Dion

On the surface of it, Ian turning out to be Bobby's father always seemed to be a bit odd to me as Ian had just received the results of his first sperm test (and they were clear) when he resumed having sex with Laura (I think he faked a bad back for several weeks to avoid sex before that as like Jane, Laura also had baby rabies). So when Laura turned up pregnant it seemed that it couldn't possibly be Ian's (and only a few weeks before discovering she was pregnant Laura had had a convenient ONS with a mystery man that later turned out to be Garry).

Of course when Bobby was born and Laura found out that both she and Garry did not match the baby's blood type, she was told there was a chance that it could be Ian's and a year later when Ian finally found out about being listed as Bobby's father on the birth certificate, he went to a clinic and they told him he should've waited a bit longer and then had a second test just to make absolutely sure. While this is certainly plausible its also somewhat contrived and everything always seemed to fit better with Garry as the father so it makes me wonder if the writers decided to change direction with that story mid-stream or whether Ian was always planned to turn out to be the father and the execution was just clumsy. The show was transitioning at the time so both scenarios were likely.

I'm not actually too bothered by the suddenness of Marcus returning to marry Sean, after-all the show has a bit of a tradition of rushing characters to the altar (Ken and Val after the 1961 strike, Ray and Deirdre when Billy Walker abruptly quit, Alf and Audrey when Audrey became a regular and Derek and Mavis when Derek became a regular) and for those couples it actually worked out in the long run.

However since it seems that this is somewhat of a political statement I'm thinking within a month Marcus will cheat on Sean with James and then leave the street with both of them broken-hearted and blaming each other leading to a rivalry where they both fight over men who aren't really bothered with the both of them for a few years to come.

Or perhaps they want Sean married and settled so they can focus on James as a single. Sean's never really worked as a single himself (probably because with the exception of Marcus Sean's romances have gone down the same cliched path with Sean being interested in someone who is not really interested in him or is interested in someone else - Michelle and Jason) so marrying him off into a double act might actually work out.

Dion I hope you post more, you have a lot of really interesting things to say about the show.

Here's a rare behind the scenes look in 1972, a video and interviews with various cast members including Doris Speed and Violet Carson. This might not be up much longer.

http://www.u.tv/utvplayer/video/133982

Thanks for the compliment Carl I would post more, but in New Zealand we are still seeing episodes from August last year which makes it hard to post. Thanks also for the link, as the documentary was quite interesting, although the presenter's delivery was quite stilted!

The new set should be quite an exciting development (7.7 acres! ) and its fun to speculate on what will change and what will stay the same.

I'm thinking Coronation Street itself won't change that much although the Corner Shop and the Kabin would hopefully be slightly different taking into account what happened in the Tram crash. Also perhaps the Rover's street frontage could be widened a bit so it matches the size of the interior sets better.

There's really be no need to retain the Rosamund Street Viaduct as it's only there to hide the Granada Television buildings and it's obvious that it doesn't continue behind the terraced houses. Of course for continuity purposes you could have it in the new set and just acknowledge it onscreen and explain it away as being a remnant of an old railway viaduct that was mostly pulled down when Coronation Street was built in 1902 (a bit like Weatherfield's version of the High Line in New York City lol).

They could open up the viaduct again and have a Jubilee Terrace facade on the other side as part of the set...although extending the set that far might be getting a bit too far west (I assume its west, since the Terraces are north and Underworld is south) from the Rovers and you'd really want the Rovers to be roughly in the geographical centre of the new set

Other options include having more generic locations such as street frontages (another terrace facade and/or a small street with facades of semi-detached houses) to use to cut down on location costs or a park area to represent the famous Red Rec.

Go Claire! You get her! lol

Ah ok, there was no source on the DS so I wasn't sure.

To a certain extent the DS fanbases have always been a bit competitive (especially back in 2004 - 2005) but it really does seem to gotten a whole lot worse this year

interesting rumour about Kat, Ronnie, Jack and Charlie posted on DS, bare in mind that there's no source but I thought it was worth posting anyway.

