Geoffrey Hughes

The other week I was feeling thoroughly cheesed off at work (one of THOSE days!) when my mind did what I call a "retro lurch" and I heard a cheery scouse voice inside my head saying: "It's a lovely day for the race! What race? The human race!" My mind often experiences these retro lurches - they throw up all sorts of things from the past when I least expect them - visions of old fashions and ancient family occasions, prehistoric snatches of music and TV dialogue - you name it! The older I get, the more it happens. In this case, the lurch made me smile. The cheery scouse voice was that of Geoffrey Hughes in his role of Eddie Yeats in Coronation Street. It brightened my day a lot.

I was very sorry to read of the death of Geoffrey Hughes. Eddie arrived in the Street in 1974, was elevated to permanent character status in 1976, became a binman and moved in with the Ogdens in 1980, and met his wife-to-be on CB radio in 1982. He bowed out in late 1983, and popped back briefly in 1987. Today, we remember him as one of the Street's legendary characters. I loved Geoffrey as Onslow in Keeping Up Appearances, too.

God bless, Geoff. Thanks for all the viewing pleasure. You made me laugh and I'll always love Eddie and Onslow. Read our 1980s newspaper interview with Geoffrey here.

Coronation Street 1989: "Mind Out, You're Treading On Mr Watts!"

This is cross-posted from '80s Actual, our sister blog, and inspired by a Back On The Street reader who absolutely LOVES the comic pairing of Kimberley Taylor and Mr Watts!

A classic Coronation Street comment from Bettabuy supermarket employee Kimberley Taylor, played by Suzanne Hall, forms the title of this post. She and poor old Curly (Kevin Kennedy) had walked straight into aggro in The Rovers Return in 1989 as building site workers picked a fight with Kevin Webster (Michael Le Vell). The workers were transforming the factory and community centre side of the street into a new development of houses, shops and industrial units, an enterprise of one Maurice Jones (Alan Moore). 

Wonderfully drippy Kimberley was one of several new characters introduced to the Street in 1989, including the McDonald family and Reg Holdsworth (Ken Morley). The Street went three episodes a week, and Alan Bradley (Mark Eden) met his death when he was hit by a Blackpool tram.

The original Bettabuy's scenario was a great favourite of mine and I adored Curly, Kimberley and Reg. Add Vera Duckworth (Liz Dawn) to the supermarket staff and you had a heavenly brew.  Fabulous Corrie days!

The Mystery Of Sam Littlewood And Rita's Amnesia...

Rita: "I don't know why it says '1989' on this photo, 'cos it's 1983 really. Well, at least I think so..."

 Sue writes: 

Why didn't Rita Fairclough expect to see her Uncle Sam in Blackpool when she had amnesia in 1989? After all, he lived there years earlier!

Eee, chuck! As we know, Rita's mind had retreated back to her marriage to Len. Alec Gilroy stated that Rita had blotted everything out since before Len died. We also know that Sam Littlewood (Harry Littlewood) was living in Blackpool in 1980, and that he'd retired there shortly after Len and Rita married. According to one on-line source the character died in September 1982, so it seems Rita's delusional state had taken her back to a time slightly after that.

In fact, it now seems we can confidently declare that Rita's 1989 amnesia time warp had taken her back to late 1982 or 1983.

We know she continued her singing engagements on an occasional basis under her maiden and stage name, Rita Littlewood, after her wedding to Len, and she was listed as Rita Fairclough on the hotel register (this is clearly seen when Alan Bradley arrives at the hotel searching for her), so it all fits!

She was in Blackpool, Len was at home, and Uncle Sam had died shortly before.

By gum, that was a difficult question to answer!

UPDATED 19/6/12

CHOP! CHOP! The Granada Plus Coronation Street Episodes...

Sid writes:  

I am very interested in your blog. I recently read a post of yours about the Street in 1989 and Jim and Liz McDonald discussing their new neighbours in the Rovers. I now have every episode from 1989 from Granada Plus's screenings and can find this scene nowhere! Was it an invention on your part? 

 No, Sid, it wasn't. I have a lot of full episodes of Coronation Street as originally broadcast in the 1980s and Granada Plus chopped out many scenes. Some were quite fun, the omission of a few even made some of the Plus screenings faintly puzzling as plot detail was chopped with them, but chop them they did. Also cut from the December 1989 episode you mention was a scene between Alf and Audrey Roberts, a scene between Audrey and Gail Tilsley, and a scene in which Bet Gilroy, Emily Bishop and Mavis Wilton discussed Rita Fairclough's return to the Kabin after Alan Bradley's death. 

The screen caps and dialogue of the missing 1989 Liz and Jim scene are below.

