tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23256755869976419332024-03-19T02:30:23.753+00:00Coronation Street - Back On The StreetCoronation Street in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980sUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger311125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2325675586997641933.post-81939359682259497232023-10-19T13:26:00.003+01:002023-10-19T16:42:35.592+01:001980: Elsie Tanner Meets Meg Richardson...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhQ_JpvydWQeZrMGOOYob85Z15VPQsQEgmeleGeWiutDd1F5_lmCB5v7f0N2QJN0y_MoM1jbgJkqDROgsc5gZyJTzrAPGcn2QhCPxnZjBwQ0GHsnUm6vt2gKwEBd66PcBEm65MT6CktCebCM_6UQ4OCccyNPN7G4ws4m6MlCOpQJpKCluacFhmzc8k-I0o" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="524" data-original-width="436" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhQ_JpvydWQeZrMGOOYob85Z15VPQsQEgmeleGeWiutDd1F5_lmCB5v7f0N2QJN0y_MoM1jbgJkqDROgsc5gZyJTzrAPGcn2QhCPxnZjBwQ0GHsnUm6vt2gKwEBd66PcBEm65MT6CktCebCM_6UQ4OCccyNPN7G4ws4m6MlCOpQJpKCluacFhmzc8k-I0o=w333-h400" width="333" /></a></div>ITV was 25 years old in 1980, and a meeting of soap legends took place at the celebratory event. Noele Gordon, Mrs Meg Richardson (or Mortimer) of the Crossroads Motel, met Pat Phoenix, Mrs Elsie Tanner of No 11 Coronation Street.<p></p><p>Noele Gordon said: 'Our paths just never crossed, but we did meet at the ITV 25th anniversary celebrations and I thought she was smashing. We got on great.'</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2325675586997641933.post-46242202350068220112023-04-03T03:06:00.000+01:002023-04-03T03:06:16.025+01:00Coronation Street 1978: The Barlow Twins: RETCON! Twins Lose Two Years of their Lives!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiirEi71p-PTjJueXRQYo2dCBdVFO0UKlmYC_FKSeSEYufQGvbyN-MPhKCNswkpe02klpyHMfwy5psnRtOAS1bBSdmdDA_NuAEeib4Jy0hIdNA9i9JW80fP5BmS9V4JtR1T4_fM8H15Yzwkb-OfSvl_RIW1FXmuP6UTA9n4I7hWaFE2XlRuvU4EYfgI/s1586/barlow%20twins%20age%20thing.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="680" data-original-width="1586" height="137" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiirEi71p-PTjJueXRQYo2dCBdVFO0UKlmYC_FKSeSEYufQGvbyN-MPhKCNswkpe02klpyHMfwy5psnRtOAS1bBSdmdDA_NuAEeib4Jy0hIdNA9i9JW80fP5BmS9V4JtR1T4_fM8H15Yzwkb-OfSvl_RIW1FXmuP6UTA9n4I7hWaFE2XlRuvU4EYfgI/s320/barlow%20twins%20age%20thing.png" width="320" /></a></div><p>We recently had an email here asking us about our assertion that a <i>Corrie</i> retcon occurred over the Barlow twins' age in 1978. The writer had read in a 50th Anniversary Book that the retcon trend set in in the 'cynical 1980s'.</p><p>Ooh, aye, luvvie - the cynical 1980s!</p><p>Well, this was in the totally non-cynical (giggle) 1970s. It was 1978. </p><p>The Barlow twins' age retconning was actually <i><b>put right</b></i> in the 1980s - in 1986, when they celebrated their twenty-first birthday.</p><p>From the <i>Sunday Mirror</i>, December 10, 1978:</p><p><i><b>WHOOPS! The great minds who think up Coronation Street story-lines for Granada TV have been caught out - by Sunday Mirror readers.</b></i></p><p><i><b>Two of them have spotted a flaw in the otherwise scrupulously worked-out plot of the top-rated serial.</b></i></p><p><i><b>The flaw came to light after we invited readers last Sunday to send in their Street questions.</b></i></p><p><i><b>Both Mrs JE Godwin, of South Ockendon, Essex, and Mrs R Rowland of Wardley, Swinton, Lancs, asked this question:</b></i></p><p><i><b>Why does Granada TV insist that the Barlow twins, Peter and Susan, are almost fifteen when they were born on April 5th, 1965?</b></i></p><p><i><b>Both ladies remember the date well because Mrs Godwin had twin boys and Mrs Rowland a daughter around the same time.</b></i></p><p><i><b>Granada TV were happy to own up to a bit of "fiddling".</b></i></p><p><i><b>Planners changed the age of the twins to suit a story-line involving Peter Barlow and his O Levels.</b></i></p><p><i><b>However, they do hope to correct the situation in future.</b></i></p><p>As we mentioned, this turned out to be 1986. When Susan Barlow visited the Street in 1981, she seemed set to apply for a temporary job in a wine bar in London. She was too young, going by the 1965 birth year, so the 'tweaking' obviously remained until the twins' 21st birthday of 1986.</p><p>We actually knew a woman back then who wrote to Granada TV on the subject. The letter was replied to by the <i>Street</i>'s archivist, Eric Rosser, who stated very firmly that he had voted against the "fiddling" - or retconning as we call it today.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2325675586997641933.post-60251933221118515572022-10-18T03:02:00.016+01:002024-03-16T13:59:09.331+00:00The Coronation Street Corner Shop: Side Door?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK4uGxWkH0LKrdOCHS4TEuThhs1GS49Y4LuURoR67LYbM4dL4jMyIa_5PS9RfxFhvpspkwA7oXX3z8fnop4FP7XVHRxcZIaNc1dUJy-n7ae5n5ThHSIFNuzFFgAsL2UlOvulloIElt3FPYkHUywaBjcZDWmfmBA5yW_FRhclUecI43AOar2NcA3dQK/s1592/annie%20jack%20-%20Copy.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1156" data-original-width="1592" height="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK4uGxWkH0LKrdOCHS4TEuThhs1GS49Y4LuURoR67LYbM4dL4jMyIa_5PS9RfxFhvpspkwA7oXX3z8fnop4FP7XVHRxcZIaNc1dUJy-n7ae5n5ThHSIFNuzFFgAsL2UlOvulloIElt3FPYkHUywaBjcZDWmfmBA5yW_FRhclUecI43AOar2NcA3dQK/w400-h290/annie%20jack%20-%20Copy.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Opening the morning post this morning, whilst enjoying a lovely pot of English breakfast tea and toast with bramble jelly, one was delighted to discover that Joanie is installing an 'outdoor ambiance' in Derby. Of course, she has always been a leader in social trends in her neighbourhood. </span></div><p>There was also a recent, rather vulgar, innovation apparently called an 'email' from 'Rokey'. One much prefers Vellum Wove:</p><p><i>You write that the side door at the corner shop always led to the flat, and that it seemed to have dual entrances from the main premises and from the side door stairs. But I recently read that before Alf Roberts modernised the shop in 1985 the side door led into the living quarters. Who is right?</i></p><p>Um, with the changing architecture of the Street over the years, who knows? But we don't recall anybody entering the back room via a side door, and nor was there any evidence of such a door in a rare pic of that side of the back room during the Hopkins family's time at the shop in the mid-1970s. But it might be there.</p><p>Even if it was, it would still have been impossible because there was not enough space on the Street's then exterior set representation of the Corner Shop to allow the stairs aperture before the door. The non-existent ceilings were also fun. The Corner Shop's front bedroom window was almost immediately above the sign on the exterior set. But, in the studio, great expanses of wall above the door were often visible.</p><p>Not sure if the side door leading to the flat after the Corner Shop expansion in 1985 works that well either. The modernisation of '85 happened very rapidly, but how? The shop area could not have expanded without removing the stairs and relocating them and surely that kind of work takes more time than the storyline allowed? The stairs must have been relocated to head towards the back of the building, with a new landing at the top, as the side door remained in the same place.</p><p>But that was the <i>Street</i> and that was what telly was like then.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXZAFWAttqUnFbUCs2pCOsVvjty449jI11OZ493UUWxXCKBxNe781TgbTZOkMmGOz3OmYyC-T9ldjRCvmB7IllXFUsvTNS8KbwiSm94Ol37Ye-H7x6q7g7Nx6RU9Znsk1YvSWed6o7JZFrno7MiieZ2Q0s-Fl1kss6smYqfBHTdaYVFi9hhEs2BXn-/s600/hopkins%20-%20Copy.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="440" data-original-width="600" height="294" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXZAFWAttqUnFbUCs2pCOsVvjty449jI11OZ493UUWxXCKBxNe781TgbTZOkMmGOz3OmYyC-T9ldjRCvmB7IllXFUsvTNS8KbwiSm94Ol37Ye-H7x6q7g7Nx6RU9Znsk1YvSWed6o7JZFrno7MiieZ2Q0s-Fl1kss6smYqfBHTdaYVFi9hhEs2BXn-/w400-h294/hopkins%20-%20Copy.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><b><i>Lovely Kathy Jones as Trish Hopkins gets the worst of it from Granny in the back room of the Corner Shop. We were sorry when the character was dispatched as we really liked her - Trisha was a far more cynical '70s girl than our wonderful dizzy Gail. We wouldn't have swapped Gail's time with the mega cynical Suzie Birchall for anything. But we still think Trisha could have been given another niche in the Street. Anyway, back to the subject in hand: no side door visible in the pic, but the side window is present.</i></b><div><b><i><br /></i></b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTTxEjqeVuQYjHbqiG8YNhd2cXVccXyQj8uWAHArp6cQYSEk41WbGXXctAbdqUMYRmOl4S9uv4fhlOXvAikh5D95gk5UI7pOvPLZw4YWyRGNX_Ugunz31soSUJEDSyvchAyEDeHMPidV99rLKH7-9Di6-hrXmkM56BhRT4JWajKnv6XGyjniY74UWTEJg/s2048/dev.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1924" data-original-width="2048" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTTxEjqeVuQYjHbqiG8YNhd2cXVccXyQj8uWAHArp6cQYSEk41WbGXXctAbdqUMYRmOl4S9uv4fhlOXvAikh5D95gk5UI7pOvPLZw4YWyRGNX_Ugunz31soSUJEDSyvchAyEDeHMPidV99rLKH7-9Di6-hrXmkM56BhRT4JWajKnv6XGyjniY74UWTEJg/s320/dev.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div>The modern street is not without its mysteries of course. Somebody recently pointed out that Dev's modern day Corner Shop has sprouted an office door which appears to lead into the area under the stairs at No 13.</div><div><div><b><i><br /></i></b></div><div>For those still wondering, we whipped back to 1983 and took the vexing question of the old Corner Shop side door to Ida Clough when she popped into the shop for the morning barm cake order from the factory. She said: 'Three 'am, two cheese 'n' a corned beef.'</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrylLi-pKlEu4KHNcZqCZTUhBozd1PW7GMNe93Qp7CCgqocEJmCXX6xmOa-PFP7bsT_AmGKkx7TZ7dmBJ7qq4hYcAbQPPsk3tq_L6NqHOjIg9vmAp7xtAMzXPfp8cXj6xEVli4tzbnYTWlAvOU4oFWcUORlByRFKVSx2E81q6HmcUhW_wxHy_4wWTk/s526/Helene-Palmer-Ida-Clough-Coronation-Street-Genuine-Hand%20-%20Copy%20-%20Copy.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="526" data-original-width="382" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrylLi-pKlEu4KHNcZqCZTUhBozd1PW7GMNe93Qp7CCgqocEJmCXX6xmOa-PFP7bsT_AmGKkx7TZ7dmBJ7qq4hYcAbQPPsk3tq_L6NqHOjIg9vmAp7xtAMzXPfp8cXj6xEVli4tzbnYTWlAvOU4oFWcUORlByRFKVSx2E81q6HmcUhW_wxHy_4wWTk/w290-h400/Helene-Palmer-Ida-Clough-Coronation-Street-Genuine-Hand%20-%20Copy%20-%20Copy.jpg" width="290" /></a></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2325675586997641933.post-15737004033801489142021-08-10T01:16:00.010+01:002023-08-31T23:35:35.837+01:00The New Houses, Kabin, Salon, Garage And Factory - Completed In 1989<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QGEniEO9WvU/Tsr1fOZrCsI/AAAAAAAAJic/N34d6BXMO4E/s1600/Corrie%2BStreet.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5677620197044456130" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QGEniEO9WvU/Tsr1fOZrCsI/AAAAAAAAJic/N34d6BXMO4E/s400/Corrie%2BStreet.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 232px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a>In <span style="font-style: italic;">Coronation Street</span>, 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,<span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"> all</span> the major building work on that side of the street began and ended in 1989.<br />
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<span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">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.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"> <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Z__uRBdBX6M/WxXsSk2OpdI/AAAAAAAAMvE/yBHruNgm88gORkV6qGC8Z6XkBdE8tA0RgCLcBGAs/s1600/corrie%2B11%2Bdecember%2B1989%2B-%2BCopy.jpg" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="647" data-original-width="952" height="271" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Z__uRBdBX6M/WxXsSk2OpdI/AAAAAAAAMvE/yBHruNgm88gORkV6qGC8Z6XkBdE8tA0RgCLcBGAs/s400/corrie%2B11%2Bdecember%2B1989%2B-%2BCopy.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><i style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="color: red;">O<span style="font-weight: bold;">n-screen, early December 1989 (recorded October/November): a teaser glimpse of what is now Audrey's salon.</span></span></i></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xvQoJOlEP4E/YRHDL8TTVTI/AAAAAAAAN9Y/AO_Un27O79Yx3iKO6QPV1DPqi6s-IsPOACLcBGAsYHQ/s640/eddie.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xvQoJOlEP4E/YRHDL8TTVTI/AAAAAAAAN9Y/AO_Un27O79Yx3iKO6QPV1DPqi6s-IsPOACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h300/eddie.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="color: red;"><b><i>On-screen, January 1990 - recorded November/December 1989 - Eddie Ramsden shins down a ladder - with what would become Gail and Martin's home in the background.</i></b></span><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><br />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. </span><br />
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<span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">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).</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><b><i><br /></i></b></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Fyu-D-BtNpA/YRHCDL9pHII/AAAAAAAAN9Q/PYDNkIQuhXskIpU2UCIm-pAACsphfsqFgCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/tina%2Bbetty.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Fyu-D-BtNpA/YRHCDL9pHII/AAAAAAAAN9Q/PYDNkIQuhXskIpU2UCIm-pAACsphfsqFgCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h300/tina%2Bbetty.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><i><span style="color: red;">On-screen, January 1990 - recorded November/December 1989 - all over bar the shouting - the new side of the street.<br /></span><br /></i></b><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">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.</span><br />
<span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">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</span><span style="font-style: italic; text-align: left;"> Street</span><span style="text-align: left;"> and I remember enjoying every moment as the girls struggled to get compensation for losing their jobs at the factory, the building 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.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">The new side of the Street was actually fully revealed to the public via a press photograph taken on 6 January, 1990, which appeared in some newspapers the following day. The last of the paving slabs were just being put in place. There was a hint that we may not have lost Mike Baldwin as a local employer - it was revealed a new factory had been built as part of the development.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPOs9QWX0ceTt0zGnSXZM1NEaInPjs6Z06rs41-jgR8yD73BgFZfUHEmtaj5J4UBLzzf7iwwtflFICv6KctchllejKI0axqlNDHxgxmCxoeJs2eJZVlRuEY1mveFxP9FeeFefYDGG8_L602seVnSvepYGt7cfb2o7NJgpUUzRkEtf25rmFCoRRs8hZfoo/s1158/corrie%20yuppy%20homes%20-%20Copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="636" data-original-width="1158" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPOs9QWX0ceTt0zGnSXZM1NEaInPjs6Z06rs41-jgR8yD73BgFZfUHEmtaj5J4UBLzzf7iwwtflFICv6KctchllejKI0axqlNDHxgxmCxoeJs2eJZVlRuEY1mveFxP9FeeFefYDGG8_L602seVnSvepYGt7cfb2o7NJgpUUzRkEtf25rmFCoRRs8hZfoo/w400-h220/corrie%20yuppy%20homes%20-%20Copy.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="text-align: left;">The photograph reveals some rather dinky, fancy street lamps along the new side of the Street. Some newspapers called the new houses 'yuppy' and the lamps did give things a rather 'exclusive' look. But they were quickly replaced with more bog standard street lights.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Of course, Des and Steph Barnes moved in in February but, although they had an ice cream maker, you could hardly call them yuppies. Well, I think one or two in the Street <b><i>did</i></b> but they weren't, not really. Phew!</span></div>
