Norma Ford - Looking Retro In The 1970s...

Maggie Clegg (Irene Sutcliffe) and Norma Ford (Diana Davies) share a smile at the Corner Shop - probably over Norma's out-dated fashion sense. Norma went even more retro at Christmas 1972 for the Rovers 1940s Show, teaming up with Bet Lynch (Julie Goodyear) and Betty Turpin (Betty Driver) to sing Apple Blossom Time.

Actress Diana Davies revealed how her dress sense as the Street's Norma Ford in the early 1970s was actually out-of-date at that time in a 1987 interview - and earned her the nickname "Di the Thigh":

"I used to play shop assistant Norma Ford in Coronation Street. Norma was a bit behind the times so she used to wear mini skirts and hot pants, even though they were out of fashion.

"And I've got long legs - hence the name."

Diana inherited Paula Wilcox's wardrobe from the 1970 to 1971 comedy series The Lovers - so Norma, who made her debut in The Street in 1972, looked rather late 1960s. Mind you, with flared trousers and quite a lot of '60s hippie chic overshadowing the fashions of the 1970s, she didn't look too bad!

Norma wasn't alone. I mean, take a peep at Gail in the late 1970s: she sometimes looked as if Punk (and indeed at times the whole of the 1970s) hadn't happened. That dreadful coat she used to wear - so 1968, darling!

Gail Potter (Helen Worth) sees the Faircloughs off on their honeymoon in 1977. Ever heard of Punk, darlin'?! Study old magazine fashion articles from 1968 to 1973 and spot the Gails!

Terry Duckworth, supposedly street wise bloke-about-town in the 1980s, was often so out of date he looked like a right wally!

A related point is that nobody could call most of the Street's youngsters' tastes in music exactly cutting edge in the 1970s or 1980s either.

Dragged round various fashion shops by my older cousin, Sue, in the 1970s, I can vouch for the fact that the music played was current chart toppers. In The Western Front, Mike Baldwin's shop, staffed by Gail and Suzie, the music was horrendously out of date - late 1960s or early Roxy Music - and the music Gail and Suzie played at parties when Elsie was away was either yonks old or '70s '50s retro.

When Sally Webster, throwing a party at No 13 at the end of 1987, came up the hall warbling away to Shakin' Stevens' Lipstick, Powder and Paint, I nearly choked on me savoury rice and turkey sausages. Manchester was the city of Madchester at the time! Surely we could have at least had Pump Up The Volume?

All was explained in 1989, when Percy Sugden, ranting about late 1980s dance venues and "Acid Drops" (Acid House), described it as sounding like a ship's boiler house.

Kevin said he didn't know - he'd never been anywhere like that.

Good grief! Percy knew more about it than Kev!

Maybe Jenny Bradley listened? She kept her musical tastes to herself, with her trendy personal stereo, so it was hard to know just what she was listening to, but she did tell Rita that although her taste in music was eclectic, she didn't like 1970s!

I seem to remember that Sharon Gaskell was quite "with it" for fashion and music trends in the early 1980s, and when Curly Watts looked after Shirley Armitage's little sister in the flat over the Corner Shop, later in the decade, her friend turned up and brought her "blaster" (ghetto blaster) with her, and we actually heard some Hip Hop and saw some body popping!

My flabber was well and truly gasted!!

So, back to the main theme, clothes fashion-sense. Who scores honours as up-to-date young and trendy geezers and geezettes in our grotty backstreet of the 1970s and 1980s?

Well, for the 1970s it must be Suzie Birchall - beautifully cynical - she actually looked like a hard-faced '70s baggage - and managed to progress fashion-wise into the 1980s upon her return in 1983, actually looking like a hard-faced '80s baggage.

Of course, there was more to her than that. She was a gloriously complex character for one so young.

We love ya, Suz!

For the 1980s, it has to be Kevin and Sally Webster. I had a bouffant mullet and 'tache just like Kev's from around 1983 to around 1986, so it has to be deemed wonderful, and Sally's grasp of '80s female fashions - bulldog clips, shoulder pads, Minnie Mouse hair ribbons and crinkly perms - was second to none. TV critic Hilary Kingsley described her in 1988 as always looking: "young, fresh and fashionable."

Good on ya, Sal!

Hard to suppress a snigger with the benefit of hindsight, isn't it?

Mind you, seeing so many 1980s fashions back on the streets over the last five years or so, I do feel an occasional urge to adopt my old Miami Vice style...

I've still got that neon blue shoulder-padded jacket and cerise mesh vest stashed away...

Coming Soon...

Sally: "Well, Mr Roberts, we've been hearing a bit about this 'Madchester' thing and Acid House, but me and Kev prefer to stay at home with a nice Shakin' Stevens LP and a packet of Hobnobs..."

