Corrie - 50th Anniversary

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The Coronation Street: A Knight's Tale DVD goes on sale on November 1

[SpursFan1902]

Can't wait!

[Twirley]

Ah...just looking at the DVD cover it looks like a good watch. Hahaha.

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This is pretty interesting - I just read the 1971 bit and finally found out why the other side of Coronation Street is as it is, rather than terraced houses. I've wondered about that for years.... haha

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Coronation Street's 50 Years, 50 Moments
Jason Nicholls
17/11/2010
RapidTalent

Over the last few weeks, viewers have been voting to choose which storyline from the soap’s history will be crowned the ultimate Coronation Street moment. Now, in two one hour documentaries featuring interviews with cast members past and present, including William Roache, Julie Goodyear, Johnny Briggs, Simon Gregson and Wendi Peters, the results will be revealed.

Narrated by Victoria Wood, the programmes will reveal the stories behind Corrie’s 50 greatest moments from a list which was compiled by an expert panel including Coronation Street creator Tony Warren, William Roache and The Guardian’s TV critic and lifelong Corrie fan Nancy Banks-Smith.

The shows will feature all the classic highlights since the very beginning of the soap in 1960, from the highly emotional scenes featuring the death of Mike Baldwin, to the hilarity of Ken Barlow teaching French to Raquel, and from the front page news of Deirdre Rachid’s imprisonment, to the gripping reign of terror wreaked by Richard Hillman.

Plus, interviews with cast members, producers and writers reveal the inside track on how some of the most explosive, amusing and heartfelt scenes were shot and the tricks of the trade used to make them work.

Talking about the moment when the Battersby’s hot tub fell through their living room ceiling, Wendi Peters, who played Cilla Battersby, says: “When we first got the scripts I thought, ‘How are they going to do this? And what am I going to be wearing?’”

In the scene, Les and Cilla are enjoying a pizza in the tub when Chesney’s dog jumps in and the weight forces the tub through the floor into their living room. Wendi explains that she and Bruce Jones, who played Les, had to have carpet under them and on their knees to protect them when the dog jumped in. She adds: “It was just horrible. We were begging the dog to jump in and he wouldn’t. In the end the trainer had to get in the bath to get him to jump in.”

Another moment featured in the shows is Mike Baldwin’s wedding to Linda Sykes. At the wedding Mike’s long-lost son Mark Redman revealed to his father that he had been having an affair with his bride.

Paul Fox, who played Mark, explains to the show how difficult it was pretending to be drunk for the scenes. He says: “Drunk scenes are always a little weird, I’m always a little wary of playing them because there’s a tendency to overplay them. A little inside trick is to have a little sip of something which probably releases some sort of endorphin or something that reminds you of what it’s like to feel drunk.”

Sally Dynevor, Michael Le Vell and Denise Welch also reveal in the documentary what it was like to work on the storyline which saw Kevin and Sally’s perfect marriage rocked by his affair with barmaid Natalie Horrocks.

Sally says: “Kevin having an affair was such a shock. They were so happy. Sally and Kevin had been this really happy couple for 10 years, it was all going really nicely and then suddenly Natalie came along and everything changed. I’d just come back form having my son and it was my first storyline, so I did come in with a bang and it was brilliant. It completely changed Sally and Kevin’s relationship.”

Coronation Street: 50 Years, 50 Moments, features the clip of when Sally tracked Kevin down at Natalie’s house and confronted him. Denise says: “Sally had said to Michael, ‘I may want to hit you,’ And he said, ‘Go ahead.’” Michael adds: “Sally certainly didn’t hold back the punches.”

During the storyline, Sally also got to slap Natalie. Denise adds: “My face was like a cartoon. The director was very crafty and told Sally to catch me off guard a little bit so I didn’t know what was coming.”

And, Julie Goodyear explains what it was like filming her final scenes for the soap when her character, Bet Gilroy, left the Rovers and the street for a better life in Tenerife. Julie says: “She was going off into the sunshine and anything other than that, I couldn’t have coped with, and I knew the viewers couldn’t. They wanted her to go to Tenerife.”

