Speak Easy 4

Back to The Speak Easy, where your views can be heard... Free and easy, bright and breezy, that's Speak Easy.

Janine writes:

I've been reading William Roache's book on 50 years of Coronation Street and he states that Ken and Mike disliked each other before the start of the Great Feud over Deirdre in 1983. Can you tell me about previous fall-outs between them?

Sorry, Janine, no. I have ALL the episodes from 1976 (before and including Mike's debut) until mid-1979 and there weren't any then. I've studied the episodes extensively, many times, and Mike and Ken did not exchange a single cross word. Perhaps they did in the early 1980s, pre-Deirdre drama? Certainly in 1983, at the time of the crisis, Ken made some very disparaging remarks about Mike! They were very different people. I've been reading William Roache's book, too - and I'm loving it!

It's so good to have Ken there - a character who spans ALL the years!

Debs writes:

I have received the Mark Eden book I won in your competition. Thank you so much. It's a smashing read and he has a lovely sense of humour!

Glad you're enjoying it - Alan Bradley is another Street legend! We remember Mark's first appearance in the show as Wally Randle in 1981. A brilliant actor. Viewing Alan's 1987 and 1988 "doings" recently has chilled us all over again and, of course, the worst is yet to come. We're looking forward to tucking into 1989!

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?

1983: Scandal! Ken, Deirdre And Mike...

It's all over the front page... The Sunday Mirror, January 1983: Deirdre Barlow (Anne Kirkbride) was having an affair - with cockney factory owner Mike Baldwin (Johnny Briggs). And Deirdre's husband, Ken (William Roache), was oblivious...

But next door neighbour Emily Bishop (Eileen Derbyshire) had stumbled upon the truth. A long-time friend of Deirdre and godmother to her daughter, Tracy, Emily, strong Christian as she was, could not condone Mrs Barlow's behaviour. What would she do with the knowledge of Deirdre's deceit?

The story line covered a straight forward case of adultery but had the nation on the edge of its seats back in 1983. And yet nobody was blown up, or murdered, or raped. Modern soap watchers would probably switch off if the idea (a simple slice of human frailty with the naughty bits taken out) was repeated in a modern day soap.

From the Sunday Mirror, January 30, 1983:

Bored Deirdre Barlow's "Coronation Street" romance with smooth-talking Mike Baldwin will earn her a right talking-to tomorrow night.

Millions of enthralled fans will see the prim and proper Emily Bishop wade in to try to keep Deirdre and her plodding husband Ken together.

Viewers were left on tenterhooks last week when Emily overheard Deirdre - played by actress Anne Kirkbride - break a clandestine dinner date with factory boss Mike Baldwin.

The "Sunday Mirror" can reveal that, despite Emily's showdown with Deirdre, the Street's hottest affair will go on.

The show's producer Bill Podmore confirmed that tomorrow night's episode will see Emily, played by Eileen Derbyshire, trying to mend the Barlows' bogged-down marriage.

Bill said: "The affair continues although it does make Deirdre think about what she's doing."

The romance has been the talk of streets up and down the country.

Even the love lives of the show's regular sexpots, Elsie Tanner and barmaid Bet Lynch, have been pushed into the shade since Deirdre and Mike, played by Johnny Briggs, first kissed on screen.

Meanwhile, another Bishop warned yesterday that the affair could be a big turn-off for fans of the hit TV series.

The Bishop of Edmonton, the Right Reverend Bill Westwood said: "Too much realism killed of 'Mrs Dale's Diary' on the radio.

"The same thing could happen with 'Coronation Street' "

A spokesman for Granada TV said: "There won't be any any unpleasant scenes, no X-certificate stuff."

CLAIRE'S WARNING

Sunday Mirror columnist Claire Rayner believes Deirdre should 'cool it'. If Deirdre had written to her this would have been Claire's advice: "You won't solve your boring marriage in someone else's bed. Talk to your husband about the way you feel and by communicating properly for a change."

"Someone else's bed"?!! Heavens, as far as we could see Deirdre and Mike's affair never got beyond the sofa! And nothing naughty happened at all!

Very different times on the telly.

Could Deirdre have done with an image change to re-light her marriage? On the opposite page to the featured Corrie article was the lovely vision featured above. One of the trendiest looks of 1983, apparently. Nice face, shame about the legwarmers.