Farewell Faithful Ozzy

Last night on Coronation Street, Maria Connor had to say goodbye to her beloved dog, Ozzy. As anyone who has lost a pet knows, it's a devastating loss. Ozzy has seen Maria through a lot.

You may recall, in 2007, Maria gave a black Labrador puppy to her boyfriend Liam Connor. She thought it might have been overstepping the mark but in the end, he kept Ozzy and married Maria. Ozzy was responsible for Liam nearly falling off a cliff in the Lake District when he ran off and Liam went after him!

When Liam died, pregnant Maria had Ozzy to keep her company and she even brought Ozzy to Liam's funeral. Later, when she was dating Tony Gordon, she and Tony took Ozzy to the beach for a walk. Tony played with Ozzy while Maria went into labour with her baby, also to be called Liam after his late father.

Ozzy made appearances over the years, and would spend time with Maria's brother, Kirk, whenever Maria was out of town. You may recall that Maria and Kirk grew up as the children of kennel owners so they are both well versed in the care of dogs and love them very much.

This week, Kirk was struggling with the revelation that his wife, Beth was still married to someone else but he noticed that Ozzy did not seem himself. A poorly dog is always going to take precedence with Kirk. I really like that they keep this personality trait consistently strong in Kirk. Poor Ozzy collapsed while Kirk and Caz had him out for a walk and the next thing we know, Kirk is bringing Ozzy home in his arms, broken hearted because the dog was diagnosed with advanced cancer and had to be put down. He brought Ozzy home so Maria could say goodbye. The actress, Samia Ghadie Longchambon, was in real tears when filming the scenes and fans were gutted last night, watching the episode.

In real life, Ozzy's owners, Anne and Clive Hunt,  also own the dogs who play Eccles and Schmeichel and they own Darrell the rat and used to own the white cat that played Maxine's Bella. There's a bit more about them on the Manchester Evening News site.

It looks like losing Ozzy might be a catalyst that kicks the storyline between Caz and Maria up a notch or two as Caz becomes more and more obsessed with Maria who starts to push her away.

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Revealed: Who's getting killed off in Coronation Street!

Last week we blogged that a well-loved character was being killed off in Coronation Street.  The blog post was inspired by Samia Ghadie's words in her own blog for OK magazine.

Samia said: "...  this week I've been recording some of THE saddest scenes I've ever done in my 17 years at Corrie.  When I first read the scripts I was in tears so getting to film them has just sent me off.  You may need your tissues when they air.

Well, a Corrie source today tells The Sun that the 'well-loved character' that's being killed off is...

...Ozzy the dog.

Well-loved?

Samia Ghadie recently admitted in an interview that she "Has no idea where Ozzy is"

Ah well, at least it's not Emily, that's all I can say.  Might there... could there be a chance we'll see her return from Peru after all?

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Samia Ghadie: "I have no idea where Ozzy is"

In this week's fab Inside Soap magazine there's a Q&A with Samia Ghadie, who plays Maria Connor in Coronation Street.  The questions she's answering are ones from fans, so there's some interesting ones including a question about Ozzy the dog.  Remember him?

"Whatever happened to Ozzy the dog?" asks Faye in Worcestor. 

Samia replies: "I don't know! I think Maria must have locked him away in the flat for a while - but I'm going to ask because I have no idea where Ozzy is."

In reply to other questions, Samia says she hangs out off-screen with Jane Danson, who plays Leanne. The most weird place she's ever been recognised was in the CN Tower in Toronto as she was lying on the floor. 

And she admitted that she almost cut Kate Ford's (Tracy Barlow) fringe with the scissors when they were filming in Audrey's salon.

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Coronation Street dogs make a special appearance on set

I really love this. Two of my favourite things: Coronation Street and doggies. ITV News is reporting that Ozzy, Eccles and Schmeichel surprised visitors at the former Corrie set at Granada Studios to mark National Pet Month. 

It's great to see Schmeichel back from the dead! 

 

Eccles the border terrier is actually a boy! Eccles plays the Barlow family pet who was originally named Lady Freckles on the show. And he shares the role with Freckles who is female.

@steviedawson

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Ozzy voted Corrie's favourite pet

Ozzy the black lab has been voted Coronation Street's favourite pet, beating Schmeichel the Great Dane by a whisker of only four votes.

395 votes were cast by Corrie fans in the latest poll here on the blog and the results are in as follows for Corrie's best pet:

Ozzy, 166 votes (42%)
Schmeichel, 162 votes (41%)
Maxine's pussy, 46 votes (11%)
Minnie's cat Bobby, 29 votes (7%)
Barney the rabbit, 10 votes (2%)
Randy the budgie, 8 votes (2%)

Want to see where Ozzy the Corrie dog goes on his holidays?
Click here to find out.
Read Ozzy's official ITV profile here.

Corrie's Ozzy enjoys his hols

The lovely people at Welcome Cottages have sent me a postcard from, er, Ozzy the Coronation Street black labrador. It's all a ploy to advertise their dog-friendly holiday homes and you can catch up with Ozzy's adventures online with a little video. It's all quite sweet!