Kevin: "Give over, Sal - you know I prefer Samantha Fox and Stella Artois!"

Sally: "Don't go showin' us up, Kev!"

Coming up - we're going to take a look at the teens and early twenty-somethings in The Street over the first three decades. Were they like real youngsters of the '60s, '70s and '80s, or not? And if not, why not?

Suzie Birchall (Cheryl Murray) steps into the limelight as we visit the evil side of the '80s, and we're also going to take a look at Albert Tatlock (Jack Howarth) and Percy Sugden (Bill Waddington). Just HOW alike were they really?

Stay tuned. We can't promise you a tram crashing into the Corner Shop, but we can promise you some great '80s quotes from Alec Gilroy (Roy Barraclough), some super '60s Street architecture as envisaged by the show's original designer Denis Parkin, and a peek into the '70s to reveal a curious fact about the arrival of our Hilda's first muriel.

BACK ON THE STREET - MORE THRILLIN' THAN A NIGHT ON'T TOWN WITH PHYLLIS PEARCE IN 1987.

1983: The Mystery Valentine...

Sunday People, February 13, 1983:

ELSIE'S SHOCK

Valentine's Day will set hearts in a tizz down Coronation Street tomorrow.

Marion Willis gets a card from fiance Eddie Yeats, but Elsie Tanner is surprised to find her lodger, Suzie Birchall, also has received one.

The card was pushed through the door with no name on the envelope, says Suzie. Inside the saucy message reads:

"With your gorgeous red hair and sexy looks,

"You'll always be Number One in my books."

But red-head Elsie, alarmed, has her doubts. She exclaims: "No name on the envelope, you said? How long have you been the only one round here with red hair?"

And Marion agrees: "It could be for any one of us."

No wonder the Street's red-heads are all of a flutter!

Who remembers the outcome of this story-line? Which of the lovely Number 11 ladies of 1983 was the card intended for?

Suzie Birchall - Screen Capture Request

Mike has written to ask for a screen capture of the lovely Suzie Birchall (Cheryl Murray). Certainly, Mike - here she is in 1979. Suzie was a great favourite of mine - a cynical '70s teen, very much of the times, but not a bad lass underneath it all.

However, by Street teen standards, she was pretty naughty and was known in my neighbourhood as Suzie Bitch-all!

Her attempt to bed Gail's Brian on her return in the early 1980s confirmed the appropriateness of the nickname.

But what a great character!

We'll be featuring some material about Suzie and her final departure from the Street soon.

1979: The ITV Strike - ARRGGGHHH!!!

The Daily Star, August 28, 1979 - "Shake Down To 1979" - yeah, right! The ultimate year of that grim decade brought us the murder of Earl Mountbatten of Burma and a host of other grisly events.

You couldn't even watch your favourite soap to escape the grim realities from August to October as ITV was knocked off the air by a technicians' strike.

And in those days we only had three TV channels and, as BBC2 was decidedly "minority interest", that left the vast majority of us with BBC1. Videos? Sadly not. Only 5% of UK households had a VCR in 1980, they were expensive beasts, so in 1979 we were really stuck. Should we read? Should we talk? How could we spend our time without ITV? I fidgeted. And moped.

How I missed The Street! I ached for it! Deirdre had just received a letter from husband Ray in Holland that had reduced her to tears. What was going on?

Well, it seems life in The Street was continuing in our enforced absence...

From the Daily Star:

Coronation Street's best kept secret is out... Brian and Gail have got married.

And the Daily Star has beaten the ITV blackout to bring millions of Street addicts exclusive pictures of the happy event.

They were snapped by housewife Mary Watson, of Rutbleglen, Glasgow, who spotted the "wedding" party while visiting her sister in Salford.

"I couldn't believe my luck," said Street fan Mary.

"I was wondering what had happened to Brian and Gail - then suddenly there they were in front of me."

The stars came out in force to watch Gail - actress Helen Worth - and Brian, played by Christopher Quinten, tie the knot.

Gail wore white, and Brian's mum and dad, Bert and Ivy (Peter Dudley and Lynne Perrie) looked suitably impressed.

Cheryl Murray, who plays Gail's sexy pal, Suzie Birchall, made a radiant bridesmaid.

Said Mary: "I couldn't resist taking the pictures. The blackout may go on for ever, and some people would never know what had happened to the couple."

A spokesman for Granada TV said last night that they had been "swamped" with inquiries about Brian and Gail since the technicians' strike forced the show off the air two weeks ago.

Now you can stop biting your nails, folks, thanks to Mary's candid camera.

Say "Cheese!"

The wedding pic! Left to right: Audrey Potter (Sue Nicholls), Suzie Birchall (Cheryl Murray) Gail (Helen Worth) and Brian Tilsley (Christopher Quinten), and Ivy (Lynne Perrie) and Bert Tilsley (Peter Dudley).

