Could Mrs Kitchen be the new Corrie battleaxe?

With apologies for the dreadful picture I took on my phone from the TV!

I'm liking Mrs Kitchen, the older lady who turned up in Coronation Street last night. 

Could she have the potential to be the new battleaxe?  Corrie producer Kate Oates has already said that a battleaxe is what the street is missing right now.

Mrs Kitchen was played by actor Pauline Jefferson, who is no stranger to Coronation Street.  She's been in the show four times before as different characters:

With thanks to Corriepedia and Corrie.net we know that she played:

• A woman who spoke to Deirdre Langton after daughter Tracy had gone missing following the Rovers' lorry crash in March 197
• The Landlady at 6 Chepstow Road where Ken Barlow moved into digs during May 1990
• Dorothy Cudlip, a viewer of 3 Coronation Street in July 1991 when Emily Bishop put the house on the market
• Weatherfield Gazette romance serial writer Hermione Fairfax in August 2002.

Her other credits include roles in City 68', Crown Court, Children's Ward, Cold Feet, Emmerdale, Where the Heart Is, Hollyoaks, DCI Banks, Secrets and Words, Give Out Girls and Happy Valley. On stage she has appeared in productions of Box and Cox, The Bells, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and Billy Liar.

Read more Corrie news and spoilers at Coronation Street Blog

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Tvor @tvordlj on Twitter

Whatever happened to the Coronation Street battle-axe?

(This post was originally posted by Clinkers (David) on the Coronation Street Blog in August 2016, reposted to this blog with permission.)

What the world needs now is a feisty old bag who says what she means and means what she says. Forget Angela, Hillary and ... err, Theresa. Let's think less global and more cobble. Corrie is currently turning a corner and a welcome change of direction it is too. There are new friendships and alliances, a little less of the drudgery and a bit more fun. However, there is a harridan-shaped hole in Weatherfield.

Every drama needs a mouthy moral majority, laying down the law and not being afraid to do so. In Corrie though, these ladies have been few and far between. They are a rare and wonderful breed, eclipsing the status of backstreet bitch, gossipmonger or fishwife. In reality, the show has only offered up two legends of this ilk and what a pair they were - Ena Sharples and Blanche Hunt.

Ena's brand of wrath was carefully crafted during two world wars and a recession. Religion and morals guided her over the years and helped armour-plate her against whatever life could throw at her. No smart one-liners from Ena. Just a rapier-like delivery of whatever she was dishing out that day. Every battle-axe has their weak points though and for Ena there was a catalogue of handbag fights, name-calling and very un-Christian like behaviour. Few took her on. Elsie Tanner was her regular nemesis for twenty years but she also went to war with Annie Walker and Hilda Ogden amongst others.

Blanche emerged from a different background. She was widowed at a young age and single-handedly raised a wilful daughter. Blanche turned her hand to whatever brought the money in be it as a barmaid, a corset-fitter or a shopkeeper. Early Blanche was a bit of a good-time girl, friendly ear to chew and popular. Twenty years later she had morphed into the un-PC, tough-as-old-boots biddy with a penchant for other people's funerals and caustic one-liners. Blanche also had a vulnerable side and that kept her from becoming one-dimensional, something that obviously wasn't passed down the line to Tracy luv.

There were other pretenders to the throne. Granny Hopkins, presiding over the Corner Shop in the mid 1970s, proved to be little more than nasty. Phyllis Pearce was touted as the 'new Ena' when she first appeared in 1982 but settled for being a gruff old dear with an eye for the fellas. Well, one fella. Maud Grimes shone brightly for a while, another hard woman but importantly, not embittered. Roy's mother Sylvia was wonderful but sadly wasn't around long enough to make a lasting impression.

