The Sopranos - Weatherfield style

I'm a recent convert to The Sopranos and am now catching up slowly, watching it series by series on DVD. My Carmela impression is coming on a treat: "Toawnee! Wan' sum cworfee?" Anyway, I'm noticing some similarities between the family Soprano and Coronation Street.

Jack Duckworth is Tony Soprano. The similarities between Tony's Freudian dreams about losing his ducks and Jack Duckworth's pigeon fetish has not gone unnoticed. Also, just like Tony, Jack has friends on the other side. You know, Blackpool.

Liz McDonald is Carmela Soprano. She's a good wife when she needs to be but she's not averse to flirting with her husband's friends and colleagues. And Liz has been a gangster's moll in her time.

Peter Barlow is Christopher Multisanti. He runs the local gambling gig, has an addiction problem and after his years in the Navy, knows how to take and follow orders.

Becky Granger is Adriana La Cerva. Loose-tongued and easily led, hoping - and failing - to be saved by the love of a good man.

Luke Strong is Furio Giunta. Both are mad, bad, dangerous to know - but charming with it. And both of them would go back for the wabbit.

Betty Williams is Silvio Dante. Upset either of these two and you'll get a scowl and a shrug. And both of them are real-life singers too.
And finally, Blanche Hunt is Uncle Junior Corrado Soprano. They headed up their families and neither were willing to give that power up. Also, both spent far too much of their time in court.

And as for a theme tune, who needs Alabama 3 when Corrie has the Weatherfield 1.

See more Mad Men meets Weatherfield,  Coronation Street look-a-likes and The Flintstones on Coronation Street and Tales of the City

Corrie's new gay hunk

The Sunday People report that Coronation Street's to have a new gay hunky bodybuilder who'll get Sean Tully's knickers in a twist. He'll be called Leon and played by Andrew Langtree. Digital Spy have some pictures of his first scenes on Corrie here.

Andrew has appeared previously in Heartbeat, Holby City and Cutting It. He's also a brilliant singer and trained at Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts. He was picked by Sir Paul McCartney to sing at his wife Linda's memorial service and by former Prime Minister's wife Cherie Blair to sing in front of the Queen at Buckingham Palace.

Andrew hits our screens on July 3 when Sean decides to shed a few pounds in the gym with Jason and locks eyes with Leon. But when Sean realises that Leon really fancies straight Jason, the factory worker embarks on a series of daft lies with comical results.

The State of the Street - May

We all have opinions on Coronation Street. There are stories that we love and some that we don't. Same goes for the characters. One of the best stories recently was Ken's affair with Martha and the fall-out continues. One of the most tedious was Tara's revenge on Dev for his one night stand. The revelation that Eileen's dad got a 14 year old pregnant has been one of the more controversial storyines we've had and it's going to have long term repercussions as well. Michelle has two men after her, David is out for revenge and Tony Gordon still hasn't had to pay for his crimes. This is the State of the Street this May and you can read more about it in this essay I've written.

Coronation Street weekly awards, May 30

Here's a few little "gold star" awards that I jotted down over the course of the week.

Fake of the week: Uncle Umed bragging about 1. Going to university but when quizzed on an economic theory, admits he learned on the flea markets. 2. Knowing famous Indian singers. 3. Being a wrestling master keeping the Mumbai Mafia at bay. 4. He almost got a role in a James Bond film, Octopussy. As Bill said, "Incredible". Amen. You do realize the literal meaning of that word is "non credible" or "not believable". Nobody else falls for his chat but Audrey does. She's a sucker for flattery. I don't trust him, I never have. He arrived almost instantly after Dev emailed him with the generic "Oh, you can stay here if you come to England for a visit," and I think he's sponging off Dev, with nowhere else to go. I don't think he's funny either although he did have the measure of Tara from the start. And another thing... he's the last person that should be "bigging himself up".

Just let the earth swallow me up now award: After Ryan had the run-in with Sian's dad, Michelle attempted to give him *the talk*... "people your age have urges". And she did it in front of Maria. I think if I was Ryan, I'd trade her in. Um, Michelle? You should have had that talk with him when he was about 12, not 17. Forewarned is forearmed. As it were.

Line of the week: After dumping Natasha, telling her she has a non-existant personality and is a mind-numbing conversationalist (got it in one!), "Don't upset Maria again? I would hate for us to really fall out." *snort*

Official Streetcars and Roy's Rolls t-shirts for sale

Anyone fancy a Street Cars t-shirt? Or a Roy's Rolls one? And they're official Coronation Street merchandise too. Fortunately for Canadian fans, the goodies are all on sale at the CBC website. And for fans in the UK, they do international postage. I wonder why these things aren't on sale in England? They're fab!

