Archive video: Peter Baldwin and Thelma Barlow reunited in 2012

When I heard the sad news of Peter Baldwin's death, I immediately went on YouTube to find some videos of him. I was hoping that his and Thelma Barlow's interview on This Morning back in 2012 was still on there, and so it was.

It's a wonderful interview, which includes a lovely montage of Derek and Mavis' time on the street. Peter and Thelma reminisce about their 20-odd years on the street and Derek's demise is also touched upon. 

It's a great interview. Some of you may have seen it, but others may have not. But here it is anyway.

It is my tribute to Peter Baldwin, one half of one of Corrie's great partnerships.

by Llifon

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Video: Is Coronation Street haunted?

On This Morning's Supernatural Week so far they've had a woman who believes she was abducted by aliens and a lady who thinks she had sex with a ghost.  So, take this walk down "haunted" Coronation Street with as much enthusiasm or scepticism as you can muster, depending on your beliefs.  The video's worth watching for the old clips alone.

Jeff Brazier visited the old set, which was home of the soap from 1982 to 2014, to see if he could capture any scary goings on.   While he was there, he had a look at Fred Elliot and Hayley Cropper's coffins, learned about the ghost of Ivy Tilsley and saw some grisly items belonging to serial killer Richard Hillman.

There was a look back at Hilda Ogden's séance as well as a chat with Liz Dawn, who played Vera Duckworth - the only character to have come back into the soap as a ghost.

She returned in her husband Jack Duckworth's dying moments to have a kiss and a wee waltz.
Liz said: "This is the chair I died in. It were emotional – we never kissed you know, Jack and Vera, until I were dead. There are moments in the programme when you feel it, when you get emotional.
"I think Vera and Jack would walk on the street, not knowing they’re dead, going in the Rovers. Well I hope so..."

Watch the full video here.

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Barbara Knox on This Morning

If you missed or failed to see the interview Barbara Knox had on This Morning today, you can watch it here.

 

In the interview, Barbara talks about the reaction when Alan Bradley was hit by a tram; talking about the Corrie 'royals' (Pat Phoenix, Violet Carson and Doris Speed); her ability to cry on cue and her time in repertory theatre; Rita's marriage to Dennis and an upcoming storyline for the Tanners; how Corrie keeps her young; how Corrie has changed over the years; and she's presented with a cake for her 80th birthday.

 

It's a fab interview!

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Liz Dawn interview on ITV's This Morning

Liz Dawn, who played Corrie's Vera Duckworth, was interviewed on ITV's This Morning on Monday, 11th February. She talked about her time on Coronation Street, her relationship with Bill Tarmey (Jack Duckworth) and how much she misses him, her battle against emphysemia and the TV shows she enjoys watching. One thing that had an effect on me was her saying that she regretted smoking.

 

It's a wonderful interview and she tells presenters Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford, who are married, that they are a posher version of Jack and Vera.

 

And another thing that makes it wonderful is Liz's failure to notice when the programme's gone live or not.

 

And we get to meet her husband Don.

 

It's worth a watch!

 

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A storm in a Coronation Street teacup

ITV's This Morning had Michelle Collins and Phil Collinson on, er, this morning, to answer some of the stories that have appeared in the press recently.

Firstly, Stella's accent: Nobody at Coronation Street has a problem with it and it won't be changing. Phil thinks it's important that with the Rovers' landlady being such a pivotal role, she should have a northern accent and Michelle defended it as actually being toned down from the strong Bolton accent she was using for a play up there earlier this year. As far as the family is concerned, storylines are already planned through next year and so there will be no hasty rewrites to get rid of them. New families take time to bed in, cf. the Battersbys and the Slaters.

Ratings: As we pointed out on this blog, if anything, the ratings are up. This Morning also did a comparison and found the same thing, year on year, summer on summer, ratings are actually up. The comparison that the late, unlamented News of the World did, compared an episode that had appeared in the Britain's Got Talent week, where you would expect the audience to be higher, against one which was shown at the same time as an Andy Murray match at Wimbledon. Hardly a fair comparison.

Crisis meeting: It didn't happen. What The People got hold of was the notes from a regular progress meeting where the state of the show is discussed openly and honestly between the whole production crew. There is no crisis and everyone at ITV is happy with where the show is and where it's going.

Is Corrie too gay? No it isn't. There are only 2 gay couples, Roy and Hayley don't count. And anyway, audience feedback shows that  Hayley, Sean and Sophie are 3 of the best-loved characters and so of course the producers are going to write stories about them.

So, it's all a storm in a teacup, though that makes me wonder why they've gone to such lengths to defend themselves against criticism in the press when they could just so easily have left it all to be tomorrow's chip wrappings.

ITV's This Morning on the Coronation Street set

Sharon Marshall, soaps queen from ITV's This Morning was on the cobbles today. She interviewed Katherine Kelly (Becky McDonald) and her on-screen half-sister Kylie, played by Paula Lane. There's a preview of Kylie's first Corrie scene on Thursday this week when Becky and Kylie batter each other - there's clearly no love lost between those two sisters. Paula reveals that Kylie's got a four year old child, Max.

Sharon also interviews Brooke Vincent (Sophie Webster) and Sacha Parkinson (Sian Powers) in Websters' Autos and chats about their lovely lesbian relationship. Aww, it's dead nice. Sacha reveals that their secret relationship is discovered by Claire Peacock on Thursday this week. Will Claire keep quiet? Hmm... what do you think? It's soap, so of course she'll blab and she'll pick her moment too - right slap bang in the middle of the Cropper's wedding next weekend.  Sacha and Brooke have known each other since they were six years old and say they have a right laugh when they're filming together.

And also with Sharon are Jennie McAlpine (Fiz Stape) and Graham Hawley (John Stape) who blather on about baby-talk. Jennie shows off Fiz's baby bump, which she says may have been Molly and Maria's before hers!  They talked about the tram crash - and they couldn't show us down one end of the Street set as it was being set up for some of the 50th anniversary goings-on.

You can watch the video here.