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Richard Bacon - Coronation Street Special
In this 85 minute radio show (edited for news etc) Richard Bacon visits the Corrie set and speaks to some of the main characters, production staff and Tony Warren, the original creator.

download 85mb mp3

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Radio Times' Corrie special

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Coronation Street stars go under the hammer
November 26, 2010

A date with Dev and a cobble from the Street were just two of the items up for grabs at a charity fundraiser for Coronation Street’s 50th Anniversary Appeal.

The stars were out in force for the event which saw more than £30,000 raised from the main auction, with more to be added from the night’s raffle and silent auction, for the three charities nominated by the cast – The Christie, Cancer Research and the NSPCC.

Doing their bit, Antony Cotton (Sean Tully) offered a guided tour of the Street and Jimmi Harkishin’s (Dev) offer of dinner brought in the cash as the pair ‘sold’ themselves, to two bidders each, for the good cause. And Craig Gazey got in on the act too as a surprise lot. The actor, who plays Graeme Proctor, had only popped in after filming to show his support and ended up auctioning himself off. “On the first bid there were 10 hands up,” he tells me after his sale. “So that was nice.”

Also there on the night, which was held at the Great John Street Hotel, was Cherylee Houston (Izzy Armstrong) and the show’s executive producer Kieran Roberts. There was plenty of entertainment with Katherine Kelly (Becky McDonald) and Debbie Rush (Anna Windass) showing off their vocal talents, with Debbie telling me she stepped in at short notice to sing I Don’t Know How To Love Him from Jesus Christ Superstar. And she was a little nervous before her number as she tells me: “I do like singing but the nerves get the better of me. Why, when I’m in front of millions every week, I have no idea.” Going one extra was Andy Whyment, who plays Kirk Sutherland, who sang not only Van Morrison’s Brown Eyed Girl but also The Power of Love by Huey Lewis.

The Diary must add our congratulations as Andy became a dad for the second time six weeks ago with the arrival of baby Hollie. And despite not having a gavel, Jennie McAlpine (Fizz) did sterling work as she auctioned off the lots alongside Antony and Key 103’s Darren Proctor. “I much prefer standing up and doing things in front of a microphone,” she tells me. “I feel comfier. It’s much less scary acting on Coronation Street.”

And commenting on the support the auction received she adds: “You don’t take it for granted in this economic climate with all the things you see in the news every day. When people still come out and spend their money I think you appreciate it more than ever.”

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These are pages from The Sun's tv guide - sadly it's printed on pretty low quality paper.

[SpursFan1902]

What a great little layout...someone's job is secure for a day or two!

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Happy birthday, chuck! Fifty years of a Northern TV legend
For 50 years, it has enthralled a nation with its hotpot of tears, drama and laughs. Tony Livesey salutes Coronation Street
5 December 2010
The Independent

Marilyn Monroe never came to Nelson, Lancashire in the early 1970s. Neither did Dietrich, Princess Grace or any of Pan's People, despite the obvious lure of one of the first Arndale Centres. But it didn't matter. Because one summer's day at the dilapidated, corrugated home of Nelson FC – and part-time stock car track – she arrived.

She who must be lusted after, gossiped about, fought over and have her fags lit by every local handsome stud; the Northern amalgam of those Hollywood or capital creations not fit to strap on her slingbacks. Two thousand of us – mostly unwashed – at the opening of Nelson Gala almost 40 years ago craned our necks to see. There she was. Waving. Just behind Jimmy Clitheroe. Clad, neck to toe, in fur. Her, not him. A gasp erupted as Elsie Tanner arrived centre stage. Where she belonged. The Queen would not have been more wanted at that point.

Like Our Brian, Our Ashley, Our Gail and Our Vera, this was Our Royalty. Pat Phoenix, for it was she, had been subsumed by a character she played so precisely and bitchily that her real name had little impact on us. It was Elsie, not Pat, who was alive and well... and among us. The true, Wagner-walloping power of Coronation Street came home to me that afternoon, a power and influence way beyond the reach of today's fame-craving X Factor generation.

