Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960 and is still going strong today, over 50 years later.  The only remaining character from the first episode is Ken Barlow, played by William (Bill) Roache.

Originally the show was not a critical success receiving some poor reviews which apparently left  Granada Television considering whether to continue with the originally planned 13 episodes.  But the soap was an instant success with British TV viewers who were drawn to Coronation Street’s ‘ordinary’ characters.

The programme was instrumental in raising the profile of local dialect on national television, something revolutionary in the early 1960’s.  Local slang such as “eh, chook?”, “nowt” and “by heck!” were heard on a national television show for the first time.

In March 1961, Coronation Street reached No.1 in the television ratings and remained there for the rest of the year.  The critics were wrong.  TV viewers loved Coronation Street which was broadcast around the UK by the new ITV network and was receiving 15 million viewers each episode; and by 1964 the programme had over 20 million regular viewers.  The TV soap has remained popular even with the advent of other shows and new ways to watch television such as online streaming and services such as Catch Up TV.

Listening to Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs recently Betty Driver told Kirsty Young how she received a call from the producers to play the barmaid in Coronation Street’s pub the Rovers Return.  She was currently not working on the stage and was instead running her own pub.  She had previously auditioned for the part as Hilda Ogden in 1964 but that role went to Jean Alexander.  But in 1969 she began what she thought was going to be a short stint of about six episodes as Betty Turpin the cuddly barmaid, married to a policeman and known for her homemade Lancashire Hot Pot, served every day in the most famous pub in the world, The Rovers Return.

Betty confessed on Desert Island Discs that she has never made a Hot Pot in real life and is a complete disaster in the kitchen.  Rather amusing, considering “Betty’s Hot Pot” is also sold in British supermarkets!

In May 2010 Betty Driver was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the British Soap Awards. Thirty-two years later she is the longest serving barmaid in the Rovers Return and continues to pull pints and cook Hot Pot in Coronation Street in Weatherfield, somewhere in the North West England.

Sophie Webster (Brooke Vincent)

In this week’s Coronation Street, sulky Sophie Webster perks up when her lesbian lover Sian finally returns from a holiday abroad, but things soon turn sour when Sian says that she is going to move back to her mothers house to live.

Be prepared for a week of even more attitude from the little girl Webster as her sulky tantrums turn into suspicion that Sian is seeing someone else.

The two girls end up having a massive argument and unsurprisingly Sophie loses it altogether. Don’t miss Friday’s episode of Corrie when a drunk, distraught and desperate Sophie falls from a church roof, building the tension to fever pitch as she is left in a critical condition.

Gavin spent eight years working on the two soaps, starting at Emmerdale in 2002 as the shows senior publicist before switching to Coronation Street in 2005 where he progressed to assistant producer. Gavin returned to Emmerdale in 2009 as Series Producer, creating exciting new characters and storylines that resulted in a massive upsurge in viewers.

Danny Miller (Aaron Livesy) will captain the Emmerdale team, he says of Gavin;

“Gavin Blyth was an inspirational and passionate producer. But not only that, he was a fantastic man, father, mentor, and friend who was like a brother to me and so many others. He’s left a giant hole at Emmerdale so we want to remember Gavin by having a match against the lads from Coronation Street which should be a great day celebrating his life, and raising money for Macmillan Cancer Support. The ground can hold 3,000 people and we want every seat filled to cheer us on, and to help a fantastic charity that does so much to help people affected by cancer. Naturally, Emmerdale is going to win!”

Jamie Strachan, Fundraising Manager for Macmillan in Leeds said: “Emmerdale has been a fantastic Macmillan supporter for a number of years, but Danny has done a superb job organising this match in memory of Gavin. He meant so much to so many and it’s a way for cast and crew of Emmerdale and Coronation Street to honour his memory whilst raising money for Macmillan to ensure we can help more people living with or affected by cancer.”

The Gavin Blyth Memorial Cup charity football match kicks off at 1pm at the Manchester Regional Sprorts Arena on Saturday February 19th.