There were encouraging signs that Deirdre was in the process of picking up the baton from her mother. Not to be. Looking around the current crop of likely characters . . . well, there are no likely characters. Rita lost all of her spit-and-vinegar after Len died and she re-invented herself as Mother Earth in a toffee shop. Gail's too busy nursing Nick's Oedipus Complex, Liz is too flighty and Eileen's a bore. Yasmeen might have a few battle-axe tendencies, likewise Sally, but overall they are decent women.

There were high hopes that Agnes Tinker, Beth's grandma, might have been a stayer. She bobbed around for the wedding episodes, returning later to visit Sinead in hospital but that was that. Likewise, the appearance of actress Beatrice Kelley in 2014, as Michael Rodwell's aunt provided a tiny spike of anticipation but the character was temporary and quite mild-mannered. Maybe ITV should have snapped up Lynda Baron, glorious as Violet Carson in The Road to Coronation Street but alas, she's now doing something in Walford.

Does Corrie need a fearsome older woman patrolling its cobbles? I think it does.

Clinkers to Riddle, on twitter @bridglondon



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Battleaxe Wanted - Who Can Match Ena Sharples?

(This post was originally posted by Ruth Owen on the Coronation Street Blog in April 2016, reposted to this blog with permission.)


A true battleaxe must be no younger than late middle age. She must be forceful, even fearsome. She must speak her mind and not be in any way hesitant in doing so. She must be fiercely judgemental and willing to share those judgements, irrespective of the damage they might cause. She must also gossip fulsomely, even though there may be no foundation at all to the content of the gossip.

A true battleaxe will tell people to their face exactly what their wrongdoings are and will not care who hears, nor will she be concerned about how this might affect her own reputation. She will believe that what she is doing is right, absolutely right - and that everyone else is wrong. She will also suggest that she knows more about her neighbours than she actually does.

The archetypal, original battleaxe is of course the inimitable Ena Sharples. Since Ena, there has not yet been any one to match her. What's more I would go as far as to say that there never will be.

It is important to recognise that Ena, despite her bluster and her gossip, stirred affection in her audience. Maybe that is because she was vulnerable. She did not have a good relationship with her daughter Vera, largely because she was only too quick to inform Vera of her faults. The rift began to heal when Vera was diagnosed with a brain tumour and was in debt. Ena was reduced to stealing two tins of salmon and nursed her daughter until she died in Ena's bed. Who can not have some feelings for a woman such as this?.

Those who have attempted to take the battle axe crown don't really pass muster. Ivy Tilsley, though she had battle axe credentials, was too young. Blanche Hunt was close and Maud Grimes was also close. Sylvia, Roy's mum was another possibility but maybe we blame her too much for some of the difficulties Roy may have experienced, especially when growing up.

So what about potential battle axes? At one point. Gail might have been a contender but has become a bit too simpering of late. Yasmeen is a possibility but on second thoughts, she is not sufficiently gossipy. Sally? Well, she is a battle axe in the making, but has a way to go to achieve full battleaxe status. As yet, she's too young to take the on the battleaxe mantle, but in a couple of decades, she'll be there. We only have to wait until 2036.

Ruth - twitter @ruth1722



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Bring back the Battleaxe to Coronation Street

 

(This post was originally posted by Flaming Nora on the Coronation Street Blog June 2015, reposted to this blog with permission.)

Coronation Street has always had a battleaxe. From Ena Sharples to Blanche Hunt, the soap battleaxe is a soap staple and Corrie has had some the best.   

But where is the battleaxe now?  Since the sad passing of Maggie Jones and the on-screen death and funeral of Blanche, Corrie has been sadly lacking one of the very things that makes it so great.

We've got Yasmeen Nazir but she's not in the same league as the likes of Ena and Blanche.  Roy's mum Sylvia was a fine contender for the role but sadly Stephanie Cole left her role as Sylvia and there's no sign that I know of that she's likely to return.

Come on Corrie, bring back the battleaxe with her sharp tongue to put some bite back into the show.

See also: Our blogger Llifon's post: B is for Battleaxes



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