These people are legends, ladies and gentlemen, legends. All of them. From Ray Langton, whose devotion to duty included seducing Deirdre while she wore spectacles that even Ted Moult would not have been able to draughtproof, to the extra in the hairdressers who reads Hello with tin foil in her hair while Audrey plots a £5-an-hour tryst with a gigolo.

Critics of Corrie say that its popularity relies on its scheduling. It's there, on ITV, every week, rain or shine, Ant or Dec. It has, they say, won us over by osmosis. Can that be true? Cliff Richard has been in my earhole since I was a foetus but I don't turn on the telly every Monday night to see if he's bought a barm cake at Roy's Rolls. The same critics say that the soap's plaintive theme tune has a Pavlovian effect on a a nation. Maybe so. But if the time slots and the titles are soothingly predictable, then the lives within are not. Just like ours.

One moment you're dating the Street's flame-haired songstress, formerly of the cruise ships, currently of The Kabin. The next, you're hit – head-on, mind – by a 'lectric tram to Bispham. One moment you're the skivvy at the Rovers, the butt of all jokes, the Mrs Mop with lipstick applied in the dark and a blue overcoat that Columbo rejected. The next, you're safely home in the arms of your Stan, whose kisses taste sweetly of haddock and chips.

Is it a northern thing? It's certainly a northern phenomenon. Fifty years old with hundreds of faces, some in headscarves, some in pearls. And some looking beautiful in both. It's ITV's regional accent, an accent, by the way, I've identified with all my life. Ashley's wife Claire comes from my hometown of Burnley. Hayley Cropper, he hails from five miles away, while Chesney supports the Clarets, as I do. But don't get the idea the North is a closed shop.

Corrie has made us universal. Eddie Waring made it on to BBC2, for goodness' sake! These people don't engage us because they keep pigeons, eat hot-pots or model their earrings on Blackpool illuminations like Bet Lynch or Liz. They engage us because they live our lives in all their glory – and here comes the brilliance – in all their mundanity too. Love triangles with Dev? Or cheese triangles at Dev's? Take your pick. Better still, enjoy both, all within the same half-hour.

Soap boffins will tell you the programme holds a mirror to our lives. Well it does, but it's a Daily Mirror, complete with an unfinished crossword by Kirk, moistened with a dab of Fred Gee drool and a tear from Mavis, emotionally at odds whether to give herself bodily to paper-clip king Derek ... or have a perm.

Corrie has been a milestone along my life. The moment Ernie Bishop was gunned down accidentally by blaggers in his own office was ingrained on my schoolboy mind. Forget JFK. Where were you when Emily's bespectacled, side-burned hunk of love got wasted?

It's a philosophical instrument to be savoured and digested. Who can forget the universal relevance of Percy Sugden and his budgie Ringo? How about this for a nugget as Percy shouted: "Stress! Stress! Until you've made suet pudding for Monty under shellfire you'll know nothing about stress!"

It's a reminder of a generation long gone. For Ena Sharples read my Aunt Agnes. To be kept in line as kids, we all needed a matriarch who looked capable of eating us.

It's an Eddie Yeats-sized warning. Let one bin-man into your house and his string vests will be hanging over your bath for the next 10 years.

It's a collection of curiosities and keepsakes. Like Alf Roberts. He was the only man I ever saw on the television, apart from Windy Miller, who never removed his hat. Fittingly for a man of his size, it was the pork pie variety. Don't you just love that attention to detail?

Most of all though, the cobbles provide a voyeur's delight. When Mike, Ken and Deirdre were swapping duvets, the nation held its breath and devoured every moment. Never before had a three-way tug of love transfixed everyone from the Prime Minister to the landlords of empty pubs, bemoaning the fact their regulars wouldn't turn up to sup until they'd turned off that's night's Street.

