Come back Maureen, the Rovers needs you!

The subject of the Rovers landlady, or landlord, is often hotly debated. After many years of stability with the likes of Annie Walker and Bet Lynch at the helm, recent times have seen so many different faces behind the bar, you'd think they had installed a revolving door.

Recent episodes have seen Steve and Liz McDonald back in charge. While Steve is pretty universally popular, despite his voracious appetites for stupidity where women are concerned, Liz splits opinion right down the middle. I do think Liz is much more suited to being behind the Rovers bar than some other recent incumbents - she has a long screen history at the Rovers, dating back to the early 90s when Bet, Betty, Jack and Raquel formed that most perfect of teams. I don't know though, something with the current set up just isn't right.

In the past decade or so we've enjoyed or endured Natalie Barnes, Fred Elliot, Duggie Ferguson, Eve Sykes, Shelley Unwin and of course, Stella and Gloria Price. None of them quite fitted in the same way as Annie or Bet. No, for me we need someone in the classic Annie Walker style. While there will never be another, one actress did come pretty close back in 2002. 

Had it not been for Bet Lynch's sudden disappearing act, we'd never have glimpsed the magnificent, regal, Lillian Spencer. Maureen Lipman was an absolute joy throughout her brief stint. In a few short appearances she managed to offend everyone, put noses out of joint with aplomb and bar several characters from their second home. Lillian's descriptions of the likes of Kevin, Rita and Audrey were superb. 

I know it's highly unlikely that Maureen Lipman could ever be tempted back to Corrie, despite her family connections to the show. Way back in the 1960s, Lipman's late husband Jack Rosenthal wrote for the programme and even became the show's producer in 1967. If we ever saw Lillian again, the character would need to be toned down if she was to stay for any period of time, but I reckon she could still put the cat amongst the pigeons.

So what do the weeks and months ahead have in store for us at the Rovers? More of Liz and Michelle ganging up on daft Steve? Michelle lording it behind the bar? Another flurry of Liz McDonald's love life? Barry Connor lingering longer than he should?

Could somebody please get on the phone to Ms Lipman's agent?

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Jack Rosenthal play in Manchester pub

THE BEST, a long-lost screenplay about George Best by Jack Rosenthal, will have its world premiere on stage at the Lass O Gowrie pub in Manchester on Tuesday 12 March, as part of Manchester Irish Festival.

Maureen Lipman welcomed the first ever performance of her late husband’s screenplay The Best, after watching rehearsals at the Lass O’Gowrie.

“I had never even read until two weeks ago, now to watch it being performed by a group of truly gifted actors. It was very moving for me but also very funny and enlightening about the nature of hubris. It’s really good. I didn’t expect to go to a reading of Jack’s play in a pub in Manchester and it turn my heart over. But it did."

Producer and landlord of the Lass O’Gowrie Gareth Kavanagh said: "A lost Jack Rosenthal script about George Best? That's just Manchester royalty squared for us and we're thrilled to be bringing this amazing script back to life in time for the Manchester Irish Festival!"


Tickets: www.wegottickets.com/location/1313
Tel: 0161 273 6932 www.thelass.co.uk @thelassogowrie

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Review: Jack Rosenthal & Maureen Lipman exhibition

One of my top two Coronation Street moments this year so far has been to watch 1968 Corrie episodes, written by Jack Rosenthal, acted out in front of me in a Manchester pub, The Lass O'Gowrie.

My other Corrie highlight has been seeing the wonderful Fat Brenda show, live on stage in Harrogate, twice!

Anyway, the landlord of the Lass O'Gowrie pub in Manchester who arranged for Jack Rosenthal's 1968 Corrie episodes to be acted out in his pub, was invited along as a special guest this week to the Jack Rosenthal and Maureen Lipman exhibition at the University of Sheffield.

It's over to Gareth now to let us know what happened because in addition to attending the exhibition, Gareth managed the recreation of Stan and Hilda's wonderful meal out in an Chinese restaurant...

