Coronation Street Weekly Update - with a jar full of little acorns

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Find out more about the Coronation Street Weekly Updates and why they've been written for th'internet since 1995 at http://www.corrie.net/updates/weekly 


Faye’s carted off to the cop shop this week and has no choice but to grass up Grace.  It isn’t easy for Faye and I think the young actress who plays her is doing a fantastic job. 

If you’ve ever been bullied, you’ll know Faye’s reactions are spot on. She wants to do the right thing, but she’s scared that if she defies Grace or worse, dobs her in, then the bullying Grace meted out to little Simon will be nothing in comparison to what may come Faye’s way.  But Faye finds the strength to tell the cops the truth and reports Grace for the attack on Simon.  Anna’s proud of her for doing the right thing but Faye’s frightened now of what might happen with Grace.

Hayley has her first chemotherapy session this week. It makes her decisive and she drags Roy to visit a funeral director where she wants to start planning her funeral.  Roy’s not happy to be taken along without knowing what Hayley was doing and it’s so sad to see the Cropper’s bickering, but totally understandable too. Roy comes round to Hayley’s way of thinking and they start researching humanist funerals online.   In between choosing caskets, Hayley puts the finishing touches to Carla’s wedding dress and takes it into the factory for Mrs C, who is Mrs B to be.  “Do you like it?” asks Hayley. “No, I don’t like it,” Carla replies. “I don’t like it one bit. I love it!”

Over at the Rovers, Liz warns Tina that she’s playing with fire when she’s flirting with Peter and catches them just about to kiss each other in the romantic environs of the men’s loos.  Liz tut-tuts over Tina as Peter celebrates his stag night with the lads in the pub. Kirk asks Peter: “Weren’t you married to two women at the same time?” and Peter replies “It was bigamy”. Steve doesn’t miss a beat. “It’s big of any fella to be wed to two birds at the same time!”.

And finally this week, Steve’s loving his college course in history but spends all his time talking about his new class mate called Andrea.  It’s Andrea this and Andrea that, and when he gets a text from her in the pub, Lloyd sends a saucy reply while Steve’s not looking.

Steve isn’t best pleased and Michelle won’t be either, when she finds out.   “From little acorns….” says Lloyd, joking to Steve about his growing friendship with Andrea.  “Michelle’ll have my little acorns in a jar if she finds out!” he replies.

And that’s just about that for this week.

This week's writers were Chris Fewtrell, Mark Wadlow, Jonathan Harvey.  Find out more about the Coronation Street writing team at http://coronationstreetupdates.blogspot.com/2008/11/exclusive-all-current-corrie-writers.html

Glenda Young
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Blogging away merrily at http://flamingnora.blogspot.com


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Corrie Executive Producer Kieran Roberts talks about new set

 

In all of the excitement of yesterday's visit to the new Coronation Street set, your bloggers Flaming Nora (me in the pink coat) and Sunny Jim (Barry in his red anorak as an homage to Hayley) were caught on camera by ITV Granada News.  

Corrie Executive Producer Kieran Roberts was speaking to reporter Mel Barham about the new Coronation Street set.  He says he hopes Coronation Street fans will love it.  

You can watch the full video here.  Look out for your two roving Rovers reporters in the background from 59 seconds into the video.  It looks like we've tried to soapbomb Mr Roberts, but we didn't even notice him or the cameras, we were so engrossed in figuring out the new addition to Coronation Street - No 16a, next to Roy's Rolls.  And here is the very photo that Barry was taking as Kieran Roberts was being interviewed.

See also: Coronation Street new set - our visit in full

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Weatherfield's winter of woe

With December and Christmas knocking on the door, the time of year sought to remind me of one of the bleakest periods of Corrie's history. A moment's silence please for the winter of 1983. It's startling to think that thirty years have passed since the programme entered a period of seemingly endless exits.