Ronnie and Kat will both give birth to a baby boy on the same day (believed to be 30 December?). But whilst Ronnie has a straightforward birth in hospital with sister Roxy at her side as husband Jack is away working in Dubai, Kat has a difficult birth and ends up having her baby in the cellar at the Queen Vic, with Mo delivering the baby!

The next day, New Years Eve, Ronnie returns home from the hospital with her son James, but Kat ends up being taken into hospital as she starts to bleed heavily, leaving her son Tommy to be looked after by his grandfather, Charlie. However, Charlie gets bored as he hears all the New Year celebrations going on in the pub below and as the baby is sleeping, decides it will be OK to leave him on his own and go and join in the fun downstairs...

Meanwhile, Ronnie discovers that her baby has died and in a panic, goes over to the Queen Vic for help. Going in through the back door, she hears Kat's baby crying and goes up the stairs...

I wonder where Alfie is then? In hospital with Kat? And I would have thought that the baby would go to hospital with Kat.

Though if Charlie leaves the baby alone then it would probably destroy Kat and Charlie's relationship and thus account for him leaving.

I do hope they remember just how close Tommy was to Tyrone (though I think that's a given) AND Maria (and they better not pair them off either coz that would be gross) back in 2000

Have you heard the item about

Tamwar sleeping with the daughter of Zainab's first husband. Some are saying that this will also be Zainab's daughter, but I don't know if I can see that happening.

I had heard of that one and it should be quite interesting.

although I think some people have clearly gotten confused as unless Tamwar hooks up with an older woman (older than Syed) there's no way that she can can be his sister. I think she's merely the daughter of Zainab's ex-husband from a second marriage.

She can't even be Syed's sister (some have suggested that Syed was actually fathered by Zainab's first husband) as Syed was born more than a year after Masood and Zainab married (and UK soaps are usually pretty good with sticking to their dates, especially when you have someone like Darren Little around)

As for baby switches on UK soaps, while there have been baby switches before, I think its important to note that

this I think will be the first time on a UK soap that in true American style soap opera we (the audience) will see the switch itself occur onscreen, the switch is deliberate and done by a major character and we will endure months of knowing the truth before it comes out

Ah yes, my favourite Carol moment...and it's followed by the jail scenes where Carol and Lorraine are both dissing David, with Cindy trying to defend him!

Maybe we'll get a pic of Bill Roache and Don Hastings together?

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/soaps/s3/coronation-street/news/a282748/bill-roache-to-be-honoured-in-new-york.html

I hope so...according to Bill Roache the two have actually spoken (by phone at least) about their longevities on their respective soaps.

That is a shame that Zeke and Rebecca are being written out. At this rate by 2014 (assuming the show hasn't been cancelled by then but I do think it will be given a few years on Eleven) there will be no characters left over who joined during the 2000s just like how by 1994 all the eighties characters except Helen, a recast Julie and a recast Cody were gone (not including Lou in that list because his first stint in 1988 was short). Although at least this time we still actually have some characters left over from the nineties and Paul is back from the original cast.

I guess what I am trying to say is that Neighbours has really struggled with developing long term characters in the past few years after having great success with the likes of the Kennedys and the Scully's. So it really is a shame that Jane Hall (who seemed happy to stay put) and Matthew Werkmeister (who I'd hoped would stay for a bit longer as he has been there for five years despite making noises about leaving some time ago)

Won't really miss reacst Declan though

I was wondering if they were going to deal with the racism angle. I do remember Jim referring to Billie as "that black kid of Carol's" or something to that effect when he was introduced and Carol saying that her father and all her brothers (even though Max and Jack hadn't been invented yet then) were all racist, a point which seems to have been quietly brushed under the carpet (aside from when Jim and Patrick first became friends). So while Jim, Max and Jack aren't racist anymore, its good to see Carol still remembers how she was treated when she got together with Billie's father (mostly by Jim and the other Branning brother not on canvas as Jack and Max would have still been a bit too young).

Definitely Carl...she was amazing in the storyline when Jim beat her up and though I haven't seen it myself, was praised for the storyline when Jim and Liz's premature daughter died

One shame is 6 eps air a week in UK, 5 here, so we're gonna fall further and further behind

Yeah that happened here in NZ too. Eventually we were more than three years behind but now they play double episodes so we are now 2 and a half years behind.

