Interview: Corrie writer Jan McVerry, the woman who created Pat Phelan

There's a fantastic interview with Coronation Street writer Jan McVerry online today.

Jan  has written more than 200 episodes of the show. She hails from Liverpool and is interviewed in YMLiverpool about putting a scouse stamp on Corrie, about how she got her big break, her favourite Weatherfield resident and how she helped create one of telly’s nastiest villains too!

Jan began her working life on Corrie as a storyliner where she's worked on and off for over 20 years .

What was the writing setup like when you first joined?
It was very hierarchical. There was only one woman, and three older white men who really dominated the stories. I was told when I joined ‘don’t speak for the first three months – storyliners don’t speak for the first three months’. I was like ‘what if I’ve got a good idea?’, but it was very much ‘know your place’. Coming from Liverpool though, I spoke in the first meeting of course!

Who is your favourite character to write for on the show?
Currently it’s David Platt, played by Jack P. Shepherd. He’s such an amazing actor; you can give him everything. His humour is so dark, bleak and brilliant. He’s very funny and dry but you can give him amazing dramatic stories and he will just play them so brilliantly.

I quite often work with another Liverpool writer, Jonathan Harvey, and together we pitched a story for David which was a male rape story. Jack played it absolutely brilliantly – it was really fantastic. I would say David is my favourite character [to write for], but prior to that it was Pat Phelan because I invented his character.

Pat Phelan has been voted the soap’s greatest ever villain by fans. What gave you the idea for the character?
The man who was building the extension on my house told me about the cowboy builders he’d worked for in the past. He told me about serial bankrupt offenders who stiff people all the time and I just thought it would be great for a character. We wrote a story about Gary Windass (Mikey North) and Owen Armstrong (Ian Puleston-Davies) who were running a small building firm, when Pat Phelan comes along. The story was only meant to last a fortnight, but he was so brilliant that six months later one of our writers pitched a two-year story which brought Pat back as a much more sinister character who was going to torment the Windass family. It ended up being one of our most popular stories – it was brilliant.

There's a whole lot more to the interview and you can read it all here

Discover all about each of the writers on the Coronation Street team

Glenda Young
Author: Belle of the Back Streets

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Corrie weekly update - Ironic Wallpaper and the Return of Martin Platt

Corrie weekly updates from 1995

All the wit and warmth of Weatherfield
None of the waffle

Available from amazon.co.uk or amazon.com 

The big story this week has been David Platt and the aftermath of his rape by Josh Tucker. David wakes up in Josh’s bed and realises what has happened. He heads home, showers, but doesn’t say a word. Josh comes to the house, telling David it’s what he wanted, but David knows the truth. However, everyone thinks Josh is the best thing since sliced gravy and David can’t handle what’s going on around him. He heads to see his dad Martin and it’s a welcome return of the character after many years away from the show. But even dad Martin can’t get David to open up about the real reason for his visit. Martin’s heading off to a new life in New Zealand and when David returns home to the Platt house he tells Shona that he wants to take Lily and Max and move there with his dad. It’s about as far away from Weatherfield, and Josh, as he can get.

Another member of the Platt clan centre-stage this week has been Gail when Rosemary the clairvoyant tells her she’s got messages from Richard Hillman coming through. Gullible Gail laps it all up, and when Rosemary tells Gail that she’ll rid the Platt clan of the curse which Richard has put upon them all – but it’ll cost – Gail says she’ll pay, of course.

In the back room of the Rovers, Ken gives a French lesson to Leanne, Eva and Toyah after Eva and Toyah lie to Leanne and tell her they’re going to a language class when they were really heading to antenatal.  Leanne is still woefully ignorant of the fact that Eva is up the duff, even though she’s the size of a house. Anyway, Ken gets called in to deliver a French lesson in the back room of the Rovers when Leanne says she wants to tag along.

Sally got her living room wallpapered this week by Tim, who got the wallpaper from Kirk, who got it from someone he knows who’s working in town. What Sally doesn’t know is that her “Italian Frescho” aspirational wallpaper has come from the Weatherfield café. Carla and Michelle have a good giggle at Sally’s mistake, which was rather cruel and out of character for Carla, I felt.

