Tracy Shaw: From Coronation Street's Maxine to Monster

Tracy Shaw is better known to us Coronation Street fans as Maxine Peacock, the air-head hairdresser wife of mild-mannered Ashley, who was clubbed to death by Richard Hillman.

Tracy played the role of Maxine in Corrie for eight years from 1995 to 2003.  In 1998, she embarked on a short-lived pop career. Her debut single Happin' All Over Again peaked at no.46 in the UK charts.

After leaving Coronation Street in 2003, she became the face of supermarket Kwik Save, and went on a 17-week tour with Jason Connery in the play The Blue Room. In 2007 she played Miranda Power in BBC3's drama series Grease Monkeys, and has also portrayed minor roles in Mile High, Doctors and Casualty.

And now, we can reveal that Tracy Shaw is going to be in a brand new horror film. Yes, you read it here first! Tracy will play the role of Mary in a horror film called Monster which starts shooting in 2018.

Monster is a feature film adaptation of the best-selling horror novel from authors Matt Shaw and Michael Bray. For those more in the know with their horror, Monster has Shaun Hutson (Slugs) act as a script consultant. The film is a dark horror which takes the reader on an uncomfortable journey that asks the question, who's the real monster in this world? The monster who commits the crime or the parents that brought them into existence. Nature or nurture - or do they each play their part in creating the evils?

Written by authors Matt Shaw and Michael Bray, Monster is their biggest selling book - reaching number one in Amazon's horror chart - and a firm fan-favorite among their readers. Perfect for the big screen treatment - imagine The Texas Chainsaw Massacre crossed with the Greek legend of the Minotaur trapped within the labyrinth. It was recently sold to a major publisher in Japan who is currently working on the Japanese translation.

Film producer Matt Shaw told us today: "We couldn’t be more excited to work with Tracy. Not only did she come across as incredibly approachable and down-to-earth but - from her other shows too - clearly has great talent."

Find out more about Monster here 

And re-live the life and death of Maxine Peacock in the little book of Richard Hillman: Norman Bates with a Briefcase. Available on Amazon in paperback and kindle.

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Who's Maxine Peacock? Here's all you need to know

Last night on Coronation Street, Bethany and Craig were sitting on Maxine's Bench outside of Audrey's salon.  They wondered who the bench was dedicated to. Bethany dismissed Maxine's name saying something like: "She used to live around here. I think I've heard her name mentioned."

Well, to refresh Bethany's memory as well as anyone else who can't remember, or don't know, Maxine Peacock, here's her life in a nutshell.

She worked as a hairdresser in the salon.

She married Ashley Peacock.

She had an affair with her doctor, Matt Ramsden and gave birth to his son.

She really should have stayed at the party.

In 2003 she was killed by Richard Hillman.  Richard, you'll remember, was married to Gail.  After he killed Maxine and tried to kill Emily, he drove the Platts into the canal in his car and tried to kill them all.

Would Bethany really not know who Maxine was, when Maxine's killer had been married to her gran? Or perhaps Bethany knew only too well and was trying to move the conversation with Craig away from one of her family's dirty secrets?

You can relive all of the Richard Hillman saga with this fab fan book: Norman Bates with a Briefcase

Tracy Shaw reprised the role of the ghost of Maxine Peacock, visiting Norris Cole in a one-off sketch show as part of ITV's Text Santa charity initiative which was broadcast on 21st December 2012. (With thanks to Corriepedia)

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Keep Fit with Corrie: Week Seven - Salsacise with Tracy Shaw

Gemma and Michael over at Conversation Street, the Corrie podcast, have been keeping fit the Corrie way!  

• In week one, they did the Vicky Binns work out
• In week two, it was the Kym Ryder work out 
• In week three, it was the Angela Griffin work out  
• In week four, it was the Beverley Callard work out 
• In week five, it was the Debbie Rush work out  
• In week six, it was Tina O'Brien, Lucy-Jo Hudson and Angela Griffin

This week...  "You should have stayed at the party, Maxine..."

