Victor Pendlebury - A Romantic Soul

In 1983, when Mavis Riley (Thelma Barlow) and Victor Pendlebury (Christopher Coll) set out for the Lake District, everything seemed set fair, despite one or two misgivings from Mavis.

Upon return, their views of what had passed were so different. Victor, a true romantic, deemed it a great success; Mavis, a true romantic but only when surrounded by her creature comforts, deemed it a failure.

But what about the owl, THEIR owl, looking down on them one night, Victor asked. Hadn't Mavis felt that the owl wanted them to be together?

"It was raining!" was all Mavis could say.

Sad.


Christopher Coll played Victor Pendlebury, dubbed "The Saddleworth Sage" by Rita Fairclough, in the 1980s.

What If... Coronation Street had 21st Century Style Story-lines In The '60s, '70s and '80s?

"That new couple from Mawdsley Street seem nice. She works in't kitchens at Imperial Hotel. He's a dry cleaner by day, serial killer by night."

Imagine if 21st Century-style Corrie story-lines had run rampant in the show's early years, wreaking a trail of explosions, serial killers, dark secrets and ghostly visitations across the first three decades.

Would viewers have switched off in droves, or been desperate for more? Here's how a few TV listing magazine synopsis for our favourite soap may have looked in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s:

1960s:

Myra Booth's marriage is in trouble. She decides to murder Jerry - and the pot dog on the mantelpiece may be the perfect weapon.

Len murders Nellie.

Florrie Lindley has a nervous breakdown and blows up the Corner Shop.

Stan suspects that Alan, Elsie's new boyfriend, is the serial killer.

Evil young builder Ray Langton meets a nasty end when Lucille Hewitt gets on his case.


1970s:

Shock for Emily...

A power cut is the perfect time for a serial killer to strike...

Pulled from the flaming rubble of her maisonette, a dying Valerie Barlow confesses to Emily Bishop that Ernest is the father of the twins.

New arrival Renee Bradshaw admits that Suzie Birchall is her long-lost daughter.

A flying duck ornament becomes a murder weapon.

Where was Ken when the murders took place?

Rita is taken hostage at the Kabin.


1980s:

Eeek - Mavis turns.

Deranged Fred Gee drives Annie Walker into the canal.

As the factory blows up, Mavis murders Derek and Victor, and decides to use the explosion to cover her actions.

Curly buys a gun.

The Claytons beat a hasty retreat before Connie's terrifying secrets can be revealed...

Nasty Alan Bradley comes unstuck when his business is blown up by a deranged ex-girlfriend.

Hilda is comforted by a visit from Stan's ghost.

As Percy tries to find out who sat on his Christmas pudding, he begins to suspect that it might have been a serial killer.

Driven mad by Corner Shop assistant Sally Webster's nasal twang and smug ways, Alf Roberts picks up a tin of pineapple chunks and...

The New Houses - Completed In 1989

In Coronation Street, it seemed that the building of the new side of the street began in September 1989 and most of the building work was completed before the end of the decade. We've been exploring that story-line recently, but Ian has recently studied all the relevant episodes and has written to tell us that, in reality, all the building work on that side of the street began and ended in 1989.

I now have all the episodes from August 1989 to January 1990 and have been able to study the building of the new houses, the story-line time frame and the real time frame, bearing in mind that the show was recorded at least three to four weeks in advance. I've read your stuff on here, and would like to add my findings - made whilst studying the episodes concerned this week.

It was a great story because here was the Street undergoing immense change. New Exec Producer David Liddiment had decided to update the show in the summer of 1989 and had travelled around real Coronation Street terrace disticts where he saw modern houses and industrial units springing up beside the old houses. This seemed perfect for Coronation Street, with the show about to go three times a week, allowing much more story-line potential. In the story, the factory and community centre frontages were demolished in September 1989 (in reality, August 1989). That side of the Street was then boarded off and the production team teased us with very occasional glimpses of the new side of the Street going up.