From Gareth Kavanagh:

"It was a delight to be invited to the opening of the Jack and Maureen exhibition of papers and personal mementoes at the University of Sheffield this Wednesday, just gone.  The University holds Jack's archives of papers, a priceless haul of papers, scripts, correspondence and personal moments spanning his incredible career and without it, we would never have staged Coronation Street 1968 at the Lass O'Gowrie in January.  Through my work with the scripts and papers within this amazing archive I came to realise that it was Jack who had created the Coronation Street I came to love in the seventies with my Mum on cold winter nights, while my Dad was playing darts.

Within this collection you can read treasures such as Maureen's school reports (must be more consistent in Latin!), appreciate Jack's BAFTA and read original submissions and Corrie scripts all lovingly curated by the Special Colelctions team at the University.  It's personal, moving and funny.  You realise how prolific the two of them were and how lucky we were to enjoy Jack's prolific talents over the decades.

Picture copyright: Gareth Kavanagh. Gareth is pictured on the right dressed in black with Maureen Lipman and some of the actors from the Chinese Restaurant scene including Joan Kempson as Hilda Ogden. Joan once played Edna Miller in Corrie.

Jack's widow, the great Maureen Lipman was on hand to open the exhibition and gave us a real sense of the man behind the work, regaling us with tales of his meeting the Queen Mother and his Jewish, northern and working class roots which defined him his entire life.  He was a man supremely confident in his skin, Maureen regaled us - the same with paupers and kings and that gift just shines in his work.  Clearly moved by the exhibition, Maureen told a tale of Jack's final night before he passed when she asked him if his dear old friend who had visited him had said anything to him.  "Yes," Jack replied, "He said he loved me."  Maureen asked what he had said back and Jack smiled, chuckled wickedly and replied, "Nothing; we just had sex then he left!"

Follow that!

As the floor dissolved into peals of laughter, it was my job to introduce the Chinese Restaurant scenes from episode #788 of Coronation Street, which were part of our Coronation Street 1968 celebration in January.  John Draycott, Joan Kempson and Christina Tam stepped up to the plate and smashed it out of the park.  It was every bit as moving and funny as it had been last time round and I think nothing was more fitting than to hear life breathed back into Jack's words once more. 

I think we were all left with the impressing of a life well lived and one well worth celebrating. 

A true privilege."

See also:  Review of the 1968 episodes acted out in the Lass O'Gowrie earlier this year.

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Jack Rosenthal & Maureen Lipman exhibition

Jack Rosenthal emerged from the newly created Granada television studios in Manchester to become an award winning playwright and television screen writer, penning many Coronation Street episodes.

Maureen Lipman continues to have an enduring, successful and wide-ranging career which includes theatre, television, film, radio and print.

Jack and Maureen met at Granada, married and shared their lives together for over thirty years.

The exhibition uses items from the Jack Rosenthal Drama Scripts Collection and the Maureen Lipman Papers, both held by the University of Sheffield Library’s Special Collections Department, to illustrate the development and diversity of their careers and the way in which shared family values came together to produce a creative partnership.

This fab exhibition is now on at the Western Bank Library at Sheffield University until August 19th. All details here.

See also: Jack Rosenthal's Coronation Street
See also: Review of Jack Rosenthal's 1968 Corrie episodes - performed in a Manchester pub!

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Review: 1968 Coronation Street at the Lass O'Gowrie, Manchester

You'll have to excuse any spelling errors in this blog post, I'm a little bit merry after drinking the afternoon away on Ena's Cuppa. I don't know what she puts in it put it was being served up behind the bar at the Lass O'Gowrie pub this afternoon where I spent a very happy few hours with our blogger Sunny Jim and a couple of friends who enjoy Corrie as much as we do.

Corrie fan Emma has already posted a little review of the Corrie 1968 live episodes which have been acted out in the Lass O'Gowrie pub this week as part of their winter festival called LassFest. While the Corrie episodes are finished now, the festival is still going on until February and you can find out more at http://www.lassfest.co.uk/

And so to Corrie.  We watched three live episodes acted right in front of us. The episodes were all written by Jack Rosenthal and Jack's widow, the wonderful Maureen Lipman was in the very small audience (maximum allowed in was 30) with us.