Here's Bet Lynch (Julie Goodyear) and Len Fairclough (Peter Adamson) welcoming us back to The Street after the Strike had ended in October 1979. This was a special "reminder" scene, screened just before the first post-Strike episode was shown.

Len was alone at first: "Welcome back! We've missed yer! Now, I suppose I'd better remind you what was going on in our little street when you were here last. Well, there's always a bit of excitement about a wedding - can't imagine why! Gail and Brian are about to get hitched..."

As Len ran through current events, Bet, apparently on her way into work at The Rovers, joined him and asked if he'd heard about the letter Deirdre had received "from that rat Langton in Holland".

"What letter?" asked Len.

"Mind yer own business, it's nowt to do wi' you!" Bet teased. "I suppose I'll be seeing your ugly mug in there later?" - indicating The Rovers, and after a quick farewell, she went inside.

"See what I mean? It never changes, does it? There's always something going on!" said Len to us, the telly audience. "See you later!"

And the Granada logo flashed up and the opening credits began, and we Corrie junkies settled back for our first fix in ages.

BLISS!!

1978: Gail Potter And The Nuclear War Threat...

The 1970s were in the thick of the Cold War years. As a kid back then, I was terrified that America and Russia would go to war and that would be the end for all of us. I had nightmares about it, sweated about it, cringed at the (I thought) scary-sounding theme tunes of World In Action and News At Ten. I closed my ears as narrators and newscasters on these two programmes began to speak, convinced that the end was nigh.

I wasn't alone. My mate Pete and I often discussed the prospect of nuclear war, and we knew many other kids who shared our worries. An adult neighbour of my mine had stocked up a load of pills, which she showed us. She said she would take them when nuclear war was imminent.

I used to feel sick with fear at times. Then, for me at least, Coronation Street stepped in!

It was August 1978 and Gail Potter (Helen Worth) and Suzie Birchall (Cheryl Murray) were making a salad in the kitchen at No. 11...

Gail: "Do you think there'll be another war?"

Suzie (flatly - in a what is the silly moo wittering about now? tone of voice) "Do I think there'll be another war?"

Gail: "Do yer?"

Suzie: "How should I know?"

Gail: "They're talkin' about it, aren't they?"

Suzie: "Are they? Who?!"

Gail: "The Americans and the Russians."

Suzie: "Is that right?"

Gail: "Don't you even listen when there's News At Ten on?"

Suzie: "Only the interestin' bits..."

Gail: "Sometimes I get quite worried about it, honest I do."

Suzie (continuing her own train of thought): "... a divorce or someone dyin' and leavin' a load of money."

Gail: "Don't you care if there's another war?"

Suzie: "I don't think about it much - it don't bother me."

Gail: "Yeah, but if they do."

Suzie: "Well, if they do they wouldn't ask me anyway, would they?"

Gail: "That's the whole point, innit, they wouldn't bother askin' you, they'd just blow us all up."

Suzie: "Well, if they do ask me, I'll tell them not to bother, all right? I'll say they need their heads bangin', they should kiss an' make up."

Gail: "I think it's quite scary if you think about it."

Suzie: "Then DON'T. Is there any salad cream?"

Gail's fears continued throughout the episode, but cynical Suzie and worldly Elsie Tanner, both more concerned with getting on with living than worrying themselves to a standstill over something that might not happen, and they couldn't stop if it did, had a great effect on me.

For the first time I began to realise that I shouldn't spend time paralysed with fear over the nuclear threat. I was too young to join protest marches, I wanted to do OK in my O' Levels and basically my screwing my life up was not going to help anything.

The other day, I saw the 1978 episode of Coronation Street again and gasped as my feelings from way back then came flooding back. I remembered how terrified I was back in the 1970s, and how this episode of a soap opera helped me to get on with living.

Nowadays, other things are there to worry us and the Cold War ice, which thawed rapidly in the mid-to-late 1980s, is just a memory. But I haven't forgotten the terrible fear I felt, and no matter how daft I find Corrie in the modern day, I still have feelings of gratitude for that one episode back in 1978...

Coming Soon...

In the 1970s, Gail Potter (Helen Worth) was terrified at the prospect of nuclear war. But cynical '70s Suzie Birchall (Cheryl Murray) took it all in her stride.

In the 1980s, our Kevin Webster (Michael Le Vell) first turned up in Coronation Street. He was a trendy young '80s dude, sporting moustache, buffant mullet and some rather tight jeans. He was rumoured to deputise for the dark haired guy in Hall & Oates on his days off from Tilsley's Garage.

We'll be taking an in-depth look at some Coronation Street storylines of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s in the coming months.