Tickets, payable at the gate, are priced £8 for adults and £4 for children or a family ticket (two adults and two children) available for £20 with all proceeds going to Macmillan. Turnstiles will open at 12noon ahead of a 1pm kick off. Fans will have the opportunity to get autographs and photographs with their favourite cast members after the game.

The teams:

Emmerdale
Danny Miller (Captain) – Aaron Livesy
Lyndon Ogbourne – Nathan Wylde
Adam Thomas – Adam Barton
James Thornton – John Barton
James Sutton – Ryan Lamb
James Hooton – Sam Dingle
Kelvin Fletcher – Andy Sugden
Tony Audenshaw – Bob Hope
Marc Silcock – Jackson Walsh
Mark Charnock – Marlon Dingle
Tom Lister – Carl King
Dominic Brunt – Paddy Kirk
Jeff Hordley – Cain Dingle

Coronation Street
Ryan Thomas (Captain) – Jason Grimshaw
Jack P Shepherd – David Platt
Alan Halsall – Tyrone Dobbs
Michael le Vell – Kevin Webster
Sam Aston – Chesney Battersby-Brown
Steven Arnold – Ashley Peacock
Andrew Whyment – Kirk Sutherland
Ben Price – Nick Tilsley
Graeme Hawley – John Stape

Venue:
The Manchester Regional Sports Arena,
Rowsley Street,
Manchester,
M11 3FF
About Macmillan Cancer Support
Macmillan Cancer Support improves the lives of people affected by cancer, providing practical, medical, emotional and financial support. Working alongside people affected by cancer, Macmillan works to improve cancer care. One in three of us will get cancer. Two million of us are living with it. If you are affected by cancer Macmillan can help.

Visit the Macmillan site for more information.

rosie webster

It always seem a little strange to me how the top UK soaps seem to mirror their rivals storylines from time to time and although this one  coming up on Coronation Street on Friday is very different to the current Eastenders storyline, it does still involve a mix up with babies.

Rosie Webster moved out of the family house in December to live with boyfriend Jason Grimshaw because she couldn’t stand being in the same house as her father and his baby by Molly Dobbs.

However, according to the Sun’s Buzz magazine Rosie Webster suddenly takes a shine to her dad’s love child, her half brother, recently born babyJack, after being put forward for a Mother and baby photo shoot.

Unsuspecting Dad, Kevin Webster believes that his eldest daughter has come round to the fact that she has a little brother, having told him that she would like to spend more time with the little chap.

The smile is soon wiped off his face and his grimace returns when Rosie arrives back from the photo shoot with the wrong baby!

Arriving at the church  looking stunning in an ivory dress Leanne appears totally unaware of what the day holds in store for her.

It seems that Peter has found out about Leanne’s affair with Nick Tilsley and has arranged the blessing simply to humiliate his new wife.

There are further unconfirmed rumours that the day ends with Peter Barlow taking his revenge on Nick Tilsley with an iron bar, so it sounds like just another day on this most famous of Street’s!

steve arnold as ashley peacock

Poor old Steven Arnold was voted off this weeks Dancing on Ice series following one of the worst routines ever, in which the former Coronation Street actor scored just seven points out of a possible 30.

Arnold’s alter ego Ashley Peacock was recently written out of the soap in recent weeks, having been killed in the infamous tram crash and after watching the actor’s attempts at dancing on ice, you immediately got the feeling that his skating career was already on a slippery slope, another crash waiting to happen.

Unlike the recent X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing results where a wierd strategy employed by voters meant that the weakest competitors stayed in the show, I can only imagine for the laugh factor, there was no such safety net for Arnold and he was quite rightly voted off the show.

Arnold found himself among the two contestants with the lowest votes in the final part of Sunday’s show alongside Dominic Cork, but while Cork managed to pull something out of the bag with his routine, Arnold had nothing more to offer and looked totally ill at ease with the whole thing.