With these famous words, serial killer Richard Hillman bashed poor Maxine Peacock's brains in with a crowbar, ending her time on this mortal coil and sending her hurtling into what we imagine to be some kind of disco-themed hell for all eternity. Or, to put it another way, the set of Tracy Shaw's Salsacise.

We jest, of course - the subject of our weekly Keep Fit With Corrie review is actually quite an enjoyable little exercise routine, although there are definitely parts where it takes no prisoners when it comes to the complexity of some of the moves! Seasoned dancers, naturally, will have no problems with even the most complex of steps here, but if you're new to this whole 'dance yourself fit' malarkey(or just generally uncoordinated), there may be a few bits of arm and leg movement where you'll struggle to keep up.

Clad in a variety of sexy outfits accessorised by a large red rose, Tracy certainly looks the part as she shimmies and shakes her Rear of the Year '96 winning booty across the colourful nightclub floor. The bubbly personality and big smile that made her such a well-loved character during her time on the Street shine through here, perfect for encouraging you to keep up with the Latino-inspired moves.

Joining Tracy under the disco ball is her Aussie partner, Michael. This, of course, provided much amusement for us, as Tracy gushes about how wonderful her 'lovely Michael' is, but in the - let's face is, highly likely - event that you're name *isn't* also Michael, this probably won't be so big a selling point for you... Fortunately, though, Tracy's Michael is a pretty decent trainer, encouraging you to keep up all the way through and giving ample warning for when there's a change of step on the way. The chemistry between the pair sizzles - an important factor when it comes to how much we tend to enjoy these DVDs.

As for the workout itself, Salsacise is broken down into six sections, including
ten-minute warm up, a handful of dance routines, ab work and a cool down. Some of the moves learned in the warm up are revisited in later segments, whilst the ab and cool down parts seem rather short (4 and 6 minutes, respectively). Honestly, we should probably dock the DVD a few marks for the latter point, but abs and cool down always our least favourite bits anyway, so we were secretly pretty pleased when the ending credits came along earlier than expected the first time we tried it out!

The main dance segments in the middle (9 minutes each) have you repeating a selection of moves over and over again until you've got yourself a nice little routine going on. They're fun to do, having you constantly moving to the up tempo salsa beats and only feeling slightly repetitive by the end of the segment. What's more, aside from the odd difficulty spike mentioned earlier, they're relatively simple to keep up with, too. Did they get us out of breath? Yeah, a little, but we always say that it's important to enjoy your exercise regime if you've got any chance of sticking to it, and this is always a good one to put on if you know you need to do a workout but are struggling to muster up the motivation.

Tracy Shaw's Salsacise is neither the best nor the worst Corrie-themed exercise DVD on the market. If you love a good dance, though, or if you've been hankering after a bit of Maxine on your telly since her 2003 bludgeoning, we would heartily recommend giving this a go.

To find out more about our podcast, search for Conversation Street on iTunes, or go to conversationstreet.podbean.com. If you want to follow Gemma’s blog, all about her fitness journey, and her love of food and fashion, head to www.foodfashfit.com

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Sally Lindsay: No regrets over quitting Corrie

There's a lovely article about Sally Lindsay, who played downtrodden barmaid Shelley Unwin, in The Daily Record today. She says that she hasn't regretted her decision to leave the street for a minute as she's been so busy with other things. After quitting the show she went straight up to the Edinburgh Festival to do a play, she's fulfilled a childhood dream of acting at the Royal Exchange theatre in Manchester and has just finished filming another series of BBC Three sketch show, Scallawagga.

It's good to see someone doing so well after leaving Coronation Street as so often obscurity beckons. Anybody seen Tracy Shaw lately?

Maxine Peacock joins Dancing on Ice

Tracy Shaw, better known as Maxine Peacock who was bludgeoned to death by Richard Hillman on Coronation Street, is joining the next series of ITV's Dancing on Ice.

The Daily Mail have photos of Tracy and some of the other, er, celebs, rehearsing for the show.

Find out more about Dancing on Ice at www.itv.com/dancingonice

See also: Maxine's legacy on Coronation Street