Corrie goes to Romania

Yes, I realise that Coronation Street's Romanian Holiday was released in the UK last October but here in Canada, we're just coming up to the departure of Roy and Hayley for Frankie's wedding.

It was mentioned this past week on our screens and the wedding should take place in a couple of weeks' time.

With that in mind, I finally got round to reviewing the DVD and writing a summary of the Croppers' adventures in Romania.

You can view the full text of it over here on my Canadian timeline Corrie blog. There's also another review by Flaming Nora here.

Corrie's Romanian Holiday DVD - a fan's review

As a Corrie fan, it's awful to sit down to watch another ITV spin-off DVD, knowing in your heart that it's probably best not to get your hopes up. After watching the disappointing Out of Africa DVD earlier this year, I figured it'd be best just to take what comes on this Romanian Holiday and accept that, like past spin-off DVDs, it probably won't be so great. I'm therefore happy to report that this one's not half bad.

Written by Simon Crowther and Chris Fewtrell, directed by Ian Bevitt, the Romanian Holiday DVD is pretty darn good. I won't spoil the plot for those who haven't seen it, but there's some great laugh-out-loud moments, the dialogue is good and the plot is tight. It's a good Corrie caper, a Romanian romp with our favourite transsexual in Transylvania.

Of course it's the characters who make it so good. How could anything with Roy and Hayley in it not be great? And anything which makes mention of both Bob Stokoe, the FA Cup-winning Sunderland football manager and Sunderland football club is ok in my book. Guest actors John Henshaw and Siobhan Finneran are a great addition to the cast and either of those two would be right at home on the Street itself.

So, in short: Is it worth watching? Yes. Is it worth buying? Yes. Marks out of 10? I'd give it 8.

Corrie fan Martin S has posted some screen shots from the DVD online here.

Winners of the new Corrie DVD competition announced

We had another huge response to the latest blog competition so thank you to everyone who entered. We had a copy of the new Coronation Street Romanian Holiday spin-off DVD to give away to three people, picked at random, from those who correctly answered the following questions:

Q1: Which ex-Corrie character's wedding are Roy and Hayley Cropper invited to attend in Romania?
A: Frankie Baldwin

Q2: What is the capital city of Romania?
A: Bucharest

Congratulations go to Paul Jones, David Madeley and Julie Cusack whose names were drawn at random from those who sent in correct entries. Your DVDs are on their way!

WIN! Corrie's Romanian Holiday DVD

How exciting is this? We have three copies of the brand-new Coronation Street Romanian Holiday DVD to give away in a very special competition. The feature-length film's been written by Corrie scriptwriters Simon Crowther and Chris Fewtrell.

To be in with a chance to win of one of these three DVDs, answer the two following questions correctly and send in your answers to me by email no later than 5pm on Monday November 2nd, 2009.

Note: You must be a UK resident to enter.

Q1: Which ex-Corrie character's wedding are Roy and Hayley Cropper invited to attend in Romania?
Q2: What is the capital city of Romania?

Corrie's Romanian Holiday DVD on sale

So, now we know that Roy and Hayley are off to Romania for Frankie Baldwin's wedding. The spin-off Coronation Street DVD goes on sale later this month and you can pre-order it at Amazon now. On the Amazon site there's a short video of Katherine Kelly (Becky McDonald) on location in Romania too.

Have a look here.