For the Street Cars t-shirt, click here
For the Roy's Rolls t-shirt, click here

For all sorts of Corrie good stuff to buy, click here.

Graeme Proctor becomes drug dealer

Just when we're getting used to seeing the cuddly side of the pyromaniac, Graeme Proctor's bad-boy past will catch up with him soon. He's going to start scoring drugs for Joe McIntrye, says The Star.

With Joe hooked on the high-strength painkillers, he pleads with Graeme: “Just get me one more bottle… please, I’m begging you. I’m desperate.” And Joe's going to start stealing from Gail to fund his habit.

Poor Gail. Has that woman not suffered enough?

Helen Flanagan's nine years on Corrie

Helen Flanagan has played Corrie's Rosie Webster for over nine years. She's recently quoted as saying this about her role: "I feel extremely lucky - I don't think I actually appreciated how lucky I was, because I've just grown up with it, so I'd taken it for granted really. Coronation Street is such an amazing institution to be involved in and I've just kind of had it on a plate since I've been younger really, so I do think I'm very, very lucky to have had that opportunity."

Helen first appeard on screen as Rosie on Sunday 23 January, 2000. This was the episode when Kevin married Alison and Sophie and Rosie were bridesmaids. Helen took over the role as Rosie Webster from Emma Collinge who had played Rosie since she was 10 days old. It says here that Emma left Corrie to devote more time to gymnastics.

Spoiler alert! Find out what lies in store for Rosie Webster here and here.

Coronation Street weddings through the years

There's an absolutely fabulous gallery of Coronation Street wedding snaps over at the TV New Zealand website. How many of these Corrie weddings can you remember? Have a look at the gallery which is at the bottom of this page.

Corrie - Friday's fantastic photo - May 29, 09

Ahhh! It's the end of another week and here at the Coronation Street Blog, we await the predicted good weather with eager anticipation.

To celebrate the sunshine, what better than this sunny and upbeat publicity shot of Violet Carson? Just look at that radiant smile. You'd never see Ena Sharples crack one like that! Come on folks... what's not to like? [Sky Clearbrook]

Rare Malcolm Hebden interview

Here's something you don't see every day, an interview with Malcom Hebden who plays Corrie's nosy Norris. He talks about his new storyline with Andrew Sachs, revealing how he was somewhat instrumental in bringing this story to the Street. He also warns us that the real truth to the contention between the half brothers hasn't come out yet. (But I'm not sure when the interview was done. We now know Norris holds Ramsay responsible for their mother's death. I'm not sure if that's the secret or if there's more!)

Did you know that Malcom is severely dyslexic? I didn't, and I also didn't know that Mr. Hebden worked as a shop assistant before he became an actor. He started off in amateur dramatics and took the leap into drama school and the rest is history. Devoted Coronation Street fans know that Norris Cole is not Malcom Hebden's first role on the show. He played a Spaniard, Carlos, who tried to woo Mavis into a marriage of convenience.

Liz Dawn on Celebrity Mr and Mrs

Liz Dawn, better known as Coronation Street's Vera Duckworth, will be taking part in ITV1's All Star Mr and Mrs on Saturday 30 May. Liz will be on the quiz with her husband Don, pictured.

Another Coronation Street actor and his missus are appearing on the show in June.
Who will it be? Click here to find out.

Corrie icon to be scrapped

The remaining parts of ITV bearing the Granada name are to be rebranded and the iconic Granada TV logo will be dismantled and removed from the ITV building in Manchester.

Guardian Media reports that the Granada name has a long and proud history in British media. However, the Granada brand – long synonymous with Coronation Street and other key ITV programme brands – lived on as the name of ITV plc's in-house production arm until it was rebranded as ITV Productions in 2006 and then to its current name, ITV Studios.

If you're interested in finding out more about the history of Granada TV and Coronation Street, you might like this book.

One whole year of Steve McDonald gurns

Did you know that we've blogged one whole year of wonderful Steve McDonald gurns of the week? I know, how time flies eh? Well, you can see all of the gurnage by starting here and going backwards following the links.

If you've captured any good Steve McGurns from Coronation Street, do please email them in.

Ashley gets the Corrie chop

There's some strong storylines coming up for the Peacocks this summer as a killer blood clot threatens Claire's life and Ashley gets the chop. Well, the snip, anyroad.

The Sun says that Claire miscarries their baby and nags Ashley to have a vasectomy. The episode will end with a close-up of Ashley's panicked face in the clinic as the surgeon picks up a scalpel.

Oh dear.

