Back To The Ogdens'...

One of my favourite photographs of the Ogdens - happy in each other's company.

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.

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.

There were quite a lot of working class living rooms like that in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. And probably well into the 1990s.

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.

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.

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.

'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.

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'.

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...

... 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.

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.

Oh yes, very classy.

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.

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.

And a serving hatch? Great, Stan! Never mind that it's canteen sized...

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.

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.

Enter the new cliff and sea panorama in August 1978.

A few years ago, the Corrie production team attempted to reproduce the Oggies' backroom as a tribute to actress Jean Alexander, who had just died.

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. 

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.

And most, importantly, the mural and the ducks - one, of course, hanging crooked.

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.

Water, mermaid, ducks... yep.

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.

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.

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 was the gorgeous scene depicted on Hilda's pride and joy - what was the location? I think I know, but I'd love to hear others' opinions.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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?

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...

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?! 

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'.

Here's me (physog censored) in Jack and Vera's back room. Lovely, eh? Just look at that bar!

When Hilda left the Street in December 1987 she took her treasures - mermaid and ducks - with her but, sadly, had to leave the 'muriel'.

What If Coronation Street Was Archie Street? Part Six

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.

When Archie Street faced the bulldozers in 1971, Granada Television issued a press statement entitled THE BULLDOZERS FOR ENA? and Bernard Youens and Jean Alexander, our wonderful Stan and Hilda Ogden, visited the derelict street for a photo session.

The Ogdens survey the non-template side of Archie Street in 1971. Note the bay windows there had brick surrounds.

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!

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 Street 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.

When the Street 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.

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?!"

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 Street - as were chimney pots and a properly covered terraced.

Not to mention the size upgrade. Real size? No, as Jean Alexander said at the time, 'more real size.'

The 1980s.

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.

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.

With the latest set, we have another size upgrade and Rosamund Street is no longer a straight road. The Street'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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Roll end credits...

1986: "Our Hilda" - An English Rose!

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 Coronation Street heroine!

The raspberry pink rose appeared at the Chelsea Flower Show that year, and actress Jean Alexander was invited down for the preview.

In her 1989 autobiography The Other Side Of The Street, Jean wrote:

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.

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.

Hilda's Flying Ducks - Again!

The late 1980s - and Hilda and her ducks were upwardly mobile, as she went off to be housekeeper to posh Dr Lowther.

Hilda's ducks - and, of course, Stan's photo - continued to take pride of place in Hilda's new abode.

We've already covered the story of Hilda's ducks here - but Paul has written about them, asking:

When did Hilda's ducks disappear? And do you have a photo of your own flight of birds?

Hilda's ducks bade a final farewell in December 1987, Paul, when Hilda left. She was very fond of them. They had, of course, once belonged to her Aunt Aggie.

Regular readers will know that I inherited my great-grandmother's flight of birds a few years ago. I put them up for the sake of piece and quiet - my mother would have been highly offended if I hadn't - and some friends called our house "The Oggies" for a while. But they're not ducks. However, the idea is the same and those sorts of wall ornaments were very popular years ago.

I've taken a piccy for you, Paul.

And yes, that is a serving hatch in the wall below great grandma's birds.

But our house is nothing like Stan and Hilda's.

Apart from that.

Honestly.

Those TV Times... 1981... Hilda Wants To Move...

How evocative of past times are pages from old TV listings magazines! Look at this! November 1981! Quincy!

Bliss!  

Bullseye - in its very first series and yet to gravitate to its legendary Sunday teatime slot!   

Unforgettable!

Astronauts and 240-Robert!

Eh?

Well, I remember the latter - dead good it was, an American import with a "a beautiful chopper pilot and two special cops trained to take on any emergency. Whenever someone's in trouble, they call in 240-Robert."

Brillo.

But Astronauts? Nope. But then I was never a Goodies fan, so a comedy by Bill Oddie and Graeme Garden would probably not have appealed and it's unlikely I ever tuned in.

