He is Ken Barlow

This is a poster sized print of a charcoal portrait of William Roache aka Ken Barlow. The original print is one of a series that were done by Corrie actor Steve Huison who plays Eddie Windass on our screens here in Canada. Steve is a very talented artist and he put on a show with the portraits and is now auctioning limited edition prints on eBay to raise money for his favourite charity, the Shoestring Theatre project in aid of mental health.

A few weeks ago he had some on eBay and I bid on several but the first two I tried for, I didn't get (Sue Nicholls/Audrey and Katy Cavanagh/Julie). This one was still ongoing so I put in a bid. I was outbid but only by a little and I was now determined to have it. Uhoh, I hear you say! Never fear, I sat and waited and watched and nobody else bid so with 20 seconds left on the clock, I entered my winning bid, just a little over the one that was the top bid and held my breath. The thing is, you don't know if the other bidder had put in a higher "max" bid that would automatically outbid your higher bid.

But it seems they didn't do that, and I won the auction and the print. I received it about 2 weeks later which wasn't bad for Canada Post and Steve also included one of his cast cards with a note on the back assuring me the money would go to the charity and thanking me. Result!

He doesn't have anything on the auctions at the moment, but hopefully, this link to his items will work for when he does. You can also buy his portraits from this site. They go for about £50 there. I paid less via eBay but your mileage may vary. Some of them on eBay were going for a lot more.

Here's a link to another blog post showing Steve holding this portrait!

50 Years Of Corrie In 50 Days - 1961

(This post was originally posted by Sunny Jim on the Coronation Street Blog in 2010, reposted to this blog with permission.)

Day 1 of our 50 day countdown of Coronation Street - written by blogger Sunny Jim.

Elsie Tanner was probably the most gossiped about woman on Coronation Street. 1961 saw her first screen kiss, in a telephone box with Bill Gregory who was to whisk her away from the cobbles to Portugal 23 years later. In between she attracted the attention of an endless supply of men and fell in love and had her heart broken countless times. She married 2 of these, Steve Tanner and Alan Howard, and was proposed to many times by Len Fairclough, who she regarded more as a best friend than a lover and refused to marry him for fear of losing his friendship. But he was always there to pick up the pieces after another disastrous affair.

Having been through the mill herself Elsie was more than happy to keep a motherly eye on young women passing through Weatherfield and give them the benefit of her years of experience. They never listened of course but she’d be there to provide tea and sympathy and a shoulder to cry on when the inevitable happened.

Behind the scenes, 1961 saw a crisis that nearly saw the end of the Street before it really got started. A strike was called by the actors’ union, Equity, for a new pay deal to reflect the success of commercial television. Fortunately 14 of the 25 cast members had signed contracts before the strike started and so the programme continued to run twice a week throughout the strike. However Granada were unable to employ anybody new or any extras so places like the Rovers suddenly seemed deserted.

As the strike continued into 1962, contracts that had expired couldn’t be renewed and at one point it got to the stage where there was nobody to serve behind the bar at the Rovers and a props man had to slide a pint into view. By the time the strike ended after nearly 5 months, the writers were having a hard time trying to find stories for the remaining 6 or 7 cast members. Bizarre stories were dreamt up that included the appearance of a chimpanzee and some performing sealions as they didn’t need Equity cards.

Also in 1961: Paul Cheveski is born; The Cheveski’s emigrate to Canada; Ida Barlow is run over by a bus; Joan Walker marries Gordon Davies; Concepta Riley marries Harry Hewitt; Violet Carson switches on Blackpool Illuminations with a Corrie theme; and Coronation Street is fully networked.

Sneak Preview of next week's Canadian Corrie, August 1 - 5

In brief, here's what's coming up on Canadian screens next week in Coronation Street:

Molly and Tyrone deal with Jack's news. Chesney deals with Owen. The identity thief is discovered, will Norris apologize? John's double life gets even more complicated and involves Julie. Claire is desperate and Ashley digs in. Graeme and David clash violently with near-tragic results. Rosie gives "smoking hot" a whole new meaning.

For more detail and photos, visit the Moosejaw Mercury on Corrie.net.

Where's Amber?

(This post was originally posted by Sunny Jim on the Coronation Street Blog September, 2010, reposted to this blog with permission.)

It must be nearly a year since Amber went off to university in that London. When the character was axed we were told that she'd be back occasionally but never mind the Christmas and Easter breaks, we've had nearly the whole of the summer without her returning to Coronation Street to see her dad. I suppose she must have spent it all in Scandanavia with her mam or back in that London, though with Sunita & Dev back together you'd have thought she'd pop back if only to see her step sister and brother and touch her father up for some cash.