 

Newcomers Liz and Jim McDonald (Beverley Callard and Charles Lawson) popped into The Rovers Return to suss out their new neighbours in 1989...

Liz took a good, long squint at Mavis Wilton (Thelma Barlow) and Emily Bishop (Eileen Derbyshire):

Jim: "What are you looking at?"

Liz: "Those two plain Janes at the bar, quietly knocking it back."

Jim: "Free country, isn't it?"

Liz: "Yeah, I know, but I didn't think they were the type."

Jim: "You're enjoying yourself, aren't yer? Standing here putting labels on everybody."

Liz: "I love it!"

Liz on Ken Barlow (William Roache): "Now, here's a mystery man!"

Jim: "Why?"

Liz: "He's too smooth for round 'ere, a bit too 'shiny-shoed'. I bet even his wife don't see him in his vest and underpants."

Jim: "Eh, now listen, I quite fancy his wife."

Liz: "Well... she's not plain."

Jim: I know, I could... er... breathe on her glasses."

Of course, at that point in time, Deirdre (Anne Kirkbride) was unaware that Ken was indulging in a spot of heavy breathing with Wendy Crozier (Roberta Kerr).

And there was so much else going on.

Jim and Liz little realised just what a fascinating street they'd moved to...

Betty, The Rovers, Annie Walker's Will and The Barlow Twins...

  Annie, 1978: What she could have been saying...


"Of course, dear, the Barlow twins were born in April 1965, and next year they'll be turning fifteen. It really doesn't seem possible..."

Fiona has written:

I'm shocked that Coronation Street has tweaked the past with this terrible story about Annie leaving Betty the Rovers tenancy in her will. She left the pub and retired in 1983! This sort of tweaking would never have happened in the show's golden era - the 1970's.

Oh dear... I don't know how to tell you this, but this sort of tweaking first happened in the 1970s! The age of the Barlow twins was altered in 1978. Peter Barlow wanted to join the Navy and so his age was advanced by a year or two to make him almost old enough. Don't worry, the 1980s rectified the situation with Peter and Susan celebrating their joint twenty-first birthdays in 1986. The trend was picked up again in the 1990s when the age of Mike Baldwin's son was tweaked.

As for Annie and Bet, if Annie's will was an old one, written before she left the Rovers, I think she would have tried to pass the tenancy to her son, Billy. Also, if you watch the episodes concerned, you'll discover that Annie retired in 1984, not 1983.

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?

Victor Pendlebury - A Romantic Soul

In 1983, when Mavis Riley (Thelma Barlow) and Victor Pendlebury (Christopher Coll) set out for the Lake District, everything seemed set fair, despite one or two misgivings from Mavis.

Upon return, their views of what had passed were so different. Victor, a true romantic, deemed it a great success; Mavis, a true romantic but only when surrounded by her creature comforts, deemed it a failure.

But what about the owl, THEIR owl, looking down on them one night, Victor asked. Hadn't Mavis felt that the owl wanted them to be together?

"It was raining!" was all Mavis could say.

Sad.


Christopher Coll played Victor Pendlebury, dubbed "The Saddleworth Sage" by Rita Fairclough, in the 1980s.

What If... Coronation Street had 21st Century Style Story-lines In The '60s, '70s and '80s?

"That new couple from Mawdsley Street seem nice. She works in't kitchens at Imperial Hotel. He's a dry cleaner by day, serial killer by night."

Imagine if 21st Century-style Corrie story-lines had run rampant in the show's early years, wreaking a trail of explosions, serial killers, dark secrets and ghostly visitations across the first three decades.

Would viewers have switched off in droves, or been desperate for more? Here's how a few TV listing magazine synopsis for our favourite soap may have looked in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s:


1960s:

Myra Booth's marriage is in trouble. She decides to murder Jerry - and the pot dog on the mantelpiece may be the perfect weapon.

Len murders Nellie and says she has run off with the insurance man.

Florrie Lindley has a nervous breakdown and blows up the Corner Shop.

Jack Walker continues to psychologically abuse Annie.

Stan suspects that Alan, Elsie's new boyfriend, is the serial killer.

Evil young builder Ray Langton meets a nasty end when Lucille Hewitt gets on his case.

The Vestry is devastated by a huge explosion. 



1970s:

Shock for Emily...

A power cut is the perfect time for a serial killer to strike...

Pulled from the flaming rubble of her maisonette, a dying Valerie Barlow confesses to Emily Bishop that Ernest is the father of the twins.

Renee Bradshaw admits that Suzie Birchall is her long-lost daughter.

Sick to the back teeth of men, Bet decides to kill Stan Ogden. She goes to prison, but is released quickly on a technicality, and returns to the Street to continue her reign of nastiness.

It's not snowing anywhere else in England, but the Street has a white Christmas.