Sneak preview of next week's Corrie, June 1-5, 09

Without any piffle, here's the storyline for the week ahead on Coronation Street, all wrapped up nicely in 50 words or less.

Week of Monday 1 June to Friday 5 June

Betty and Poppy fall out, Peter falls off the wagon, Tina falls for Jason, the Croppers don’t fall for Eddie Windass’ lies, both Sean and Bill want to fall in love - but not with each other, and Ted falls in agony after David’s daft plan fails.

The full weekly preview, with pictures, is right here on Corrie.net

Missed last week's Corrie?
Catch up with the Coronation Street Weekly Updates

Tony Gordon in panto? Oh yes he is!

We all know Tony Gordon is a nasty piece of work. Perfect then, wouldn't you say, to play a pantomime villain? That's exactly what Gray O'Brien, who plays Tony, has signed up to do after he leaves Coronation Street this year.

Gray will star in the Manchester Opera House panto Aladdin, as evil uncle Abanazar. It says here that current Corrie stars are not usually allowed to appear in panto, but due to a lucky bit of timing, he was able to take the role.

A Corrie spokeswoman explains: “Gray had been due to leave Corrie later this year, and so had arranged the role in panto. But scriptwriters went back to Gray to ask him to extend his contract as they have come up with another exciting storyline for his character. Gray wanted to honour his panto role, so he will take a short break before returning as Tony. So theatre-goers will get to see him being even more villainous in panto than he is in Corrie, if that’s possible!”

Eric Potts, who played Corrie's baker Diggory Compton, will also appear in the panto. Full details here.

Meet Antony Cotton on Saturday 30 May

Each time Poundland let me know they're opening yet another new store, I almost fall off my seat in disbelief. Opening stores? In this economic climate? Oh yes. And not only are Poundland opening new stores up and down the country when most other stores are closing up shop, they're getting some of the Coronation Street cast to be on hand for the festivities.

This week Poundland are opening a new shop in Stratford-upon-Avon on Saturday 30 May and Antony Cotton will be there to do the business. Fans of Poundland and Corrie can meet Antony from 10.30am and he'll stay to sign autographs and have pictures taken with customers until 1.30pm. The first 50 customers will receive a free £1 voucher from Anthony to spend on anything they like in store, on the day. Sounds like a bargain to me.

Have a look here for some fun pics of Corrie cast members opening Poundland shops.

Graeme Proctor to become Street's gardener

Have we had a gardener in Coronation Street before? I know we've had plenty of builders and window cleaners... but a gardener? Well, Graeme Proctor, played by Craig Gazey, is set to start up his own gardening business and Corrie writers have taken advice on setting up the enterprise from Business Link North West. You can read more on that here.

So while Graeme looks set to trim Sally's bush, I don't think he'll have too much lawn-mowing to do as the grass on the Street isn't real.

Fiz Brown - get a grip

Funny RFlamin' Nora should call for Fiz to get a grip over the whole John Stape thing in her weekly update today. I was thinking just the same thing last week and wrote a nice long rant about it over here.

After the Stape-Rosie affair broke them up, you might forgive Fiz for taking John back when he worked on trying to make her believe he was vewy, vewy sowwy. But after he kidnapped Rosie, you would think that would be the end of it, no matter how hard it was. Apparently not, and that's where my frustrations took flight. Have a read and see if you agree with me!

Craig Charles at Glastonbury

The line-up for this year's Glastonbury has been announced and Craig Charles will be there this year. Craig will be spinning his soul and funk in the Dance Tent and if it's anything as good as his BBC Radio 6 funk and soul show, it'll be worth catching if you're there.

He's also playing at the Kendal Calling festival. More details here.

Coronation Street Weekly Update, May 25 2009

Greetings and welcome to a special Whitsuntide edition of the weekly update. This week the update has its knotted hanky on its head as it sits on a stripey deckchair in the garden eating mushy peas. But that’s enough malarkey and without any further ado, here we go with this week’s Coronation Street update.

News of Colin’s death spreads fast as Julie wails the length of Rosamund Street. Not only is she grieving but she wants everyone to know it, especially Eileen, who Julie accuses of being cold about the death of their dad. Eileen’s grieving too, just in her own way. Missing out on a great excuse to bring back Archie Shuttleworth, the funeral goes ahead and Julie and Eileen thaw towards each other while Rita makes her mind up to attend too late and misses it all. Mind you, I’m surprised Blanche wasn’t there with her mint imperials and a Marian Keyes. Julie tries bonding with big sister Eileen and brings round The Sound of Music on DVD. Eileen gets stuck into the booze while Julie and Sean get teary during Edelweiss. Oh me too, every time.