<br />
A great era for the<span style="font-style: italic;"> Corrie</span>.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><b><span style="color: red;">UPDATED 31/08/23</span></b></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2325675586997641933.post-18223951226763208322021-03-08T04:15:00.002+00:002021-04-21T00:25:22.627+01:00Back To The Ogdens'...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CrRlZKWCadc/YEA5NJeFghI/AAAAAAAAN0A/DjR-Xl76lB0lf-RxKPKurDfw4vi-MiGkgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1169/WA180925%2B-%2BCopy.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1169" data-original-width="1134" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CrRlZKWCadc/YEA5NJeFghI/AAAAAAAAN0A/DjR-Xl76lB0lf-RxKPKurDfw4vi-MiGkgCLcBGAsYHQ/w388-h400/WA180925%2B-%2BCopy.jpg" width="388" /></a></div><b><i>One of my favourite photographs of the Ogdens - happy in each other's company.<br /></i></b><p>Thanks to Anonymous who came up with the answer to my quiz question - the Charles and Diana 1981 wedding plate hung at the Ogdens' house.</p><p>It did! I grew up with their back room, and looking back at it, I find myself smiling at memories of the Ogdens' and similar rooms I knew.</p><p>There were quite a lot of working class living rooms like that in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. And probably well into the 1990s.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Em8Q91ObSkw/YEGOp5vyshI/AAAAAAAAN0g/jsTN0qA91pke1RptNHsg-uj-_UB5RFI3ACLcBGAsYHQ/s615/hilda%2527s%2Bwall.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="437" data-original-width="615" height="284" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Em8Q91ObSkw/YEGOp5vyshI/AAAAAAAAN0g/jsTN0qA91pke1RptNHsg-uj-_UB5RFI3ACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h284/hilda%2527s%2Bwall.png" width="400" /></a></div><i><b>The selected glories on Hilda's sideboard changed over the years. Look at those lovely candlesticks there! Real antiques, them! And that radio - that was the one Noah listened to weather forecasts on.<br /></b></i><p>Nowadays, many people go for a carefully cultivated 'shabby chic' look, and ironically horrible wallpaper, but those were the days when people accumulated treasures - like Aunt Aggie's 'antique' ducks - and mixed and matched them with other treasures - like the battered chalkware mermaid they'd won on the fair in the 1940s, those lovely old 'silver' vases of Grandma's, and that lovely plate of Charles and Diana's wedding from 1981.</p><p>In fact, like the mural, Hilda had two different such plates. The first was a head and shoulders shot of the happy couple. It was there for several years from 1981 onwards, before being replaced. Perhaps Hilda knocked it off the wall while dusting it? I wondered. But then, if I remember rightly, the second plate disappeared and the first one returned. Gawd knows what 'appened there, chuck.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-l9ech7XBkN8/YD_k6QCFU9I/AAAAAAAANzY/JQTOoAnC_Gc3zCiesRMwIGnMWc8IRlJgACLcBGAsYHQ/s742/1983%2B-%2BCopy%2B%25282%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="529" data-original-width="742" height="285" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-l9ech7XBkN8/YD_k6QCFU9I/AAAAAAAANzY/JQTOoAnC_Gc3zCiesRMwIGnMWc8IRlJgACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h285/1983%2B-%2BCopy%2B%25282%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><b><i>'Orrible Avril Carter, seen here with Hilda and Stan in 1983, was no good. She was after Hilda's late brother's chippie. Hilda's original Charles and Diana plate is behind Avril.</i></b><div><b><i><br /></i></b><div><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kF-HM28dyDw/YD_lli106fI/AAAAAAAANzg/l2xlWVcOgAEaaDFu6sDHdGOsRptKVs6hQCLcBGAsYHQ/s810/kev%2Bsal.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="539" data-original-width="810" height="266" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kF-HM28dyDw/YD_lli106fI/AAAAAAAANzg/l2xlWVcOgAEaaDFu6sDHdGOsRptKVs6hQCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h266/kev%2Bsal.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><i>Moving on to 1986, and ain't young love grand- even with taches and mullets and bulldog clips? Well, yes - as long it's decent. The second 1981 Royal Wedding plate is on the wall, and Aunt Aggie's middle duck is determinedly pursuing its downward path on the 'muriel'.</i></b></div><div><b><i><br /></i></b></div><div><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-V4Hf8g3C7Gg/YD_nR_WQt9I/AAAAAAAANzo/S8xL6G8B4asHSAZMLJU5uhNbo0s0QcwOACLcBGAsYHQ/s1200/tribute.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1200" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-V4Hf8g3C7Gg/YD_nR_WQt9I/AAAAAAAANzo/S8xL6G8B4asHSAZMLJU5uhNbo0s0QcwOACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h300/tribute.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><i>Double take - Sally Dynevor and Michael LeVell on the reproduction set of the Ogdens' living room. The 1981 Royal Wedding plate isn't the same, but it's close enough. Hilda's light switch is missing, and the picture rail is a bit high over the door, but the set captures the atmosphere of Hilda's dear old room extremely well. The photograph of Bernard Youens on the sideboard, placed there by Hilda in the storyline after Stan's death in 1984, reminds us poignantly of how much Jean Alexander appreciated Bernard's contribution to the legend of the Oggies...</i></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-f87MSmnKxP4/YD_ows-16AI/AAAAAAAANzw/-Hb0rq9VmwIflL4-lmN_3hmznUOIrXNcwCLcBGAsYHQ/s690/4Hilda.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="690" data-original-width="500" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-f87MSmnKxP4/YD_ows-16AI/AAAAAAAANzw/-Hb0rq9VmwIflL4-lmN_3hmznUOIrXNcwCLcBGAsYHQ/w290-h400/4Hilda.jpg" width="290" /></a></div><i><b>... as further illustrated by this 1986 photograph of Jean. A rose had just been created and named after Hilda. Jean took Bernard's photograph from the sideboard and brought it to the table as a tribute to Bernard and Stan.<br /></b></i><p>Hilda, like so many, was susceptible to a bit of 'posh' one up-manship - and when lovable conman Eddie Yeats flogged her a mural, sorry, muriel, in 1976, she thought it looked fabulous in her cramped backroom, with the same wallpaper Mrs Walker had in her bedroom on the other walls.</p><p>Oh yes, very classy.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rk-qd0ptAuY/YEUM0E-P2UI/AAAAAAAAN1A/HOvoOr1gqZckVt_gztaTwvxYYSjBguHyACLcBGAsYHQ/s594/hilda%2Bfirst.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="389" data-original-width="594" height="263" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rk-qd0ptAuY/YEUM0E-P2UI/AAAAAAAAN1A/HOvoOr1gqZckVt_gztaTwvxYYSjBguHyACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h263/hilda%2Bfirst.webp" width="400" /></a></div><i><b>Hilda, Eddie Yeats and Stan with the first 'muriel'. Didn't last long - thanks to that flaming Suzie Birchall and Stan. Never mind, chuck. The next one would last for nearly a decade.</b></i><br /><p>The trouble was there was no overall plan in rooms like that, no attempt to coordinate, no 'style'. Or perhaps that wasn't a problem. After all, the Oggies' backroom had a lot more character than dear Sally and Kevin's revamp when they moved in. Don't get us wrong, we loved the Websters' style, but it couldn't hold a candle to the Oggies' mishmash.</p><p>And a serving hatch? Great, Stan! Never mind that it's canteen sized...</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nslKJ1L8Uag/YEA336V6BlI/AAAAAAAANz4/miTi2QLvNgMq-Uv_OlvdWqOVGSmILdG7wCLcBGAsYHQ/s900/hilda-and-stan.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="630" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nslKJ1L8Uag/YEA336V6BlI/AAAAAAAANz4/miTi2QLvNgMq-Uv_OlvdWqOVGSmILdG7wCLcBGAsYHQ/w280-h400/hilda-and-stan.jpg" width="280" /></a></div><i><b>Stan and Hilda's ruby wedding in 1983. I love the outdoor snap of Hilda in the background, which stood on the sideboard for many years. She looks as daft as a brush - but happy.</b></i></div><div><b><i><br /></i></b></div><div>The first scenic mountain mural didn't last, of course. Firstly, Suzie Birchall lobbed a brick down the chimney and turned it into a slag heap with soot smuts all over it in 1977, then, in 1978, Stan fell asleep while running a bath, the overflowing water seeped through the ceiling onto the mural, and that was it.</div><div><br /></div><div>Enter the new cliff and sea panorama in August 1978.<br /><p>A few years ago, the <i>Corrie</i> production team attempted to reproduce the Oggies' backroom as a tribute to actress Jean Alexander, who had just died.</p><p>And didn't they do well? Hilda's mac hung on the door, Stan's photograph, the one Hilda had framed after he died in 1984, which she kept proudly on her sideboard, was all present and correct, and a 1981 Charles and Diana Royal Wedding plate hung by the door - not the same as Hilda's, but quite close to her second plate in appearance and near enough. </p><p>Unfortunately, in the reproduction set, there was a 1980s video recorder under the telly, and Hilda never had a VCR (a lot of the UK population didn't, 5% of households in 1980, up to around 25% in 1985) but, that aside, the whole effect was like stepping back in time and I expected Hilda to walk through the door at any moment.</p><p>And most, importantly, the mural and the ducks - one, of course, hanging crooked.</p><p>But they couldn't reproduce the mermaid. The mermaid? Good grief, yes - we used to call her 'Miss Boobies' because she was... er... without upper attire and we were not politically correct. But it all made perfect sense to Hilda to have her in front of the muriel.</p><p>Water, mermaid, ducks... yep.</p><p>I suppose such a mermaid in the reproduction set would would have been asking too much. It was ancient tat in the 1980s, so goodness knows where you'd find one nowadays.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lGh8vIdxHZA/YD_kAVZcszI/AAAAAAAANzQ/Q6rBT9JZpkwTGHTWo88BFyGxcES2ljeiACLcBGAsYHQ/s615/1987.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="410" data-original-width="615" height="266" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lGh8vIdxHZA/YD_kAVZcszI/AAAAAAAANzQ/Q6rBT9JZpkwTGHTWo88BFyGxcES2ljeiACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h266/1987.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><i><b>Hilda, seen here in 1986, disapproved of that there Sally Seddon from Arkwright Street. But Sally and the shockingly topless mermaid (behind Sally in this shot), both living under Hilda's roof, seemed happy enough. Hilda, of course, soon revised her opinion of Sally.<br /></b></i><p>The repro mural was, of course, not the original - the second of two Hilda proudly displayed - which adorned the wall for nearly a decade, but it's atmosphere that counts and the reproduction set certainly has that. Where <i>was</i> the gorgeous scene depicted on Hilda's pride and joy - what was the location? I <i>think</i> I know, but I'd love to hear others' opinions.</p><p>The ducks were inappropriate, of course, against that background, but, as Hilda said, they'd kept her hand off the gas tap a number of times, winging their way across there.</p><p>And this was how things worked. We had no World Wide Web, no great knowledge of the world compared to now, and for us, the bottom of the class system heap, well, we lived in very small worlds which we made the best of.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QQdrXa3mx7w/YEGQVDl6gNI/AAAAAAAAN0o/sKN-F4o2RXcPFJR5thzjFylKi0hWEZf4ACLcBGAsYHQ/s615/ogden.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="409" data-original-width="615" height="266" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QQdrXa3mx7w/YEGQVDl6gNI/AAAAAAAAN0o/sKN-F4o2RXcPFJR5thzjFylKi0hWEZf4ACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h266/ogden.jpg" width="400" /></a></div></div></div><div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><b><i>The Oggies and Eddie Yeats - faced with the prospect of eating Little Hilda in 1979. Oh dear. That radio is a bit more up to date, isn't it? Henry VIII had one just like it.</i></b></span></div></div></div><div><p>Were we happier? I'd say no. Different times, different problems. I had some of my most miserable times long before all mod cons and I see many problems happening alongside, and some courtesy of, all mod cons, now.</p><p>Of all the houses in the Street, the Oggies' decor and facilities were probably the closest to my family's. We had no telephone - like most people in our street (less than 50% of UK households had a landline until the 1980s and mobiles did not become available here until 1985 - at a price), no colour TV, a VCR was unimaginable and, of course, no microwave or central heating. When I left home in 1983, VCRs were just beginning to move into the ascendancy (slow but sure), and my mother rented one in 1984. She was one of the first in our street. Fat lot of good that was for me!</p><p>Of course, things changed radically with the credit boom of the mid-to-late 1980s, and technology was galloping on. But Hilda was set in her ways. A bit like my gran's cousin. You may not believe me, but she had no indoor toilet or bathroom and still did her ironing with flat irons heated by the fire to the end of her days in 1987. And she had gas lamps either side of her fireplace, which the gas board safety-checked every year. She had electricity and the telly, of course, but the gas lamps came in handy whenever there was a power cut and she had several boxes of mantles on standby.</p><p>Hilda left the Street at Christmas 1987. She was finally going up in the world to housekeep for posh Doctor Lowther - but she'd have swapped that for Stan any day.</p><p>In my family, we'd started the decade with a black and white telly (the horizontal hold was 'going' and the picture was a narrow band across the screen), a record player and a radio. At the end, we had VCRs, colour TVs, microwaves, and we all had landline phones (mobiles were new and too expensive - 'yuppie toys' we called them - although Del Boy was trying to flog a few cheap 'uns off the back of a lorry). My younger cousin was getting heavily into computers.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Eho5g_B4H4Y/YEBNfLLiZSI/AAAAAAAAN0Y/sxEwGS86klQnduCbhG_ZO5lyys-q52G1wCLcBGAsYHQ/s1554/Jean-Alexander%2B%25283%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1227" data-original-width="1554" height="316" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Eho5g_B4H4Y/YEBNfLLiZSI/AAAAAAAAN0Y/sxEwGS86klQnduCbhG_ZO5lyys-q52G1wCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h316/Jean-Alexander%2B%25283%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p><i><b>A sad time for Hilda - and us. I loved Stan. His needs were few and simple - leisure, grub, beer, fags, his pools coupon and the odd bet on the gee gees. Nothing that exorbitant, bless him. The mermaid smiled on. Personally, I think she was a bit doolally. I wonder if Eddie Yeats found her in one of his bins?</b></i></p><p>Looking back, the Ogdens' house looks so dated. But, as I grow older, my own house is becoming an increasingly eclectic collection of 'treasures' - loaded with sentimental memories. My Adam Ant mirror hangs alongside my posh turquoise, pink and yellow 1987 clock, and my sad-eyed 60's cat picture in its cheap plastic frame and my great grandmother's flying wall swallows and her ceramic plate pictures of Great Yarmouth Model Village are in the living room. Not to mention the gonk I've had since I was seven, and my wife's grandmother's vase (broken in 1992 but stuck back together - obvious mend, but never mind...) and...</p><p>Stan and Hilda's back room had one more lease of life, just after Kevin and Sally's new-look room debuted on the telly. The old set was featured on the brand new Granada TV Tour in 1988 - complete with mural, sideboard, mermaid, ducks, serving hatch and royal wedding plate. And a life-size effigy of Hilda, with a rather accentuated nose! I wonder why?! </p><p>Sadly, I didn't go on the tour until 1991 and it had gone. However, I did get to explore Jack and Vera's living room a year or two later. With their collection of tat - mostly from the 1950s and 1960s - their decor was very much 'THE OGDENS - THE NEXT GENERATION'.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ya7CckISxE4/YELcpNRuAzI/AAAAAAAAN0w/4TGB_QgOXmgKDqKpMJqhNkE4TedOzjn2gCLcBGAsYHQ/s542/Veras.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="362" data-original-width="542" height="268" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ya7CckISxE4/YELcpNRuAzI/AAAAAAAAN0w/4TGB_QgOXmgKDqKpMJqhNkE4TedOzjn2gCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h268/Veras.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><i><b>Here's me (physog censored) in Jack and Vera's back room. Lovely, eh? Just look at that bar!</b></i></div><div><i><b><br /></b></i></div><div><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SNlZEx1yvvs/YELdHnV8BYI/AAAAAAAAN04/NaFvsTYIP6IweX5vC113TdpntPGudVjMACLcBGAsYHQ/s615/hilda%2Bmoved.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="409" data-original-width="615" height="266" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SNlZEx1yvvs/YELdHnV8BYI/AAAAAAAAN04/NaFvsTYIP6IweX5vC113TdpntPGudVjMACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h266/hilda%2Bmoved.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><b>When Hilda left the Street in December 1987 she took her treasures - mermaid and ducks - with her but, sadly, had to leave the 'muriel'.<br /></b></i><p><br /></p><p><br /></p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2325675586997641933.post-40652480613876360112021-02-28T01:38:00.002+00:002021-02-28T01:38:46.874+00:00Coronation Street Quiz... Where Were Charles and Diana?<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qSAWFBQNJ9U/YDrzmfkeZ0I/AAAAAAAANzE/PEEDuQ-ABTE3v0e_MzDUM448UBerdhUTwCLcBGAsYHQ/s453/dicharles.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="402" data-original-width="453" height="355" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qSAWFBQNJ9U/YDrzmfkeZ0I/AAAAAAAANzE/PEEDuQ-ABTE3v0e_MzDUM448UBerdhUTwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h355/dicharles.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>We're going to be delving into the decor of a past<i> Corrie</i> household in a forthcoming post. So, to start off: Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer on 29 July, 1981. Sadly, we all know the outcome now. But back then it was a day of tremendous optimism and happiness for royalists - and there were huge numbers of them back in those days. The image above was proudly displayed in a <i>Corrie</i> sitting room from 1981 until late in the decade. But whose sitting room was it?</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2325675586997641933.post-13421996561383365722020-03-12T23:25:00.000+00:002020-03-14T00:52:51.776+00:00What If Coronation Street Was Archie Street? Part Six<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Well, chuck, we've reached the final part of our little series comparing Coronation Street to its rough-template-real-life-counterpart Archie Street, which once stood in the Ordsall district of Salford. And as we stand outside Maurice Jones's posh 1989 Coronation Street development, what was on that side of Archie Street? More terraced houses, of a slightly different design, and a brick wall is the answer.<br />
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When Archie Street faced the bulldozers in 1971, Granada Television issued a press statement entitled <i>THE BULLDOZERS FOR ENA?</i> and Bernard Youens and Jean Alexander, our wonderful Stan and Hilda Ogden, visited the derelict street for a photo session.<br />
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<b><i>The Ogdens survey the non-template side of Archie Street in 1971. Note the bay windows there had brick surrounds.</i></b><br />
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For years, it was put about - and Granada participated in this - that Archie Street had been replaced by high rise blocks, but it hadn't - simply by modern housing. St Clement's Church remained as a convenient orientation point when tracing the site. Just to confuse those not-in-the-know there's now another Archie Street in the district!<br />
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Coronation Street differs from Archie Street in that it is not real, and when I said a little while back that we should embrace some of the oddities thrown up by its architecture and changing environs over the years, I meant it. Since the <i>Street</i> was born almost sixty years ago, TV production has altered a very great deal. Hurriedly assembling sets back in the day led to occasional brow-creasers like Emily Bishop's back door leading into Albert Tatlock's yard on at least one occasion in the 1970s, and the cramped nature of the studio meant the frontages had to be tiny in the 1960s. So, Albert had to put up with having the Rovers loos in his house.<br />
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When the <i>Street </i>moved outside, a lack of chimneys and glimpses of interior scaffolding and interior grey sky were inevitable. But think about the improvement from the old studio set! It didn't solve Albert's problem though.<br />
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<b><i>The old days - far too small, no chimneys and the Rovers loos are in Albert's house. "Funny old boozer this, in't it, Mrs Walker?!"</i></b><br />
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In 1982, we got to see Rosamund Street in a different light - no church opposite the street corner, as in the studio days, or high wall with gates in it - but the building which became the Graffiti Club. Once again, highly odd when viewed as reality but a major leap forward for the<i> Street</i> - as were chimney pots and a properly covered terraced.<br />
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Not to mention the size upgrade. Real size? No, as Jean Alexander said at the time, '<b><i>more</i></b> real size.'<br />
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<b><i>The 1980s.</i></b><br />
<b><i><br /></i></b>
And, in 1989, came the modern development on the community centre and factory site - bringing us the likes of '80s kids Des and Steph Barnes in February 1990.<br />
<b></b><i></i><br />
The only thing I've ever really disliked is the strange Rosamund Street arch, which appeared at the turn of the 21st century. I've never seen anything like it in real life, but I can imagine the production team were eager to block out the view of the Granada Studios - and having the Rosamund Street view beyond the arch was inspired.<br />
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With the latest set, we have another size upgrade and Rosamund Street is no longer a straight road. The <i>Street</i>'s production team in 1960, unaware that the show would run and run, set an impossible task for the future: how on earth could you feature a busy main road? So, Rosamund Street became less busy, and with the opportunity to slot in more shops and a more realistic look for the latest set, I can imagine the temptation to alter the course of the road was irresistible.<br />
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<b><i>Number 1 and number 3 Coronation Street. There's now room for hanging baskets outside - and the width of the halls can realistically accommodate stairs and the living room doorway inside.</i></b><br />
<b></b><i></i><br />
I think the new Street looks a little too big in some ways - the houses more cottagey than Victorian/Edwardian urban terrace. The bay windows look positively palatial, but they make more logical sense. Again, in real life, I've never seen a street with neighbouring bay windows bolted together quite the way they are in Coronation Street. But that was born of necessity from lack of studio space back in 1960 and now the windows are at least large enough to have a properly sized room behind them.<br />
<br />
The back of the Rovers could have been sorted out a bit better, and would there really be so many businesses in Victoria Street? I always imagined the Street nestling amongst other grotty, grey back streets off a main road, not in a funky area like that.<br />
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<b><i>Two upstairs windows for the Rovers frontage instead of one makes perfect sense as the pub exterior was never big enough to accommodate the interior. The back, however, is rubbish.</i></b><br />
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But the pressure continues to produce more episodes and the new set reflects that. More stories and different settings are needed. The programme eats them up at a rapid rate.<br />
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It's all a far cry from the little girls playing outside the Corner Shop on the old studio exterior set at the start of episode one, and the days when the inspiration for the architecture became known as Coronarchie Street.<br />
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Roll end credits...<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2325675586997641933.post-78246622996441234922020-03-08T03:58:00.000+00:002020-03-08T03:58:54.171+00:00The Down-Side Of The Bill Podmore Era: The Barlow Twins Retcon, A Plastic Toy Boy And Elsie Tanner's New Grandson...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><i>April 1965, and Coronation Street's newest arrivals, Peter and Susan Barlow, grace the cover of the TV Times. But in 1978 they were apparently born in 1964. Or perhaps even 1963.</i></b><br />
<b></b><i></i><br />
Regular readers of my little blog (bless you both, I adore you!) know that I love the Bill Podmore era of <i>Coronation Street</i>. In the main. I found the show stodgy, miserable fare in the early-to-mid 1970s, but when Bill took the reins in 1976, the <i>Street </i>suddenly seemed to rediscover its lost youth and became so enjoyable I was glued to it.<br />
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<i>Shake Up In The Street - there's going to be a lot more fun! </i>proclaimed one tabloid headline. And there was. Bill Podmore's reign totally rejuvenated the <i>Street</i>. I have doubts the show would have lasted without him.<br />
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But even the most glittering reign has a few fake gems, and Mr Podmore's was no exception.<br />
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When was the <i>Street</i>'s first retcon? Its first twisting of established fact to fit in with a modern storyline? I'm not talking continuity errors here - I'm talking planned, purposeful twisting of <i>Street </i>history to cynically shoehorn in a storyline?<br />
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1978 is the answer.<br />
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It all began when Peter Barlow came to see his father and wanted to join the Navy when he left school. Now, Peter Barlow, like me, was born in 1965, but in those episodes he was older (one stated he'd be turning fifteen in April 1979, others made him seem perhaps even older). My mother immediately noticed: 'I was pregnant with you when Val had the twins. This is a botch-up!' Matters went thoroughly public when the tabloid press got hold of the story and a friend of my mother's, another dedicated <i>Street </i>follower, wrote to the archivist, Eric Rosser, about it. She showed us the letter, and I remember she had ended it with the words: <i>What would Ena say?</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
Mr Rosser wrote back, on a manual typewriter. Mum's friend showed us the letter and it was perhaps indicative of Mr Rosser's feelings on the subject that the middle of several o's was missing - minute holes in the paper. Was it just the quality of the paper, or had he punched the typewriter keys extra hard in his vexation, we wondered? He made it very plain that he had voted against the retcon (although we didn't call them that then).<br />
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<b><i>Valerie and Ken Barlow with their twins, Peter and Susan. It all seemed so simple back in the 1960s. But in the 1970s their age would become subject to sudden inexplicable change...</i></b><br />
<b></b><i></i><br />
This was a rare instance of the Bill Podmore era beginning trends which were unwelcome to some fans - trends which are common nowadays. The whole point of investing in a long-running saga, it seemed to me back then (and today), is that you get to know the characters and their histories. And you have contemporaries born within the span of the show as it goes on - like me and Peter and Susan Barlow, all born in 1965. If you start twisting the facts, then why bother having an archivist? The Peter Barlow storyline would have been fine a couple of years later anyway. Why spoil continuity to shoehorn it into 1978?<br />
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The age of the Barlow twins remained vague but corrupted for a few years. Susan taking Mike Baldwin up on an offer to get work in a licensed bar in 1981 is indicative of this - the plot reality should have been that she was only sixteen-years-old.<br />
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All this gave me the uneasy feeling that watching the show was a bit pointless. Would a plot I was currently enjoying be tweaked into nonsense in the future, I wondered way back in 1978?<br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">But in 1986 sanity was restored with the Barlow twins celebrating their twenty-first birthday.</span><br />
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span>
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<b><i>Coronation Street producer Bill Podmore with Eric Rosser, the show's archivist, in the 1980s.</i></b><br />
<b></b><i></i><br />
In 1980, the Podmore administration did it again: showing a complete disregard for the show's history, it introduced a new grandson for Elsie Tanner called Martin Cheveski. Elsie's grandson, Paul, had been born in 1961, but we'd never heard of Martin, who was apparently a few years younger. He certainly hadn't been with his parents, Linda and Ivan, when they'd visited the <i>Street</i> in the late 1960s, although Paul had.<br />
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Martin didn't stay that long, and the demographic he represented, not long out of school and unemployed, was topical - although in the <i>Street</i>, of course, he soon found work with Len Fairclough. But it was all very strange - although not, I thought, as bad as the Barlow twins debacle.<br />
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As far as I'm aware, 1978, 1979 (Ivy Tilsley's family - but, as she was up to then a peripheral character, perhaps forgivable) and 1980 apart, the Podmore administration didn't tweak characters' ages, or create new relations for them out of thin air again.<br />
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But, in 1978, for me, the <i>Street </i>had<i> </i>committed another sin - one that was indicative of future trends, and which unashamedly went for increasing the male totty pin-up ratio, not character depth or acting skills.<br />
