I've got the Steph Spokes channel, thanks, Carl. I'm looking forward to watching episodes from that era since it might be my favorite, largely because of Sarah Lancashire. I think ITV probably did what they could to keep Eva Pope but she was pretty determined to break out of the show and into other film and TV projects. The film industry in the UK, at that time, was very much in the doldrums, unfortunately. There weren't even many US productions shooting there at the time.

I liked Denise Black a lot, too. I loved her on Queer as Folk. I'm hoping that maybe she'll be back this fall or winter, perhaps with Ken's son Daniel in tow.

Edited July 22, 201510 yr by TimWil

Have you seen any of Denise's Emmerdale work? She had some good scenes a few weeks back.

I haven't yet, Carl, but I'm looking forward to it.

I'm hoping this is only a momentary lapse:

http://beta.digitalspy.co.uk/soaps/eastenders/news/a660005/soap-spoilers-eastenders-attack-coronation-street-cheating-emmerdale-fury-hollyoaks-fight/

Edited July 25, 201510 yr by TimWil

What a bizarre and OTT (for Corrie in this era) promo this was - the day-glo slo-mo shot of Denise's head turning like she's about to level a city is hilarious. I guess this is when their ratings were falling. The end also cracks me up.

And here's a fun dramatic promo for the Jon Lindsay story.

Yikes...all around.

Oh, dear. What a horrible scene, Carl. I wouldn't mind if Max went all Bobby Beale on Sarah-Lou's ass and thumped her to death with something. Her presence on the show is now completely irrelevant. And when the f**k is the ghastly Callum going to finally get written off?

Callum could have worked if he was just some smarmy drug dealer. But to try and make out that anyone would fear his lanky, bony ass is a head scratcher.

 

Has Tina O'Brien always been such a ho-hum actress? I keep hoping she'll wow me, but that hope dwindles significantly by the day.
 

Tina was a perfectly good, serious young actress who always did her material justice, until the idiotic decision to make Sarah a vapid "comedy" bitch around 2005 or 2006.

Edited August 4, 201510 yr by DRW50

Anne Kirkbride's first episode back after she beat cancer.

 

 

She looks really good here and Deirdre seems full of her old life and humor. It's a shame they only had her return this way so she could be crushed by Ken's news about Denise (and Ken is as weak-willed as ever here, filling her with false hope).

 

There's also a really nice scene of Raquel in the garden, stopping to listen to a pop song, Des watching her, cleaning her hands - you see with no real fuss or effort her sweetness and purity, and why Des needs her as much as he needs Tanya. It's something no soap would really be able to do today, sadly.

Damon Rochefort tweeted this very cute pic of him, Jonathan Harvey and some of the cast:

http://t.co/uArLZAzN9a

 

Edited August 4, 201510 yr by TimWil

Jenny Bradley will be back.

 

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/soaps/s3/coronation-street/news/a662921/coronation-street-casts-actor-with-downs-syndrome-after-disability-workshop.html#~pl46vVtSvji7EN

Someone put up the affair reveal episode of Tanya/Des a while back.

 

 

Whoever put up the 1994 episodes I downloaded must have been a fan of Tanya's, as she's in pretty much every one, but they didn't have the above. Fortunately they did have the next episode's aftermath:

 

 

 

 

I can't help noticing how glam Bet looks at the start of the episode - a lot like an older version of her old, pre-caricature years. It's nice to know she still had that side of her in those last years.

 

As I figure it's my channel, I can blather as much as I want, I also dug out one of my old Corrie books (the 1995 one Daran Little wrote) for some talk about this particular story and the impact it had. So here you go:

 

Maureen Paton in the Daily Express:

 

"There is something deeply disturbed about the sly Tanya, who slaps herself violently and then pretends that Des did it so that she may play the role of victim rather than predator in front of the gullible Raquel...And when the female support-system springs into action on behalf of an injured sister, it's unstoppable."

 

Jack Tinker of the Daily Mail:

 

"The exquisite Raquel is the perfect example of a post-feminist romantic. Like the young Bet-Lynch-as-was, Raquel appears born to be abused. But like most subtle characters Sarah Lancashire, besides making her one of the Street's great comic creations of the 1990s, has imbued her with a highly up-to-date and beady instinct for preservation." He continues on and praises the scene of Raquel running to Bet for comfort. "It was heartbreaking. Watching her face as the missing pieces of the jigsaw puzzle she had been struggling to solve finally fell into place was a play for today in itself. Naturally it was to Bet, that battered but unbowed fount of all human understanding, that she fled."

 

 

Philip Middlemiss (Des) said he'd expected hate mail, but had had a mixed reaction, many men happy for him, some fans calling him a bastard, many women blaming it all on Tanya. He concluded that his character had suffered so much in the three years up to that point that most fans knew Des wasn't a bad guy.

Edited August 14, 201510 yr by DRW50

I remember when watching the storyline that Des seemed a hapless victim of the extremely vindictive Tanya. Eva Pope played that aspect of her so well. It was very clear that Tanya was completely miserable and seeing other people happy not only irritated her it also led her to try to set out on destroying that happiness. She was the first UK character in a soap who reminded me of Rachel Davis as played by Robin Strasser on AW.

Edited August 15, 201510 yr by TimWil

That's a really interesting comparison. I wish I could see more of that AW era.

 

Does anyone know when exactly Michael Park's work began airing?

http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2015/aug/17/coronation-street-lost-the-plot-cobblers

 

The sly dig at Emmerdale is pointless and the attempt to act like Betty's funeral was anything but shameful makes me roll my eyes, but I do agree with some of their points (even if it goes beyond "get Stephanie Cole" - the show was still unwatchable with her, she's not a miracle worker)