Corrie on Camping

The current chit-chat relating to Corrie's current one-man campfest, Callum 'who dear? me dear?' Logan serves to remind us of the show's historical fey (as opposed to 'Faye') undertones.

They have always been there of course, right from day one with Elsie archly commenting on her own looks. Tony Warren ensured that a certain camp aesthetic ran through the script and at a time when there was no possibility of a gay character on t'cobbles, it was down to the ladies to help lighten the load.

Although the idea of Albert Tatlock swishing into the Rovers with a clutch bag or Ken holding court in the Rovers 'a la Kenneth Williams' would have been fun. Instead we had brassy 'n' bad Elsie, tart with a heart Bet and snobby Annie on hand to provide the knowing looks and cutting one-liners. To this day, the tradition continues in the form of Sally, Liz, Julie and Carla.

As with Callum and the wonderful Jez Quigley, camp doesn't have to mean gay. Corrie has had some delightfully 'light' characters tripping across the cobbles down the years. Norris Cole has been a bastion of camp for almost 20 years. He is a sniffy old woman disguised under a tank top. Any camper and he would be folding his arms under his bosoms and sniffing loudly. Norris isn't 'fun' camp though. He's Ena Sharples for the new Millennium.

Alec Gilroy and Fred Elliott also provided us with numerous camp moments. These were probably down to, particularly in John Savident's case, a theatrical style of performance. Savident always delivered Fred's lines as though it was to the back row of the London Palladium (see also Yasmeen Nazir). This exaggerated style became synonymous with Fred and was part of the character's charm. Alec too was camp writ large, with his endless fussing.

Of the younger cast, there aren't all that many characters, other than Sean, who have had a touch of the Charles Hawtreys. Steve is possibly the closest, thanks to the slightly over-the-top facial expressions and his tendency to opt for a high vocal in some scenes. Dev continues the fine tradition of Fred Elliott with his booming performances and occasional fey mannerisms. Those two aside though, the blokes are pretty much blokey.

For those who worry about another week of Callum sweeping across the cobbles with all the swagger and bravado of Celia Johnson circa 1946, here's two words for you. Greg Kelly.

Cast your mind back to the somewhat unbelievable macho man, seed of Les Battersby, who caused the faktry girls to coo and flutter their eyelids and who eventually bedded Sally. Poor old Greg. No wonder he was so unhappy, mincing around Weatherfield, desperate to order a Cinzano and lemon in the Rovers or rifle through Sally's Bananarama CDs. If you think Callum is the Street's campest ever baddy, then revisit the Greg Kelly years. Even Frankie Howerd would have raised a glass of sherry in admiration.  Watch him on YouTube here.

By Clinkers to Riddle

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Coronation Street weekly update - hearts will go on

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Norman Bates with a Briefcase - the Richard Hillman story
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A Perfect Duet. The Diary of Roy and Hayley Cropper
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It’s a bit shorter than usual this week, as the Bishop might have said to the actress. There were only three episodes of Corrie due to Friday night’s double episode being moved to this coming Sunday because of football. Which is good news for the actress, and indeed for the Bishop, as next week’s will be longer.  And so without any further ado, here we go with this week’s Coronation Street update.

It’s Gavin’s funeral and Gail turns up with Andy at her side. It’s both complicated and dull this storyline, to me any road, and I want it over and done with. Michael’s ex-wife Susan and his aunt Barbara are at the funeral and both of them wonder why Michael’s not there. Gail tells them Michael’s not well, but both women want to speak to Michael and Gail’s having a hard time putting them off.

Gail also gives short shrift to Bethany and books her on a plane back to Milan to be with her mam. But Bethany wants to stay in England and tries to butter up Audrey, which works. Audrey then fights Bethany’s corner with Gail, which fails.  