In an episode broadcast on 1 December 1989 (recorded November) we were treated to an aerial view of the site with work in progress. In an episode transmitted on 11 December 1989 (recorded November), we glimpsed the nearly completed salon. In an episode broadcast on 1 January 1990 (recorded November or December 1989) we saw Steve McDonald drive a JCB from what is now the yard in front of the factory unit and garage into the Corner Shop window - and glimpsed part of the frontage of what is now Gail's house. In an episode broadcast on 8 January 1990 (recorded December 1989), Ken Barlow drove up the Street to visit Deirdre and we glimpsed the completed Kabin, waiting to have its windows put in (I think one was already there).

The evidence points to the new side of the Street being built in reality from August to December 1989. In January 1990, teaser shots of the completed houses appeared in various magazines (in the story-line the finishing touches were being made) and in February 1990 Des and Steph Barnes moved in - the first new residents.

Thanks for that, Ian - I've received a few queries about the new houses and all now seems clear. It was a very ambitious project for the Street and I remember enjoying every moment as the girls struggled to get compensation for losing their jobs at the factory, the bulding site lads brawled in the Rovers, Alan Bradley used a job on the site to terrorise Rita and Tina Fowler became involved with labourer Eddie Ramsden. And I love the way we were "teased" with glimpses of what was being built.

A great era for the Street.

1989: The New Side Of The Street

Opening shot from 1989 - a wet and misty morning in the street, with building work in full swing.

Chris has written:

When did work start on the new houses in the street? And how did the building work affect the program?

The factory and community centre were demolished in September 1989 in the story-line, Chris. As I wrote elsewhere on this blog recently, the programme was recorded some weeks in advance, so it's safe to assume that the demolition took place in reality at the latest in August and the building work on the new houses, shops and industrial units then began.

Interior daytime scenes in the old terrace then had building site noises as a background, and the site was used to introduce Eddie Ramsden (William Ivory), a worker there who became a love interest for Rovers barmaid Tina Fowler (Michelle Holmes), and as a place for ominous Alan Bradley (Mark Eden) to work and continue to terrorise Rita Fairclough (Barbara Knox). On December 1 1989, the police, believing that Alan had killed Rita and buried her body there, dug up the unbuilt-on parts of the site - which may have played host to a shallow grave! These scenes would actually have been recorded in November. In a scene broadcast on 11 December 1989, the salon is glimpsed nearing completion and recognisable as the building it is today. Once again, the episode would have been recorded in November.

Remembering that the show was recorded several weeks in advance, it is interesting to note that the first new residents moved in in February 1990.

The Claytons - Being Boring?

Connie Clayton: "Eee, Andrea, don't take on, love. We're not boring. What with Sue and her lack of academic qualifications, me an' me dressmaking, you an' your lovely perm and your dad and his trombone, who could possibly call us boring?"

More About The Pillar Box...

Post Office official souvenir cover - introduction of the new style posting box, 31 July, 1980.

We wrote about the poor old Coronation Street pillar box destroyed by a tram in the (then) latest story-line for sensation hungry viewers last year. Replaced with a new style box apparently from Planet Zog, we now discover that it is from Planet 1980s as Postmaster General has written with the details:

The original box from the sixties was a double ring box with the Victorian cipher. I think the box was a replica, possibly fibreglass, I did see a good closeup on youtube. The famous box that was destroyed by the tram was an odds and sods box. It was fitted with a George 5th door on a later Elizabeth 2nd body, made by Carron Company. The present box is known as a K-type, and this particular one is made by Carronade, I just caught a glimpse of the maker's name one day whilst watching. There were five makers through the years of this box, which started in 1980, finished 2000.

Many thanks. So, Coronation Street now has a 1980s-style pillar box, very like the one in Brookside Close way back then.

Lovely.

Betty Driver

We were deeply saddened to hear of the recent death of Betty Driver - Betty Turpin/Williams in Coronation Street since 1969.

As warm hearted and good natured as the character she played, experienced performer Betty Driver was actually retired from acting and running a pub in Cheshire when Corrie producer HV Kershaw spotted her and asked her to audition for the Street. Betty always recalled with deep gratitude the support given to her by actor Arthur Leslie, the Street's Jack Walker, during her early appearances in the show, and she became firm friends with Jean Alexander - Hilda Ogden. The two ladies would often spend time chatting and making padded coat-hangers for their favourite charity between takes.