And in Coronation Street, poor old Fred Gee was hanging onto the Community Centre flat, whilst Hilda Ogden had developed an upwardly mobile wanderlust and wanted to leave No 13. She and Stan went to look at a new house, and Hilda told the estate agent that it had "atmospherics".

Bless her!

And look at that ad for VHS/Beta Video Films! Heck - only about 5% of UK households had a VCR in 1981, and the race was on between Beta and VHS to become the best selling tape format.

Different days indeed...

Recommended Reading - Jean Alexander - The Other Side Of The Street

Hilda Ogden finally took down her famous flying ducks from the "muriel" at No 13 as actress Jean Alexander left Coronation Street in late 1987.

Miss Alexander told us that her career was not over - a fact she quickly proved - moving on to a film appearance and the BBC comedy series Last Of The Summer Wine, amongst other things. In 1989, she looked back on her life so far in her autobiography, The Other Side Of The Street, and this book is one I can heartily recommend.

There's no thrills, no starry nonsense here, as Miss Alexander takes readers on a steady canter through her life, beginning with her Liverpool childhood and early work in a public library, on to rep and several early TV appearances, and then to Coronation Street.

From a rat in the theatre dressing room to a highly talkative landlady, an (almost) explosive water heater to a haunted flat, Jean took life in her stride - and this is a lovely read. Perfect to end the day on.

The book also contains insights into the real-life characters of some of the cast of Coronation Street from the 1960s to the 1980s.

Copies of the book sometimes turn up on eBay and I say: "Give yourself a treat, luvvie - grab one!"

Hilda Ogden And Eddie Yeats - Painful Carols In 1981...

Much-loved Hilda Ogden (Jean Alexander) had TV reviewer Hilary Kingsley pleading for mercy in December 1981:

I know Jean Alexander's Hilda Ogden is one of TV's great institutions. But please, Coronation Street scriptwriters, don't let her sing. My eardrums are only just recovering from her carol duet with Eddie on Wednesday.

Personally, we thought it were lovely, chuck.

1982: "At Last We Had A Real Street"

Daily Mirror, 22/2/1982 - Hilda (Jean Alexander) takes a look at Number 13 as work on the new exterior set progresses.

The 5th of May 1982 saw the Queen visiting the new exterior set of Coronation Street with the Duke of Edinburgh. Work had begun on the set in the November of 1981, and the new set was an impressive sight to behold - making the old exterior facade look positively ridiculous.

An invitation to the 1982 Royal tour of the new Coronation Street exterior set for Peter Tonkinson, story-line writer.

Here's how HV Kershaw, the man who oversaw the building of the old exterior brick facade in late 1969, wrote about the 1982 innovation in his book, The Street Where I Live (1985 edition):

Construction took 49,000 old bricks and 6,500 roof slates, reclaimed from demolition sites in South East Lancashire. The viaduct needed a further 29,000 bricks and to provide an authentic finish special black mortar had been used, mixed to the original Victorian specification using an ash ingredient. TV aerials and chimneys sprouted where none had been before. At last we had a real street.

The Queen and Prince Phillip stroll the famous cobbles.

Savage '70s - Part 1: The Siege At No 5

The first of an occasional series in which we take a look at the horrors inflicted on the good folk of Coronation Street by our three chosen decades.

Sadistic '60s, Savage '70s and Evil '80s will blast our rosy coloured specs off!

We begin with a look at 1970, where we find the Swinging '60s had absolutely ceased to swing, and the people of Coronation Street were starting to count the cost. Albert Tatlock (Jack Howarth), depressed by the state of things, locked himself inside No 1, while police officer Cyril Turpin (William Moore) was forced to retire when he attacked a criminal with a lead pipe. The man had been terrorising Cyril's wife, Betty (Betty Driver).

The year thudded to an end with the sound of a single gunshot ringing out from No 5.

The second edition of The Street magazine from 1989 had the details, together with the marvellous mock-up of the Weatherfield Gazette front page pictured above:

THE SIEGE OF CORONATION STREET

LOCAL HERO SAVES GUNPOINT HOSTAGE

A single shot rang out in Coronation Street last night and an American G.I. fell dead. Before turning his gun on himself Sergeant Joe Donnelli confessed to an unsolved murder in 1968

Local man Stanley Ogden became a hero when he saved hostage, Minnie Caldwell, from the hands of a crazed gunman.

