Marc / Marcia's Coronation Street caricature

Jo Blakely is the talented artist who creates these wonderful Coronation Street caricatures.

She's just done another one, of Marc/Marcia and it's so good it deserved to be blogged.

Have a look at more of Jo's work here.

Lustbox: Claudia's new fella on Corrie

Reposted with permission from fab TV blog PauseLiveAction

It’s coming to something (old age, perhaps?) when you find yourself sharing an object of lust with Audrey Roberts from Coronation Street.

No, I’m not talking about Nigel Havers – do behave yourself. I’m talking about the man she’s currently bickering with Rula Lenska about. Audrey calls him Marc. I call him actor Andrew Hall. Or, more properly, I call him Russell Parkinson from 70s-80s sitcom Butterflies.

Ah, Russell… I used to get quite breathless when he was on-screen. Maybe it was his very figure-hugging jeans and lovely loose shirts. Or his lovely curly hair and firm jawline. Russell was always successful with the “chicks,” but could be kind and sensitive and (when provoked) nice to his long-suffering mum. He was cool, albeit in a slightly embarrassing, scripted-by-an-older-person kind of way, but he carried it off well.

Unlike his Butterflies “brother” Nicholas Lyndhurst, who went on to become a household face thanks to Only Fools and Horses etc, Andrew Hall kind of faded from televisual view. He’s had bit parts in Holby, Casualty and EastEnders (he was the man Janine almost slept with the night before she married Ryan), but has mainly been working in theatre as an actor and director.

So how has he aged (he’s now in his mid-50s)? Well, with that bone structure you’re never going to go far wrong, and he’s still pretty handsome (though PLA Jr reckons he speaks without his top and bottom teeth ever losing contact with each other). And he’s still got the fabulous, posh caramel voice that used to make my teeny toes curl.  Most definitely worth fighting Rula Lenska for.

Butterflies star joins Coronation Street

Be still my beating heart. One of the big telly crushes I had as a teenager was on the older brother Russell on sit-com Butterflies.  And now, the actor who played him, Andrew Hall is joining Coronation Street.

Andrew will arrive as Claudia's boyfriend. We'll see him on screen on Friday 7 January.

Ooh, I've gone all peculiar.

Two new characters for Coronation Street

In addition to Roy Cropper's mum and Frank Foster, there's another two new characters joining Corrie this spring.

Faye arrives as Anna and Eddie Windass' foster child.  They'll have some big hurdles to overcome when she arrives, says Inside Soap magazine .The actor who'll play Faye has yet to be confirmed.

And Claudia's boyfriend Marc arrives - and becomes rather friendly with Audrey.  I'm liking the sound of this one.  Marc will be played by actor Andrew Hall.