It is the same today. For Mike, Ken and Deirdre, read Molly, Tyrone and Kevin. Throw in a baby of dubious parentage for added value. Every furtive look, every rueful, shameful moment is captured on the faces of three brilliant young actors (Well, Kevin's no spring chicken but he does look younger without that ferret on his top lip).

I don't subscribe to the school of thought that cheapens soap stars in the presence of their more illustrious movie counterparts.In my idle moments, I don't find myself caring too much about Tom Cruise. Eileen Grimshaw on the other hand, I'm passionate about.

I shared a lift with Ken Barlow recently at the North's Royal Television Society Awards. With him on the 30th floor of the Hilton Hotel was a well-set man with a smiley face and a familiar air. To my eternal shame now, I couldn't quite put a name to the face, although I got the impression he recognised me from regional television.

Later, as this man collected an award and said it was his proudest moment because the award reflected the views of his northern peers, I realised it was Tony Warren, the creator of this jewel of a programme. The man whose genius and legacy has put hundreds of famous names to hundreds of ordinary faces, ordinary until they were granted the gift of a Coronation Street moniker.

As I wandered past Tony towards the one lift for all of us bow-tied guests, I cracked a gag comparing the scene to The Towering Inferno. He smiled politely. I was lucky I got that. After all, with 50 years of The Street and a grateful nation hanging on to his and his descendants' every word, there's nothing at all you can teach this man about blockbusters.

Tony Livesey broadcasts on BBC Radio 5 live Monday to Thursday, 10.30pm-1am. 5 live's family week starts tomorrow

The 70s

Ratings flag, from a mid-60s high of 20 million to eight million in 1973. Phoenix walks out (for a spell). Carson takes ill (for a spell). Which clears the way for some lesser faces, such as Gail Potter, Vera Duckworth and Mike Baldwin. It in't half glum, though, chuck. Bill Podmore, a former comedy producer, brings a bit of fun back with characters like Eddie Yeats and Jack Duckworth.

Tracy is born to Deirdre Langton in 1977 and is on the Street to this day. The little 'un nearly meets her end when a lorry crashes into the Rovers in 1979. (A pity, the uncharitable might say of the slattern).

The 60s

Kenneth Barlow wins a place at university, and gets where one of soap's longest-running characters has always been – above himself. He marries Valerie, the first of four wives, having twins soon after. The Purge of 1964 puts paid to several much-loved characters, including Martha Longhurst. In protest, Ena Sharples (Violet Carson) nearly leaves the Rovers Return's snug for good.

Elsie Tanner – "the sexiest thing on television", according to James Callaghan – cocks a snook at Ena and fellow harridans and takes a husband.

The 80s

Never mind Ken marrying Deirdre in 1981 (two days before some wedding down south), Brookside has swearing and Scousers, and EastEnders has Cockneys and – ee! – gay characters. Out go Elsie and Ena, and in come Bet Lynch, Percy Sugden and thumping storylines: Ken and Mike Baldwin feud over Deirdre! Fire at the Rovers!

It works – when Alan Bradley meets his death under a Blackpool tram in 1989, 26.9 million tune in to wish him good riddance.

The 90s

You can't move for issues round here, love... transsexuals, yuppies, drug-dealers, eco-warriors and the show's first proper non-white family (the Desais), following criticism of content and casting.

Bet Lynch calls time at the Rovers in 1995, and two years later it's curtains for Percy Sugden, Thelma Barlow and a clutch of others on producer's Brian Park's first day. The decade's biggest storyline is ever-suffering Deirdre's imprisonment: "Free the Weatherfield One!"

The noughties

Corrie retreats into gentle storylines and humour – apart from that wrong 'un Richard Hillman. After a couple of murders and a few other attempts, Hillman tries to bump off his wife Gail, and family in an episode watched by nearly 20 million.

Vera Duckworth dies in 2007 followed, this last month, by her layabout husband, Jack. All the talk's of the tram crash to mark the 50th anniversary, killing off four main characters. Coronation Street – who'd want to live there, pet?