Tonight was Gerald's last episode. His exit storyline involved him marrying his best friend Libby (who left the show back in March but returned for a guest stint to wrap up Gerald's storyline) as Libby needed to get a US green card and Gerald conveniently turned out to be an American citizen! (I would have bought that particularly detail if they'd mentioned it when his parents came on during one of their recurring stints). Oh well, at least this marriage is heavily implied to be based on real feelings (a strong friendship that will actually turn into true love) and not just a scheme to defraud the INS! Just a shame we won't get to see their relationship play out onscreen! But it is a somewhat fitting end to the arcs of both characters (Gerald gets a wife who won't mind the whole asexuality issue and accepts him for who he is and Libby finally got a wedding and a husband).

until she learned he'd left her nothing but one of those things where the metal balls tap together.

Didn't she cut the strings off that? I can't remember.

It's called a Newton's cradle...for some reason I've always wanted one of those! lol. I don't know if she cut the strings off either.

Kinda old news now but it seems Adam Rickitt's departure in the 90 Minute special on August 2 scored an Impressive 837,000 viewers, making it one of the highest rated episodes of Shortland Street since it began! (and also it was the highest rated episode of any show that week) And since then the show has rated quite well, remaining in the 500,000 to 700,000 range. Fridays often do relatively poorly with figures down in the low 500's but on other nights the show can get more than 600,000 or even 700,000.

Here is a link to NZ ratings on Throng.co.nz

NZ Ratings

I agree and I always thought it was a shame they decided to dress her up like a modern day Queen Victoria for most of her 00's stint.

Its not the EE theme tune, although the arrangement is very similar (the handclaps!) and thats not actually Chris with them either...its a NZ actor Simon Praast(who actually does resemble Chris, I thought it was Chris at first too until I realized who it really was). I think Chris and Leeza were at the Christchurch venue while this one was at the Auckland venue.

oh and I do think Letitia's actually quite talented at the poi lol.

Saw this and just had to share:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvOziT29Hqg&feature=related

I never realized that EastEnders was that popular in NZ to warrant flying Susan Tully and Letitia Dean all the way from the UK. Though EE was in a primetime slot here until around 1990, so I guess maybe we lost interest after Dirty Den's first death (and another network did try EE in a primetime slot again when he came back...)

And if the date is correct its from the same Telethon that Christopher Quinten (Brian Tilsley on Coronation Street) met Leeza Gibbons...which led to him being killed off.

I always liked the bond between Sharon and Pauline. It's a real credit to Wendy and Letitia Dean, and to John Yorke and then Louise Berridge, for establishing that bond so believably, because from what I've heard and seen, they didn't have all that much to do with each other in Sharon's first run on the show.

.

Yes that's very true. They didn't have very much to do with each other and when the whole Sharongate business came out Pauline actually commented that she felt that she'd failed Sharon by not having been a greater presence in her life and promised that she'd look out for Sharon more in the future. Of course Sharon soon left, but when she came back Pauline was able to live up to that promise. So while Sharon and Pauline may not have had much to do with each other during Sharon's first run, the stage had already been set for a much closer relationship during Sharon's second run.

Morgan is Bianca's Bio child. She had a one night stand and got pregnant. Bianca then met Tony while she was pregnant and vulnerable and he adopted the child (of course his motives were to get Whitney).

Should be quite interesting I think when Morgan's father eventually turns up (and I'm sure he will eventually). Really I'm guessing Morgan's only function was to be Bianca's version of a young Billie.

Yeah, Irene and Marilyn were the best of friends back during Marilyn's last stint, now it seems Marilyn is just merely some old acquaintance that she barely used to know.

As of tonight in New Zealand (we are two weeks behind Australia), and I'll put this in spoiler tags because I know you guys are watching at UK pace

the secret is finally out and knowing what I know about what has already happened in Oz, it should be very interesting to see the fallout between the Scully's and the Kennedys and all those who get caught in the crossfire!