The first episode from 1968 was Stan and Hilda Ogden's visit to a Chinese restaurant for their first ever foreign meal.  The casting was superb with Joan Kempson as Hilda who got Hilda's sing-song voice down to a tee.   The dialogue was far funnier than you remember 1960s Corrie being, it came faster too. The show was performed 'in the promenade' which meant the audience had to follow the action around the pub. Sometimes we were in the bar, watching Annie and Jack Walker - played by the wonderful Dave Dutton who has appeared on Corrie in eight different roles - bicker. And other times we were in the corner shop with Ena and Emily, and then again we moved to join Stan and Hilda in the Chinese resturant, or the 'Golden Mandolin' as Hilda wrongly, wonderfully pronounced it.

After a wonderful episode that finished with a terrified Ena investigating a loud crash in the corner shop, Dave Browning's trumpet solo ended the show and it was back to the bar for another pint of Ena's Cuppa. And er, another.

And then we were treated to two Corrie episodes of the wedding of Dennis Tanner to Jenny Sutton. Special mention goes to actor David Crowley for his performance as Dennis. We all raised our glasses at the wedding, and it was a poignant moment when Jerry Booth walked out and away from the Street, saying goodbye to Len, who couldn't hear him, and nobody even noticed he had gone.  A wonderful Elsie Tanner was played by actress Jeni Howarth Williams but there wasn't one single member of the cast whom I can possibly single out, they were all absolutely fantastic.

It was great to see actress Emma Edmondson, who once played Corrie's Mel Morton, on stage as a stroppy teenage Lucille Hewitt.  She was wonderful to watch. As was Tom Burroughs who played Jery Booth. Eagle-eyed Corrie fans will spot Tom's name as he played the tram driver in the Corrie tram crash.

The event was raising awareness for the charity Myeloma UK which was the disease that Jack Rosenthal died from. And Maureen Lipman gave a very moving speech about Jack, a speech laced with both humour and tears.

And then the night ended, much too soon.  But the cast were all ready to do it all over again, for a special show for Corrie cast and crew, some of whom started to arrive in the pub before we'd finished our final glass of Ena's Cuppa.  We saw famous Corrie faces and all I can say is that they're always much shorter in real life than they appear on screen.  No names will be mentioned!

It's been a wonderful event, well worth making the journey from the north-east to the north-west for and worth spending the time and money on a weekend in Manchester for. If this fantastic event should run again next year, get your tickets soon because they had to turn away people from the door who wanted to get in.

Special thanks go to Dave Dutton for taking your rather shy blog editor by the hand, into the Snug at the Lass O'Gowrie pub and introducing me to the Corrie cast.

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Cast announced for Coronation Street 1968 stage play

The cast has been announced for the players in the 1968 version of Coronation Street to be staged in Manchester. 

Three classic scripts by Jack Rosenthal are performed in the Lass O’Gowrie pub in Manchester in January 2012.  We've got our tickets already!

It's all part of the LassFest and you can find out full details here.

Some interesting choices of characters and actors have been announced today as follows:

Dave Dutton - who has been on Corrie in at least eight different roles already - stars as Jack Walker.
Emma Edmondson, who played Mel Morton in Coronation Street, is Lucille Hewitt
Joan Kempson, who played Rovers Return cleaner Edna Miller in Coronation Street is Hilda Ogden
Christine Barton-Brown plays Annie Walker
Russell Dixon is Ena Sharples
David Crowley is Dennis Tanner
Colin Connor is Len Fairclough
Geoff Dignan is Ray Langton
Kathryn Worthington is Emily Nugent
Tom Burroughs, who played the tram driver in the Coronation Street tram crash is Jerry Booth
Jeni Howarth Willianms is Elsie Tanner. Jeni played Sheila Hayes on Coronation Street (mother of Wayne Hayes who stayed with the Croppers).
Jo Mousley is Linda Cheveski
Val Tagger is Minnie Caldwell. Val has been on Corrie before as a hotel guest.
Terry Naylor is Ernie Sutton

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Manchester pub to stage live Coronation Street

From The Natter

Corrie fans can get a chance to be part of Coronation Street when three classic scripts by Jack Rosenthal are performed in the Lass O’Gowrie pub in Manchester in January 2012.
For the first time ITV has given permission for the scripts from 1968 to be performed live, with the traditional Manchester pub becoming the Rovers Return for two weeks.

Landlord Gareth Kavanagh said: “We are hugely grateful to ITV and Jack’s family for allowing us to stage these episodes and can’t wait for you to see them. These brand new, full cast dramatisations will take place in the ground floor of the Lass, making them a totally immersive and dramatic presentation.”