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This was the introduction of young Brian John Tilsley. He met Gail Potter at a party at No 11, and soon they were an 'item'. Now, of course, Ivy had once stated she hadn't been able to have children, but with the Tilsleys being introduced as <i>Street</i> residents in 1979, moving into No 5, this was all altered.<br />
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But doing a few retcons as a peripheral character moves to centre stage is not such a sin.<br />
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However, introducing her son as a blond-haired, unblemished body builder WAS, in my humble opinion. Back in the late 1970s, gym workouts were not the norm for working class guys. I'm sorry, but they weren't. This really came about in the 'fit for business, fit for life' mid-to-late 1980s and the narcissistic 1990s.<br />
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<b><i>Vera: 'She couldn't 'ave kids yer know, well, only their Brian - and she don't like to mention 'im. I mean, can yer blame 'er?'</i></b><br />
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But actor Chris Quinten, who played Brian, was a gymnast and Brian, who didn't attend a gym and didn't even have some dumb bells at home, wasn't - and nor did he have a physically-demanding job. He was a garage mechanic. When Terry Duckworth arrived in 1983, not only was he heavier on character but his job at the abattoir would have given him the bit of muscle he had.<br />
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The <i>Street</i> had always had its male and female heart-throbs. Think Terry, Ray Langton and Suzie Birchall, for instance. But these characters were not OTT attractive and seemed like natural backstreet denizens.<br />
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For me, Brian did not. He seemed an obvious and rather cynical attempt to up the female/gay 'PHWOAR!' factor and I found him wholly unconvincing as a character.<br />
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<i><b>Wow - fashion! Our Brian in the 1980s. He was killed off in 1989.</b></i><br />
<i></i><b></b><br />
I don't mean to sound too 'down' on Chris Quinten, as time went on I think his acting ability improved, but he was never a<i> Street</i> natural.<br />
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As for the future of the <i>Street</i>, retcons went out of fashion in the 1980s, but returned in the 1990s. Then, a storyline I'd followed in 1983 - in which Maggie Dunlop had a son by Mike Baldwin, was retconned back a couple of years so Mike's son, Mark Redman, could attend the school Ken Barlow taught at a couple of years too early.<br />
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His own children had suffered similar age revisions, but Ken, caught up in the production team's web, was blissfully unaware of anything amiss.<br />
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Meanwhile, give or take an occasional Tyrone Dobbs, muscle hunks are all the rage when it comes to young male<i> Street </i>characters. But then workouts are so much more a part of everyday life now.<br />
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Oh well...<br />
<br />
Despite my moans here, Bill Podmore's era was an absolute godsend for the <i>Street</i>. I hold his memory in high esteem. Nothing is ever perfect.<br />
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<i><b>Shortly after Brian arrived, Steve Fisher, a lad who, as Betty Turpin said, any mother would be proud of, was dispatched to work at Mike Baldwin's London factory - and never mentioned again. A sensitive, interesting character (a bit soft though - putty in Suzie's hands), exchanging Steve for Brian seemed rather sad.</b></i></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2325675586997641933.post-32387443311125877602020-03-07T00:45:00.003+00:002021-02-20T20:56:04.645+00:00What If Coronation Street Was Archie Street? Part Five<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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As we cross Coronation Street to the 1989 development, let's pause for a minute and think about the inhabitants of Archie Street and<i> </i>Coronation Street. Any similarities? Well, sadly, the residents of Archie Street did not appear onscreen to entertain the nation twice weekly for decades, so it's hard to tell. And, judging by the comments of some of them way back then,<i> Coronation Street</i> was really not doing Archie Street justice at all, and they disliked the association and publicity.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">But there was one similarity: Manchester United football player Eddie Colman, one of Busby's babes tragically killed in the Munich Air Disaster in 1958, lived in Archie Street. David Barlow, Ken's younger brother, also had a brief professional football career.<br />
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<b><i>Eddie Colman, the sporting celebrity from Archie Street, died at the age of 21.</i></b><br />
<b><i><br /></i></b>
Frank Allaun, the MP for East Salford, was sometimes regarded as Coronation Street's MP, he was tireless in his praise for the show - and Archie Street was dubbed by some 'Coronarchie Street'!<br />
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<b><i>Coronation Street creator Tony Warren with Frank Allaun on a visit to Archie Street in 1961.</i></b><br />
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Anyway, back to our walk round, and standing on the side of Coronation Street redeveloped by Maurice Jones in 1989, we take a trip back in time to 1960 to look at the situation then.<br />
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In those days, this side of the street was dominated by Elliston's Raincoat Factory and a woman with a mission - Mrs Ena Sharples of the Glad Tidings Mission Hall, next door to the factory, to be precise.<br />
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<b><i>Detail from a Coronation Street Christmas card produced by Granada for cast members to send to fans in 1961. This particular card was from Doreen Keogh (Concepta Riley/Hewitt). The Street has single bays, the 'tin pot' structure of the Glad Tidings Mission Hall can be seen, and part of the raincoat factory.</i></b><br />
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The Mission Hall backed on to the Street and Ena's vestry entrance was there. The raincoat factory, which switched to funky PVC in the mid-1960s, was apparently a gloomy old Victorian building - but never wholly seen. We did get the odd glimpse, but the exterior's starring moment came when Christine Hardman climbed up onto the roof in a suicide attempt in 1962. We still didn't see much of the building, but a certain small area of the roof is now faithfully recorded.<br />
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The interior, of course, saw more action - including the introduction of one Miss Elizabeth Theresa Lynch in 1966.<br />
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The late 1960s saw the Mission Hall and the factory demolished and a row of horribly modernistic maisonettes built in their place. Gosh, weren't they ugly! And somehow they never quite keyed into the street and few residents were seen. Effie Spicer, an old acquaintance of Jack Walker, lived there briefly, as did Ena and the Barlow family.<br />
<br />
But, in 1971, after Valerie Barlow electrocuted herself with a hairdryer and caused a fire at the maisonettes, they were demolished.<br />
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They were replaced by a community centre and a warehouse. The Glad Tidings Mission had dabbled in community work in its latter years, so the new community centre on the site was rather like 'out with the new, in with the old' - particularly when Ena became live-in caretaker there. It was a peculiar building, looking rather like a shed with gothic windows. And why did Ken Barlow and Karen Barnes, a young woman he assisted with her reading, emerge from Ena's flat when Ken saw her off the premises in 1979? Goodness alone knows. I'm sure Ena would not have been keen on them traipsing their way through. Then, in 1980, the front of the centre was rebuilt due to problems with the foundations, and looked rather more real.</div>
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<b><i>The Street with its groovy, space age '60s maisonettes.</i></b><br />
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The warehouse suffered a disastrous fire in 1975, and was bought by Mike Baldwin the following year. It was a grim building, fit for purpose only. As Connie Clayton said in 1985: 'The view of that factory don't grow on me.' The factory, of course, boasted a sewing room, several offices, and a packing department which we never saw. Did it <i><b>need</b></i> a dedicated packing department - after all, it wasn't that big a concern? Search me, luvvie. Of course, in the 1980s, <i>Acorn Antiques</i> also had a packing department.<br />
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<b><i>Coronation Street, circa 1985 - just before Alf Roberts had the Corner Shop modernised.</i></b><br />
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The 1980s, of course, were a time of change. The decade was hugely controversial - heaven or hell, darling? With all the shouting going on (which<b><i> still</i></b> goes on when the 1980s are discussed to this day) it's hard to tell. Maybe it was both, but it certainly left its mark on <i>Coronation Street</i>.<br />
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<b><i>1989: A glimpse of what would become a charity shop, then the hairdressing salon. </i></b><br />
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When Maurice Jones demolished the factory and community centre to make way for a spanking new development of houses, shops and industrial units, the 'dark side' of the Street finally moved into the modern day and the cheap-but-stylish development was a revolution.<br />
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You know, luvvie, from certain vantage points the development looked a bit like toy town. I mean, I wouldn't have fancied living there - although, like the old terrace, the area's strange magic worked to make the interiors bigger than the exteriors.<br />
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Now all that's solved (well, just about) with the move to the new exterior set.<br />
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Well, love, in't final part I'll give my final opinion on the Street's architectural oddities past and present. Tarah for now, cock. I'm poppin' round Ida's for a brew. With a bit of luck I might get a gipsy cream with it - but I won't hold me breath.<br />
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<b><i>Flamin' Nora! They're well past their sell-by!</i></b><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2325675586997641933.post-68698963371072111872020-03-02T11:41:00.000+00:002020-03-03T04:32:50.316+00:00Coronation Street: Feminism, The Gay Creator, Misandry And Rita Fairclough The Liar...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The scriptwriter of a <i>Coronation Street</i> episode in the early 1990s had no qualms in rewriting history to make our <i>Street </i>favourite Rita Fairclough out to be a victim of an insensitive husband, while actually making Rita seem like a downright liar, touting for sympathy, to those of us who knew the plot.</div>
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Back in 1981, Rita suddenly discovered a strong maternal instinct. True, she had looked after Harry Bates's kids some years before, but streetwise Rita had always seemed quite happy without kids of her own, telling Mavis there would be no patter of tiny feet at No 9 after she married Len.</div>
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In 1980, when Rita walked out on Len, her concerns were for a 'decent' house and a dishwasher - not kids.</div>
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But in 1981 Rita babysat Nicky Tilsley, and suddenly went all broody. She told Len she wanted to adopt, and Len, at first stunned and incredulous, very quickly agreed. Then the couple found out they were too old, and fostered instead.</div>
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But in the early 1990s, Rita told Sally Webster that<i><b> by the time </b></i>Len had agreed on adoption, they were too old.</div>
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A huge difference.</div>
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<i>Corrie</i> making victimised heroines out of its female characters is farcical. The women are at their best when being strong, human and frequently awful, seeing the faults of their spouses and partners, not their own. Audrey telling Alma she'd married a 'big baby' in the 1990s was a classic example of this. Our beautiful Aud had been selfish, childish (locking herself in the loo in a sulk after she and Alf had been forced to move into the Corner Shop flat when the chain on the house they were hoping to buy collapsed) and generally a lazy shopaholic for years. And we loved her for it. The fact she could see none of her own faults made us love her more.</div>
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I have to say that many of<i> Coronation Street</i>'s women are at their best when following the template laid down by the show's creator, Tony Warren, himself a gay man and not averse to a bit of camp.<br />
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Let's hear Mr Warren on the subject: 'I'd known all these queens [gay men with a penchant for camp] in the village. Some of their dialogue was too good not to use. I remember giving Elsie lines that they would say. When you think of some of the things she came out with, how many straight women have you heard say that?'<br />
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<b><i>The original template - women talking like camp men. The genius - the late Mr Tony Warren.</i></b><br />
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The original scripts, with their apparently ordinary but slightly tweaked dialogue (witness Ena in the Corner Shop in 1960!), were very much this man's tribute to northern English femininity. But far more evocative of a witty evening in a gay pub with a number of camp men present than ordinary female conversation. The world was really not ready for a soap about gay men!<br />
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<i>Coronation Street</i> has become self consciously feminist - and as that ideology is now being questioned far and wide (men oppressed women - oh, really?!) is straying far from its roots and has been growing progressively worse since the 1970s (the Susi Hush era). Ideologies are not facts.<br />
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The <i>Street</i> went from being a lovely matriarchy (as many such streets are) to being the misandry mile. A great difference, relying on warped Feminist dogma to score points and create female victimhood.<br />
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So, Rita, love, don't tell lies, eh, chuck? Don't forget your marriage was under the microscope on our TV screens - we were there too - so it really doesn't wash.<br />
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For years, Feminism was not questioned. But now it is. Chivalry should not allow riding rough shod over facts and demonising an entire gender, and the facts about the vote - suffragettes bombing and harming working class, vote-less men with acid, the SCUM Manifesto, the Duluth Model and the horrors experienced by Erin Pizzey in the 1970s are being examined at long last. As are the true facts about the gender pay gap and the workplace death gap.<br />
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About time too.<br />
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So, pack it in, eh,<i> Corrie</i>?<br />
