Alf Roberts Voted Favourite Corner Shop Owner

Alf Roberts was wedded to the Corner Shop in Coronation Street from 1980 when he inherited it from his wife, Renee, until the early 1990s. In 1985, Alf dragged the Corner Shop out of the mid-1960s and into the mid-1980s by converting it into "Alf's Mini-Market", but the words "CORNER SHOP" appeared for the very first time on the main sign above the door - and remained there. When he retired, he took the bacon slicer with him as a souvenir. So devoted was he, that he bought the shop back again after the untimely death of its new owner in 1993!

Well, this news is slightly out-of-date, in fact it happened in May, but we're finally doing some updates here and, as you know, being a retro Coronation Street blog, our updates usually concern the past, and this one is no different!

We were delighted to discover that Alf Roberts was voted by Coronation Street Blog readers as their favourite Corner Shop owner (read all about it here). Alf, played by Bryan Mosley, had ploughed money from his house sale into the Corner Shop when he married Renee Bradshaw in 1978. She was tragically killed in a road accident in the summer of 1980, and from then on he was wedded to it - even after he married Audrey Potter in 1985! 

We didn't like the way Audrey treated Alf, by the way. We love Audrey and we love Sue Nicholls and we wouldn't be without them in the show, but if a man had been shown treating his wife like that there would have been uproar. The marriage was uncomfortable viewing for us, evidence of the casual misandry and double standards which still plague us to this day.

We sang Alf's praises in 2010 on this blog (here) and we're so happy that his time as owner of the Corner Shop is so fondly remembered by Coronation Street Blog fans too.

Here's to the memory of Alf, and Bryan Mosley - the actor who brought him to life on-screen.

Alf And Renee - Beware Of The Lorries!

Renee Roberts (Madge Hindle): Eeek - the lorries are coming!

Originally published at '80s Actual, thanks to Wendy for permission to re-publish her e-mail here.

A lovely e-mail from Wendy, who says:

I've been watching episodes of Coronation Street from 1980 and I've reached July, which contains the death of corner shop keeper Renee Bradshaw/Roberts. She's killed by a speeding lorry after stalling her husband's car in a country lane. It seems bizarre to me that Alf, her hubby, was almost killed by a lorry crashing into the Rovers Return pub the year before. It's almost like lorries were out to get Mr and Mrs Roberts!

Lol - I remember it all well, but can't say the strangeness of it registered until you mentioned it! It is most peculiar! Renee (Madge Hindle) had reigned at the Corner Shop for four years, marrying Alf (Bryan Mosley) halfway through. The production team decided that the marriage was boring and as producer Bill Podmore had always seen Alf as a Mr Green, the grocer, it meant Renee had to go. A great shame because I was very fond of the character (although I agree with the then production team that the marriage was monotonous!). The trouble was, Madge Hindle was (and I'm sure is) a brilliant character actress and she invested Renee, the astute businesswoman, with a likeable warmth and faint air of daffiness which made me miss her presence in the show a great deal.

Did you know that Madge's daughter, Charlotte Hindle, was a friend and companion to Gilbert the alien in children's series Get Fresh and Gilbert's Fridge?

Renee Bradshaw - Not What She Seemed...

Renee Bradshaw (Madge Hindle) breezed into Coronation Street in 1976.

Her arrival was foreshadowed by her brother Terry (Bob Mason), who warned Ray Langton (Neville Buswell) that Renee would eat him on a cream cracker!

Bit of a tyrant, our Reen. Terry was clearly in awe of her.

She was clearly an astute businesswoman, ousting tenants Gail Potter (Helen Worth) and Tricia Hopkins (Kathy Jones) when she took over the Corner Shop, and announcing plans for an off-licence - which brought her into conflict with Rovers landlady Annie Walker (Doris Speed).

Renee was successful in her application for an off-licence, and settled down to run the shop and look after Terry.

She wasn't as bad as she was painted. In fact, quite soon, viewers grew to like Renee, famous for standing behind the Corner Shop counter and saying: "Yer what?!!" on hearing the latest daft spoutings of Eddie Yeats (Geoffrey Hughes) or the latest piece of hot gossip.

Terry left at the end of 1976, rebuffed by Gail Potter, a girl he harboured romantic notions about, and unable to find work in the area having been laid off by Fairclough and Langton.

Renee retained her excellent business sense, refusing to let Bet Lynch (Julie Goodyear) move into the Corner Shop flat when she couldn't afford the rent Renee was asking, but changing her mind when Mike Baldwin (Johnny Briggs) secretly offered to subsidise Bet.

Having been dropped by her sailor boyfriend, Renee began seeing Alf Roberts (Bryan Mosley) and a romance developed which ended in marriage in 1978.

Coronation Street producer Bill Podmore later described the marriage as "rather humdrum" - which it undoubtedly was, and so, in the summer of 1980, Renee and Alf seemed set to go off and run a sub-post office at Grange-Over-Sands.

Unfortunately, Renee was killed by a lorry when she, by then a learner driver, took the wheel of the car whilst out with Alf and managed to stall it.

Alf inherited the Corner Shop, and decided to stay on.

Madge Hindle said of the production team's early vision of Renee:

"I think they wanted somebody to be strong and argumentative like Ena Sharples. But unfortunately you can't do that in a shop because people won't come in."

And so Renee lost her feisty side.

However, Madge Hindle, an accomplished actress, managed to invest the character with a likeable warmth and many viewers (including me) were sorry to see her go in 1980.

But not sorry to see the end of the Alf/Renee humdrum marriage.

Still, for me personally, the character of Renee, particularly in her Bradshaw days, remains a favourite Street memory.

Perhaps it might have been better if Renee and Alf had developed separate areas of interest and not been cooped up in the shop so much together, taking it in turns to mind the counter? Renee taking evening classes at the Community Centre with Mavis is one storyline I thought of which had great potential to be lots of fun. There were plenty more just waiting to be dreamt up.

Together, the Roberts weren't great, but apart they were. Alf was very important to the Street - an everyday man in a street full of absolute characters, and we cared about him. Renee wasn't an OTT character, but she had several facets, and Madge Hindle could do comedy with ease, without sacrificing the reality of the character.

I think dispatching Renee was a mistake, but there, chuck - we 'ave our memories and re-runs of the Renee years on the telly to enjoy, don't we?

What Happened To Renee?

James has written to comment on the disappearance of Renee from this blog's header:

I like the new header design here but I'm sorry Renee Bradshaw/Roberts doesn't feature as I remember her fondly from my childhood. I thought your original header picture really caught the character. Any chance of a copy?

Certainly, James. Madge Hindle is a great favourite of mine - in Nearest And Dearest, The Street, and in more recent times, Barbara.

The screen cap here shows Renee at Christmas 1978, "conversing" with Annie Walker!