The important thing to remember is that back in 1983, Corrie was a very different animal. The cast was much smaller and therefore the impact of a departure was felt all the more keenly. As much as we 'love' them (or not), the disappearance of a brace of Prices and McIntyres has little effect. Thirty years ago this was not the case.

1983 saw several prominent faces disappear from the cobbles and for a variety of reasons. Geoffrey Hughes decided to call time on his portrayal of Eddie Yeats. Hughes later recalled that he realised that with Bernard Youens' failing health, much of the 'Stan Ogden' based storyline had been transferred to Eddie. With less time with his family and increasing fatigue, Hughes quit. He was less than enamoured with his character's shotgun wedding to Marion Willis. The actress who played her, Veronica Doran, was also told that Marion would be axed. In a smart piece of writing though, we saw the newlyweds sneak out of the Ogden's ruby anniversary party and ponder over the arrival on the Street of the police who, unbeknownst to Eddie and Marion, had arrived with news of Len Fairclough's death.

The demise of the Street's resident everyman felt like a punishment meted out to the actor Peter Adamson. During 1983, the tabloids had frothed at the mouth while reporting on Adamson's trial for allegedly assaulting two girls. He was found not guilty but incurred the wrath of Granada by selling his story to a newspaper. Having breached his contract, Adamson was sacked. Len was mentioned for the rest of the year prior to an off-screen death in December. The memory of the character was tarnished by the fact that he had been cheating on Rita, a woman who then ascended to the moral high ground where she has perched ever since. The death of Len was the making of Rita.

Annie Walker's disappearance from the Rovers Return had not been planned. Doris Speed had appeared in the soap as late as October but a mystery stomach illness saw her hospitalised. A muck-raking piece by one national newspaper revealed Doris was not sixty nine years old, as she had maintained, but eighty four. Quite what they expected to achieve by embarrassing an ill, elderly woman is unknown. Convalescing at home, Doris Speed was then left traumatised by a break-in  She announced her immediate retirement an moved to a nursing home in Bury. It was an unhappy end for such a glorious character and the Rovers became a slightly awkward, less friendly place over the next twelve months.

In the midst of this turmoil came the front page news that Pat Phoenix had quit after a total of twenty one years on the cobbles. She claimed boredom and restlessness had driven her from the show. Certainly, recent storylines had seen Elsie Tanner lose her lodgers, receive a demotion at work and save from propping up the Rovers bar, do very little. Pat Phoenix craved love stories for Elsie but even when these did make it to the screen, she was unimpressed with the middle-aged men who were cast. With the decision made, Elsie was given a decent send off as she was paired-off with ancient Bill Gregory and dispatched to Portugal forever. Her final episode in January 1984 included that now famous walk down memory lane, heels clacking across the pavement and her enigmatic "Ah - now there's a question" sign-off.

For viewers, it was difficult to watch popular faces disappear from the screen one after another. With a much smaller company, the focus had to be switched to other characters. The likes of Bet, Rita, Vera and Ivy all shuffled centre-stage which seemed like a good move. The characters were already known and popular. Shoe-horning old faces such as Linda Cheveski and Billy Walker back into the mix jarred horribly, particularly as the returnees were pitched as being quite unpleasant. With Albert Tatlock and Stan Ogden having to be written out during 1984, it would be another year before life on the cobbles truly began to settle down again.

Did the powers-that-be handle Weatherfield's winter of discontent well? On the whole, they probably did. The producer, director and writers had to respond to circumstances that in some cases were well beyond their control. Sad as this period was, it did help to usher in a new front line of characters, many of whom saw out the next decade and beyond. Nowadays, Corrie can afford to lose faces without it being too much of a retrograde step which is perhaps a good thing - the show should and always will be bigger than any of its individual characters.


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Coronation Street double episode review, Friday 29 November

Two big life events wove threadlike through tonight’s episodes as both wedding and funeral preparations took centre stage.