Mr Ogden of Coronation Street managed to persuade the gunman to release Mrs Caldwell in exchange for himself in the tense drama which unfolded yesterday at 5 Coronation Street, the home of Mrs Caldwell.

The siege ended when Donnelli, an American Army deserter, shot himself with his own gun.

Donnelli was very popular in Coronation Street and had been a visitor for some years. The locals in The Rovers Return had only good to say of him. Mrs Annie Walker the landlady described him as "a polite, courteous and friendly" person.

When he gave the officers who came to arrest him for desertion the slip he fled to the nearby flat of an old flame, Mrs Irma Barlow. It was to her that he confessed to the murder, in 1968, of Master Sergeant Steve Tanner (44), at Clayton Court Service Flats. An open verdict was recorded on the event.

A Police spokesman said the investigation would be reopened. Tanner's wife Elsie still lives in Coronation Street.

It is understood that a large debt existed between Donnelli and Tanner. Donnelli was apprehended in the vicinity of the Rovers Return and burst into a nearby house where he held hostage its resident Mrs Minnie Caldwell (70).

After firing shots from the window he surprisingly allowed local lorry driver Stanley Ogden (48) into the house. Mr Ogden, who is the father of Mrs Barlow, tried to talk Donnelli into handing over his gun but to no avail - he turned the gun on himself and the siege was over.

HE'LL ALWAYS BE MY HERO SAYS MRS O.

Stan's wife Hilda (45) watched anxiously from the street while her husband was inside.

During the nerve-wracking vigil she kept a bold face and was always confident that "her Stan" would pull it off.

"My Stan's never flinched from anything," she said. "Old Hitler couldn't scare him off, so he won't worry much about this Yank."

Stan, a hero? Of course, things were not quite as they seemed!

Marvellous though the Weatherfield Gazette mock-up is, there is one flaw: the featured photograph of Coronation Street could not have been taken in 1970 - in fact it must date from a number of years later. Do you know why?

The History Of Hilda Ogden's Flying Ducks...

Hilda Ogden (Jean Alexander) has a night in with the telly and the ducks.

Hilda's famous ducks, taking wing across her mural (sorry, chuck, I mean muriel), were one of the most familiar sights in Coronation Street from the late 1970s to the late 1980s. One of them was crooked (Jean Alexander always checked this personally before filming commenced) and they looked absurd.

But very Hilda.

One of my favourite duck-related incidents occurred in the early 1980s, when Stan (Bernard Youens) was studying the racing form in one of the tabloids.

Thonk!

A duck fell off the wall.

Stan looked up briefly at the sudden loud noise but then, with that commendable lack of interest he always displayed regarding matters which did not involve beer, betting or fags, returned to his studies without bothering to find out what had made the noise.

How I loved Stan!

The ducks in the Ogdens' living room had previously been seen at No 11, home to Elsie Tanner (Patricia Phoenix), during the show's earliest episodes (including the very first), and Lorna has written to ask:

Surely Hilda had not acquired the ducks from Elsie? And why did one of them always point downwards?

Of course, Hilda would not have accepted Elsie's cast offs, Lorna, you're absolutely right.

In 1987, Hilda wondered whether to give her ducks to Kevin and Sally Webster (Michael Le Vell and Sally Dynevor) when they moved into the Corner Shop flat.

But, to Sally's secret relief, she decided not to as they had belonged to her Auntie Aggie and were of great sentimental value.

So, in the story-line, Hilda's ducks had never graced Elsie's wall.

As for the crooked duck, I'll let you into a little secret.

My great granny had a flight of birds, similar to Hilda's ducks, winging their way across her chimney breast, for many years.

When she died, my mother inherited them, and in 1997 she bequeathed them to me, being the oldest of her children.

By my family's standards (dirt poor) these were real heirlooms.