Steve Fisher reveals his dark side (typical man!).

A flying duck ornament becomes a murder weapon.

Where was Ken when the murders took place?

Rita is taken hostage at the Kabin.


1980s:

Eeek - Mavis turns.

Deranged Fred Gee drives Annie Walker into the canal.

As the factory blows up, Mavis murders Derek and Victor, and decides to use the explosion to cover her actions.

Curly buys a gun.

The Claytons beat a hasty retreat before Connie's terrifying secrets can be revealed...

Nasty Alan Bradley comes unstuck when his business is blown up by a deranged ex-girlfriend.

Hilda is comforted by a visit from Stan's ghost.

As Percy tries to find out who sat on his Christmas pudding, he begins to suspect that it might have been a serial killer.

Driven mad by Corner Shop assistant Sally Webster's nasal twang and smug ways, Alf Roberts picks up a tin of pineapple chunks and...

1989: The New Side Of The Street

Opening shot from 1989 - a wet and misty morning in the street, with building work in full swing.

Chris has written:

When did work start on the new houses in the street? And how did the building work affect the program?

The factory and community centre were demolished in September 1989 in the story-line, Chris. As I wrote elsewhere on this blog recently, the programme was recorded some weeks in advance, so it's safe to assume that the demolition took place in reality at the latest in August and the building work on the new houses, shops and industrial units then began.

Interior daytime scenes in the old terrace then had building site noises as a background, and the site was used to introduce Eddie Ramsden (William Ivory), a worker there who became a love interest for Rovers barmaid Tina Fowler (Michelle Holmes), and as a place for ominous Alan Bradley (Mark Eden) to work and continue to terrorise Rita Fairclough (Barbara Knox). On December 1 1989, the police, believing that Alan had killed Rita and buried her body there, dug up part of the site filled in when Rita disappeared - which may have played host to a shallow grave! These scenes would actually have been recorded in November. In a scene broadcast on 11 December 1989, the salon is glimpsed nearing completion and recognisable as the building it is today. Once again, the episode would have been recorded in November.

1989 - what is now Coronation Street's salon nears completion.

Remembering that the show was recorded several weeks in advance, it is interesting to note that the first new residents moved in in February 1990 - in scenes recorded in January.

The Claytons - Being Boring?

Connie Clayton: "Eee, Andrea, don't take on, love. We're not boring. What with Sue and her lack of academic qualifications, me an' me dressmaking, you an' your lovely perm and your dad and his trombone, who could possibly call us boring?"

More About The Pillar Box...

Post Office official souvenir cover - introduction of the new style posting box, 31 July, 1980.

We wrote about the poor old Coronation Street pillar box destroyed by a tram in the (then) latest story-line for sensation hungry viewers last year. Replaced with a new style box apparently from Planet Zog, we now discover that it is from Planet 1980s as Postmaster General has written with the details:

The original box from the sixties was a double ring box with the Victorian cipher. I think the box was a replica, possibly fibreglass, I did see a good closeup on youtube. The famous box that was destroyed by the tram was an odds and sods box. It was fitted with a George 5th door on a later Elizabeth 2nd body, made by Carron Company. The present box is known as a K-type, and this particular one is made by Carronade, I just caught a glimpse of the maker's name one day whilst watching. There were five makers through the years of this box, which started in 1980, finished 2000.

Many thanks. So, Coronation Street now has a 1980s-style pillar box, very like the one in Brookside Close way back then.

Lovely.

Betty Driver

We were deeply saddened to hear of the recent death of Betty Driver - Betty Turpin/Williams in Coronation Street since 1969.

As warm hearted and good natured as the character she played, experienced performer Betty Driver was actually retired from acting and running a pub in Cheshire when Corrie producer HV Kershaw spotted her and asked her to audition for the Street. Betty always recalled with deep gratitude the support given to her by actor Arthur Leslie, the Street's Jack Walker, during her early appearances in the show, and she became firm friends with Jean Alexander - Hilda Ogden. The two ladies would often spend time chatting and making padded coat-hangers for their favourite charity between takes.

My own personal feeling is that Betty could lift a scene simply by bustling into it, and she had that magic quality of seeming to be everyday working class - the sort of person you'd have a giggle with if you accidentally clashed trollies in Tesco's.

The character of Betty Turpin was one of the Street's anchor characters, often just simply around behind the Rovers bar, but she endured her fair share of drama, particularly in the '70s and '80s. She arrived in 1969 as the sister of Corner Shop owner Maggie Clegg. In the early '70s, her husband Cyril was retired from the police force after attacking a criminal (who had been terrorising Betty) with a lead pipe. Cyril died in 1974, and Betty then endured the shame of the revelation that her "nephew", Gordon Clegg, was actually her own son, born out of wedlock during the war. In 1982, Betty was mugged, but her greatest triumph came during that decade when her employer Bet Lynch, recently taken over as Rovers chief, asked Betty to make her hotpot a regular on the Rovers menu. The hotpot, a very occasional feature for some years beforehand, became a legend - and a version actually appeared in real-life supermarkets in recent years.