Peter’s focus continues to be Simon as he irritably tells Carla she gives King Kong a run for his money in the Bridezilla stakes; “the sooner we’re on the other side of this wedding the better” he grumbles.

Over at the factory excitement mounts about Carla’s hen. “L plates for Carla?” quips Sean “When it comes to fellas she’s got a HGV license”. Jealous Beth would sooner catch leprosy than her bouquet though. As Carla lets them off early to get ready, Sally notes that some need more time than others with Beth retorting that her face resembles an “upturned hotpot”. Hayley arrives with the completed wedding dress which an emotional Carla adores.

Tina, considering Liz’s warning, tells Peter she can’t look after Simon anymore. Why she chooses to do this within earshot of a child who has been through so much is beyond me, especially when it took minimal pleading to get her to agree to stay.

Over at the Rovers, Steve’s “rubbish” college work continues to be the butt of jokes. “You just don’t get it do you?” he snaps at Liz “No, I don’t” she replies, and therein lies the problem; bettering yourself is sneered at on Coronation Street where superiority is found in mocking those who make inevitably doomed attempts at it. As Michelle rings the college to establish the length of his classes, the noose gets ever tighter around Steve’s neck, and their relationship moves further towards that of mother and child.

Speaking of which, Anna blames herself for focusing on her rivalry with Sally rather than what was going on under her own roof, with Faye now cautioned for five years. Anna visits Leanne to make amends, but comes back fuming and ashamed. While Faye has apologised, it’s a relief to hear her say she feels dreadful for Simon. Anna gently tells her they will let everyone know that she’s a good person, one step at a time.

Peter’s stag was set up to be a glib affair, but was the funniest part of the night. The banter between Lloyd and Steve put them on an equal footing which was a relief considering the imbalance of late. As Lloyd downs a pint in 9 seconds, Steve tells him it’d be quicker to let it evaporate. Enthusiastic Kirk is the man you want at the helm. He reminds Peter of the time he married two women. “It was bigamy” Peter tells a confused Lloyd, to which Steve replies, “Big of any man”. He’s on fire tonight, and it only serves to make Michelle’s attitude more detestable. Lloyd didn’t cover himself in glory though when he used Steve’s phone to text college pal Andrea to say he wanted to see her alone. “Little acorns” he tells Steve, thinking he has nudged love in the right direction, but Steve worries what Michelle will do to his little acorns if she finds out. “Jokes are supposed to be funny” says Steve who is both comedian and philosopher tonight, and this would do well to be remembered considering some of the “jokes” he has been subjected to of late.

The stag ends prematurely, for Peter at least, when Rob’s jeers lead to an altercation resulting in Liz throwing him and Tracy out. Tina calms Peter down, but they’re interrupted by Liz at the point where they’re about to kiss. Peter says sorry if he made her feel uncomfortable and, much to her visible frustration, calls it a night.

Carla and Michelle leave her uneventful hen when news of this makes it to the Bistro. On the way home, she makes up with Rob over his past indiscretions, and asks him to give her away. He seems honoured and gives his blessing despite his own feelings about Peter. When Carla arrives home with the news, Peter is furious with her for not consulting him. With Carla’s doubts about Peter’s attitude towards the wedding, and his frustration at her controlling nature, it doesn’t bode well for a long and happy marriage.

For an example of this, we need look no further than Hayley and Roy. While she resorts to well meaning subterfuge to get him to come to the funeral parlour so that she can have a say in the arrangements, she regrets doing so as neither of them were ready. When she returns from Carla’s hen, he gives her a big surprise hug of pure and unconditional love. He agrees that planning is needed now and they consider the options together. The stark reality hits home when preparation of her body is discussed; the body that sits by Roy, full of life and love, and it seems so wrong that two such soulmates should have to plan for a time when they can no longer be together.

By Emma Hynes

www.emmahynes.wordpress.com

Twitter: @ELHynes

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