I was not impressed, particularly as Mum expected me to be delighted with them, and hang them in my lounge. This I finally did (anything to keep the peace and, in the interests of continuing peace, they're still there).

Some of my more uncharitable friends called my house "The Oggies" for a while, but the thrill of that soon wore off for them.

I was interested to note that each of my great granny's flying birds had a piece of stiff, thick wire attached to the back to enable them to be hung. It's my belief that a little tampering with the wire could easily cause one of the birds to adopt a downward course.

And I believe that this was what was done, to great comic effect, with one of Hilda's ducks!

When Did Deirdre First Work At The Corner Shop? And When Did Stan Die?

Deirdre began work at the Corner Shop in 1980 - when this very dinky exterior set was still in use!

Doreen is confused:

When did Deirdre first work at the Corner Shop? I'm sure it wasn't the 1970s as it says on-line. I don't recall her working with Maggie or Renee or Gail and Trisha - nor Blanche for that matter.

Quite right, Doreen - Deirdre Langton (Anne Kirbride) first worked at the Corner Shop in 1980. For her first few years in the show, the character's jobs were secretarial - both at Len and Ray's builder's yard and briefly in business with Emily Bishop (Eileen Derbyshire).

Renee Bradshaw/Roberts (Madge Hindle) only ever employed one assistant at the Corner Shop - and that was Betty Turpin (Betty Driver) for a short period whilst she was away. Deirdre never worked there until 1980, after Renee had died.

With Emily Bishop marrying Arnold Swain (George Waring) in 1980, Deirdre and Tracy (Christabel Finch) needed a new home, and newly-widowed Alf Roberts (Bryan Mosley) offered them the Corner Shop flat and Deirdre a job at the shop.

And that was how Deirdre's on-off Corner Shop career began!

Hilary asks:

When did lovely layabout Stan Ogden die in the plot?

21 November, 1984, Hilary.

Our screen caps show Jean Alexander as Hilda visiting Stan's grave in 1986 to tell him about a holiday she plans to take. She also tells him she would forgo any number of holidays to have him back, and asks him who she will have to talk to on her holiday, without him being there?

Uttered In The '80s - Part 6...

Audrey Potter (Sue Nicholls) had never had it so good! Having secured her desired status in life by marrying Mr Alfred Roberts (Bryan Mosley) in 1985, she soon found herself mistress of her own castle at No 11 Coronation Street.

And mistress of her own hair salon, too, as the front room became Weatherfield's answer to Teasy-Weasy.

The idea of moving into No 11 hadn't appealed at first, but Audrey had finally found some security and status in life and was blissfully happy.

The front room at No 11 became a centre for fun and gossip, as well as 1980s shaggy perms, and one day Audrey managed to get prickly Percy Sugden (Bill Waddington) to try on a wig she was selling.

Of course, he was not impressed. Even less so when Hilda Ogden (Jean Alexander) and Mavis Riley (Thelma Barlow) arrived.

Mavis was there for an appointment, but told Mr Sugden that she didn't want to interrupt his wig fitting.

Percy was outraged! "You want your bumps feeling - all of you!"

Audrey, to whom most things had a naughty connotation, intervened: "Now, keep the party clean!"

Percy exited, in high dudgeon.

Mavis, slightly embarrassed, moved to put Audrey right:

"I think he means the bumps on your head. It's called phrenology!"

"Well, either that or he needs arresting!" said Hilda, highly amused.

Audrey got back to business.

"Well come on, Mavis my petal, follow me!"

"Where to?"

"Upstairs to wash your silken locks. I'm not equipped for it down 'ere, yer see!"

Mavis was slightly taken aback - she hadn't expected to have her hair washed in Audrey's private bathroom. "Oh, right!"

And Audrey continued: "If you 'appen to see Alf's spare dentures, just shut yer eyes - even Vidal Sassoon 'ad to start somewhere!"

1969: Man On The Moon And Tatlock Goes Over The Top...

An historic headline from the Daily Mirror, July 21, 1969:

MAN ON THE MOON...

Wow!