With Ryan Connor about to make a similar departure, can we conclude that the same fate awaits? At least with him out of the way the problem with the embarrassing fake Ryan storyline is more likley to fade from the collective memory.

Links to Corrie interviews

Here's a list of links all together to exclusive interviews that were posted on The Coronation Street Blog between 2009 and 2011 with various actors and media people. They're all quite interesting reading for a Sunday afternoon. As they all older than our current storylines there are no spoilers.

• Corrie writer Jonathan Harvey about his Corrie play
• Behind the scenes with Mark Llewellin
• Q&A with Craig Gazey (Graeme Proctor)
• Rupert Hill aka Jamie Baldwin
• Corrie secrets from Digital Spy
• Jayne Tunnicliffe aka Corrie's Yana
• Q&A with Kate Anthony (Aunty Pam)
• Corrie secrets from Inside Soap magazine
• Grace Dent's soap secrets
• Ian Wylie's Corrie gossip

Kirk Sutherland at X Factor audition

(This post was originally posted by Flaming Nora on the Coronation Street Blog in July, 2010, reposted to this blog with permission.)

Coronation Street character Kirk Sutherland is pictured in today's Sun as one of the hopefuls at the last night of the X Factor auditions. (similar to the  Canadian Idol type of show)

The paper says that actor Andy Whyment was in character as Kirk at the Manchester auditions, but Corrie bosses remained tight-lipped about his appearance - insisting it was for a stunt and NOT for a storyline.

However, over at rival tabloid the Mirror, they said that Kirk turned up for the audition as part of Corrie's 50th anniversary celebrations. It was, but it wasn't part of the storyline , more part of the publicity.

Two Corrie women in trouble

This week in Coronation Street, we've seen Carla's drink problem become much worse than a few too many glasses of wine after a hard day. She keeps a bottle in her desk and got drunk, then planned to drive to the bank for a meeting. Bad move. Peter managed to stop her and get her home. He then spent the night keeping watch over her when she called him up, even further legless. The problem is, she has made him promise to keep all of this from Leanne. As we know, secrets on soaps have a way of coming out of the closet at the worst possible moment to cause the most destruction.

Still, Carla doesn't really think she has a booze problem. She just thinks she has had too much pressure at work lately. Now she's lost Trevor and she's got to buy out Nick from the factory and her finances aren't going to take that one lying down. More and more booze aren't going to help and neither is leaning on Peter if she doesn't accept that she has a problem. Peter's a nice guy and willing to help, knowing what it's like battling booze. He has already seen how it can so easily ruin your life. But supporting someone so closely could create a dependency. Psychiatrists call it "transferrence" when a patient develops emotional feelings for the doctor. Could Carla be in danger of falling for Peter in her hour of need? It's a soap, what do you think?

Leanne has had a love/hate relationship with Nick for a long time. He hurt her badly when they were married so long ago and some of that still hurts. Every now and then, he seems to be able to push that pain button and it all comes flooding back. The problem is, so does the feelings of attraction she used to have. I don't for a minute think she still harbours any real feelings for Nick and I believe she truly does love Peter, no matter how much Nick tries to make her believe that Peter is dragging her down, treating her badly, using her and he, Nick, is her knight in shining armour. That armour might be shiny but he's a Black Knight, not a saviour. Leanne is the one that he let get away in his foolish youth and his arrogance can't stand that.

He thinks he still loves her, but I don't believe that either. It's old, unresolved stuff with a dose of guilt over how he treated her thrown in the mix with an even bigger dose of lust and envy over the happy family Leanne and Peter have with Simon. Now he's managed to get Leanne to manage the bar he's going to open. That's the same bar she and Peter wanted to run and it was her dream. Nick wants to make her dream come true. Powerful stuff. Leanne's looking at a wedding and a committment and she's never been very good at that in the past. Add to that mix, the man whom she used to love and who is making her dream come true and an inbred genetic tendency to stuff things up just when it's going well.

Is she about to get in over her head down that road to temptation? Is she going to risk everything she has ever wanted over a case of cold feet? It's a soap, what do you think?

50 Years Of Corrie In 50 Days

We at Bluenose Corrie Blogger are bringing you a very special series of posts in the run up to the 50th Anniversary of Coronation Street which actually happened on December 9, 2010 but which is only just reaching our screens in Canada mid September. Starting today and running daily until the anniversary episode hits our screens (September 16/19), we are featuring a brilliant run down of each year in the history of the Street, first published on Coronation Street Blog last year and written by Sunny Jim, reposted to this blog with permission. 