God bless, Betty - we'll miss you. xx

Richard Hillman, 1982: "You Left The Door Open..."

Richard Hillman - dead or did he take a Tardis back to 1982 and pretend to be a social worker?

Eeek! That's all we can say having just viewed an episode of Coronation Street from 1982! There were Rita, doin't washing up, when she became aware that somebody was at the front door. Oh no! we thought - Albert Tatlock coming round for a good moan? Annie Walker to tell Reet that Len's drinking was getting beyond a joke and that she really couldn't bear his presence in her establishment any longer? Elsie Tanner ready to have a bitch at her old pal, the woman who had married her long-term romantic interest? Or Mavis Riley, all of a dither after a filling at the dentist? "Ooh, Rita, I shall have to go to bed this afternoon, I can't work in the Kabin, I really can't. My cheek's come out like a golf ball..."

Rita emerged into the hallway, and we flew off the settee in alarm as RICHARD HILLMAN stood there, smiling, and saying something like: "Your door was open..."

ARRGGGHHH!!! Were the far cosier 1980s becoming infiltrated by some of the weirder story-lines of more recent decades? Had Richard Hillman found a Tardis and travelled back to 1982, thus altering the past? What could we expect next? That awful Tony Gordon trying to bump off Phyllis Pearce so that he could have her job in the cafe? Mad Maya seeking to blow Alf's Corner Shop off the face of the planet?

But no, it's OK, the 1980s remain sane (well, at least in Corrie!) the man in Reet's 1982 hallway wasn't Richard Hillman. it was Brian Capron playing social worker Donald Worthington.

Caring social worker Donald Worthington, a role which neatly dovetailed with his role as caring schoolteacher Mr Hopwood in Grange Hill from 1980-1983.

Phew! We'd clean forgotten Mr Worthington. We returned to the settee, all of a tremble, and had to watch four episodes from 1985 featuring the Clayton family to calm our nerves!

So weird to see performers playing bit parts who later went on to play central characters...

Michael Le Vell as Neil Grimshaw, truculent Kabin paperboy of 1981 minus Kev's glamorous 1980s 'tache, was another surprise.

Fags On't Windowsill Quiz - The Answer

Well, did you guess the correct answer to our "Fags And Matches In't Picture" AKA "Fags On't Windowsill" quiz? Of the e-mails and comments received, nobody did - William Tarmey and Liz Dawn, Julie Goodyear, Michael Le Vell and Jill Summers were the clear winners, but it was actually an unknown member of the group of actors who played the Clayton family in 1985. The United Newspapers photograph was captioned: The Clayton family (L to R) Susan (Jane Hazlegrove), Andrea (Caroline O'Neill), Connie (Susan Brown) and Harry (Johnny Leeze).

1985: Fags & Matches In't Picture...

Flamin Nora! You're called out on to the Street's exterior set for some publicity photographs, and suddenly find you've nowhere to put your fags and matches (after all, you can't be seen clutching them in't photo). And then you happen upon a handy windowsill.

So, your Silk Cuts and Swan matches are popped down, and there you stand, all fragrant and smoke-free. But, to your chagrin, the fags and matches appear as large as life on't photo anyway - it seems the camera angle was wider than you'd thought...

Can you guess whose windowsill that was, and which 1985 Corrie actor/s are now forever connected with the fags and matches on't windowsill? Was it a single person, duo or group photo? Choose from't followin':

Bill Waddington (Percy Sugden) and Eileen Derbyshire (Emily Bishop).

Julie Goodyear (Bet Lynch).

William Tarmey (Jack Duckworth).

Anne Kirkbride and William Roache (Ken and Deirdre Barlow).

Johnny Leeze (Harry Clayton), Susan Brown (Connie Clayton), Caroline O'Neil (Andrea Clayton) and Jane Hazlegrove (Sue Clayton).

Johnny Briggs (Mike Baldwin), Helene Palmer (Ida Clough), Lisa Lewis (Shirley Armitage), Liz Dawn (Vera Duckworth) and Lynne Perrie (Ivy Tilsley).

Liz Dawn (Vera Duckworth) and William Tarmey (Jack Duclworth).

Kevin Kennedy (Curly Watts), Nigel Pivaro (Terry Duckworth) and Michael Le Vell (Kevin Webster).

Jill Summers (Phyllis Pearce).

We'll let you know the answer next week.