Coronation Street: Discussion Thread

[Adamski]

"Oh ello Mrs Whatever Yer Name Is from Rosamund Street! How's yer 'usband?"

My partner and I have quoted that line to each other for over a decade, along with "I've played me tapes." Love it! And the Betty Turpin impression is so spot on. Just wonderful.

[DRW50]

Amanda Barrie interview from 15 years or so ago.

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[All My Shadows]

This is interesting! The clip they used is clearly from 1976 or prior as my girl Minnie Caldwell is prominent, so I wonder specifically what episodes were aired.

[DRW50]

The reruns aired in the UK started around April 1976. If they had earlier episodes on those I wish they could be uploaded...

[DRW50]

Not a Blackburn fan, but I do respect him for owning up to a huge continuity error they made about Kevin's dead son (I had a feeling the show had long forgotten about him and apparently I was right...). Usually these things happen and no one at the top says a word to fans.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/soaps/s3/coronation-street/news/a652725/coronation-street-boss-admits-kevin-webster-script-blunder-we-made-a-mistake.html

[DRW50]

Watching some November 2002 episodes I'm trying to put up on Youtube, and Sue Nicholls really does play the hell out of the "dementia" story Richard Hillman inflicted on her. As good as Capron was in the role, it was up to the other longterm cast to make his schemes believable.

I'm also reminded again of just what a spare part Mike Baldwin was by this point. I wish they'd written him out around this point, with a bit of a flash, rather than keeping him on to give him that Alzheimer's story that IMO was not well told and didn't feel like the right end for the character (I'm aware this can happen in real life, but this isn't real life - it's a soap).

[TimWil]

I agree, Carl. It just didn't feel right to have him end up a pitiful wreck, dying in the arms of Ken Barlow. He should have left in a flash car, passing by Deirdre and Ken and saying something like "It's never over, Barlow."

Edited June 13, 2015 by TimWil

[DRW50]

I don't mean to be unpleasant, but I also just don't think Johnny Briggs was up to the story. I think the show fundamentally misunderstood what type of actor he was and what type of character Mike was.

I think the ideal end for Mike would have been running some sort of flop shop somewhere in Dubai or another place, with a sweet young thing on his arm, a warm goodbye to Deirdre and a frenemy goodbye with Ken, and one last scene at Alma's grave where he tells her no one will ever compare to her in his heart.

These episodes also have the debut of the Harrises...they seem so much warmer here (the father, anyway). I wonder why the show made them become so bleak. New producer?

[Dave_01]

I've never seen the show, but I wanted to give fans a head's-up about a deal I came across. For anyone with an all-region DVD player, Network - a company that puts out many UK TV shows on DVD for Region 2 - is having a 40% off online sale. Among the catalog items on sale are 5 collections of Coronation Street. The collections are by decade, and there are 80 episodes in each.

http://networkonair.com/shop/1439-coronation-street-1960-1969.html

http://networkonair.com/shop/1440-coronation-street-1970-1979.html

http://networkonair.com/shop/1441-coronation-street-1980-1989.html

http://networkonair.com/shop/1442-coronation-street-1990-1999.html

http://networkonair.com/shop/1453-coronation-street-2000-2009.html

Though far from a complete collection, having 400 officially released episodes available spanning all the way back to the 60s sounds like a nice little treasure for a fan of the show.

I have an all-region player and have bought some other Network TV DVDs in the past through Amazon, and they seem to do a good, quality job with their releases.

Edited June 13, 2015 by Dave_01

[DRW50]

Thanks. I've seen most of these but I might buy them sometime. I wish they'd release more episodes from those years, especially the '60s.

[DRW50]

The three I uploaded

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This one I almost uploaded but realized someone else already did last year. It's November 17. It's the four-hander (why are those so rare now?) where Archie realizes Audrey is right, while Richard tells Gail a harrowing story about his mother.

Edited June 13, 2015 by DRW50

[Bright Eyes]

That Kevin slip passed me by. The strange thing is, I could have sworn Kevin mentioned his child either this past week or last.

Edited June 13, 2015 by Bright Eyes

[DRW50]

I still have no idea why they brought Sarah back to the show. She's as dumb as she was when she left, and the show is already awash in superfluous female characters in that age range.

Anyway, I think some of you are fans of this era so I have tried to upload some of the 1994 episodes I have. I thought all of this era was already on Youtube but there's a lot of 1994 that isn't, so I am going to put what I have that isn't already up.

Poor Lynne Perrie in that first one. She looks like she borrowed Rachel Dolezal's tanner. The second one isn't as bad but she still struggles to speak. I always liked Ivy but it's not hard to see why the producers lost patience.

Reg gets on my last good nerve.

You can see why Eva Pope was so fascinating to viewers. These days I wonder if a female character like that would be created. And she's a perfect contrast to Raquel.

The New Year's episode is so somber, but without wallowing in misery or endless OTT anger like you'd get now.

Sad to think Tommy had more value as an offscreen baby than he did during Chris Fountain's entire run.

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[TimWil]

I remember Tanya was so nasty to Raquel that she made me furious with her. Eva Pope was extremely good in the role, though.

[BetterForgotten]

I wonder if the audience took Raquel as their sweetheart immediately or if it took some time. She seemed like one of those characters that was embraced and loved from the beginning very strongly by the general audience. She's also probably Corrie's most successful female introduction of the 90's, if we're being honest here.

Didn't Tanya seduce and run off with one of Bet's men after Bet fired her at The Rovers? Was that her exit storyline?

Edited June 18, 2015 by BetterForgotten