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EastEnders to give Coronation Street on-screen nod
01/12/2010

EastEnders is to include a reference to Coronation Street on screen as a tribute to the Weatherfield soap, which turns 50 this year. Dot Branning (June Brown) will tell Kat Moon (Jessie Wallace) she loves the ITV1 show. The washerwoman tells her she's on her way home to open a bag of marshmallows, share them with Jim and watch Coronation Street.

The December 9 episode of the Walford serial will screen at 7.30pm on BBC One before the rival channel broadcasts an hour-long episode of Coronation Street to mark its golden anniversary. An EastEnders insider told the Sun: "We did it as a tribute. Hopefully they will return the favour when we turn 50!".

It is thought to be the first time a soap has given a nod to a rival.

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Coronation Street didn't grab me - but 50 years on I guess I was wrong
Ken Irwin,
Daily Mirror
8/12/2010

On December 9, 1960, I watched the very first episode of Coronation Street. I was quite puzzled. Then, after the second episode, I wrote in my column as a Daily Mirror TV critic: “Young scriptwriter Tony Warren claims to have spent a couple of months going around meeting ‘the ordinary people’ of the North before he wrote the first episode of Granada’s serial Coronation Street.

“Frankly, I can’t believe it. If he did, he certainly spent his time with the wrong folk. For there is little reality in his new serial which, apparently, we will have to suffer twice a week. The programme is doomed from the outset – with its dreary signature tune and grim scene of a row of terraced houses and smoking chimneys.”

A couple of weeks later I had to admit I had been “flooded with letters from viewers telling me that this IS life in some streets in the North”.

Coronation Street (or Corrie, as it is now dreadfully referred to) has haunted me for 50 years. Even when I tried, I couldn’t get away from it. In 1963, when I wrote another feature headlined “Haven’t We Just About Had Enough of Coronation Street anyway?” Granada were so annoyed that they took a news camera team on to the streets of Manchester to ask passers-by: “What do you think of Ken Irwin?”

My criticism was always honest and, I think, fair. I went on to make friends with many of the cast. Pat Phoenix used to send me a card on each anniversary of the show, writing “Ha, ha. Do you remember your first crit, Ken?” We’d even have lunch occasionally, just so she could have a good laugh with me. We remained great friends up to her untimely death.

In my defence, that first programme – in black and white – was dreadfully dreary. And if anyone had suggested that the show would be a runaway success and would be on screen for 50 years, they would have sent for the men in white coats to take you away! Even Granada’s boss, Sidney Bernstein, hated it, thought it was boring and had to be talked into approving its meagre budget in the first place.

Originally, it was only scheduled for 13 episodes, to be screened in Granada’s Northern region. But they made it a twice-weekly show and other ITV stations took it. Warren wrote only the first dozen scripts. A new producer and a well-oiled scriptwriting team took over, and it wasn’t long before Warren walked out.

One day he burnt all copies of his original Street scripts. He explained to me later: “I did it out of sheer frustration. I was very resentful.” After Granada removed his name from the credits, Tony said in 1965: “I’m only too happy not to have my name associated with the programme as it is today. ” So, you see, it hasn’t always been such a happy ship!

Before my retirement – as the Mirror’s TV and Showbiz Editor – I spent nearly 4O years writing about The Street. So I know where lots of the skeletons were buried!

My top 10 characters

PAT PHOENIX: ELSIE TANNER

Pat Phoenix was THE star of The Street. Nobody was like her. She made the rest of the cast look like also-rans. We called her the Joan Crawford of Manchester - and she loved it. She lived in a big house and had limousines and a chauffeur.

It was me Pat phoned when she walked out. "I'm fed up walking into the Rovers and asking for a gin and tonic," she said. I recall her once telling me about an unknown MP called Tony Blair. "He's my son-in-law, and he's going to be Prime Minister," she boasted. After living with actor Tony Booth (father of Cherie 1 Blair) for years, she married him in her hospital bed just a few days before she died of cancer, in 1986.

