Corrie On Abroad

I'm off on my summer holidays to Malta this week and it immediately conjured up images of Corrie's very own trip to that island back in 2007. Who can forget Steve and Eileen's adventures with Robin Askwith and Steve's eventful date with Shania.

Hopefully our own travels will be less eventful, but it made me think about other memorable trips away from the cobbles of Weatherfield. We know that Ken is going to take Deirdre away on a caravanning holiday in North Wales when he returns, but what else has entertained us over the years?

One of the first and most enjoyable Corrie holidays saw the ladies of Coronation Street leave the men behind and take off for sunny Majorca in 1974. With the likes of Annie, Betty, Hilda and Mavis involved it was bound to be entertaining. This must have been quite an event back in the mid-1970s and certainly brought a splash of colour to the otherwise drab, brown back streets of Weatherfield.

We've also had several spin-offs - to Las Vegas, Romania and even on the QE2. I'm a lot less fond of these. Spin off videos thankfully seem to be a thing of the past. I never thought they worked all that well. I much prefer when foreign trips or even holidays in Britain are incorporated into the main episodes themselves. 

One of Corrie's favourite holiday destinations is of course Blackpool. I've lost count of the number of times Blackpool has featured in Coronation Street over the years. From the trip to see the illuminations back in the black and white days right up to the most recent trip as Roy and Hayley danced in the Tower Ballroom, there is always something magical in the air when Corrie decamps to the seaside.

So what is your favourite Corrie holiday destination? Are you fond of Corrie away from the cobbles? And where would you like to see your favourite Weatherfield residents go next?


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Coronation Street - to OB or not to OB?

Coronation Street has a long tradition of outside broadcasting, or OB.

I'm thinking particularly of filming locations outside of Weatherfield and away from the set, places like Freshco and Bettabuys, that were woven into the lives of regulars of the Street.

Even places that we knew were sets but, importantly, appeared to be away from Coronation Street itself were important to the storyline and a regular part of it - places like Mike Baldwin's favourite restaurants The Clock, Delphine's and Valandro's.

Maybe it's because we're in a recession and we don't have characters like Mike Baldwin any more  to splash the cash, but there's a distinct lack these days of any outside filming at all.

When did we last see the inside of the Weatherfield Arms or the Flying Horse?  Come to think of it, even nearer to home, when was the last time we saw inside the chippy? We know it still exists because characters go out to buy a chippy tea. But we never see inside it, not any more.

All we see these days for a bit of excitement is the Bistro - over and over again.  We see the Red Rec now and then and we saw Salford Quays a couple of years ago, likewise the canal.  We might see churches for hatches, matches and dispatches, but not much more, any more. That's why when Corrie does do OB, as in Roy and Hayley's recent trip to Blackpool, we lap it up a lot.  But nothing seems to be woven regularly into the lives of the characters any more, like the pubs and the supermarket used to be.

Even Audrey's house in leafy Grasmere Drive seemed an exotic diversion away from the cobbles but we haven't been inside her hallowed hall for, ooh, yonks.  Speaking of which, wasn't there a storyline brewing about a damp patch that Owen was quoting for mending for the fragrant Mrs Roberts? And didn't Audrey move out of her des-res into flat-share with Marcus, Maria, little Liam and Ozzy?  What's going on there, then?  Mind you, when Owen had his run-in with Pat Phelan, we did see Pat's house, which has been used before for filming on Corrie.

I wonder if the Street's set move to the new site at Media City will mean more, or less, outside broadcasts for Coronation Street?  For now it looks like all we'll get are yet more scenes shot in The Bistro and the medical centre (which appears to double for Weatherfield General Hospital too).  

Will we ever see the likes of The Clock again? Will the Wethy Arms be shown on screen or just be talked about and never seen, much like Fat Brenda and Big Garth? And what'll happen to Terry Duckworth's unfinished and abandoned club, 7eventh Heaven? 

Which Corrie set that we no longer see, would you like to make a come-back?

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