Anne Reid in new ITV drama

Former Coronation Street actress Anne Reid, who played Valerie Barlow, will be seen in a new series on ITV1. The series is called Marchlands and Anne will appear from episode two onwards. She was awarded the MBE last year and talks about the honour in this interview with Ian Wylie. She also has some interesting comments about her days in Corrie back in the 1960s.

Marchlands is about a haunted house and its effects on three different families that live there in the late 60s, late 80s and present day.

Anne was also recently seen in the revival of Upstairs Downstairs and is waiting to hear if a further series is going to be commissioned.

Marchlands starts tonight on ITV1 at 9:00pm.

Tramtastic day on Coronation Street

TV journalist and Corrie fan Ian Wylie spent a day on the Coronation Street set this week. And in his blog at The Life of Wylie he writes from behind-the-scenes at the Corrie tram crash which we'll see on Monday night. There's no reveal about deaths in his blog post, so you're quite safe reading it, and any spoilers are marked in advance so you can avoid them if you'd like to.  Well worth a read - and it's here.

Read out interview with Ian Wylie here.

Steve Huison pays tribute to military families

As you may remember, we saw the Windasses visited by an Army officer on Monday night, there to inform them than Gary had been injured while serving in Afghanistan. Prior to that, we've seen Anna obsessively watching the news reports and worrying herself into a frazzle about Gary. This is not an uncommon scene around the country as many families are in the same situation. Ian Wylie spoke with Steve Huison in an interview that was published in the MEN the other day about this. Steve's heart goes out to families who have loved ones serving in war zones and says he really wants to get this storyline right, as a tribute to all those families going through this for real and he says "My heart goes out to parents with sons and daughters in Afghanistan. "

On Monday, we will see Gary in hospital as Eddie and Anna visit him. This week, we saw ex-squaddie Jim McDonald lead a toast to Gary in the pub when Roy Cropper spread the news.

Former Corrie actors in new series

Monday night sees the start of a new six part series on BBC1 called Accused.  It centres around one person who is accused of a crime. You see them about to receive the verdict and then each show back-tracks so you can see their story before coming back to the verdict at the end.

The first of the series starts on Monday Nov. 15 at 9 p.m. on BBC1 Corrie spotters will see Tupele Dorgu (Kelly Crabtree) and Emma Stansfield (Ronnie Clayton) in the cast. Christopher Ecclestone is the character on trial in this episode. You can read more about it him and the show in Ian Wylie's article for the MEN with a bit more detail and a photo that has Tupele in it on his blog, Life of Wylie.

It's going to be a wild ride on Corrie next week

Ian Wylie has a piece in today's MEN about next week's Coronation Street seige at Underworld and from what he's seen, it looks like it's going to be spectacular! I know the media always say that but he's seen the episodes at a media preview and honestly thinks it's the best thing Corrie's done for years. It's certainly some of the most expensive scenes ITV has ever filmed and it took them four weeks to film just six episodes with a special, fireproof replica of the factory.

Also at the preview were actors Alison King, Julie Hesmondhalgh, Samia Smith and James Fleet, all of whom are involved in the storyline that sees Tony taking his revenge for being banged up in jail. There will be deaths but we don't know who yet. An educated guess might bring a few speculations but we'll leave that to you, dear readers.

Ian has a few quotes from Alison and Julie both in the main article and also on his blog where he has a bit more to the story. All the actors had challenges in filming the scenes and it sounds as if they've succeeded themselves. Outgoing producer Kim Crowther says “We’re very proud of this week of episodes,” and I for one, can hardly wait to see it all!

Check over on Corrie.net for the week's spoilers and a few more pictures from both the seige and Gail's trial, which also airs next week. (but it won't give away the twists!).

Blog Exclusive! Corrie secrets from The Life of Wylie

Now then, here's another Blog Exclusive for you!

T'other week we interviewed Steven Murphy who brought us Corrie secrets from his office as editor of Inside Soap magazine. Last week we had an interview with Grace Dent from The Guardian's World of Lather. And this week we've got top telly writer and self-confessed Corrie fan, Ian Wylie to share his soap secrets.

Ian's a freelance journalist and, until recently, was the London Editor & TV Editor of the Manchester Evening News (MEN). He writes about television and Corrie for national newspapers, magazines and the MEN, plus he blogs at The Life of Wylie.

And there's something else about Ian Wylie that he makes no secret about - he's a huge Corrie fan. And as his articles are crucial, intelligent reading for fans of telly and especially fans of Corrie, we decided to quiz him about his love of Corrie and how it fits in with being a TV writer. But will he ever get his dream job as reporter with The Weatherfield Gazette?

You can read Ian's fab interview here.

Who would Michael Le Vell bring back to Corrie?

There's a wonderful, long interview with Michael Le Vell, who plays Kevin Webster, in the Manchester Evening News. He reveals all about the most unlikely Coronation Street coupling as Kevin and Molly get together. And at the end of the interview, Ian Wylie asks Michael who he'd love to bring back to Corrie if he could.

His reply is this: "Obviously Jean Alexander, who played Hilda Ogden. I’d like to see her come back for a special. Maybe along with Geoff Hughes (Eddie Yeats) who used to be her lodger. That would be ace.” Ooh, indeed it would.

See also: Michael Le Vell's five favourite things about Corrie

Corrie legend in Ashes to Ashes 2

The new series of Ashes to Ashes returns to BBC 1 soon and TV guru Ian Wylie has seen the preview and the trailer and teases fans of both A2A and Coronation Street by saying that there's a reference to a Corrie legend in the first episode.

He's not saying who it is... but who was big in the 80s - bigger than the show itself, some would argue... - could it possibly be Bet Lynch?

Coronation Street blog hits the M.E.N.

Ian Wylie's blog at the Manchester Evening News website is crucial, intelligent reading for fans of telly and especially fans of Corrie. The chap himself is the London Editor & TV Editor of the Manchester Evening News and I was absolutely thrilled t'other day when he not only gave this Coronation Street blog a mention on his site but said it was "an essential destination" for Weatherfield fans.

Read his blog post here.

Thank you very much indeed.