Inside the paper, we turn to the TV listings...

... and discover such delights as loads of Apollo 11 coverage, Crossroads, Not In Front Of The Children, World In Action and Coronation Street. Whilst history was being written elsewhere, Corrie was focusing on two if its menfolk, and the onus was on comedy. The synopsis read:

Stan enters the rag trade and Tatlock goes over the top.

So, what was it all about? Well, consulting my trusty Coronation Street - 1960-1985 - 25 Years book, I discovered full details of the story-lines: Stanley Ogden (Bernard Youens) had borrowed £50 to buy fifty suit lengths from 'Billy Oilcloth' on the market, planning to sell them for £10 each. But Hilda (Jean Alexander), thinking they were stolen, sold them for £1 each whilst Stan was out.

Meanwhile, Alice Pickens (Doris Hare), out to snare Albert Tatlock (Jack Howarth) into marriage, turned up at his regimental museum where he was giving a conducted tour. He fell off the platform in shock, breaking his arm and two ribs ("Tatlock goes over the top"!), and Alice moved in with him to nurse him - the choice being either that or a stay in hospital.

In August, Albert proposed to Alice, but in September both bride and groom were left waiting at the church when the vicar's car broke down and he failed to make it to the service. Albert and Alice called off their marriage plans.

September 1969 - the wedding that wasn't. Standing to the left of Albert is his daughter, Beattie Pearson. Actress Gabrielle Daye made occasional appearances in this role from 1961 to 1984.

1980: Who Shot JR? In Dallas And An Outbreak Of Flu In Coronation Street...

Here's a certain Mr Ewing, alone in his office. But IS he alone?

Eee, 1980. Seems like yesterday! But a real dinosaur year this one - three TV channels, computers were a mystery to most people, Space Invaders were just cementing their hold on us, and Pac-Man (or Puckman as it was originally called) was wheeled out in Japan in May. But the world was a much bigger place without the World Wide Web (invented in 1989 and not up-and-running until the 1990s), and I don't recall hearing of the little muncher at all in 1980.

It's funny how the real past often differs from modern day telly programmes, web sites and books on the subject... you may have watched I Love The 1970s on the BBC, but face it, the series actually spanned the late 1960s to the early 1980s (by the time we reached I Love The 1980s, several '80s crazes had wrongly fallen into the '70s). You may have watched Margaret and Life On Mars, but even the snazzy red trimphones featured in those programmes were not actually available in reality until 1982.

In the pop world of the real 1980, we bopped to DISCO, sat down on the floor for Oops Upside Your Head, goggled at Buster Bloodvessel and his waggly tongue, loved Baggy Trousers, and saw Adam And The Ants flounce in. David Bowie's Ashes To Ashes video was groundbreaking.

The personal stereo, invented in Japan in 1979, reached the UK in 1980 as the "Sony Stowaway" - they cost a packet! In 1981, the Walkman name was patented here.

1980 was hugely important in shaping the decade. Ronald Reagan was elected President of the USA in November. The '80s would have turned out very differently had it not been for that event.

No yuppies in 1980 (the acronym was coined in the USA a little later in the decade). We were in a recession. Brighton gained England's (and I believe the UK's) first nudist beach, and a young woman called Lady Diana Spencer burst into the headlines.

The Rubik's Cube, a re-manufactured version of the obscure Hungarian Magic Cube, was released. America got it in May 1980. Although the trade name was also registered in the UK that May, we had to wait until just before Christmas for its arrival. And then it was in short supply.

Life was so different. 1980 was... well, prehistoric.

But 1980 did have something great - 1980 had "WHO SHOT JR?"

And we obsessed over it all that summer after the episode was shown in May. The scenario is now a TV legend, but only came about through a last minute decision of the show's producers to change that season's cliff hanger.

Daily Mirror, May 26, 1980: JR got shot, of course, but what was happening in Corrie? Well, Stan and Hilda Ogden both had flu, and Hilda was making a gallant effort to turn up for her cleaning job at the Rovers. Corrie was moved from its traditional 7.30pm slot and screened half-an-hour earlier so that a thrilling film about killer bees could be shown. ITV bosses hoped (in vain) that this might distract people from switching to the BBC at 8.10pm for the big moment in Dallas.