Sally spits sarcasm to Jenny across the table in Roy’s Rolls when she sees her with Kevin. Is it really because Sally is making a stand for her friend Rita who we haven’t seen her interact with since 1982, or could it be she’s secretly jealous of Kevin’s new fling?

In the back room of the Rovers, Michelle sorts through a box of stuff (we’ve all got one) and finds a stash of letters from Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs. Why Corrie keep referring to HMRC in the dialogue by the no longer used term of Inland Revenue is beyond me.  Steve’s been stuffing the letters in a box and denying he’s in debt to the tax man to the tune of thousands of pounds.

NO!

Speaking of tunes, young Amy murders “My Heart Will Go On” on her recorder for nanna Liz, whose ears cannot bear it. Michael Rodwell, however, might welcome the thought.

Steve thinks he can see a way out of his debt problems, bingo and by jove, he’s got it! He asks Michelle to marry him. Well, I guess it must have made sense to him at the time.

And that's just about that for this week. Remember, you can sign up to get these Corrie weekly updates by email at http://www.corrie.net/updates/weekly/subscribe.htm

This week’s writers were Chris Fewtrell (Monday double) and Mark Wadlow (Wednesday).  Find out all about the Coronation Street writing team at http://coronationstreetupdates.blogspot.com/2008/11/exclusive-all-current-corrie-writers.html

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

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Is Callum the campest Corrie villain?

Dictionary definitions of the word camp include theatrical, exaggerated, affected; something that unknowingly provides sophisticated, knowing amusement, being artlessly mannered or stylized.

I think we can apply the definition to Corrie bad lad Callum Logan, don't you? He's the softest hard lad that Corrie's ever had (*). He's been stylized and affected as a nasty piece of work but there's much more going on with Callum than first meets the eye.

The first publicity picture we ever saw of Callum showed him in the Dog and Gun pub, twiddling with a beer mat. As @DubWeasel points out on twitter, it wasn't just any beer mat. It was a beer mat for Semillion Chardonnay, a white wine. A sweet white wine.

That Callum was fiddling with a beer mat suggests an awkwardness, a nervousness, some anxiety. That's my experience with beer mat fiddlers anyway. And who'd have had Callum down as a Chardonnay drinker? Surely a pint of snakebite with a chaser of uppers should be much more the style of someone who's a nasty piece of business.

The clues were there from the start. Callum was never going to be a menace, he'd never hurt anyone, not really, although he might know people who would. This was proved when Audrey and Gail faced him down in the pub, on his own turf.  It's also why little Max wants to get to know his real dad. Even little Max doesn't sense any evil.  And it's why his mum has utter faith in her son, supporting him in his quest to get his son and her grandson into their lives.  How cuddly and warm was his mum? Dressed in non-threatening pink when we first met her, sharing sudoku and crosswords instead of sarcasm and cross words with Gail.

At the mediation sessions with both David and Callum supported by their mums, David chips in at one point to the mediator, about Callum, with:  “I’d really learn how to control that anger. You wouldn’t want her thinking you’re not a nice guy.”

He's not a nice guy. But I bet he's never pushed his mother down the stairs, or chucked peanuts at her. 

I can't say I'm enjoying the Callum v David fighting for Max storyline. In my view, it's gone on too long already and it's clear we're nowhere near the end of it yet. But there's a certain complexity, and campness, to the character of Callum that makes the storyline watchable. When Kylie returns, she might just be the one to get Callum out of the Platts' lives.

(*) Not to be confused with Jez Quigley who was the hardest hard lad that Corrie's ever had, while still managing to be very camp.

Glenda Young 
Flaming Nora Blog / Twitter 

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Fab Photo Friday - March 27th 2015

It's Friday again so it's time for this week's fab Coronation Street photo.

Looking through photographs of the Coronation Street set it always amazes me how busy they are nowadays with pictures and ornaments and the general bric-a-brac of everyday living in modern times.

Here's a picture of Elsie Tanner's back parlour from the early days of Corrie with hardly a prop in sight.

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