The Smiths in 1980s Corrie

Family and friends aside, I have two loves in life - 1) The Smiths and 2) Coronation Street. As is well documented (for example, in previous blogs here and here), I particularly enjoy it when there is synchronicity between the two.

I noticed in a Classic Coronation Street episode shown on ITV3 last week that the wall of 'Baldwin’s Curtains' (as the business had recently been renamed) was adorned with a Smiths poster:

The poster is in the right hand corner of the above image. In this scene, Shop Steward Ivy Tisley is busy with a clipboard while Shirley Armitage and Vera Duckworth are gossiping about Mike Baldwin’s arrest for drink driving. The episode was originally broadcast in April 1988, six months or so after The Smiths spilt up. The poster can be seen in closer detail below:

This poster advertised the band's eponymously titled debut album and featured the image from the front cover of the record, which is of American actor Joe Dallesandro in a still from Andy Warhol's 1968 film 'Flesh'.

The first Smiths album was released in 1984. Does this mean the poster was on the factory wall for at least four years? I have no idea but the fact that this prop was incorporated into the Corrie set at all fills me with joy.

I bet Morrissey got a kick out of it too - his favourite TV programme, which he used to send scripts to as a boy, now paying homage to his band.

I wonder who The Smiths fan in the factory was - possibly Shirley. I can’t imagine Ivy, Vera or Ida Clough being into them.

This album happens to be my favourite in The Smiths’ back catalogue. It is essentially Morrissey’s teenage diary set to Johnny Marr’s wonderful guitar playing. One of the standout tracks is ‘Miserable Lie’, which is also a fave of Mary Taylor’s:

Whalley Range must be a more desirable area of Manchester now than when Morrissey were a lad!

By Martin Leay, on Twitter @mpleay

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50 Years Of Corrie In 50 Days – 1988

Day 28 of our 50 day countdown of Coronation Street - written by blogger Sunny Jim.

Mavis Riley and Derek Wilton’s lives had intertwined many times over the years. Since they jilted each other at the church in 1984, Derek had shocked Mavis by marrying his boss’s daughter, Angela Hawthorne and on occasion had returned to Mavis for comfort after suffering at his wife’s acid tongue. Angela divorced Derek, citing Mavis as co-respondent. Tired of the daily grind of newspapers and toffees at the Kabin, Mavis went for an interview at a stationery firm only to find Derek on the other side of the desk doing the interviewing. She was insulted when he refused to employ her but he made her another offer instead. Down on his hands and knees and talking through the letterbox at the Kabin because Mavis wouldn’t let him in, he proposed to her. To her friends’ amazement she accepted but not before letting him know how much he’d hurt and humiliated her in the past. A register office wedding was arranged and this time they both turned up. They honeymooned in Paris before setting up home together in the Kabin flat.

Shirley Armitage was the first ethnic minority resident of Coronation Street. She’d been working for Mike Baldwin for a few years but in 1988 she’d had enough of living with her family and asked Alf Roberts about renting the flat above his mini-mart. Alf turned her down saying that he needed the space for storage but when later on Curly Watts, who unbeknownst to Alf was going out with Shirley, asked about renting it, he readily agreed. The pair of them soon put two and two together and realised what was going on. Curly’s landlady, Emily Bishop, got to hear of the problem and tackled Alf about it, calling him a bigot in the middle of his shop. Alf relented and Shirley and Curly decided to move in to the flat together, where she swiftly took his virginity. Even after they moved in they faced problems, this time from their respective families, neither of whom approved of their relationship.

Also in 1988: Curly Watts out and Percy Sugden in at Emily’s; Ivy Tilsley and Don Brennan are married; Alma Sedgwick returns and takes over Jim’s Café; Brian and Gail Tilsley remarry; Kevin and Sally Webster buy no. 13; Audrey Roberts jets off to Canada to see her son; Bet Lynch gets pregnant but miscarries; Ken Barlow buys all of the Recorder; Mike Baldwin banned for drink driving; Mike wins Don’s taxi in a poker game.