I was away on holiday in Cornwall when she died. I got a call from the office, and I had to phone over her obituary from a public phone box in St. Ives. It was one of the saddest days of my working life.

JEAN ALEXANDER: HILDA OGDEN

Hilda Ogden was the best character ever devised. Jean Alexander, who played her for 23 years, is lovely. One of the few members of the cast who never "played herself", Hilda Ogden couldn't have been more different to Jean.

Over the years, we became great friends. I broke the story of Jean quitting, because a couple of years after Bernard Youens died she missed Stan, and felt she'd had enough of Hilda.

We had a Mirror photographer join Jean on the train from her home in Southport to Manchester for her last ever day. And I met her at the studios at 9am with a bottle of champagne and some flowers, in thanks for the years of joy and pleasure she brought viewers. She and I still exchange Christmas cards every year.

VIOLET CARSON: ENA SHARPLES

Vi Carson received an OBE in 1965. "It was the proudest moment of my life when I met the Queen," she told me. "I don't know why I was singled out, but I'd like to think it was for all I did, not just Ena Sharples."

A lot of people were scared of Vi. She didn't get on with Pat Phoenix, because they both thought they were the show's main star. Vi lived in Blackpool and travelled to Manchester every day. She would go back home on the 5.50pm train every night. And she didn't like being kept late.

Once, when the Manchester-to-Blackpool train earned a reputation for running late, Vi complained to British Rail. Next day, a railway official announced: "The trains will be more punctual in future." "Staff have only to see me and things start moving. Once I'm in my seat, whistles are blown and the train leaves on time," I recall her telling me over some tea and cakes.

DORIS SPEED: ANNIE WALKER

Doris Speed was superb as Rovers Return landlady Annie Walker. Very much underrated as an actress, she'd been in the theatre and radio for years, but was still unknown before The Street - chosen because Tony Warren worked with her when he was a radio child actor.

Doris lied about her age for years, pretending she was 20 years younger than she really was. She cared for her parents until they died and never got married. "Not because I never wanted to, but because I set too high a standard on the man I would like," she told me.

She lived in a modest semi in Chorltoncum-Hardy. "When you have been poor all your life, you don't suddenly change and live like a queen," she would say. "I'm not mean, but I find it difficult to spend a lot of cash." Even when she was a big star, she would disguise herself at the sales. "And I've been known to kick and scramble through a scrum to get my hands on the best bargains," she said.

BERNARD YOUENS: STAN OGDEN

Bernard Youens was a real gentleman and he loved a pint. When the offer of an audition came up for the first episode of The Street, he said 'no'. He was a staff announcer with Granada TV, the first steady job he'd had for years after working as a bread salesman, van driver and pub owner. He'd seen too many TV shows come and go, so he stuck to it. A year later, he was kicking himself after The Street became the No 1 show.

He thought his chance had gone. But then, in 1963, he got another opportunity - when he teamed up with Jean Alexander and brought in a new family, the awful Ogdens. Stan and Hilda became the best double act ever created for TV, a sheer joy to watch - and went on for 20 glorious years, until Bernard took ill and died, in 1984.

5 BILL TARMEY AND LIZ DAWN: JACK AND VERA DUCKWORTH

Bill Tarmey and Liz Dawn were both club singers before they landed the husband-andwife roles of Jack and Vera Duckworth. In a clever way, they took over from Stan and Hilda to become The Street's new warring couple. They were more comedy than drama, but some of their scenes together remain classic and unforgettable TV.

I had lunch with Bill soon after he came back to The Street after surgery for his first heart attack. "The doctors have warned me I must never smoke again," he told me. But he did. He used to pinch a fag for a quiet smoke out of sight of the cameras. He found it virtually impossible to give up - and scripts that required Jack to chain smoke didn't help.

Liz Dawn was always good for a laugh. I remember having drinks with her and the late comedian Dustin Gee in the posh Midland Hotel, Manchester. It all got a bit out of hand and Liz ended up plonking Vera's wig on my head. Dustin nearly fell off his bar stool, laughing. She once brought a beautiful fan back from Spain for my daughter. She's now quite ill. I wish Liz well.

