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.
And we were thrilled.
Of course, it was all fiction, we're talking about the TV series The Six Million Dollar Man, but never mind. 1976 was a bleak, blisteringly hot year, and we needed summat to take our minds off reality.
Coronation Street 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...
And this was used for the show's closing sequence.
Genius.
Coronation Street, with Bill Podmore newly installed as producer, was going great.
No comments:
Post a Comment