My own personal feeling is that Betty could lift a scene simply by bustling into it, and she had that magic quality of seeming to be everyday working class - the sort of person you'd have a giggle with if you accidentally clashed trollies in Tesco's.

The character of Betty Turpin was one of the Street's anchor characters, often just simply around behind the Rovers bar, but she endured her fair share of drama, particularly in the '70s and '80s. She arrived in 1969 as the sister of Corner Shop owner Maggie Clegg. In the early '70s, her husband Cyril was retired from the police force after attacking a criminal (who had been terrorising Betty) with a lead pipe. Cyril died in 1974, and Betty then endured the shame of the revelation that her "nephew", Gordon Clegg, was actually her own son, born out of wedlock during the war. In 1982, Betty was mugged, but her greatest triumph came during that decade when her employer Bet Lynch, recently taken over as Rovers chief, asked Betty to make her hotpot a regular on the Rovers menu. The hotpot, a very occasional feature for some years beforehand, became a legend - and a version actually appeared in real-life supermarkets in recent years.

God bless, Betty - we'll miss you. xx

Richard Hillman, 1982: "You Left The Door Open..."

Richard Hillman - dead or did he take a Tardis back to 1982 and pretend to be a social worker?

Eeek! That's all we can say having just viewed an episode of Coronation Street from 1982! There were Rita, doin't washing up, when she became aware that somebody was at the front door. Oh no! we thought - Albert Tatlock coming round for a good moan? Annie Walker to tell Reet that Len's drinking was getting beyond a joke and that she really couldn't bear his presence in her establishment any longer? Elsie Tanner ready to have a bitch at her old pal, the woman who had married her long-term romantic interest? Or Mavis Riley, all of a dither after a filling at the dentist? "Ooh, Rita, I shall have to go to bed this afternoon, I can't work in the Kabin, I really can't. My cheek's come out like a golf ball..."

Rita emerged into the hallway, and we flew off the settee in alarm as RICHARD HILLMAN stood there, smiling, and saying something like: "Your door was open..."

ARRGGGHHH!!! Were the far cosier 1980s becoming infiltrated by some of the weirder story-lines of more recent decades? Had Richard Hillman found a Tardis and travelled back to 1982, thus altering the past? What could we expect next? That awful Tony Gordon trying to bump off Phyllis Pearce so that he could have her job in the cafe? Mad Maya seeking to blow Alf's Corner Shop off the face of the planet?

But no, it's OK, the 1980s remain sane (well, at least in Corrie!) the man in Reet's 1982 hallway wasn't Richard Hillman. it was Brian Capron playing social worker Donald Worthington.

Caring social worker Donald Worthington, a role which neatly dovetailed with his role as caring schoolteacher Mr Hopwood in Grange Hill from 1980-1983.

Phew! We'd clean forgotten Mr Worthington. We returned to the settee, all of a tremble, and had to watch four episodes from 1985 featuring the Clayton family to calm our nerves!

So weird to see performers playing bit parts who later went on to play central characters...

Michael Le Vell as Neil Grimshaw, truculent Kabin paperboy of 1981 minus Kev's glamorous 1980s 'tache, was another surprise.

Fags On't Windowsill Quiz - The Answer

Well, did you guess the correct answer to our "Fags And Matches In't Picture" AKA "Fags On't Windowsill" quiz? Of the e-mails and comments received, nobody did - William Tarmey and Liz Dawn, Julie Goodyear, Michael Le Vell and Jill Summers were the clear winners, but it was actually an unknown member of the group of actors who played the Clayton family in 1985. The United Newspapers photograph was captioned: The Clayton family (L to R) Susan (Jane Hazlegrove), Andrea (Caroline O'Neill), Connie (Susan Brown) and Harry (Johnny Leeze).

1985: Fags & Matches In't Picture...

Flamin Nora! You're called out on to the Street's exterior set for some publicity photographs, and suddenly find you've nowhere to put your fags and matches (after all, you can't be seen clutching them in't photo). And then you happen upon a handy windowsill.

So, your Silk Cuts and Swan matches are popped down, and there you stand, all fragrant and smoke-free. But, to your chagrin, the fags and matches appear as large as life on't photo anyway - it seems the camera angle was wider than you'd thought...

Can you guess whose windowsill that was, and which 1985 Corrie actor/s are now forever connected with the fags and matches on't windowsill? Was it a single person, duo or group photo? Choose from't followin':

Bill Waddington (Percy Sugden) and Eileen Derbyshire (Emily Bishop).

Julie Goodyear (Bet Lynch).

William Tarmey (Jack Duckworth).

Anne Kirkbride and William Roache (Ken and Deirdre Barlow).

Johnny Leeze (Harry Clayton), Susan Brown (Connie Clayton), Caroline O'Neil (Andrea Clayton) and Jane Hazlegrove (Sue Clayton).

Johnny Briggs (Mike Baldwin), Helene Palmer (Ida Clough), Lisa Lewis (Shirley Armitage), Liz Dawn (Vera Duckworth) and Lynne Perrie (Ivy Tilsley).

Liz Dawn (Vera Duckworth) and William Tarmey (Jack Duclworth).

Kevin Kennedy (Curly Watts), Nigel Pivaro (Terry Duckworth) and Michael Le Vell (Kevin Webster).

Jill Summers (Phyllis Pearce).

We'll let you know the answer next week.

Bill Webster in 1983 BT Ad... He Were Right About That Saddle...

This much-loved ad from 1983 was part of the "Good Old Yellow Pages" series which also launched JR Hartley of Fly Fishing fame the same year. In this little gem, Peter Armitage, who would make his debut as Bill Webster, father of Kevin (Michael Le Vell) in Coronation Street in 1984, plays a nice Northern Dad who, together with his nice Northern wife, buys his son a bike for his birthday - despite having some reservations about the saddle...

The Shock Of The '80s...

Deirdre Barlow: "Ooh, Ken, I'm a woman of''t '80s!"

Ken Barlow: "You're a woman of taties, Deirdre? Oh, no! Not sausage and mash again for dinner, is it?!"

Casey takes us to task:

Please, please, please, can't you print warnings and "scroll down if you feel strong enough to see" notices when it comes to pictures featuring 1980's fashions? Rita's humping blue shoulders and Deirdre's terrifying hair have nearly given me heart attacks recently.

Back On The Street replies (sulkily); Well, we LIKE '80s fashion, lovey. It's as good for us today as it's always been. Cheeky cat.

1982: When Annie Walker Met The Queen...

Flamin' Emma! The Queen? Visiting Coronation Street? Best get your glad rags on, lovey...

I've just been reading Julie Goodyear's fabulous autobiography, Just Julie, and the lady behind our favourite buxom blonde pub barmaid and landlady reveals much about what went on behind the scenes during her years in Coronation Street within its pages.

It's a lovely, lovely read.

My favourite anecdote (it was hard to choose) concerns the wonderful Doris Speed and something that happened in 1982. The new Street exterior set, bigger, better and far more complete than it had ever been before ("At last we had a real street!" said HV Kershaw), was all set for a visit from the Queen...

Julie recalled...

I FIRST met the Queen and Prince Philip in May 1982 when they came to visit the set of Coronation Street. I was wearing Diana and Charles earrings which I'd had made specially. The Duke peered at my earrings and said: "I think I recognise those two."

As the Queen came towards us, Doris Speed turned to me and said in a very loud voice: "Oh dear, isn't her make-up dreadful?" I know the Queen heard and I just wanted to die. At times I wondered whether Doris just forgot herself or did such things on purpose.

Afterwards, I asked her why she had said that. "Don't be silly, dear," she replied. "You must be hearing things!"

Darling Doris - naughty, but nice!

Sadly, Mrs Walker never made it further than Lady Mayoress. But she didn't let that deter her in her endless quest for gracious living.

Coronation Street - 1989: A Pivotal Year...

Pump Up The Jam...

Flippin' 'eck! 1989! What a year it was! Rita Fairclough was nearly smothered by Alan Bradley, and a tram dominated the end of that saga... but what ELSE happened down Weatherfield way?

Well, one half of the Street disappeared and new buildings rose in its place, courtesy of one Maurice Jones.

Deirdre Barlow (note her squarer framed glasses and nice '80s perm) found out that Ken had been up to naughties with former town hall mole Wendy Crozier. The icy atmosphere at No 1 ruined Tracy's Christmas.

Meanwhile, the Corner Shop suffered a direct hit - from a football, causing the front window to fall out. The McDonald twins, Steve and Andy, were responsible. The Roberts household was already under strain as Alf and Audrey's attempt to buy a new house had fallen through and they'd gone to live in the flat above the shop. Audrey was not pleased. "It's only temporary," wheedled Alf, taking her a nice early morning cuppa. "LIFE'S only temporary!" snapped Audrey.

And for Curly Watts his new job as assistant manager (trainee) at Bettabuys Supermarket was fraught with complications. Manager Reg Holdsworth asked him to write reports on all the staff, and then announced his intention to use them as the basis for making redundancies in January 1990.

Curly was gobsmacked - particularly as his landlady, Vera Duckworth, was on the redundancies list.

There's so much more to write about 1989...

We'll be returning soon.

We've Got Rita's 1980 Dream Kitchen!

1980 - and Rita tells Len where to get off.

Judging by various publicity photographs I've seen, Coronation Street now has the worst interior decorating schemes it's ever had. Not sure why. A lot of them don't look like anything around my own rather common housing estate. "It's 1970s!" screech various nerdy types, almost peeing themselves with excitement. But, of course, that's not true. Look back at the Street in the 1970s and nowhere was as bad as today, and there are few similarities! And anyway, sorry '70s nerdy types, but "1970s" decor was usually 1960s, all those lovely gaudy wallpapers, etc, were actually a product of - or inspired by - the 1960s (probably designed by hippies on bad "trips" by the look of them) - and tarried on through the '70s and into the early 1980s.

In the photograph above, we see Rita Fairclough telling husband Len where to get off in 1980. No 9 was a shambles, apart from a spot of wallpapering in the back room, Len hadn't touched it since years before they were married, and Rita wanted different.

Well, lovey, there were 'ell to pay. Rita left home, Len clobbered her one, then she fled to Blackpool to work in a laundrette and live with her Uncle Harry. In the end, Harry told Len where she was, and Rita finally returned home.

To please Rita, Len made changes at No 9 - second hand central heating, new wallpaper (probably chosen by Rita and absolutely skank, even though this was 1980) and new kitchen units. Rita was thrilled by the kitchen units, and so were me and my Mrs when we re-watched the episode in which Len and Eddie Yeats fitted them recently. They're exactly the same as ours!

Rita's fake wood effect, self assembly units, with the lovely hard wearing work surface, are precisely the same design as the ones still doing service in our kitchen today! As for the rest of our house, our front room is trapped in the 1980s (lovely pastel blue walls, and lots of black furniture, including a glorious black up-lighter), our hall is trapped in the 1980s (a very pretty pink), our bedroom is a style we call "near derelict" (one day we'll decorate). It's not that we created a mostly 1980s style house on purpose. We just somehow got stuck taste-wise circa 1987 and we're comfortable with the look and feel of the place.

The kitchen has not been touched by us (apart from re-painting it a few times) since we moved in, it's not our choice. The kitchen units are flanked by glorious brown and cream flowery tiles, giving the room more of a late 1960s/1970s/early 1980s effect than the mainstream '80s feel elsewhere, and we didn't like it much. The house was built in 1980, so it's obviously all original.

But now we've witnessed Rita's delight, we're thrilled with it. She always did have style, our Reet.

Me and the Mrs went dancing round the kitchen in a frenzy of merriment as soon as we'd viewed the episode. Even better, we think Rita's units did long service with the Duckworths after they moved into No 9 in 1983.

We're chuffed to little mint balls!

Just imagine, us serving up our cheese and spud pie on our trendy Fairclough/Duckworth style work surface, in our trendy Fairclough/Duckworth style kitchen.

Viewing by appointment only.