We start with Sunny Jim's introduction: 

When Coronation Street was first broadcast on December 9th 1960 not even its creator Tony Warren could have dreamed that the programme would still be entertaining viewers 50 years later. To celebrate this momentous milestone, over the next 50 days we will be counting down to the 50th anniversary by looking at some of the events, characters and places featured in the show over the years and looking behind the scenes at how they came about.

A lot has happened over the years and so we can’t promise to feature all your favourite moments or characters so feel free to chip in with your own memories of the show through the years.

To get you in the mood, why not have a look at that very first episode here, here and here. Also, there’s a summary of the episode here  by our very own Tvor (ed. that's me!).

With many thanks to Daran Little and Sean Egan whose books have been invaluable in compiling this countdown.

Fat Brenda's Cream horn (July 27)

(This post was originally posted by Fat Brenda on the Coronation Street Blog in October, 2010, reposted with permission.)

Hello loves, it's Brenda time.


I'm writing this on the newly repaired laptop from the Kabin, obviously Norris doesn't know. Rita took pity on me prodding away at me orange apple hi-phone and suggested I borrow it.

Imagine me surprise when I went to the doctor's for a repeat prescription of me Regulan IBS medicine and Deirdre flamin' Barlow was behind the desk! I could have hugged her, I was sick of Gail looking down her nose at me and if there's one thing you could never accuse Deirdre of, it's being snooty. We popped out for a ciggie on her break and all she could talk about was Doctor Matt Carter, she thinks all she has to do is ply him with out of date Gipsy Creams from Dev's and she'll be in! She still thinks its the eighties, bless her, when she could lure successful men with a swish of her hair and a glint from her glasses.

But, as Doctor Matt arrives Trevor leaves, it's like life innit; one in, one out. I'll miss Trev and his 'empty yer bin' eyes and I can only hope Ciaran doesn't leave too or there will be a serious shortage of decent trousers in the street.

I noticed that Peter ordered a taxi to Carla's last night but didn't order one to take him home, now I'm not one to gossip but the only thing those two have got in common is booze. Carla's been walking round like the living dead for the past few weeks and after I saw her leaving Dev's with a plastic bag full of bottles I wouldn't be surprised if she's been having liquid lunches, if you know what I mean.

Finally, special mention has to go to our own Gary Windass, he has matured into a very capable young man. I never thought I'd see the day when Eddie produced something decent that isn't mixed in a bowl and baked in an oven, it's no wonder he's proud... but that boil red turtle-neck has got to go!

I'm off now loveys, I've got Kirk coming round for a chat about 'women's trouble' and as you all know, there's nobody had more trouble than me in that department! If you want tweeter me on the into-net web then feel free.

Ooh, I just clicked a button and all Norris and Rita's banking details have flashed up on the screen, now where's me pen, I'm going into-net shopping!

What does Fat Brenda look like?

(This post was originally posted by Seapenguin on the Coronation Street Blog September, 2010, reposted to this blog with permission.)

Has anyone else ever wondered what on earth Fat Brenda looks like? Even better - has anyone ever actually seen her hanging around Streetcars of an evening, giving Eileen "evils" while she grinds out a fag butt with her grubby white stiletto (only guessing)?

Well, now we have one person's "vision" - here's an exclusive painting of Fat Brenda enjoying a fag, by artist "Tony" - or "Toneh" as he likes it to be pronounced (Carla fan).

Actually his name's not Toneh, it's Barry Nicol.

How brilliant is Mikey North on Corrie?

(This post was originally posted by Seapenguin on the Coronation Street Blog in October, 2010.)

As I'm old enough to be Mikey North's nan (depressing), I'm not going to be gross and pass comment on his "manly appeal" - although I'm quite sure he has it in bucket-loads for the younger viewer.

No. It's his acting ability I'm talking about. I'm sure many people like myself who have family in the Forces will have been very moved by last night's episodes of Coronation Street, in which Gary Windass left for Afghanistan. Personally I find it heart-breaking to see young people, who possibly see no other future for themselves in terms of work and opportunity, heading off to fight with that "I'm doing the right thing" look in their eyes. Mikey has the steely-eyed gaze and the set of the jaw down to perfection, and honestly the whole thing was so poignant I had to reach for the hankies when he left. Goodness knows how this story will end - hopefully, hopefully not with Mikey being blown to bits by a roadside bomb. It was awful to see Anna watching the torment of 24 hour news.