JULIE GOODYEAR: BET LYNCH

When Julie Goodyear first appeared in The Street, as brassy barmaid Bet Lynch, she was the busty peroxide blonde, with long legs and a tiny mini-skirt. Never a great actress, Julie was determined to be a star. She modelled herself on Elsie Tanner. After Pat Phoenix left, Julie came into her own and took over as The Street's vamp.

Outrageous in many ways, Julie had a sad private life, with several disastrous marriages. After leaving, she inevitably went into the pantomime business.

ARTHUR LOWE: LEONARD SWINDLEY

Arthur Lowe hated being on The Street. Ask him what he thought about the programme or Leonard Swindley - the character he played on and off for six years - and he'd splutter and fume. As far as he was concerned, Mr Swindley was just another role after a long professional career spent in the theatre.

He shunned publicity, agreed to very few media interviews and from the very start insisted on working only six months at a time on Corrie. Then he would have six months off because he was determined not to become typecast. "The public can be very stupid," he once told me. "Just because they see you on the box, some of them think this gives them the right to come and talk to you, which is ridiculous." Somehow we became quite good friends.

He famously went on to play Captain Mainwaring in BBC1's Dad's Army and I went on location many times with him. Everyone thought he was a crusty old devil. But when you got to know him, Arthur was a shy but very amiable chap.

9 PETER ADAMSON: LEN FAIRCLOUGH

With Peter Adamson what you saw was what you got. He earned a reputation as The Street's tough guy - and away from the studios he was involved in drunken fights. Peter had a drink problem and was once thrown off the set after he turned up drunk and couldn't remember his lines. He was sent home and banned from the set for two months by Granada.

It was to me that he first poured out his heart about his drink problem. "They've thrown the book at me and banned me from working," he told me. "I've joined Alcoholics Anonymous to sort myself out." He had a long spell when he was on the wagon. But it all ended badly for Peter when he ended up in court accused of indecent assault on two little girls in a swimming baths. He was acquitted but sacked from Corrie and never really worked again.

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'Weatherfield Gazette' marks Street's 50th birthday
by Paul Linford

Coronation Street's fictional local paper The Weatherfield Gazette is hitting the streets of Manchester today to mark the soap's 50th anniversary. The newspaper is being published today as a 32-page souvenir supplement to the Manchester Evening News, with the backing of ITV.

The paper tells the story of the most dramatic week in the Street's history as one-time editor Ken Barlow gives his views on the devastation caused by Monday's tram crash which destroyed the viaduct, the Corner Shop and the Kabin. Inside there are exclusive interviews with cast members including Helen Worth (Gail) Sue Nicholls (Audrey) and Bev Callard (Liz). The title will also feature a look back at some of the villains who have had the soap’s fans on the edge of their seats over the years, including Alan Bradley and Richard Hillman.

Michael Le Vell and Sally Dynevor (Kevin and Sally Webster) talk about their relationship on-screen and how long they’ve known each other off-screen and Barbara Knox, who plays Rita, reveals how she was originally only due to appear in one episode.

Creator and producer Tony Warren and Phil Collinson talk about life behind the scenes and there is an amazing picture gallery of all 51 barmaids who have so far pulled pints in The Rovers Return.

The soap’s fans can test their Street-cred knowledge with a special crossword and the ultimate Coronation Street quiz and the Gazette also features a comprehensive list of all the births, marriages and deaths the UK’s favourite street has witnessed over the past half century.

MEN Media managing editor Eamonn O'Neal said: "We're delighted to have worked closely with ITV to bring the Weatherfield Gazette to life. "Printing the local paper of UK television’s oldest and best-known soap is a real privilege and we’re honoured to be part of this iconic show’s 50th anniversary celebrations."

Coronation Street fans who don't live in Manchester will also have the chance to order a copy of the souvenir supplement online at: www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk