the line so much that later on both Carla and Johnny said more or less the same, one of them adding that a regular cattle prod up the backside was essential to get any performance from her.

"Trolley Man" Martin Bishop gets a special mention.  Ken is explaining why he is freezing in the ITV Studios, sorry Freschco, car park as Peter and Carla fail to get their mojo back telling "Trolley Man" that he (Ken) used to do the same job.  However Ken never turned his trolley stories into a book (these days it would be a blog of course) - "Tales From The Trolley-man" (above).

When Corrie is in full on disaster mode then inevitably comedy is way down the list.  Daniel has just observed that bride (she was wearing the dress) of the day was ten minutes late and Toyah pointedly notes that less than 10 minutes late is merely fashionable, 10 or more minutes late means something more serious "is she definitely coming or not?" late.  By contrast marrying off one of my daughters we arrived so early at the church she had to hide on the floor of the car as all the guests and "husband to be" were still outside the church as we had arrived so early!

Imran has just told Rana that all will be well and the story of the wedding day will be told to their children for years to come.  Leaving aside Rana's predicament we should remember that Imran is currently with R'Toyota.  Now the one thing we do know about her since her return is her apparent inability to have a child - even with IVF or by taking her half-sister's daughter.  So it is hardly a wonder that Rana finds this hilarious.

A personal observation, given the inevitable pain and suffering that Rana is experiencing, is that for her to survive some clearly serious physical problems for at least 30 minutes remaining compos mentis strikes me as unlikely.  She must have been losing blood at a rapid rate and to survive for that long seems highly improbable, perhaps these things work differently on Coronation Street.  Next peeve - what woman walks around with a heavy shoulder bag, puts it down and then fails to pick it up, especially if it contains two valuable rings?  Next up - we saw Izzy show Craig out - she would tell the others she was off to get fruity I am sure.  Next peeve how could Rana get back into the factory without one of the occupiers seeing and hearing her going through the doors in a white jump suit (she was wearing the trousers).  The last we saw of Rana was her staring at the bracelet.  The gaps are significant.  Final peeve - when did Rana put her phone on vibrate rather than use a ring tone?  The phone would have been in the bag of course - but she was using it in the flat before she returned to the factory where the bag had been left.  These plotholes are large enough to swallow an entire factory - oh they did!

Sophie has just observed that Sally is like the "Terminator" -  no matter what happens she just keeps bouncing back (above).  This came shortly after Tim had declared that he did not know what he would do without Sally.  Let us all hope we can go back to these two doing some regular comedy.

And Jenny weighs in with the observation which is worth bearing in mind that Sally is not even hefty, is she?  So we will all be looking to wonder boy Wayne to solve the mystery how a jerk and a crowbar could so seriously weaken the roof, given that Gary and Polish builders had been dancing around on it for the last couple of weeks!

Missing Extras

I normally celebrate the contribution of extras in factory scenes but although they were floating around last week when the strike was being mooted, none of them, not even Dirk, actually turned up for the lock in.  Izzy, Emma, Gemma, Gina, Paul, Sally and Sean all present and correct.  As the last time the factory closed it looks like I am going to miss the ensemble scenes in the factory and there have been so few of them since Phelan bodged the roof repairs.

Next week will be fashionably late again as there are no Monday episodes this week and so I will be covering Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.

Writers: Joe Turner (Monday); Owen Lloyd-Fox (Wednesday); Julie Jones (Sunday)
Directors: Brett Fallis (Monday & Wednesday); Alan Grint (Sunday)

Kosmo
@Kosmo100

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George Michael on Coronation Street

George Michael - God rest his soul - lived a colourful life. Apparently though, he was never happier than when drinking tea and watching Corrie in his PJs. A man after my own heart!

I remember reading this interview with him in the Guardian when he said that his guiltiest pleasure was Sunday morning when he saved up “loads of episodes of Corrie to watch”. I was already a fan but he went up further in my estimation when I discovered he was into Coronation Street.

George was renowned for his sense of humour and he loved Corrie because it was “a laugh”. He once said that “even when life is tragic on Coronation Street, it's still funny”. 

I wonder if George ever knew that his face was plastered across the wall of the factory in the late 1980s. I bet he would have got a real kick out of it if he did.

"Well I guess it would be nice... if I could touch your body"

One of my favourite pastimes when watching Classic Corrie on ITV3 is following the winds of change in popular culture in 1980s Weatherfield. Well, that and keeping track of Sally's changing hairstyles.

Although I was disappointed to learn last week that sometime around November/December 1988, the Smiths poster (see previous blog) had been removed, I was cheered by the fact it had been replaced by an image of George Michael from the famous ‘Faith’ video released a year previously. I bet Morrissey was livid!

George Michael was such a big Corrie fan that he once went on a private tour of the set and enjoyed meeting the actors and crew as much as - or possibly more than - they enjoyed meeting him. There are some wonderful accounts of this online and apparently he was there on the day Kate Ford was rehearsing the scene in which Tracy murdered Charlie Stubbs. See this article in the Manchester Evening News.

I guess that means George visited the set in late 2006 or early 2007. Sally Dynevor shared this brilliant photo on Twitter soon after his tragic death. Obviously, I'm dating the set visit from my encyclopedic knowledge of Sally Webster's hairstyles! 

I’m not sure if George would still regard Corrie to be a laugh or if, like the rest of us, he might be questioning whether his beloved soap had featured a bit too much of the tragedy recently at the expense of the comedy.

Still, I'm pretty sure he’d have had faith, faith, faith - and that’s exactly what we've all gotta have. 

By Martin Leay, on Twitter @mpleay

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Everybody out! When Coronation Street goes on strike

The factory workers revolted recently in Coronation Street.  Led by Sally Metcalfe, they walked out on strike after they found out there was a mole in the camp who had grassed them to the boss after their film-watching session.

Mind you, they were soon wooed back in with cakes and a winning smile from Aidan Connor. 

The publicity picture from ITV, above, of the factory workers out on the cobbles, on strike, reminded me very much of the strikes in days gone by at the factory too.

There was always turmoil and trouble at the factory with the girls ganging up on Mike Baldwin, their boss.

Their firebrand leaders were Vera Duckworth, Ivy Tilsley and the indomiatable Ida Clough.

Ida Clough. Ooh, now there's a name to be reckoned with. It'd take more than a smile and a cake to woo her back to work.

More please, Corrie.

Want to see some classic Corrie strike action?  Have a look at this YouTube clip, below:




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Factory of Death - or the Curse of the Connors

The Coronation Street factory name Underworld seems to be more appropriate than you might have thought. Anyone who works there caught saying "this factory will be the death of me" better watch themselves. That's more of a jinx than they know!

People have died there over the years and it is about to be the scene of one more death as we've already heard with the news that Frank's dead body is going to be discovered inside.

Let's go back in time.

The problems seem to have started when original owner Mike Baldwin expired on the factory steps in the arms of his rival, Ken Barlow in April 2006.

When the Connor brothers took over after Danny Baldwin and Adam Barlow were persuaded in turn to sell out, that little cloud of death over the factory started raining down.

It was April 2007 and the Brothers Connor hired a group of Polish women to work in the factory.  At the time, Carla was trying to get her own line of clothing started and a few of the new workers agreed to work at night on that order, in addition to working their regular day shift. Early one morning, Kasia was trying to carry too many boxes down the stairs and missed the top step, crashing down to the factory floor and she died. Her death was covered up so that Health and Safety wouldn't realise the long hours she'd been working.

Come forward a few years to 2008 to Tony Gordon's term as one of the factory owners. After putting a hit out on Liam Connor for having an affair with Carla, Tony nearly killed pensioner Jed Stone. It was a near thing but Jed survived to tell the tale. Tony nearly killed Carla when she found out and put two and two together, realising that Liam's death was Tony's fault. She left Weatherfield but when she returned, she and Roy pushed so many of Tony's buttons that he broke apart, nearly drowned Roy and then turned himself in.

The next death comes into play when Tony escaped from prison in June, 2010, intent on revenge, and held hostages in the factory. He shot his henchman first, and then decided to set fire to the factory, trapping himself and Carla inside. Carla managed to escape but rather than allowing himself to be caught, Tony stayed inside and when the petrol cans caught fire, the factory exploded and took Tony to "Underworld" for good.

Barely a month later, however, another dead body was entombed under the floor of the factory when John Stape hid the body of Colin Fishwick in a hole in the factory during the reconstruction after the explosion. The body was wrapped in a rug and the builders poured concrete in the hole to rebuild the floor. The better part of a year later, the body was discovered when a drainage problem resulted in excavations, John himself being the one to dig up the body before anyone else could find it.

The latest death is set to be Frank Foster, partner in the factory with Carla Connor. How he will be killed has yet to be revealed but the scene will probably be set with a number of potential candidates as the murderer.

So, did Mike Baldwin start this all off or is this the Curse of the Connors? Maybe Carla ought to get out while she can!

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No to knickers?

Yesterday's preview of "The Corrie Years" here in our very own blogosphere brought forth an interesting, yet 'anonymous' comment about the factory. Why not turn it into a call centre?

Our un-named friend and several others thought that this would serve as an excellent way of introducing new characters. Additionally, it would focus on one of those industries that seem to be growing throughout the world. Someone even suggested that this could facilitate (I'm even starting to write like a call centre manager) the much-awaited cameo of Julie Walters as a trainer or supervisor.

What do we think? Has the vision of women (and a man) slumped over sewing machines had its day? Could the Coronation Street producers get more mileage out of a more '21st century' industry? Or should they leave well alone and let the workers carry on stitching? Over to you!