Chesney finds out that Fiz has been visiting John in prison and isn’t best pleased. He bribes Eddie Windass with Les’ Status Quo badge into telling him where he’s dropped Fiz off in his taxi. The passing of Les Battersby’s Status Quo badge to Eddie was symbolic in its way. It’s the badge of a feckless man and Eddie Windass now wears it with pride. Chesney implodes with anger and spite at his stupid sister and then does the grown-up thing and runs away. Fortunately he doesn’t run very far and ends up in the Windass’s shed. Sophie finds out the reason Chesney ran away and tells Sally and Kev who storm round to give Fiz a piece of what-for. Ches then tells Fiz she has to make a choice between him and John Stape and she heads to the prison in tears. For once, the Stapester does the right thing and tells Fiz he won’t allow her to visit anymore because he can see how much hurt that he’s caused. Meanwhile, thousands of Corrie fans up and down the country shout at their TV for Fiz to get a grip.

Norris tries to cope with having brother Ramsay around. He’s all for ignoring him but Ramsay’s not to be ignored. He’s in the Rovers getting filled in all on the gossip by Blanche, chatting up Rita and Emily and joining in a sing-song of The Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia with Deirdre and Ken. Come on Corrie, if you’re going to get Deirdre singing in the Rovers, at least let her get her harmonic out. Best line of the week went to Deirdre in the Rovers with Ken at the bar. He orders a pint and Poppy says in surprise: “I thought you were a half man?” to which Deirdre replies with: “Yes, that’s always been his problem.” But it looks like Norris and Ramsay might be thawing towards each other after Norris wins the pub quiz, beating his brother.

And just as Luke thinks he’s getting somewhere with Michelle, she announces she’s off on a singing tour with JD and the band for six months. This means Luke and Michelle have ten days together before she leaves so he tells her he wants a holiday romance in the time that they’ve got and sets up a paddling pool and deck-chairs in Maria’s back yard. It’s all a bit contrived but it’s a set up to see who Michelle will end up with – Peter, Luke, or some other fella from the Old Testament.

And that’s just about that for this week.

Coronation Street writers this week were Damon Rochefort, Debbie Oates, Julie Jones, Jayne Hollinson and Joe Turner.

Glenda
--
Blogging away merrily at http://flamingnora.blogspot.com/

Two new writers join Coronation Street blog

I'm well chuffed to report that two new writers have joined the blog and will be posting alongside yours truly. The new writers are Diane Johnston (aka Tvor) in Canada and Sky Clearbrook in bonny Scotland.

Find out more about Diane and why she's cuddling Kevin Webster then view her Corrie blog here and have a giggle at Sky's blog, Avenues and Alleyways.

And if you're thinking to yourself that you've seen the three of us together somewhere before, you're right. We all used to blog at Corrieblog but now we're footloose and fancy free and Corrie blogging for fun - and of course supporting this charity too.

We're all huge Coronation Street fans, with a wicked sense of humour, and Diane/Tvor especially has a great depth of knowledge about the history of the Street. Have a look at her pictures from the Corrie set. With the new writers on board, I hope you'll enjoy reading this blog even more than you used to - I know I certainly will.

Vote for soap's best pet

It's Week 9 in the fab Inside Soap magazine poll to make the best ever soap. This week they're asking fans to vote for soap's best pet.

From Coronation Street we've got the two dogs, Schmeichel and Ozzy, to choose from. They've clearly forgotten about Mavis' budgie!

Cast your vote here.

Torchwood's Burn Gorman in Corrie

Here's a still from a 1998 episode of Coronation Street showing some geezer chatting to Zoe Tattersall on a bench.

The actor is future Torchwood star, (the fantastically-named) Burn Gorman, but who can name the character he is playing and what is the storyline? Ready when you are... [Sky Clearbrook]

Kajagoogoo's Corrie connection

Remember Kajagoogoo, the 1980s pop band with the big hair and the big hit? Oh you know, they did that song: "Too shy shy, hush hush, eye to eye". Anyway, the band are reforming and touring this summer. But did you know that Kajagoogoo lead singer Limahl has a Coronation Street connection? Oh yes.

Find out what Kajagoogoo are doing in the Corrie Kabin.

Corrie icons as you've never seen them before

Regular readers (hello, mum) will know I'm a huge fan of Corrie's Yana Lumb and rate her as one of Coronation Street's unsung heros. Anyway, Jayne Bickerton (nee Tunnicliffe) who played Yana has some wonderful YouTubage online now.