I can only assume that he will be relieved not to have to return to the show for yet another week of humiliation.

While her doting mother Deidre believes everything that Tracy says, Ken is not so gullible having put up with her constant lies and scheming for too long and taking what she now says with a pinch of salt.

While Becky has nothing to hide a night in police custody looks set to tip her over the edge, before she is released on bail.

In tonight’s episode the real attacker cannot keep quiet anymore and decides to spill the beans.

On her deathbed in the rubble of the street last week Molly confessed to Sally Webster that the father of her son Jack was really Sally’s husband Kevin Webster.

Although Sally subsequently confronted Kevin over the admission she was unable to face Molly’s estranged husband with the awful news, but in tonight’s episode all is about to kick off as Tyrone learns the awful truth.

When Tyrone spots his best friend and business partner Kevin arguing with Sally at the graveside he suddenly twigs that Kevin is the mystery man that had an affair with Molly.

Tyrone attacks the stunned Kevin and viewers will see Coronation Street regulars trying to hold Tyrone back and calm the situation down.

Can’t wait!

Graeme Hawley as John Stape

As expected the Tram Crash designed to tie in with Coronation Street’s 50th anniversary dominated television viewing figures last week, with the events of one day on the street spread over the whole week with specially commissioned live episodes of the show being broadcast.

Such a tragedy, make believe or not, was bound to tug at the emotions of the viewers and as usual with Corrie it kept many of us on the edge of our seats right down to the final episode.

Renowned for it’s humour as well as its hard hitting storylines it was a welcoming break from the hysterical scenes of death and destruction to see Fiz’s husband John Stape taking the opportunity to put an end to his double life and attempting to get rid of bunny boiler Charlotte once and for all.

Of course that was no simple matter and despite believing that he had clubbed her to death with a hammer, John was gobsmacked to learn from paramedics that she was still alive.

Having followed her to hospital, he was interrupted as he tried to pull the plug on her life support system, but was eventually rescued when Charlotte’s parents turned up to be told that it would be humane to shut down the life support as their daughter had suffered brain damage.

The relief on John’s face was a picture as he finally escaped from the nightmare of recent times, although the whole thing is set to return to haunt him in later episodes of the soap.

As well as the extra long special episodes that are wheeled out every now and then, normally invented for when audience figures maybe flagging, there are also regular ‘two parters’ where the episode continues after the next programme or whatever.

Frankly it is difficult to fit anymore soap viewing in to the day, but none the less every year we are treated to a DVD special or two, often filmed away from the set, on location in places like Las Vegas for instance.

I have made the mistake in the past of buying these special DVDs as a stocking filler for my wife, but the fact is they are only ever watched the once before being confined to collect dust on the book shelf. So the idea of being able to rent TV specials without having to leave the house is an attractive one.

That is what they do at LoveFilm, a service that allows you to choose whether you want to buy or rent the latest dvd releases and games from their massive online choice and have them delivered to your door.

All the latest must have games for all formats are listed online alongside the latest and greatest blockbuster movies, as well as a liberal dose of compilations and special one off shows from the world of television.

Cult series like Lost, Heroes, Sopranos and Doctor Who rub covers with not the best of Peep Show and Midsomers Murders and for the soapaholic,  alongside Loose Women in New York – Let Loose in the City, there are the Soap Specials.

A couple that caught my eye, Coronation Street – A Knight’s Tale and Emmerdale – The Dingles – For Richer For Poorer.

I was drawn to the Corrie DVD by the treat of seeing the Street cast offs Curly Watts and Reg Holdsworth reunited. The very idea that Curly is now a successful businessman with a chain of hotels under his belt is amusing enough, but when he gives Reg a chance to prove himself by hosting a Medieval Banquet at Tatlock Towers we know we are in for some big laughs.

The Dingles promises an exclusive never to be broadcast on TV special that features the down on their luck family possibly winning the lottery, the film follows two story lines showing different outcomes, so you will have to see it for yourself!