The first two episodes cover the wedding of Dennis Tanner and Jenny Sutton with a host of well-loved characters such as Ena Sharples, Minnie Caldwell, Elsie Tanner, Annie and Jack Walker and Albert Tatlock. They will be performed in the main pub with the audience becoming the onset extras. Complementing these two classic slices of Sixties writing is a new adaptation of Coronation Street’s episode 788, which centres on Stan Ogden treating Hilda to a slap-up Chinese meal, which will be performed on the stage upstairs.

They will be performed by a new cast brought together by June West, the Street’s casting director for over 15 years, and directed by theatre stalwart Helen Parry. Rumour has it a few familiar faces have expressed an interest in playing the classic characters!

Episode one will be on Monday (Jan 9th at 6pm, 7.30pm and 9pm), episode two on Tuesday (Jan 10th at 6pm, 7.30pm and 9pm). The standalone Ogdens’ episodes are on Wednesday (Jan 11th at 7.30pm and 9pm) and Thursday (Jan 12th 7.30pm and 9pm). Then on the Sunday the Ogdens is repeated at 4pm, followed by an omnibus edition of the first two episodes of 6pm.

To complete the tribute, the Lass will also be staging Hot Fat, a Jack Rosenthal Play For Today from 1974 that was lost when the tapes were wiped by the BBC. That will be on Friday Jan 13th at 6pm and Sunday 15th at 1pm and explores how friendships and deals are made and broken in a sauna.

Rosenthal is one of the north’s greatest literary sons and author of classics like the BAFTA award-winning Bar Mitzvah Boy, The Evacuees and Spend, Spend, Spend – about the pools winner Viv Nicholson.

There will only be 30 tickets for each intimate performance and tickets will go on sale on December 9, Coronation Street’s 51st anniversary.

It’s all part of Midwinter Lassfest from January 2-29 with the Lass O’Gowrie in Charles Street becoming a one-venue fringe festival, hosting an amazing 70-plus events.

Tickets are available on the door or via www.wegottickets.co.uk by searching for the Lass O’Gowrie or following the links over at www.lassfest.co.uk. Please note, priority will be given to online advance orders.

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Anne Reid and Maureen Lipman star in Ladies of Letters

Two wonderful ex-Coronation Street actresses are starring in Ladies of Letters, which starts on ITV3 on Tuesday 3rd Feb at 10pm

Anne Reid, who played Ken Barlow's wife Valerie before she was electrocuted by a faulty hairdryer, and Maureen Lipman, who played Rovers Return relief manager Lilian "and never, ever Lily" Spencer star in the comedy as Irene and Vera.

Anyway, Ladies of Letters is based on the books and Radio 4 series written by Carole Hayman and Lou Wakefield. It's the first time that it's has been shown on TV. You can find out more at the ITV3 Ladies of Letters website which includes interviews with Maureen and Anne. The actresses have known each other since 1969 when Anne was on the Corrie cast as Valerie Barlow. Anne is pictured to the right as Valerie Barlow with the Barlow twins, Peter and Susan.

Anne's late husband was Peter Eckersley, head of drama at Granada TV and he shared an office with Maureen's husband, the late Jack Rosenthal. There's a brand new book about Jack Rosenthal which has just been relased and includes details of his work on Coronation Street. Find out more here.

New book: Jack Rosenthal's Coronation Street

Jack Rosenthal remains one of the most highly regarded British television dramatists. But did you know that his career began with Coronation Street in the 1960s? He then went on to write popular sitcoms during what is often known as the 'golden age' of British TV drama. He also wrote plays such as Spend, Spend, Spend and my favourite, P'Tang, Yang, Kipperbang.

There's a brand new book out now called simply Jack Rosenthal and it's the first-ever critical work on the writer. Written by Sue Vice, who is Professor of English Literature at the University of Sheffield, this book will be of interest to students and researchers in Television, Film and Cultural Studies, as well as contemporary drama and Jewish Studies, and the general reader. Highly recommended.

And did you know that Jack Rosenthal's wife, Maureen Lipman, once appeared on Corrie? She played the part of Lilian (never, ever Lily) Spencer, a relief manager at the Rovers Return.