Fiz and Tyrone continue to have problems when Fiz tells him, finally, that Hope is their evil child, not Ruby. But it’s too late, by the time Fiz has told him the truth, Tyrone has already smacked Ruby for being naughty. Fiz is in tears at home with Hope while Tyrone and Ruby move in with Kev.

Finally this week, in an attempt to persuade Michelle’s son Ali to attend Michelle’s wedding, Carla uses her skills on the young doctor to get him to change his mind. She takes him upstairs to Roy’s flat, forgets all about her recent kidney transplant and gets stuck into the red wine before leading him into her room.

And that’s just about that for this week.

Remember, you can sign up to get these Corrie weekly updates by email at http://www.corrie.net/updates/weekly/subscribe.htm

This week’s writers were Jan McVerry (Monday); Susan Oudot (Wednesday); David Isaac (Thursday). Find out all about the Coronation Street writing team at Coronation Street Blog: Exclusive: All Current Corrie writers online

Glenda Young
--
Blogging away merrily at Flaming Nora
Website: glendayoungbooks.com

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Corrie weekly update – Angelo's and a courgette

Corrie weekly updates from 1995

All the wit and warmth of Weatherfield
None of the waffle
Available from amazon.co.uk or amazon.com 

Sarah wants to get back with Gary but Bethany does her best to drive a wedge between them. “You’ve got the wrong end of the stick!” Gary tells Sarah when she tells him how much she feels betrayed by him making Nicola pregnant, to which Bethany replies: “She doesn’t care about you, or your stick!”.  Gary then finds out that Bethany’s working in the lap dancing club and breaks the news to Sarah, who takes her mum Gail and grandma Audrey to the club to find out what’s going on. This was a wonderful scene, again taking the sting out of Tassels and all the seediness that must go on within it. But would Bethany really be allowed to work there, as she’s not yet 18?

Bethany’s not best pleased, as you can imagine, to see her family in the lap dancing club. But as Audrey points out: “If you worked in a pet shop, you wouldn’t mind us coming down to look at the hamsters.”  Audrey further remembers Tassels when it used to be an Italian restaurant, back in the day, and it was where she ate her first courgette.

Hospital scene of the week alert: Gary in A & E after being beaten up by the bouncers in the lap dancing club. Yes, army-trained Gary who was out in Ukraine recently working as a body guard got beaten to bits by a couple of back street bouncers.

In court, Anna Windass is found guilty of actual bodily harm against Seb and sent down for five years.  Phelan’s daughter Nicola returns and she’s harbouring Seb in her flat, hiding him from Phelan. She tells Gary that she believes Seb’s story about Phelan killing Luke and she’s going to work on Phelan, pretending that she’s a loving daughter, until she uncovers the truth. Ooh, I like this a lot.

Now then, ever since Toyah Battersby returned to Coronation Street she’s been defined by one thing and one thing only – her desire to get pregnant.  It’s dull to the extreme. This week Toyah was given the news that the surrogate carrying the baby for her and Peter had a miscarriage. And she also found out that Eva is pregnant. This is one storyline I’m not enjoying, not one little bit. Whoever’s captured the real Toyah can we have her back, please? And while you’re on, let’s have Peter back too.

In the Rovers, Gemma throws Henry Newton a birthday party where everyone dresses up as the name of one of the Newton and Ridley pubs.  Rosie Webster comes dressed with a red stripe down her face, and no-one can work out what she is. “I’m the nation’s most popular pub name, The Red Line!” she cries. Oh dear.

Gina’s all giddy kipper after Weatherfield County football star Tommy Orpington gives her a shining endorsement by wearing one of Gina’s hats and posting a picture of himself on Instagram. Spurred on by this, she throws herself into the fashion business with gusto.

Summer returns this week with a convoluted story about why Todd Grimshaw isn’t coming back. I lost the will to live at this point, it was so clearly cobbled together a scene after Bruno Langley’s shock exit from the soap.  Anyway, it was something to do with police and Todd and police and Todd and police.