I don't actually have the Stan and Hilda flu episode, but here's a screen cap of our Hilda being poorly on another occasion.

Other Corrie events of 1980 included Eddie Yeats landing a job as a binman and moving in with the Ogdens, Renee Bradshaw meeting her untimely end in a road accident, Elsie Tanner accidentally setting her armchair on fire, Annie Walker arguing with the binmen, and Emily Bishop marrying bigamist Arnold Swain.

But nobody in Weatherfield got shot.

Thank goodness!

Coronation Street - The Songs That Remind Me...

Jean Alexander as Hilda in '76. Altogether now: "If you leave me now..."

Way back in 1976, Stan left Hilda and I was deeply moved by the tragedy of it all.

A song constantly haunting our radios back then was If You Leave Me Now by Chicago, and, somehow, the words and the occasional squawkiness of the singer (rather Hilda-like, I always thought), seemed to fit the Ogdens' heart-rending estrangement scenario perfectly.

Of course, Stan returned after a brief sojourn at Hilda's brother's chip shop but, to this day, I only have to hear a couple of chords of If You Leave Me Now, and I'm right back there, gazing mournfully out at a star filled sky (OK, this is England, so it was probably a cloud-filled sky), willing Stan to return to No 13, and kiss the tears from Hilda's eyes.

Mavis (Thelma Barlow) enjoys a night out with Emily (Eileen Derbyshire) in 1987. Altogether now: "Absolute on power drive..."

My other (and rather odder) Corrie pop link concerns the mid-1980s Scritti Politti song Absolute - a banging piece of 1980s dance-pop, highly distinctive, very much of its era, but somehow the gloriously fey tones of singer Green Gartside instantly reminded me of Mavis Riley - who wasn't terribly much of her era at all. Ever.

There is one point in the middle of the song where Mr G apparently goes into a bit of a dither, and I thought "this is exactly what would happen if Mavis made a pop record" and, somehow, the track and Mavis have been synonymous in my mind ever since. Funnily enough, I've mentioned it to my wife (or "better half", as she likes to call herself) and, on reflection, she agrees with me.

No offence to to Scritti Politti - I sincerely love '80s dance-pop stuff (so there!), and I think both the group and Absolute were great - innovative to the max.

But still rather Mavis.

1982: A Shock For Hilda Ogden

I recall working as a care assistant in a Social Services home for the elderly in the 1980s, and being told by one female resident: "You young people think you invented sex - well, you didn't!" She delighted in telling staff about her wartime exploits. Or perhaps I mean sexploits!

Nevertheless, although lots went on, society only slowly relaxed its view that sex outside marriage was wrong - until the arrival of the 1960s, when, with National Service gone and the Pill available, things altered dramatically. Call it Peace. Call it Love. What it often boiled down to was promiscuous nookie, with no "hang ups" about it.

Not everybody was glad of this loosening of morals, and even in the 1980s, the likes of Hilda Ogden could be found being shocked by the likes of Mike Baldwin.

Daily Star, July 28, 1982:

Nosey gossip Hilda Ogden gets a shock when she arrives to clean Mike Baldwin's flat in CORONATION STREET (ITV, 7.30).

The breakfast table is set for two - and Maggie Dunlop (Jill Kerman) appears from the bedroom wearing a dressing gown.

"Just to put you in the picture, she's moved in," says Mike (Johnny Briggs) to an astonished Hilda (Jean Alexander).

Flaunting it in the 1980s - Mike and Maggie traumatised a boggle-eyed Hilda. Maggie was the owner of Maggie's Flowers, the shop where Eddie Yeats' (Geoffrey Hughes) CB romance partner Marion Willis (Veronica Doran) worked.

Awful '82 - Hilda would undoubtedly have been shocked by Erika Roe "streaking" at Twickenham. Perhaps deelyboppers (below) were more her scene?