I suppose I've got to mention Eddie Windass looking "very David Niven" sporting a snazzy red turtle neck and what looked like Easi-care drip dry black crimplene trousers - lovely! don't stand near any naked flames, Eddie, else you'll go up like a Roman candle. And speaking of "naked" - I'm still not sure if I was hallucinating, or did I really hear him using the words "naked" and "Black Forest Gateau" in the same sentence? I can't think about that any more else I'll have to re-calibrate my medication (again).

Great stuff all round, anyway.

Canadian Corrie spoilers through the links

Most of the time, we try to keep spoilers at a minimum here on the Bluenose Corrie blog. Some people love them, though, so occaisionally, I'll post links to spoiler articles with just the name of the person that they involve.

David Platt
Carla Connor
Charlotte Hoyle
Tina McIntyre
Jim McDonald

Corrie Canada weekly awards: July 18 - 22

VERY Wrong end of the stick award: Gold Star: David got very aggressive with Tina! Eek! Luckily he really doesn't have sexual assault in him, whatever else he is.

She shoots, she scores award: Gold Star: Natasha went out with a very loud bang!

Selfish award: Gold Star: Sian's parents were busier bickering with each other and being totally unconcerned with Sian aside from trying to lay blame.

Neanderthal award: Knuckle dragging star: Nick. He's horrible to Trevor totally without cause.

Crystal Clear award: Boozy Star: As if we couldn't already predict a drink problem for Carla, they have her taking headache pills with vodka. You couldn't be more obvious.

Wardrobe malfunction award: Natasha has been wearing that same dress since she took the overdose. Surely Nick, in his guilt or Audrey could have brought her something else to wear?

Top moment of the week: Eddie digging out a St. Christopher's medal to give to Gary to keep him safe.

Lines of the Week:
Nick "I won't abandon her in her hour of need" (And your hour of guilt)
Natasha to Gail "Back of the net!!!!"
Julie "It's short for 'Jujuniska twinkle toes'. It's a gay thing" Sean "No it's not"
Tyrone to Jack about Sophie "She's Lebanese"
Gail to Nick about Natasha "You've had a lucky escape" (I rather think it's the other way around)
Nick to Carla "we're supposed to be equal partners and you treat me like dirt!" (because you act like a caveman)
Trevor to Carla "I would rather be shifting rubbish than be treated like it!"
Sally to Kevin holding the baby "Aw, you're a natural!" ('Liar'... i think she meant to add)
Natasha to David about Nick "He's got something you'll never have. A Heart" (really? Where?)
Sally "There's never been a law about lesbians. I Googled it" (*snork* I *heart* Sally!)
Rita "If Graeme had another brain cell it would be lonely"
Graeme "I'm a convicted arsonists. I've got to have a housewarming!'

Sunday Corrie Comments, July 24

Rita's always been such a good friend to Sally. Loved the scenes with them in the cafe while Sally was struggling with Sophie's sexuality. They have support groups for family, someone should suggest that for she and Kevin. I think the writers fell down on this a bit, though, I think they should have had Sean offer his support to the teens. He thought he might, but he didn't in the end. It would have been a nice little scene, as well. Sally was so real though, I bet she's like a lot of parents who have just found out. Sian's parents are back again and this time her mother as well as ignoramus daddy. Even her mother didn't seem to want anything to do with her, wanting her bedroom to store stuff in, selfish cow.

Sally is a real trooper though, she'll defend her chick and pretend to be all PC even if she doesn't feel it yet. She will though. She'll get her head around it and be the most sanctimonious liberal minded mother of all lesbians ever! (You know what Sally's like!) She certainly went to bat for Sophie and Sian when it looked like the headmaster was going to kick them out of school for missing so much time.

Audrey, soft old Audrey, took Natasha in and then Nick couldn't help but sniff around Natasha. Why on earth would Nick think it was Natasha ringing his doorbell after she was released from hospital. She nearly went back to him, nearly. He only wanted her back out of guilt, something very clear to Audrey. A dozen pink roses is a lot of guilt! and finally, Natasha realized it too, and gathered her pride, stood tall, and lashed out at all of them except Audrey. Wow! I think i heard every Corrie fan in Canada stand up and cheer when she busted Gail! The factory bees didn't deserve Natasha unleashing Nick's snotty comments on them. And so that's the last we will see of bubble headed Natasha who was sadly underused until this last leaving storyline. Shame that it took that for us to really see Rachel Levasovic shine.

Gail got sacked and rightly so. But it didn't take Deirdre long to swoop in and take her job! LOL at the look on Gail's face!