Newcomer Josh turned up at the garage to apply for the position as mechanic that Tyrone and Kev have to fill to replace Luke.  Josh is going to be crucial to the programme as he’ll turn out to be the rapist who attacks David Platt.

And that’s just about that for this week.

Remember, you can sign up to get these Corrie weekly updates by email at http://www.corrie.net/updates/weekly/subscribe.htm

This week’s writers were Chris Fewtrell and Jan McVerry (Monday); Susan Oudot (Wednesday); Damon Alexis-Rochefort (Friday). Find out all about the Coronation Street writing team at Coronation Street Blog: Exclusive: All Current Corrie writers online

Glenda Young
--
Blogging away merrily at Flaming Nora
Website: glendayoungbooks.com

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Corrie weekly update - Doppelganger, Bailiffs and a Cinderella shoe

There were some good comedy moments this week, the first being Norris and Colin dressing alike in the Kabin. I liked this a lot until I remembered it’d been done before when Horace worked with Norris and they wore the same clothes, said the same words, drank their tea the same way. And in the same way, Colin and Norris turned up in matching tank tops and ties. Colin reckoned Norris might be his dad and so with a palaver over Norris’ blood test at the medical centre, his DNA is taken but it turns out Norris hasn’t fathered a son. However, there is some good news in all of this. The stolen blood test gets Moira sacked and she swans off to Stoke with Colin, the two of them gone forever, I do hope.

The second comedy moment was wonderful, classic Corrie, the likes of which we’re seeing far too little right now. Sally is in full mayoral mode giving her inaugural speech at a soiree in her sitting room just as the bailiffs arrive to take payment for Gina’s debt. Sally chucks Gina out and she moves in with Dev, sets herself up on the sewing machine and pimps up charity shop clothes for the market. Dev finds out about Gina’s bipolar condition when he reads the headlines in the Weatherfield Gazette. And after threatening to chuck her out too, he then allows Gina to stay. Not only that, but he pays off her debt to Sally tpp, although she doesn’t yet know. What a guy.

Kate’s distracted while driving the bistro car (bistro car?) down the cobbles as her phone rings on the seat beside her. She turns to look at it, sees it’s from Rana and then she smashes into Robert in the middle of the road. He’d ran onto the road to save Joseph from being crushed under Kate’s wheels.  Robert’s in hospital and gets stitches in his back so we’re treated to Yet Another Hospital Scene. What joy.  However, while in hospital Michelle urges him to get the lump in his testicle checked out and lo and behold, the urologist is called, Robert gets checked and diagnosed within minutes. Minutes. The testicle needs to be removed but Robert deals with the news in the only way he knows how. He takes to the casino and gambles, losing ten thousand pounds from the Bistro account.

One other good thing I enjoyed this week was Tracy acting as advisor of evil to Chesney, telling him how to get revenge on Daniel for flirting with Sinead. To see Chesney turning to the dark side is fun, because you know it can’t last, and to see Tracy acting evil by proxy is fun too. More of this sort of thing, please.

Gemma goes to a party that she’s found details of online and she rocks up in her best party outfit. She flirts with a guy called Newt in the really posh house where the party is held. But when she hears police sirens outside she flees, leaving her shoe behind. Newt holds the shoe, will he find Gemma? Well, next week we’ll see him on the hunt for her – and Newt is not just any old guy. He’s Henry Newton of the brewery family. Ooh, this could be fun.

Speaking of Gemma, she and Rita move back into Rita’s flat this week after the dreadful Colin moves out. Rita and Norris take over the Kabin again and back where they rightfully belong.

Elsewhere this week, Phelan pays back his Calcutta flats scam victims almost all of the money they’re owed. But where’s the money come from? Todd’s asking questions when he spots Vinny’s bag as the bag that held the cash. Is Todd onto Phelan now?  Anna tries to negotiate with Phelan and demands to know why he’s framing her. He won’t answer her question and denies that he did this. Anna’s trying to record his words on her phone, but sadly doesn’t get the confession she need. After Phelan poisons Seb further against Anna, she gets taken away by the cops for the attack on Seb.

