1977: The Mystery Woman At Len And Rita's Wedding...

The wedding of Len Fairclough (Peter Adamson) and Rita Littlewood (Barbara Mullaney, now Knox) in April 1977 was occasion enough for a TV Times special souvenir magazine.

On-and-off like a flippin' light switch the relationship between them two... flamin' nora.

Then, in 1977, with the songbird from the Kabin about to fly off on a singing engagement abroad, wedding bells were suddenly in the offing.

And this time their relationship was definitely on.

What a grand wedding it was - complete with slap-up reception at the Greenvale Hotel.

Mrs Annie Walker commented: "What amused me was all that church business. Really! I mean, when all's said and done, he is rather uncouth. Still, I suppose they're well-suited."

But we, the viewers sat at home, liked it. Here's the happy couple at the altar... and there's the aforementioned Mrs Walker watching from her pew and... who's that curious blank-faced woman behind Albert Tatlock? She looks weird... no face... strangely outlined... like something out of this world...

Was Len and Rita's wedding being subjected to a Close Encounter?

Nay, lovey, rest assured.

The mystery woman was none other than Pat Phoenix as Elsie Tanner.

But Elsie did not attend Len and Rita's wedding, only the reception, I hear you say. Quite right. Pat Phoenix was ill and unable to attend the filming at the church. So Elsie had to miss the wedding. But the TV Times photographs of the event had been set up specially sometime before the actual filming of the wedding scenes, and as the original intention of the scriptwriters was that Elsie should attend the wedding, there she was, large as life, in the TV Times photographs.

So, when Pat Phoenix didn't make it to the church, and Elsie missed the wedding on-screen, some hasty editing of the TV Times photographs had to take place. As Elsie did not make it to the wedding ceremony on the telly, she certainly couldn't be seen to have made it to the wedding ceremony in the TV Times magazine.

Way back then, in those prehistoric, non-computerised days, correcting the situation was not easy. Pat's presence on a group photograph outside the church was eradicated with a simple snip and splice. But this was not possible with the church interior pics, so Pat, although still visible, was simply blanked out as best as possible.

1989: Rita Fairclough And The Huge Blue Shoulder Pads...

Watching past Corrie episodes is a delight, reflecting as they do many of the trends and fashions of the times in which they were recorded: Ken Barlow off on a Ban The Bomb March in the early 1960s, hippies at No 11 during the same decade, skateboards and rising youth crime in the 1970s, the CB radio craze and unemployment in the early 1980s. And HUGE shoulder pads as the '80s went on.

And I do mean HUGE.

I've just watched an episode from 1989, and the lovely Rita Fairclough (Barbara Knox) waltzed into the Rovers Return, wearing a bizarre bright blue jacket thing, with what looked like about a dozen tea towels stuffed into each shoulder.

Talk about Popeye!

I backtracked to a 1980 episode. The shoulders were quite ordinary. Miniscule in fact. Fast forward to '89 again and WOW!

I was used to shoulder pads at the time, even favoured them myself - in my Miami Vice-style linen jackets (big shoulders detract from big belly) - but seeing them now...

Good grief!

The mid-to-late '80s were a different planet!

Those fashions...

At the time I thought: "Brill!"

Now I think: "bleeurgh!"

Alec Gilroy (Roy Barraclough) is confronted by a huge blue shoulder pad in the Rovers Return. Will his nerve break?

1976: Aggro At The Gatsby

In answer to Flaming Nora's request for some screen caps of Miss Rita Littlewood in her nightclub singer heyday, here's the lady herself in full flow at Ralph Lancaster's Gatsby Club (with its retro Upstairs, Downstairs decor) in 1976. This was a little cracker of a story-line.

Elsie Howard (as was) and Len Fairclough were in the audience, as were Ray and Deirdre Langton. Elsie was not impressed with Rita's performance. Not usually the jealous type, Elsie would happily get the claws out for Rita. She hadn't wanted Len herself when marriage was offered back in the '60s. But she certainly didn't want Rita to have him.

Len thoroughly enjoyed having two women at odds over him, and told Elsie: "You know, if you'd worked your cards right, you could have married me!"

"Ooh, you don't begrudge me one little stroke of luck, do yer?!!" grinned Elsie.

Apparently Elsie didn't reckon much to Len's potential as a husband (and recalling his marriage to Nellie, perhaps it wasn't surprising), nor did she fancy working for him as Rita did.

Elsie tried some heavy sarcasm: "You know, there's nothing I'd like better than to work for you - for insults and peanuts. Mind you, she [indicating Miss Littlewood] deserves it!"

Rita was on great form that night and had some news for Len: she'd been offered a month's singing contract in Torquay; Len made it plain that if she took it, she'd lose her job and the flat over The Kabin. To put it simply, the green eyed monster had claimed Len that night, just as it had Elsie: he was worried that Rita might fall under the spell of her agent or some other handsome devil whilst away from his earthy aura.

Rita began to seethe as Len told her not to expect a job when she got back - "and you'd better take your bits and pieces with yer, 'cos they're gonna be on the street when you get back!"

"Go on, take a poke at me!" Len goaded.

So, she did, knocking him from his bar stool to the floor, where he lay unconscious.

"Will you get a doctor, somebody?!" cried Ray.

"Oh my god!" said Rita.

Nowadays, the whole incident would have been recorded on CCTV installed at the club, and Rita would have been hauled off down the police station, charged, and on the DNA Database before you could say "Ooh, 'eck! What's Mavis going to say?!"

But this was the 20th Century and the whole incident was simply put down to Rita having a "red headed" moment.

Which I think was rather a better way of going about things!

1976: Rita Finds Fame...

Len Fairclough chats up Rita Littlewood. Neither seem to have noticed the fact that Rita is appearing on the cover of the TV Times. Had her performances at the Gatsby led to an appearance on Sunday Night At The London Palladium?

Watching Coronation Street way back in 1976, I recall boggling at the sight of a copy of a TV Times magazine featuring Barbara Mullaney (now Knox) on the cover in the Kabin's magazine rack. It appeared there in several scenes, and kind of freaked me out!

Did the good people of Weatherfield watch Coronation Street on the telly like the rest of us, I wondered?

Uttered In The '80s - Part 1

Introducing Uttered In The '80s - Back On The Street's look back at some memorable Corrie quotes from the decade of shoulder pads, the Rubik's Cube and the ZX Spectrum.

The Rovers Return, 1986. Emily Bishop (Eileen Derbyshire), Rita Fairclough (Barbara Knox) and Betty Turpin (Betty Driver) have been discussing the latest twist in the long running saga of Derek and Mavis, whilst Terry Duckworth (Nigel Pivaro) looks on.

Emily: "I sometimes think Mavis isn't really cut out for love."

Terry: "I sometimes wonder if Mavis was cut off the back of a Bunty comic."

The lady in question, played by Thelma Barlow, pictured in 1982.