Nick, in the meantime, is just vile to everyone as usual including Trevor. Personally, I think Nick had that punch coming. So he's left the factory. What about his investment? I see he wasted no time at all pawing at Leanne's skirts while Peter was at an AA meeting. Nick didn't bother apologizing to the staff for the names Natasha said he'd called them, blaming her for making it all up. Carla points out, she's not smart enough to make it all up on her own and those names sound exactly like stuff Nick would say.


Poor Trevor can't even answer the phone in the office now without cutting off someone. I think that's a bit of a push really but it's meant to get on Carla's nerves and that it did. There are most definitely cracks in that relationship. Notice a few remarks from him lately about her drinking? Notice her nearly taking headache pills with vodka? Watch this space. Meanwhile Trev has had enough of ill treatment by her and Nick and it's over. He quits, both of them. He reckons she still has a think for a dead man, Liam. I reckon so, too. She even had him shave his beard and he does look a bit like Liam now, doesn't he?

Sure enough, though, after Trev left, Carla started drinking and ended up almost going to the AA meeting that Peter was attending so now he realizes she's got a problem. He'll probably Good Samaritan her into a tizzy now.


Tina and Graeme moving into Dev's flat, and the way Norris looks at it, they're running away from the scene of the crime. Rita and Norris have both had their credit card details stolen conveniently after Norris had the computer fixed. Not at a qualified shop but someone that put a card up in their window. Norris thinks their details were stolen at the times that Graeme and Tina both came to stay but they've been there weeks before all this happened.

Jack has come back to Coronation Street, purportedly a row with Connie? I have a bad feeling about this. Why did Sally and Kevin babysit when Jack has moved back home? Yeah, ok, Jack probably isn't much good with a nappie. And of course Molly freaked out knowing Kevin was with the baby so that didn't last too long.

Claire's mother has a new fella. All of a sudden, not only does Claire want to move away from Weatherfield, she wants to move to France with her mother and new beau! Ashley isn't going to handle that well. He can barely speak understandable English, can you imagine what he'd do with French?

Tina and Gail meet at Joe's grave. It must be his birthday as it isn't the anniversary of his death or wedding. Anyway, what did you think of David nearly raping Tina? Do you think she gave him mixed signals like he thought? I don't. She was a little drunk and she was being friendly but in his tiny obsessed mind, he thought she was coming on to him. When this story leaked last year of course the sensationalism of David raping Tina was all over the media but I never thought David would have it in him, and of course, he didn't. The main reason is because it would be the end of the character. There would be no coming back from that. now Tina has a secret to keep from Graeme who would beat the living tar out of David if he knew.

Here's a bit more about general impressions i had from that particular show including a chuckle at Gail.

Gary's heading off to war and it's killing Anna. Seems it's unsettled Eddie too though he wouldn't like to show his real emotions. Aw and it looks like he's spending his last night wiht Izzy. I do like them as a couple! Ciaran may be leaving for Glasgow and he's encouraging Ryan to push out on his own too, instead of staying at home to keep his mum company. Seems Ryan was offered a place at uni in Glasgow but he didn't tell Michelle.

Impressions from this week's Corrie in Canada

(This post was originally posted by me on the Coronation Street Blog in October, 2010.)

I just had to add a few notes to my usual weekly sum up of the show because one segment this week particularly had me reacting on a number of scenes:

Deirdre to the Doctor "Would you like a cup of tea and a couple of gypsy creams?" "Thanks, Deirdre, you are a treasure." *smugness* After the way Gail treated Deirdre after the trial, I should imagine Deirdre really enjoyed payback! Gail moaning that nobody is on her side and they're all judging her. Pot or Kettle, this week, Gail?

Nick SO had that thumping coming from Trev. He's been vile to him for weeks! That's the second black eye he's had in less than a year. He might want to rethink that personality.

GO Sally! Boy, did she ever give the Head Teacher what for!

Norris is going to have to eat a very large helping of crow with feathers on very soon once he finds out Graeme and Tina didn't steal his and Rita's credit card details. Can you say "back street computer fixer upper"? 

And Boy, did David ever get the wrong end of the stick! Instead of making peace and being friends, which was where Tina thought they were. Even though all the media was screaming that David was going to rape Tina, I never thought The Powers That Be would go that far with him. He would be unredeemable and would have to go. He's far too popular a character for that. There was a time when I thought he might have had enough anger in him to do something like that, because, in his mind, he would be showing her he loved her (obviously, of course, that's not love) but he's been showing a lot of signs of maturity lately and a lot less resentment and I don't think he would have it in him these days.

Funny and dark storylines both, brilliant stuff!