In the Rovers there was a lovely scene when Angie and Mary finally put aside their differences after Mary finds out from Sally that Angie’s suffering post-natal depression. But the way in which Sally found this out was frustrating and wrong. She overheard Angie’s husband tell receptionist Sean at the medical centre, when Sean asked to know why Jude wanted to make an appointment. That’s never asked, is it? Certainly not at any GP surgery I’ve ever been to. And certainly not in front of a waiting room of people.

And finally, this week in the Streetcars office, Peter logs onto a dating website to show Steve a 3D image of his perfect partner. It’s an image of Tracy, and Steve, as you can imagine, is not best pleased.

And that’s just about that for this week.
 
Remember, you can sign up to get these Corrie weekly updates by email at http://www.corrie.net/updates/weekly/subscribe.htm

This week’s writers were Susan Oudot (Monday); Jayne Hollinson and Carmel Morgan (Wednesday); Jan McVerry (Thursday); Cameron McAllister and John Kerr (Friday). Find out all about the Coronation Street writing team at Coronation Street Blog: Exclusive: All Current Corrie writers online

Glenda Young
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Blogging away merrily at Flaming Nora
Website: glendayoungbooks.com

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Corrie weekly update - Conviction, Crowdfunding and the Zambesi Club

Corrie weekly updates from 1995All the wit and warmth of WeatherfieldNone of the waffleAvailable from amazon.co.uk or amazon.com

Bethany’s grooming storyline reached its end this week with the conviction of Nathan and bent copper Neil. But it didn’t end without drama when Mel wormed her way into Bethany’s trust and tried to attack her to keep her from getting to court and testifying against Nathan.  And after the court case ended, Gary gave Sarah tickets to Milan for her and Bethany to get away. Meanwhile, back at home after the trial, Craig confides in mum Beth that he’s in love with Bethany.

Anna continues to play good Samaritan this week helping Seb cope at home with his younger siblings and drug-addict mum. But both Seb and Anna keep all of this secret from Faye.

As Underworld has been forced to close after the break in, the girls and Sean are without work and skint. They decide to set up a crowdfunding page to see if they can raise cash for Fiz to start a business knitting hats for children with cancer.  As the idea was inspired from Hope’s own battle with cancer, Beth adds a picture of Hope and her cancer story to pull at heartstrings and raise more cash. Fiz is furious when she finds out what Beth has gone and done but calms down when Beth shows her how much money is coming in.

Eva’s not in the good books of the Underworld girls as they continue to blame her for losing their jobs. But she’s soon cheered up by Adam Barlow who goes in for a snog.

Meanwhile Daniel proves he’s a chip off the old block by enjoying sub-duvet activity with his editor at the Weatherfield Gazette. She encourages him to go after Phelan on a story about the Calcutta Flats development. Phelan, however, is less keen on having newshound Daniel on his case and follows Daniel to a care home where he finds out that’s where his old business pal Vinny’s mam is living.

Phelan continues to keep Andy alive in the basement of the house he’s supposed to be renovating. Andy tries to commit suicide, even going so far as to write Steph a farewell note, but he can’t do the deed in the end. But Andy might just be the least of Phelan’s problems once Daniel starts digging for the truth.

Rita goes through with her operation to remove the brain tumour. Norris, Jenny and Gemma are by her side when she goes in and her girls are there when she wakes up. We don’t yet know if the tumour is malignant or benign, so further drama may ensue. There was a lovely scene before Rita went into hospital, between her and Norris as he reflected on what might have been between them both had they met earlier in life.

Elsewhere this week, Shona’s ex Dane, who is Clayton’s dad, comes calling on the cobbles wanting a share of Shona’s scratch card winnings. It’s fair to say that she’s not best pleased to see him.

And that’s just about that for this week.

Remember, you can sign up to get these Corrie weekly updates by email at http://www.corrie.net/updates/weekly/subscribe.htm

This week’s writers were Ella Greenhill and Cameron McAllister (Monday double); Jan McVerry and Mark Burt (Wednesday double); David Isaac (Friday double). Find out all about the Coronation Street writing team at http://coronationstreetupdates.blogspot.com/2008/11/exclusive-all-current-corrie-writers.html

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

Read more Corrie news, interviews, gossip and spoilers  

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