This one and this one are my favourites, it's Jayne as stand-up comedian Mary Unfaithful in a self-penned show for Granada from 1997 about her female Corrie role models, including Elsie Tanner, Bet Lynch, Ena Sharples and Hilda Ogden. Jayne filmed these on the Coronation Street set seven years before she got her part in Coronation Street as Yana Lumb.

Why not check out more of Jayne's work as Mary Unfaithful when she's working with Paul O'Grady as Lily Savage. There's a few YouTubes here, here, here and here and a short clip of Jayne when she was recently on the Paul O'Grady show with her Burlesque art work t'other week.

In pics: Kevin Webster snogs Molly Dobbs

Kevin Webster's affair with Molly Dobbs steps up a gear, says The News of the World, who have pictures of Kev snogging the face off poor Mol. Can't wait for Sally to find out about this.

Tupele Dorgu gets married

Tupele Dorgu, who plays Corrie's Kelly Crabtree, was married yesterday, Saturday 23rd May. The Mirror reports that Tupele hid under a huge cape and hood on her way to the ceremony as it's believed she's signed a magazine deal for exclusive pics.

Tupele married her fella, Mark Flanagan at Salford Cathedral. The paper reports that a gospel choir performed inside and everyone later headed to the Midland Hotel in Manchester.

There are pictures of some of the Corrie cast as guests, and Tupele hidden away in her cape, on the Daily Mail website.

Coronation Street bloopers on TV

There's a half-hour of Corrie out-takes and bloopers on TV on Bank Holiday Monday, 25th May.

Coronation Street Uncut is on ITV1 at 6.30pm, narrated by Matthew Kelly.

You can catch it on itv.com here for 30 days after it was shown on TV.



Missed Corrie this week?
Catch up with the Coronation Street Weekly Updates

Claire Peacock to be killed off?

Could Claire Peacock be getting killed off in Coronation Street?

That's what The Sun suggests in their story today. They reckon that a blood clot will kill Claire's unborn child and leaves Claire in a life-threatening situation too.

Rachel Leskovac on playing Corrie's Natasha

There's a long interview with Rachel Leskovac in The Mirror in which she says she'll find out at the end of this month whether she's getting the chop from the cobbles. Rachel also speaks about doing the love scenes with Tony Gordon and her life as a working mum. It's an interesting read and The Mirror are getting some good stuff on Corrie right now.

See also: Is Coronation Street's Natasha a young Audrey Roberts?

Bid to win Tony Warren's celebrity handprint

Oxfam are auctioning celebrity handprints on eBay-gum right now in their Helping Hand campaign. And one of the handprints has been made by Coronation Street creator, Tony Warren.

To bid to win Tony's handprint, have a look here.

John Thomson, who plays Corrie's Jesse Chadwick, also has a handprint for sale here and the full listing of celebrity handprints for auction is here.

Corrie cast support ActionAid PoverTee day

Some of the Coronation Street cast modelled t-shirts they had designed to launch ActionAid’s first ever PoverTee Day. It takes place on Friday 26 June and the Corrie cast is urging everyone in the UK to take part in the day, simply by wearing a t-shirt and donating £2 to ActionAid. It can be any t-shirt - a favourite old one, a slogan t-shirt to make a statement or one of the official PoverTee Day t-shirts.

Antony Cotton decorated his t-shirt with: ‘Yes indeedy, help the needy!’, whilst Vicky Entwistle, wrote ’A problem shared is a problem halved.’ Sally Whittaker said: “We’ll all be wearing our t-shirts to work that day. It is a great chance to do something really fun and easy to help the vital work of ActionAid with those living in poverty around the world.”

Donate and find out more about PoverTee Day

John Stape look-a-like

Anyone else think that Corrie's John Stape looks like Manchester icon Frank Sidebottom?

For more Coronation Street look-a-likes, have a look-a-here.

Corrie's Kirk opens another Poundland store

Andy Whyment, who plays Kirk Sutherland in Coronation Street, opened yet another Poundland store. This time he did the honours and cut the ribbon at the opening of a new Poundland store in Staffordshire on Saturday 18 May. What a nice bloke.

Read more good stuff at the Poundland Blog. This blog hearts Poundland 'cos it's cheap and cheerful.

Emily's niece returns to Coronation Street

Remember Freda, Emily's deaf neice? She's returning to Corrie later this summer, says The Mirror.

Freda's played by deaf actress Ali Briggs who first turned up on the Street in 2005 for eight episodes. I seem to recall that she and Norris never got on well as he felt Emily was giving her niece too much attention - and him not enough. Ooh, he's such a drama queen.

Much as I liked Freda and it's always good when Emily gets a storyline, regular readers will know I'd be jumping up and down for joy if it'd been Emily's nephew who was returning instead...