Liam Bairstow: "Amazing to be considered a role model"

Liam Bairstow, who plays Alex in Coronation Street, was interviewed by one of his biggest fans on BBC Radio 5 Live.

Grace Stockdale was invited to meet actor Liam, cast as Corrie's first ever actor with Down’s Syndrome last year.

And Grace, who also has Down’s Syndrome, got the chance to grill him about his experiences on the long-running show so far for BBC Radio 5 live.

It was conducted during Down’s Syndrome Awareness Week, aimed at improving understanding of the condition which affects around 750 babies in the UK each year.

Liam said:  “Being an actor on the biggest soap, it has been a huge honour to work with everyone here. I’ve got loads of people supporting me. My advice to others would be don’t be nervous, because it takes guts to be on TV.”

You can listen to - and watch - the interview here.




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An Outcry over what Sally said to Alex in the Cafe.

(This post was originally posted by Ruth Owen on the Coronation Street Blog in January 2016.)




There's a bit of a furore broken out from last night's episode. It concerns a moment so brief that it might have been missed by many viewers. Sally was ordering a sandwich in the cafe and it is Alex who serves her. She says to Alex, 'Are you enjoying working here? He replies, 'Great.'
Sally then says,' Nice you've got a job.'  It was this response which has upset so many people. Some disability campaigners say that Coronation Street was showing itself to be anti - employment for disabled people. I believe they are wrong.

What Coronation Street was intending to do was to show Sally's lack of awareness, sensitivity and inhumanity. Sally is renowned for her snobbery, her putting her foot(feet?) in it and, despite her belief in her own unsurpassable abilities, she is often wrong. May I refer you to the occasion of the Vienneta and the red sofa and the Banksy. Social climbing and saying an inappropriate few words, is what Sally does and is part of the mismatch between her perception of herself and the perception others have of her. For instance, recently  her comments to Anna about having a date 'at your age,' were crass, patronising and downright rude.

Her bid to be a councillor, amusing though it is, demonstrates Sally's desire to climb the rungs towards the top,  in her view, of  Weatherfield's ladder. She sees Ken as a fellow intellectual, but doesn't realise that she will never be in his league.

Maybe the point was made too subtly. We needed it to be more obvious that Sally was in the wrong and that there is no reason on this earth why a person of any often marginalised group should be more grateful for a job than anyone else, including Sally Metcalfe.



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Where's Alex?

Originally published on The State of the Street. Reposted with permission.

Inspired by an anonymous comment here.

Nessa is the mother of Alex, a 28 year old lad with Down's Syndrome. He's pretty independent and often seemed to cause his mother worry when he'd go off on his own after an argument with her. He'd sometimes end up at his Auntie Cathy's house, looking for a sympathetic smile. We first met him under those circumstances. Cathy let her sister know where he was and that he was safe. Alex showed up again a few weeks later and Nessa came to fetch him that time.

It wasn't the first or the last time Alex would go walkabout, much to his mother's chagrin even if he often complained and moaned that he was 28, after all. And mostly, other than having to be told more than once that he should at least let his mother know where he is and if he's coming home, he seemed capable of looking after himself.

Enter Ken Barlow and Nessa's new crusade to bag herself a new man. Yet another one, if Cathy is to be believed. Seems Nessa regards men like children regard sweets in the candy store window. She just can't resist. So where's Alex now? So much for Nessa's over protectiveness.

The continuity of this is really doing my head in. The first time Alex came to see Cathy, she sent him home on the train. The train, people. And that tells me that Nessa lives a little distance away, perhaps not hours, but in an area enough of a distance from Weatherfield/Manchester to be using faster transport than a bus.

Now, Nessa is working at the salon and is quickly getting her feet under Ken's table. Is she taking the train every day to commute to her job? I know people do that, but there's been no mention of it.

And what about Alex? Nessa is so focussed on Ken that she must be leaving Alex to his own devices pretty much all the time, not just in the daytime while she works, but in her leisure hours, too, because she's with Ken a lot of the time, even overnight, now. But still, no Alex. No messages, no texts. I wonder if she let him know that she wasn't going to be coming home?  She doesn't seem to be the overprotective, anxious mother now. I would love to see Alex come looking for her because she didn't come home and didn't let him know she was safe! Tit for tat, right?

Why isn't Alex invited to a meal now and then with the rest of the Barlow family? What about Christmas? If Nessa is going to be part of the Barlow Christmas, will we see Alex, too? Inquiring minds want to know why the Powers That Be seem to have dropped the ball on this. Alex appears to have been used to introduce Nessa into Ken's world and now he's been forgotten.





Deirdre: A Life on Coronation Street - official ITV tribute to a soap icon. Available here.


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