Who was Tricia Hopkins on Coronation Street?

Friday night's double Coronation Street had some wonderful touches and you can read our blogger Emma's review of it here.  Friday 8 July was, of course, the first anniversary of the passing of Deirdre Barlow, on a day in which she would have celebrated her 61st birthday too.

In the Rovers, Ken and Rita reminisced and remembered Deirdre. A pantomine was mentioned in which Deirdre played Dandini...

... and Tricia Hopkins was mentioned, the woman who received a black eye from Deirdre.
 

Tricia Hopkins was brought into Coronation Street as one of the show's first dolly birds. She was in the show from 1973-76.  Gail Potter (now Rodwell) was brought into the show as a friend for Tricia.

The actress who played Tricia Hopkins is a lovely lady by the name of Kathy Jones. We met Kathy at Corriefest a few years ago and she really is wonderful. 

Kathy was interviewed on The Corrie Years. You can see her in action in the Gail Potter section starting here at 1'.12" via YouTube.


See also: Tricia Hopkins, Corrie pin up of the week circa 1975

See also: Tricia Hopkins - then and now

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Interview with Kathy Jones

Canadian Coronation Street fan Christine Warren who runs the Coronation Street Fun Pages, has secured an interview with Kathy Jones, who played Tricia Hopkins on Corrie.

Read the interview here

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Happy 60th birthday to Corrie's Kathy Jones

Happy 60th birthday to the lovely Kathy Jones,  who is celebrating a milestone birthday today.  Kate played Coronation Street's Tricia Hopkins and is a real friend to fans.

Find out more about Kathy Jones and Tricia Hopkins

Read about Kathy when she attended last year's Coronation Street fan convention, Corriefest.

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Coronation Street I Spy!

I sat down for half an hour this afternoon and treated myself to a classic episode of Coronation Street. I must be particularly eagle-eyed today as I spotted a couple of very familiar faces in the episode, originally broadcast back on 20 September 1972.

Both actresses appearing here as extras went on to star in Corrie before the decade was out.  First up is this rather glamorous blonde in a crowd scene involving Stan Ogden, Ray Langton and a donkey. It's probably best you don't ask to be honest:

There's no prizes for guessing correctly that this is none other than the fab Liz Dawn, two years before her first appearance as Street regular Vera Duckworth. Now it may just be because I know it's her, but don't you think she stands out from the crowd?

Next up, and from the very same episode is another lovely lady who went on to appear in the Street during the 1970s:

Any guesses who that young lady is over Elsie Tanner's rather glamorous shoulder? Here's another shot of her picking up her groceries from Maggie Clegg's assistant, Norma Ford:

Yes, that's right, it's Kathy Jones in the days before she played Gail Potter's best mate, Tricia Hopkins. Incidentally, Kathy's on Twitter these days and is well worth a follow if you're that way inclined. She's a lovely lady! 


And a wee mention for another Corrie extra, this time from the present day - Jonny Grimshaw. Yes, it's a very Corrie-friendly name isn't it?  He was interviewed recently and it appeared on this very blog! I often spot him loitering about in the Rovers Return - well someone's got to do it! Jonny is also a lovely bloke and tweets too. You can find him here.

I'd love to hear from you if you've spotted any other famous faces in "extra" roles in Coronation Street. We all know Bill Tarmey cropped up for years playing darts in the Rovers before eventually being cast as the much-missed Jack Duckworth. If you've seen anyone else, let me know!



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Bring back Tricia Hopkins to cheer up Corrie's Gail

Ex-Coronation Street actor Kathy Jones, who played Gail's mate Tricia Hopkins, is one of the many people I follow on twitter.  This week I gave Kathy a #ff on twitter - she's at @KathyJones_ and in that tweet I said I'd love to see her back on Corrie as Tricia, even just for a flying visit to cheer up Gail.

Kathy replied to say: "Oh thank you so much for the #ff and thank you too for the 'bring Tricia back' comment. x I'm willing if they are. x"

So there you are, Corrie.  Let's have Tricia back to put a smile on Gail's face.   Kathy was recently seen interviewed on The Corrie Years which has been shown over the last few weeks.  You can see her in action in the Gail Potter section starting here at 1'.12" via YouTube.

Kathy Jones' website is here.

See also: Tricia Hopkins, Corrie pin up of the week circa 1975

See also: Tricia Hopkins - then and now

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Corrie pin-up of the week, circa 1975

With news in this week of Helen Flanagan, who plays Coronation Street's Rosie Webster, doing a runner from the set when asked to pose in her undies, we give you this 1975 picture of actress Kathy Jones, who played Tricia Hopkins in Corrie.

Kathy tells us at the Coronation Street Blog: "Gail and Tricia wanted to become models, they had read an advertisment in the local rag asking for young girls to come forwrd to see if they were suitable. The gullible girls went along to the interview, and paid their money for photographs to be taken for a sales brochure. We had to walk up and down doing 'funny' walks to make us look awkward. Of course it was a con and they model agency boss (Tony Anholt) ran off with all the money. 

I remember I had to have full body make up applied, I was too pale for the bikini shots, Helen Worth had just returned from holiday so she was nicely tanned already. They applied the make up on the late filming night, Thursday (we used to film up to 8pm on a Thursday), then they said all studio time had gone so we would film that scene on Friday morning. Shower! So up early for another full body make up session on Friday. Funny thing was, I also remember the studio was quite full on those two days. hmm!

It was great fun though."

Follow Kathy Jones on twitter and view her website.

Tricia Hopkins - then and now

Hands up if, like me, you're old enough to remember Tricia Hopkins on Coronation Street?

She was a mate of Gail Potter's back in the 70s. If you can't remember, have a look here at the fab Back on the Street blog which might jog your memory.

The reason for this little blog post about Tricia Jones is that I had the privilege of meeting the actress who played her, Kathy Jones, a few days ago, and what a really lovely lady she is.

Kathy's website is here, why not pop over and have a look?