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The misandrist nonsense (often created by 'white knight' chivalrous men) still goes on and was one of the things which drove me away from the show many years ago.<br />
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Remember your roots.<br />
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Questioning Feminism? Heresy, eh? Misogynistic or not? Not. Read what Karen Straughan has to say on the subject and just how this hate ideology has infested every nook and cranny of our lives:<a href="https://antifeministpraxis.com/2017/03/31/feminism-was-never-not-rotten/" target="_blank"> </a><br />
<a href="https://antifeministpraxis.com/2017/03/31/feminism-was-never-not-rotten/" target="_blank">https://antifeministpraxis.com/2017/03/31/feminism-was-never-not-rotten/</a><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2325675586997641933.post-3622471051452569892020-02-13T16:19:00.000+00:002020-06-27T02:55:09.940+01:00What If Coronation Street Was Archie Street? Part Four<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Well, luvs, we've covered a lot of ground, and now we find ourselves in the back ginnel running between Coronation Street and Mawdsley Street.<br />
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The back yards are tiny, poky affairs, with outside lavvies (once the only lavs in each household). Of course, they're not lavs anymore. But the Ogdens' at No 13 was operating as a second lav in 1980 (and probably well beyond). We're not sure about the rest.<br />
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The kitchens jut out into the yards and... well... back in the day they shared the <i>Street </i>magic of being much bigger on the inside than on the outside.<br />
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The kitchen windows were low-set (are they on the 21st century exterior set?), but indoors had kitchen sinks beneath them. From outside, they were pantry-sized cubby holes.<br />
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No 9, with its lean-to glass extension, was the only house to differ.<br />
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<b><i>The Corrie back ginnel as it was on the 1982 to early 21st Century set.</i></b><br />
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Ken and Deirdre Barlow at Number 1 had a posh kitchen extension in the mid-1980s. This was downright peculiar at first.<br />
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The kitchen having expanded, exterior shots showed that the old back room window was now no longer. But it remained<b><i> inside </i></b>for ages - before the design team twigged and it was turned into an interior window, giving 'borrowed light' from the kitchen.<br />
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Deirdre, Ken and Tracy, embroiled in their late 1980s saga of brillo perms, shoulder pads, Wendy Crozier, and listening to Bros cassettes upstairs, noticed nothing odd of course.<br />
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<i><b>Come on, Tracy luv, join in: 'You're a slave to fashion and your life is full of passion...'</b></i><br />
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The backyard dividing walls could be odd. Sometimes they moved. Elsie Tanner's yard might be quite large one week, with the yard wall by the Ogdens' back window, but another week the Ogdens' yard might be larger, with the wall by Elsie's back window. And so on down the terrace.<br />
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<b><i>The real back ginnel between Archie Street and Clement Street was featured in the Coronation Street titles for a while back in the 1960s. The Corrie ginnel is cobbled. The Archie Street ginnel was flagged.</i></b><br />
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Coronation Street backs on to Mawdsley Street - once home to Len Fairclough and Martha Longhurst - and home to Len Fairclough's builder's yard for many years (although it wandered off briefly in a 1976 map of Weatherfield featured in the <i>TV Times</i>). It was in Mawdsley Street, at the congregational chapel, that Emily Nugent married Ernest Bishop in 1972.<br />
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Archie Street backed onto Clement Street, named after St Clement's Church, a longer street which ran across the junction from the side of the church.<br />
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<i><b>Len's yard popped over to Balaclava Terrace in 1976 in an officially sanctioned map. And then popped back to Mawdsley Street. It made a nice break.</b></i><br />
<i><b><br /></b></i>
An old mystery from the back of the <i>Street</i> is the Rovers stairs, running up the back of the premises from 1960-1986. After the infamous fire of 1986, they changed direction during the rebuild. That's because the original route of the stairs was a bit impossible. They would have run straight past the back parlour window.<br />
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Also, the part of the Rovers building that juts out to join the strange viaduct... well, it's an amazingly narrow jut-out. In fact, to me, it looks like a wall with a door and an upper window in it. Bet Lynch would never have got down it, even if she'd pulled her chest right in. And as for Fred Gee and Betty Turpin! What possible use is it?<br />
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<b><i>Even in the super-spacious Street of the 21st century, there's still no room at the inn in the Rovers extremity.</i></b><br />
<b></b><i></i><br />
Now we've reached Rosamund Street, site of the modern (and frankly bizarre) viaduct arch. In the Archie Street universe, we've reached Cavendish Street. Across the road is St Clement's Church. Coronation Street once had a church opposite it - back in the days of the indoor exterior set. It was called St Mary's, but - from 1968 onwards - that was a thing of the past, replaced by an occasional glimpse of a wall with gates set in it, and, from 1982, by a building which quickly became the Graffiti Club, wine bar and disco.<br />
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<b><i>Echoes of reality: The church opposite the corner of Coronation Street on the 1960s set. Martha, Albert and Ena queue up to get their hair done at Valerie's in the foreground.</i></b><br />
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Rosamund Street in those days, was, of course, a long, straight road - apparently one of Weatherfield's main arteries (though it never seemed very busy). From the show's earliest days we'd tended to hare off down Rosamund Street at times. A Rosamund Street shop was part of the <i>Street</i>'s action for decades. From the days of Swindley's haberdashery and Gamma Garments to the days of Len Fairclough's shop, the Kabin, Rosamund Street was a must-see.<br />
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Rita Littlewood, of course, was at first employed as manageress at the Kabin, but later married Len thus becoming part owner, and, upon his death, owner. The Kabin gave us years of wonderful, cherished scenes of Rita and her assistant Mavis Riley.<br />
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<b><i>'I'm telling you now, Rita, that pineapple thingie's giving me the creeps! I can feel its eyes on me!'</i></b><br />
<b><i>'Get a grip, Mavis! There's a lot stranger things round 'ere...'</i></b><br />
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Next door, of course, baker Joe Dawson opened up a genteel little tea shop in 1978, causing the Kabin's café to close, and, in 1980, this genteel little emporium was bought by one Jim Sedgewick, who turned it into a rough and ready transport café.<br />
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In 1990, Rita sold the old Kabin and moved to a brand new one in Coronation Street. But Jim's Café continued to be featured. And here comes another mystery...<br />
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After a while, the old Kabin simply disappeared.<br />
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The doors to the Kabin and Jim's faced each other across a small, covered lobby.<br />
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The Kabin door remained for a while after Rita had decamped, seen from the interior of Jim's whenever somebody opened the door to enter or exit. But then, suddenly, without explanation, the old Kabin door disappeared, and was replaced by an advertising or community notice board. Jim's Café was suddenly at the end of a terrace of shops - and there was <i><b>no sign</b></i> of a covered lobby - or a shop next door where the old Kabin should have been - and<b><i> no sign</i></b> that part of the terrace had been demolished either.<br />
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Never mind, cock.<br />
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<b><i>What a difference a decade makes! In 1984, it was Mavis, Rita and the pineapple thingie. In 1994, the old Kabin had vanished.</i></b><br />
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Next time I'll be takin' a look at the other side of the streets - Coronation and Archie - to delve more into't past and some of its oddities.<br />
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Anyway, I'm off to bingo and that new Pizza Hut in Esmerelda Street with Ida Clough tonight - so I'd better be makin' tracks. Should be a great night. You know worra laugh <b><i>she</i></b> is.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2325675586997641933.post-72949244169880137782020-02-06T02:10:00.000+00:002020-02-06T02:11:55.906+00:001984-1985: The Fruity Thingie At The Kabin...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i><b>September 1984, and Mavis Riley and Derek Wilton are planning their wedding (that wasn't), unaware they are being upstaged.</b></i><br />
<i></i><b></b><br />
We'll have quite a lot to say about the old Kabin in Rosamund Street in the next instalment of our <i>What If Coronation Street Was Archie Street?</i> series, but, in the meantime, can anybody solve a little mid-1980s mystery?<br />
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Times change of course, and some of us who were kids back in the old days can recall having toys which, although deemed 'cute' at the time, were actually a bit on the ugly side by modern day standards.<br />
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The Kabin, of course, sold (and sells) a few toys, and in late 1984 a strange little fruity thing (Orange? Pineapple?) flitted around the shelves for a few months, into early 1985.<br />
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<b><i>The thingie with Rita Fairclough.</i></b><br />
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What on earth was it? A child's cuddly? Some kind of activity toy (in certain lights it seemed to have a handle on the side). WHAT? It was certainly a character, arresting my attention in many scenes, and seemingly quite a performer in its own right.<br />
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<i><b>As Mavis tells Reet where to get off, Ken Barlow is getting the eye from the fruity thingie.</b></i><br />
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Did any readers own a toy like this? Has anybody spotted one in an old mail order catalogue from those days? If so, can we have the details, please? We're dead curious!<br />
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<i><b>November 1984, and the fruity thingie is still on the shelf - a different shelf this time, having scuttled up on to the top one. Tony Cunliffe is blissfully oblivious that the thingie is leering down at him.</b></i><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2325675586997641933.post-59505285628184728602020-02-04T02:46:00.000+00:002020-02-04T02:46:41.072+00:00What If Coronation Street Was Archie Street? Part Three<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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So, having clattered up the Coronation Street and Archie Street terraces, we find ourselves at the side of the buildings. Next to us is Coronation Street's Viaduct Street. Of course, the viaduct looms. In the Archie Street universe we're on Taylorson Street, standing by the front door to the off-licence living accommodation. The <i>Corrie </i>Corner Shop has a side door, too. It provides access to the flat above the shop. But until 1985, when Alf Roberts modernised the shop, access could also be gained via stairs in the shop's back room, the course of which would have caused them to meet the other stairs in the middle. Very odd.<br />
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No viaduct ever loomed over Archie Street. It was a bit loomed over by St Clement's Church at the other end of the road from the off-licence, and certain perspectives allowed the Ordsall Board School (local education board, not boarding) to loom a bit too. Must have been pleasant for the local kiddies out playing. Nice reminder of the joys awaiting them.<br />
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The viaduct has seen a lot of changes, of course. I don't recall the days of the Viaduct Sporting Club, but it was once there, and of course a train came off it in 1967 and a tram years later, and Deirdre Langton was 'molested' there and Tommy Deakin and his donkey hung out there and two robbers, out to loot the corner shop off-licence, watched till the coast clear was there and Ena Sharples and Lucille Hewitt sang a duet there... oooh, all sorts.<br />
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But it was definitely subject to change. In the early 1960s a low wall ran across the street, dividing it from the viaduct, and in 1968 the whole thing looked rather different - definitely seedier, and in 1982 the whole thing looked rather different again (and better kept). It also sprouted a high wall and a fancy tower behind it.<br />
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<i><b>Eee, luv, didn't it all look lovely in't 1980s? Real upwardly mobile.</b></i><br />
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I had suspicions in the 1980s that the viaduct had been snipped at both ends. Several views from the backyards revealed the structure suddenly ended, distinctly unsafe for trains, and when the new development was built in 1989, the fact that the other end was similarly snipped became painfully evident. Fortunately, since then, CGI has come to the rescue, allowing the viaduct to deposit a tram in the corner shop.<br />
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<i><b>1989: in the stress of being interviewed by the local pigs while he's on the job, Alan Bradley can be forgiven for not noticing the snipped viaduct.</b></i></div>
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Residents of Archie Street might have found their surroundings faintly potty if they'd lived in Coronation Street, but our old pals in Weatherfield carried on regardless.</div>
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Another snipped viaduct arch now straddles Rosamund Street, of course. It arrived out of nowhere sometime around the turn of the century, and is almost bolted onto the side of the Rovers Return. Now, it's no use fans arguing that Maggie Clegg mentioned it in 1972 or some-such and that it's always been there. Because it ain't. Numerous views along the side of the Rovers over the years have revealed the lack, as have officially sanctioned artists' representations of Weatherfield. Up until a few years ago, Rosamund Street was revealed, stretching away into the distance, through the arch. But suddenly that changed and Rosamund Street is no longer a long straight road running through the town, as it was for over fifty years.</div>
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Don't fight the weirdness, luvvies - embrace it.</div>
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<i><b>Like the course of true love, the course of Rosamund Street doesn't run smooth. Like the course of true love, it's subject to sudden, inexplicable change.</b></i></div>
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Well, luvs, time I were off. More coming soon, when we'll 'ave a poke round in the backyards. Boy George's opening the new extension at the Co-op today and Ida Clough's gone to get her picture took, so I'm right mithered. Mr Baldwin's been screaming blue murder.</div>
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<i><b>Look at 'im - flaming disgrace!</b></i></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2325675586997641933.post-37588662116881346932019-07-01T14:18:00.000+01:002019-07-10T03:09:24.619+01:00What If Coronation Street Was Archie Street? Part 2<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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So, luvs, welcome to Part Two of our little series on the differences between <i>Coronation Street</i> and its long demolished template, Archie Street in the Ordsall district of Salford.<br />
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Well, we often noticed the lack of chimneys. In <i>Corrie</i>, not Archie Street. This was obvious in longer shots of the exterior sets after the first set was moved outside in 1968, then recreated in brick in 1969 (backyards were added later). <i>Coronation Street</i> had no chimneys. So, how did Suzie Birchall lob a brick down one in a late 1970s episode? Lord alone knows. We only saw it in close-up, and afterwards it was gone forever. Coal fires were possible in the house interiors though, so I suppose nobody noticed the lack of the necessary up-above.<br />
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<i><b>"Chimneys? Nay, lass, we didn't 'ave chimeys round 'ere in them days. We never noticed the lack</b></i><br />
<i><b>either. We didn't even 'ave whole roofs. AND the cobbles ran the wrong way. We just carried on. We were built of sterner stuff. You young 'uns don't know yer born..."</b></i><br />
<i></i><b></b><b></b><b></b><br />
This strange state of affairs lasted until 1982, when suddenly Corrie <i><b>had</b></i> chimneys. And the graffiti littering certain walls, and general run-down appearance of the place, suddenly disappeared. And the house exteriors suddenly got bigger, and there was a building on Rosamund Street we'd never seen before - which became a disco and wine bar. We supposed it was all due to the fact that the 1980s were an expansive and upwardly mobile decade.<br />
<br />
Archie Street didn't get bigger. It got demolished. The first families were moved out in 1968 and demolition followed in 1971. But Coronation Street had survived. And was booming.<br />
<br />
Even in the new scheme of things, the <i>Corrie</i> exterior was still too small to accommodate what was supposedly inside.<br />
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<i><b>In't '80s, the Street suddenly got chimneys, fully-structured houses, and even the cobbles ran the right way!</b></i><br />
<i></i><b></b><br />
Next, we pause at Number 13, home to our beloved Stan and Hilda Ogden. Here lies the strange tale of the straightened wall.<br />
<br />
Now, Stan and Hilda didn't ever have much to boast about. They weren't even 'on the phone' (landline, of course - no cell phones back then). Actually, to go off on a tandem, sorry, I mean at a tangent, this made them far more natural back street denizens of that era than most other <i>Corrie</i> residents. It wasn't until the 1980s that 50% of UK households were on the phone, and Coronation Street always seemed a bit too populated with phone subscribers compared to real life humble back street dwellers like me. In my street of twenty houses, only <i><b>one </b></i>person had a phone by 1981. Yep, by <i><b>not</b></i> having a phone, the Ogdens were being more true to back street life, as I and my true life neighbours were living it, than Elsie Tanner!<br />
<br />
But their house was a typically twilight zone <i>Corrie</i> dwelling in other respects.<br />
<br />
However, from 1976 onwards, the Ogdens had one thing to boast about.<br />
<br />
And I'm not talking about Stan's canteen-sized serving hatch.<br />
<br />
Nope. I'm talking about Hilda's murals or 'muriels' (1976-1978 and 1978-1988).<br />
<br />
And a wall which flattened itself to accommodate them.<br />
<br />
The Oggies had a contoured or stepped wall which miraculously flattened itself when Eddie flogged them the first scenic delight. I think the 'muriel' would have been even funnier with the contoured wall, but there you go. The Oggies' house was obviously very obliging. At times.<br />
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<i><b>'Ee, Stan, I'll 'ave to 'ave a polite word with that wall before Eddie puts me muriel up...'</b></i><br />
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<i><b>'Naice' Wendy Nightingale - the first of two wanton Wendys in the life of Ken Barlow - was far too polite to notice the scaffolding, plank, and cold, grey sky in the Oggies' hall in 1976.</b></i><br />
<i></i><b></b><br />
Clopping on down to the Corner Shop, we discover several mysteries.<br />
<br />
The Corner Shop resembled its Archie Street counterpart (the Daniel Clifton off-licence branch) in exterior appearance more than any other <i>Corrie</i> property. Particularly when it became obvious the <i>Corrie </i>houses had adjoining bay windows (<i><b>sometimes</b></i>, early on). The adjoining bays moved the <i>Street </i>away from the template design.<br />
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<i><b>Elsie Tanner and Ena Sharples go hell for leather outside Elsie and Christine Hardman's adjoining bay windows in 1961. By the time of Ida Barlow's funeral later that year, the windows were having a trial separation. They'd done it before, too.</b></i><br />
<i></i><b></b><br />
Mouse-like Florrie Lindley revealed an unexpected brave side when she had the shop frontage drastically altered in the mid-1960s. The shop door was moved from the Viaduct Street corner onto the street itself. This was fine. Logical. Once again, the shop was a little small on the outside to accommodate what was within, but it was when you looked upstairs at the shop flat that the real problems began.<br />
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The flat's interior had too many windows and sometimes had its own kitchen and sometimes didn't. Bet didn't seem to have a kitchen and slummed it with Renee and Alf when it came to meals. But the kitchen was very evident at other times - particularly when Kevin and Sally lived there. And the flat was pleasantly lighted - by several windows which didn't exist outside. Where WERE those windows on the exterior set, some of us wondered? In fact, we were surprised when a bathroom window was suddenly revealed in October 1980 to accommodate a story about Tracy Langton getting locked in the lavatory. Where had it been all our lives?<br />
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<i><b>Intrepid Alf Roberts to the rescue - up a ladder to coax the door key from Tracy Langton who had discovered a toilet at the Corner Shop - and locked herself in.</b></i><br />
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<i><b>"We've gotta get outta 'ere, luv," - Kevin and Sally Webster are freaked out by the sudden realisation that the Corner Shop flat has too many windows.</b></i><br />
<br />
In the next exciting episode, we look at a few more mysteries of the terrace, the viaduct, Rosamund Street and the other side of the streets (Archie and Coronation).<br />
<br />
Now, I'm off to't pork butcher's before they close. I like to give <i><b>my</b></i> family a proper cooked meal every night - none o' yer tinned rubbish. You can ask anybody. Ask Ida Clough.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2325675586997641933.post-28869019349205630342019-05-05T23:49:00.000+01:002019-05-05T23:49:01.634+01:00What If Coronation Street Was Archie Street? Part 1<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Well, luvs, had a long break and things are all right here. Well, Ida's bought herself a new pair of neon pink fluffy mules, but apart from that. Talk about mutton dressed up as lamb...<br />
<br />
Anyway, I was thinking about<i> Corrie</i> and its origins the other night and the long-gone template for the terrace, Archie Street, in the Ordsall district of Salford.<br />
<br />
Of course, the terrace selected was just a template, and while <i>Corrie </i>used the actual Archie Street in its opening titles for a while, things soon began to alter.<br />
<br />
Let's take a look (wi' a dash of humour, luvvie, cos we could all do wi' some), at how <i>Coronation</i> <i>Street</i> began and its original differences from Archie Street, then look at how things evolved...<br />
<br />
For a start, Archie Street had no corner pub. Nope. Not a single one. So, you'll just have to go to't Flyin' Horse, won't yer? Or nip down to the corner off-licence. No Corner Shop, but an off-licence, part of the Daniel Clifton chain. Not sure if Florrie Lindley would've fancied it, but then she used to work in a pub...<br />
<br />
The Archie Street terrace also had more houses and single bay windows - which were represented in <i>Coronation Street </i>for a time. The trouble was, in erecting a studio frontage, space was at a premium, so the bays became joined in <i>Corrie</i> Land.<br />
<br />
With no Rovers in Archie Street, we dispensed with some mysteries, of course. Like how the Rovers toilets led into Albert Tatlock's house (even the addition of a tiny entry on the 1982 set didn't really alleviate the embarrassment) - and why there was a huge Select with a stage which would have stretched right across Rosamund Street, the same being true for the back parlour and kitchen.<br />
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Eee 'eck, Mrs Walker!<br />
<br />
"My dear! The things I have suffered!"<br />
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<i><b>The great Rovers 1940s Show in the 1970s - with Norma Ford, Bet Lynch and Betty Turpin giving it their all in the mysterious Select. Look out, girls there's a bus coming!</b></i><br />
<i></i><b></b><br />
At Mr Tatlock's, mysteries were fewer, though we did wonder - as we did with all the houses - why they were so much bigger on the inside than the out. The hall wall beside the front door was sometimes wider than at others (as with the rest of the houses) and Albert once sprouted a door at the top of his stairs which would have led directly into Emily Bishop's (REALLY, MR TATLOCK!), but never mind.<br />
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Unlike Archie Street, the houses in Coronation Street had hallways. In Archie Street, the front door opened directly into the front room. The stairs were accessible from the back room (kitchen with range) and ran up the middle of the house. Just how you got the stairs and hallway into the<i> Corrie </i>frontages was a bit of a mystery. But then the place was teeming with them.<br />
<br />
Like that dreadful time the lorry crashed into the Rovers in 1979 and Emily's house temporarily grew a new wall which blocked off her stairs. Thank goodness there was an outside lavvy as well.<br />
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<i><b>As soon as you turned your back, strange things happened in the Corrie houses.</b></i><br />
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<i><b>But a day or two later things were back to normal. And nobody had noticed a darned thing!</b></i><br />
<i><b><br /></b></i>
Mind you, Emily's upper floor was obviously not a very hospitable place. Some writer once said there was no place colder than an English bedroom, and Emily and Ernest's was probably the very worst. When Minnie Caldwell's house went up for sale in 1976, we were treated to a view of the Bishops' bedroom window, curtains gently fluttering, and grey sky and scaffolding behind them. BRRR!!<br />
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Talking of upstairs, <i>Corrie </i>houses had incredibly high ceilings back in the 1960s, '70s and '80s. So high, you never saw them - just an expanse of wall above the picture rail. Very odd as that didn't match the exteriors at all, with the bedroom windows lying low over the bay windows...<br />
<i><b><br /></b></i>
Archie Street never had a house with a collapsing frontage. But<i> Coronation Street</i> did. Number 7 succumbed to that fate in 1965. Looking at the ruined frontage, it's odd that it seems to have widened at this point. And the houses either side have obviously made way for its expansion. The area was made safe and a bench was placed in the space. Very odd. That's all there was space for. As one letter-writer to a national newspaper wrote in 1981, when Len Fairclough was planning to build a new house there: 'The only people that could live there would be Marti Caine and the Thin Man!'<br />
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<i><b>Look how far the front door is from the bay window!</b></i><br />
<i></i><b></b><br />
Well, ducks, I'll be off now. That's it for the first part. There's another on't way. Just to say, all this is written with great affection as I loved<i> Corrie</i> back in its first three decades. And for all modern day fans - well mysteries like the sudden arch near the Rovers and the fact that Rosamund Street is no longer a long road running on a straight course through Weatherfield are nowt new.<br />
<br />
Wonder what the residents of Archie Street would have said if their environs had been subject to the same <i>Twilight Zone</i> madness as<i> Corrie'</i>s?<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2325675586997641933.post-14524566334607796582018-09-30T00:08:00.000+01:002018-09-30T00:08:56.518+01:00Worst Story-Lines - The 1960s: The Collapse of No 7...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i><b>The fall of No 7's frontage on the studio built exterior set of 1965. The front door's shifted quite a long way from the front window, hasn't it? I suppose the other houses must have shuffled along to make room.</b></i><br />
<i></i><b></b><br />
Well, we've done the 1980s (Rita's amnesia) and the 1970s (the lorry crash) so now we turn to the 1960s. What was our worst and daftest story-line of that illustrious first decade of <i>Coronation Street</i>? Well, as with the '70s and '80s, there were several contenders, but we had to plump for the collapse of the frontage of No 7 in 1965.<br />
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Why on earth did this happen? Oh sure, it made for a bit of short-term drama, especially because Lucille Hewitt was thought to have been in there at the time (she wasn't), but afterwards it left the<i> Street </i>with one house less, and a gap in the terrace which exposed the ridiculously scaled-down size of the other houses.<br />
<br />
A single bench filled the entire space.<br />
<br />
When Len Fairclough bought the site in 1981 and set about building a new No 7, a witty reader wrote to a national newspaper:<br />
<br />
<i>The only people who could live in there would be Marti Caine and the Thin Man!</i><br />
<br />
But other things troubled us. Why didn't the collapse destabilise the adjacent houses at all? And if we'd been Val Barlow, we'd certainly not have been happy continuing to live next door at No 9 with the baby twins, Peter and Susan. No amount of calm reassurance and technical twaddle about 'faulty main beams' from surveyors would have convinced us of the safety of the houses in that street after the fall of the No 7 frontage.<br />
<br />
The collapse was very convenient too. After all, Harry and Concepta had left for Ireland with baby Christopher the year before. The house hadn't been empty long enough for it to collapse through neglect but, it was the only unoccupied house in the <i>Street</i>. How convenient to ditch it. Chuck in concern about Lucille possibly being in there for a bit of drama and Bob's your uncle!<br />
<br />
Naff.<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2325675586997641933.post-89932761670441505162018-07-10T03:31:00.001+01:002018-07-10T03:31:28.596+01:00Coronation Street - My Favourite Characters Of The 1960s, 1970s and 1980s... Number 20: Mr Swindley<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><i>'Oh, Mr Swindley! Is it going to go off?'</i></b><br />
<b></b><i></i><br />
Here we go, chuck, I'm now going to bore you all rigid with my own personal countdown of the characters I think made<i> Corrie</i> shine especially bright in its first three decades. Together with a few glances at missed opportunities - minor characters I thought could have been built up into major ones!<br />
<br />
This will be my own personal Top Twenty of my fave <i>Street</i> folk from way back then (one or two who are still around!) and I hope you enjoy it. I do me best here to make things entertaining. You can ask anybody. Ask Ida Clough.<br />
<br />
Here we go then, Number 20 is... Leonard Swindley - played by Arthur Lowe in the early-to-mid 1960s.<br />
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Mr Swindley ran his Rosamund Street 'emporium' - a small haberdashery shop - with the devoted Miss Emily Nugent - who merged her baby linen business with his.<br />
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Mr Swindley was a lay preacher and held great sway at the Glad Tidings Mission Hall in Coronation Street, but not with its resident caretaker, Mrs Ena Sharples, who once described him as 'a puffed up little fish in a dirty little pond'!<br />
<br />
She were lovely, our Mrs Sharples.<br />
<br />
But, to be honest, Mr Swindley was, basically, a pompous windbag who meant well. <br />
<br />
When his business was taken over by a chain called Gamma Garments, Mr S was immediately in awe of his new boss - Mr Papagopolous. This terrifying vision of 1960s capitalism was always kept off-screen (rather like Arthur Daley's 'Er Indoors' years later), but his telephone calls and threatened visits to his Rosamund Street branch were enough to send Mr Swindley - and, indeed, Miss Nugent - into a severe attack of the screaming 'abdabs.<br />
<br />
Apart from Miss Nugent, Mr Swindley found his staff - namely Miss Doreen Lostock, of the Corner Shop flat in Coronation Street, a great disappointment. On one occasion, when Mr S called 'Forward one' to summon a member of his staff to assist with a customer, Miss Lostock actually asked: 'What number am I, then?'<br />
<br />
Well, I ask you!<br />
<br />
Poor old Leonard - jilted by his beloved Miss Nugent, terrorised by the sinisterly-unseen Mr Papagopolous, spun out of the <i>Street </i>and into a couple of spin-offs - and actor Arthur Lowe into even greater fame in <i>Dad's Army</i>.<br />
<br />
Fab indeed.<br />
<br />
'Whatever does that mean, Miss Nugent?'<br />
<br />
'I've really no idea, Mr Swindley…'<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2325675586997641933.post-65671823736805118282018-06-20T02:29:00.001+01:002018-06-25T15:26:57.040+01:00Tom Mennard - The Secret Life Of Sam Tindall...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><i>Phyllis (Jill Summers) and Sam (Tom Mennard). The great Percy Sugden Formation Dancers debacle of 1987.</i></b><br />
<b></b><i></i><br />
Tom Mennard stepped into<i> Coronation Street</i> as Sam Tindall in 1985 - preparing for a local bowling tournament. He quickly became a suitor for that Weatherfield<i> femme fatale</i> Phyllis Pearce - but, sadly, she didn't really reckon 'im. He lacked the drive and persona of a certain Mr Sugden. Of course, our Phyllis weren't above using Sam to try and arouse a bit of jealousy in old Percy. Bowls? Formation dancing? She was that desperate she'd have tried anything. But it was all to no avail.<br />
<br />
Never mind. Sam did try to sell his dog Dougal's services to Terry Duckworth and Curly Watts as a ratter in 1985, and in the same year he was happy to win Percy Sugden's Christmas pudding in a raffle - until Alf Roberts sat on it.<br />
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<b><i>Phyllis's heart belonged to Percy - although he didn't want it.</i></b><br />
<b></b><i></i><br />
Sam was a 'permanent occasional' character in<i> Coronation Street </i>from September 1985 to May 1989. He arrived unheralded as a customer at Jim's Café, and left the same way.<br />
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<i><b>The triangle - Percy, Sam and Phyllis. Well, to be truthful, it wasn't that much of a triangle because old Perce couldn't stick Phyllis. But she lived in hope. Phyllis's hair looks particularly nice in this pic, we think. She was living proof that Punks didn't come up with the coloured hair theme. Pensioners had been doing it for donkey's years.</b></i><br />
<i><b><br /></b></i><i></i><b></b>
Sam was quite fun, and - sometimes carrying his dog Dougal in a bag - was a distinctive sight around the <i>Street</i>, although, like Phyllis, he never actually lived there.<br />
<br />
I enjoyed Sam. Not the most fascinating of characters, but quite a gentle one, well played by the actor. Characters like that were an asset to the <i>Street </i>back then.<br />
<br />
But I was already a huge fan of Tom Mennard before his <i>Street </i>debut and felt that his talents were rather underused on the show.<br />
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Picture it... the early 1980s... a scruffy young ratbag in a dreadful 'lad's cave' bedroom is twiddling his radio knob in despair. In those days, Radio 1 with John Peel in the evenings played 'music' that sounded like a tin bath falling down a flight of concrete steps. The scruffy young ratbag usually listened to Radio Luxemburg instead, but the reception was lousy and on this particular night he was desperately seeking something half decent he could actually <i>hear </i>when he happened upon the dulcet tones of Tom Mennard, talking about his mates at a pub called the Goat and Compasses and the dreadful affect fresh air could have on a body when it left a pub. You see, it wasn't alcohol at all...<br />
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I <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">(AKA the scruffy young ratbag)</span> listened - at first bemused and then amused.<br />
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I later discovered I was listening to a series called<i> Tom Mennard Tells Local Tales</i> on BBC Radio 2. <b><i>Radio 2?!</i></b> Yuck, wouldn't usually give it house room, but I was going through a touch of the love life traumas at the time (don't get me started) and was in the mood to be soothed by a bit of comforting older generation daftness.<br />
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I liked what I heard.<br />
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<i>Local Tales </i>began in March 1981, and ran for a few years - ending sometime in the mid-to-late decade. Each tale only lasted about twelve minutes, but, although I preferred the blossoming alternative comedy scene, there was no denying Tom's ability to spin a good yarn and I was captivated.<br />
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The <i>Radio Times</i> synopsis for 12 March 1981 read:<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i><b>Tom Mennard</b></i><br />
<i><b></b><br /></i>
<i><b>Tells Local Tales</b></i><br />
<i><b></b><br /></i>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; display: inline; float: none; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Welcome to Tom's world. The scene is the ' Goat and Compasses ', the cast - Tom, Harry , Charlie and Fred. The stories, well, they're just Local Tales. Order yourself a pint, sit down and listen. Written by TOM MENNARD Producer MIKE CRAIG BBC Manchester </span></i></b></span><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><br />
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><b></b><i></i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br />
The set-up was Tom doing a spot of stand-up, weaving tales of himself and his pals. There was nothing trendy or ground-breaking about it. Radio 2 was a station for fogies (it plays 1980s music these days and I listen to it regularly, so it obviously<i><b> isn't</b></i> for fogies anymore), but I'd always been partial to old fogey tales. Tom wrote it all himself and I think he was a bit of a genius.<br />
<br />
Whether white-washing the local sewers or watching a male stripper on a coach outing to Blackpool, Tom, sounding like a rather more animated Sam Tindall, made me smile. Lots.<br />
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It was all beautifully droll and charmingly naïve. When hearing that the wife of a bloke in the local pub was having an affair, Tom assumed that the reason for the bloke's distress was because she'd got expensive caterers in.<br />
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Well, you would, wouldn't you?<br />
<br />
Tom, born in Beeston, Leeds, had once been a bus driver in Brighton. He began writing scripts for local amateur village hall-style shows and in the mid-1950s began a career as an entertainer in music hall, radio and television. Through this, he first met Jill Summers and Bill Waddington - later, of course, his<i> Street </i>co-stars.<br />
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Tom became a seasoned stand-up comedian, appearing at venues such as the Windmill Theatre and on such telly shows as <i>The Good Old Days</i> with patter akin to the <i>Local Tales</i>. The idea of expanding the patter into a whole series of radio shows was inspired.<br />
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While <i>The Good Old Days</i> was shamelessly nostalgia-based, the <i>Local Tales</i> landed Tom and his pals squarely in the 1980s, with mentions of the Unions, unemployment and government cutbacks.<br />
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Tom had quite a lot to do with BBC radio in the 1980s. In 1980 and 1981 he starred in a Radio 4 series called<i> Wrinkles</i> - set in an old folks' home and written by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor - who gave us the sublime <i>Red Dwarf </i>on TV in 1988. I didn't hear <i>Wrinkles</i> at the time, but I have heard several episodes since. It's fab - probably a bit ahead of its time - with distinctly surreal touches. Tom starred as the caretaker at the home. It's highly recommended. Superlative in fact (you'll get the reference if you have a listen).<br />
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Tom also had acting roles in other TV shows apart from the <i>Street</i> - including <i>Dad's Army</i>, <i>All Creatures Great and Small</i> and <i>Open All Hours</i>.<br />
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<i><b>Jim's Café, 1985. Sam and Phyllis talk hotpot.</b></i></div>
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<i><b>Bowls were a serious business in 1980s Weatherfield.</b></i><br />
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Tom's own rare Lhasa Apso miniature dog, Dougal, played the Dougal of bag fame in the show. Tom also kept hamsters, tropical fish and caged birds, including zebra finches, a cockatiel, canaries and a wydah bird.<br />
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Dougal even had his own bank account and fan club. Lucky lad. I wonder if he had<a href="https://80sactual.blogspot.com/2018/04/mr-dog-specially-prepared-because-some.html" target="_blank"> <span style="color: red;">Mr D</span><span style="color: red;">og</span> </a>for dinner?<br />
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The character of Sam Tindall was simply designed as a component of the Phyllis/Percy scenario. He was a pawn in lovelorn Phyllis's game really - her desire to win Percy's affections was so great she'd stop at nothing. The occasional <i>Street</i> appearances suited Tom, who was then living in Dorset. But I think he could have brought a lot of fun to a larger role, particularly if the production team had revealed the Goat and Compasses to be Sam's usual local when not pursuing Phyllis - thus revealing a hidden and hilarious life for Sam. With a bit of tweaking, Tom's tales would have fitted beautifully into the <i>Street </i>setting.<br />
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Tom died in November 1989. <i>Back On The Street</i> remembers him fondly.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2325675586997641933.post-47949751389226061482018-06-14T04:27:00.002+01:002023-10-01T19:37:50.159+01:00The Mark Brittain Warehouse Fire Of October 1975 - An Anniversary Celebration? No. Just Examine The Newspaper Archives.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i><b>The end of the Mark Brittain Warehouse. The fire engines dwarfed the miniature terrace back then and the production team tried their best to disguise the fact. Edna Gee, wife of Fred-Face, worked at the Warehouse with Ivy Tilsley - whose husband was then called Jack.</b></i><br />
<i></i><b></b><br />
Rebecca has written to us!<br />
<i></i><br />
<i>I've been surprised to read on the Coronation Street Wiki that the fire at the Mark Brittain warehouse in 1975, in which Edna Gee died, was intended as a celebration of the show's 15th anniversary. I didn't hear that at the time and soaps didn't usually celebrate with disasters back then. Is it true? And if so, why was it in early October, two months before the anniversary?</i><br />
<i></i><br />
It wasn't true, Rebecca. We remember the <i>Street</i>'s fifteenth anniversary very well and it was not linked to that. Indeed, as you say, it was two months in the past by then. After all, roasting somebody alive would not have pleased viewers as an anniversary celebration in those days. In fact, I think it would have seemed bizarre and grotesque. Nowadays, folks would adore it. The story seems to have to come from ex-archivist Daran Little, who was a little lad back then. He probably just made a throw-away comment and you know how today's netty types run with these things.<br />
<br />
After all, if it was so - and disasters were really 'in' for anniversaries back then, think of the disasters they could have had for their 20th and 25th and 30th anniversaries.<br />
<br />
You will find no publicity from 1975 verifying the claim - just examine the newspaper archives (it <i><b>was</b></i> pointed out, however, that the <i>Street </i>was low in the ratings and could 'do with some kind of boost'), and the more than two month gap makes the claim an absurdity. Soaps didn't 'celebrate' with disasters back then.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiE7U0_HK4p8ZFZEQcgsRB2b8sbIIUlXw5j4xcVkbQbfwOKUKZ5DbCs8tjUJM2ANEIezNjaYsWKMzPQlnPm7iJPGXpYccv0o2spVryOBWfYNGFnL6JPRmwICcDZdPtY-VUIXxGJ6P5NbExvLt_rYCTGdWj_3AyGz0D1eO2yNtjiD_qlerqY0pnyAuEI2Uw" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="593" data-original-width="945" height="402" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiE7U0_HK4p8ZFZEQcgsRB2b8sbIIUlXw5j4xcVkbQbfwOKUKZ5DbCs8tjUJM2ANEIezNjaYsWKMzPQlnPm7iJPGXpYccv0o2spVryOBWfYNGFnL6JPRmwICcDZdPtY-VUIXxGJ6P5NbExvLt_rYCTGdWj_3AyGz0D1eO2yNtjiD_qlerqY0pnyAuEI2Uw=w640-h402" width="640" /></a></div><b><i>'Liverpool Echo', 1 October, 1975.<br /></i></b><br />Having said that, we've a lot of time for Daran Little. Even if he does make the odd cock-up. His <i>East</i> <i>Street</i> thingie with Gail making her mark on the <i>EastEnders</i> café is a true delight. For that reason alone, we'd walk over hot coals for the lad. Probably.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2325675586997641933.post-91499619064785086992016-10-27T02:12:00.001+01:002016-10-27T02:12:59.908+01:00Albert Tatlock - The Unsung Hero...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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We were having a cuppa in our Albert Tatlock mugs the other day, when we suddenly realised that Albert must rate as one of the most under appreciated <i>Coronation Street </i>characters of all time! Of course, <i>Coronation Street </i>has always been a matriarchal society, often dominated by grumpy old women (from the days of fiercesome Ena and vinegary Martha right up to acid Blanche) but the <i>Street</i> has also had a few grumpy gents in its time - remember the awfully officious Percy Sugden, bombastic scourge of the neighbourhood in the 1980s and 1990s? And then, of course, there's noxious Norris.<br />
<br />
But the original grumpy old gent was dear old Albert Tatlock, of Number 1, Coronation Street.<br />
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Male characters in the <i>Street </i>do tend to be under appreciated. As we say, it's a matriarchal society, but nowadays it's also a misandrist society - both the <i>Street </i>and the real world. But the <i>Street </i>would have shrivelled and died without the likes of gentle Jack Walker, lovable louse Stan Ogden, loud and proud to be male Len Fairclough, jittery Jerry Booth and so on.<br />
<br />
And not forgetting Ken Barlow - the <i>Street</i>'s very own intellectual.<br />
<br />
And so to Albert.<br />
<br />
Jack Howarth was a fabulous actor. Albert could irritate, amuse, and bring us to tears. And Mr H seemed to bring about these emotions in his audience effortlessly.<br />
<br />
How we laughed at Albert's attempts to get free chocolate back in the late 1970s. Some will remember him drunkenly singing "If I Ruled The World" while sliding down a lamp post to the pavement back in the 1960s. And his "comforting" visit to Mavis Riley while she was in her sick bed in the early 1980s - where he assured her she was looking "gaunt" - is a treasured memory.<br />
<br />
Albert could be so funny.<br />
<br />
Like all great soap characters, he was totally unaware of his own foibles. When he stated that Annie Walker never did have a sense of humour, he meant it. <br />
<br />
But his moaning and groaning could be a real drag - after all, he fought a war for us lot, etc. Come to that, he <i>did</i>, and perhaps we<i> were</i> a let down. But I'll come to that later. And he was so mean, he would have skinned a flea.<br />
<br />
But underneath it all, Albert was lovely. The character had great depth.<br />
<br />
Remember his distress when faced with losing Ken from No 1 in 1981, when Ken was set to marry Deirdre, and the way he offered Ken his house if only he'd stay? All Albert wanted was to end his days in his own home, his own neighbourhood, and continue to be with a man he'd come to regard as his closest family. Remember his sadness and confusion as Ken and Deirdre's marriage hit its famous first rocky patch in the Baldwin Barlow triangle of 1983? We wept buckets.<br />
<br />
There was such truth in Jack Howarth's acting.<br />
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Torn from his familiar surroundings and tipped into the hell of the First World War trenches as a young man, Albert won a Military Medal. Although he was fond of banging on about the war, he didn't discuss the bravery that won him his medal.<br />
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Elsie Tanner once told Albert that he was being unselfish, probably for the first time in his life, when he expressed concern about Ken's son Peter. Elsie, of course, could let her gob run away with her, that's one of the reasons we loved her, but Albert, who could probably have told her a great deal about unselfishness amd true comradeship, said nothing.<br />
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Albert's wife Bessie had died in 1959. His daughter Beattie and her husband Norman were not the most caring of souls, and so Albert lived alone with rare (and usually faintly grudging) visits from his nearest flesh and blood relative. <br />
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Albert was fond of his niece, Valerie, and had a bond with Ken Barlow which was already evident in episode 1. So, when Val and Ken married, Albert was delighted.<br />
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And he doted on Peter and Susan, his great nephew and niece who were born in 1965.<br />
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Albert and Ena Sharples had a deep bond of friendship, going back many years. Sometimes they were rivals, and if they spent too much time together they drove each other barmy, but the bond was definitely there and was not portrayed through a veil of sugary sentiment. When Ena was in hospital in a coma induced by a head injury in 1977, it was Albert who kept a vigil by her bedside, talking to her about the old days. As she said, when she finally gained consciousness: "I wish you'd make less noise."<br />
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The modern world let Albert down. The "Peace And Love" era of the 1960s - or perhaps in reality drug abuse, daft youthful idealism and increasing promiscuity posing as Peace and Love - were beyond him. As what former<i> Street </i>producer HV Kershaw described as the "Swinging 60s" turned into the "Savage 70s", Albert was so depressed, he locked himself in his house.<br />
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And the uncaring '70s found Albert, a poor old pensioner living alone, having his electricity supply cut off because he was unable to pay the bill. Fortunately, Ken came to the rescue, proving that blood is not always thicker than water as Beattie was noticeably absent from the scene and unaware of the crisis.<br />
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Albert was insecure. He felt fearful even of losing his beloved allotment. <br />
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Life was now about instant gratification. The rules that Albert had grown up with were rapidly eroded in the post Second World War world, and he didn't understand. How could Ken live out of wedlock with married Wendy Nightingale? When a poorly Albert was roughed up by a yob in his own back parlour in early 1979, many of us were also thoughtful about the current state of things.<br />
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In the vapid 21st Century, where looking up "facts" seems largely to revolve around unreliable sources such as Wikipedia, it is easy to dismiss Albert Tatlock as simply a grumpy old man. Indeed, at the time of his tenure in the show, he was often described as "a grumpy old git", etc. And of course Albert was merely a soap opera character - his grumpiness and canny way with pence were accentuated to give him colour, to make him interesting viewing. But back in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s he had many real life counterparts - those that had fought in the First World War for a better world, a "land fit for heroes", and found the reality sadly wanting.<br />
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Albert Tatlock was a piece of history, a character of depth who requires much more understanding than your average 21st Century web skimmer can give.<br />
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And Jack Howarth was one of the finest performers that <i>Coronation Street </i>has ever had. <br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2325675586997641933.post-91701432953907358262016-10-24T00:47:00.003+01:002016-10-24T00:47:27.728+01:001976: Stan Ogden And The Haggertys - When Coronation Street Went Bionic...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i><b>We can rebuild them... EEEKKK!!!</b></i><br />
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Back in 1976, England had bionic fever. We were all gripped by the American exploits of one Steve Austin, a man who had been rebuilt using all sorts of fake bits to give him super human strength. Steve could do all sorts - jump great heights, run in slow motion, all sorts.<br />
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And we were thrilled.<br />
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Of course, it was all fiction, we're talking about the TV series <i>The Six Million Dollar Man</i>, but never mind. 1976 was a bleak, blisteringly hot year, and we needed summat to take our minds off reality. <br />
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<i>Coronation Street </i>addressed our fascination with big strong Steve by having Bet Lynch claim she had bionic powers in a fun Rovers scene. And when one of the tearaway Haggerty kids claimed the same, this led to a nightmare for Stanley Ogden of Number 13. After some confusion over Hilda's washing, Stan had ended up taking the Haggerty's raggedy garments from their line. Tit for tat, he (mistakenly) thought. But at the time, he believed the lads' dad, Big Jim Haggerty, was safely tucked away in the Nick. But he wasn't. Terrified Stan, not bionic himself, in fact possessed of rather a weak backbone, lapsed into a troubled doze in his armchair, dreaming of the Haggerty lads running in slow motion towards him, just like awesome Steve...<br />
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And this was used for the show's closing sequence.<br />
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Genius.<br />
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<i>Coronation Street</i>, with Bill Podmore newly installed as producer, was going great.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2325675586997641933.post-66317044982798359552015-01-20T17:27:00.000+00:002015-01-20T17:28:41.470+00:00Anne Kirkbride<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b><i>Anne Kirkbride as Deirdre and William Roache as Ken - a 1988 photograph used for the 1989 Coronation Street calendar.</i></b><br />
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We're not feeling too well at <i>Back On The Street</i>, but were startled by some news last night, e-mailed to us from a friend of this blog. Anne Kirkbride - Deirdre Hunt/Langton/Barlow - a regular in the<i> Street </i>for many years has died at the young age of sixty.<br />
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We're so sorry to hear this. Deirdre had her ups and downs in <i>The Street</i>, but the character is greatly loved, and Miss Kirkbride invested her with a lovely, down-to-earth warmth and "every dayness" that turned her into a <i>Corrie </i>great.<br />
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We loved her fiery engagement to Billy Walker and equally fiery marriage to Ray Langton. We thought her pairing with Ken Barlow was a little out of character and a bit of a desperate attempt by the production team to create interest in two regulars without bringing in new characters for them to romance. But there's no doubt that the Dierdre/Ken union yielded pure gold in 1983 when Mike Baldwin tried to entice Deirdre away from her "boring" (or so some of the Press said) hubby.<br />
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And then there was Deirdre's turn as a Weatherfield borough councillor in the late 1980s, the "mole" at the town hall, who turned out to be Wendy Crozier, and her spiky relationship with her "mummy dearest", Blanche, in later years.<br />
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As well as the high dramas, we remember Deirdre fondly for just being around and for being warm and likeable. Her tenure as assistant at Alf Roberts's Corner Shop from 1980 to 1987, chatting with the customers, getting involved in local intrigues, dealing with change and the bacon slicer, is an outstanding time for the character in our memories.<br />
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Her trademark was her big glasses - which lost some of their roundness in the 1980s and became even bigger and rather squarer in shape. They were like mini-tv screens! As with Ena and her hairnet and Albert and his flat cap, Deirdre was difficult to imagine without her trademark apparel.<br />
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But, beyond our fondness for the character, there is, of course, something much sadder here. Anne Kirkbride was a real, live human being, not soap opera fiction. Thanks to her for all the viewing pleasure she has brought us over the last four decades, and our heartfelt sympathy to her husband, family and friends.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2325675586997641933.post-13245915621381959102014-10-19T00:03:00.003+01:002014-10-19T00:03:58.650+01:00Mavis And Rita: Dealing With Birthdays...<br />
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Just got another flamin' birthday out of the way, and amongst a few very "witty" cards was the little belter above, featuring two of my all-time<i> Coronation Street</i> favourites, Mavis Riley and Rita Fairclough.<br />
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Brilliant! Brought a smile to the old gob and I love it. <br />
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And let's count our blessings - time flies, let's just be thankful cows don't, as me dear old grannie used to say.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2325675586997641933.post-49258884563034069582014-09-15T17:37:00.000+01:002014-09-15T17:37:11.814+01:001986: "Our Hilda" - An English Rose!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Hilda Ogden - an English rose?! Yep, she became one in 1986, when Bee's, the Chester firm of seedsmen, launched a new rose named in honour of our <i>Coronation Street</i> heroine!<br />
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The raspberry pink rose appeared at the Chelsea Flower Show that year, and actress Jean Alexander was invited down for the preview.<br />
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In her 1989 autobiography <i>The Other Side Of The Street</i>, Jean wrote:<br />
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<i>I had never been to the show before and I was entranced by the variety and beauty of the exhibits, but for me 'Our Hilda' shone the brightest.</i><br />
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And, of course, Jean posed for a photograph of the rose in Hilda's living room, complete with flying ducks and a photograph of the late Bernard Youens, in character as Stan Ogden.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2325675586997641933.post-18263673228192766702014-09-14T01:29:00.000+01:002014-09-14T01:30:11.213+01:001981: Mark Eden - On The Street At Last!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b><i>18/2/1981 - A new man for Elsie?</i></b><br />
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Actor Mark Eden was very pleased in 1981. He'd landed a role in <i>Coronation Street</i>!<br />
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But<b><i> not </i></b>the role he is now remembered for!<br />
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Mark was Wally Randle, a customer at Jim's Cafe in Rosamund Street, where a certain Mrs Elsie Tanner worked. And she liked him!<br />
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Mark said at the time:<br />
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"I've wanted to be in<i> Coronation Street</i> for a long time. I'm glad I have made it at last!"<br />
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Little did he know - for the Wally Randle character was only around for a short time. He went to lodge with Elsie, regarding her only as a friend. But Elsie read more into the situation - and ended up shattered and alone.<br />
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Mr Eden left... and then, in 1986, returned as an entirely different character.<br />
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A character called Alan Bradley...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0