Coronation Street - November 1978

[@laurenreed4522]

Thank you again. I feel like a kid in a sweet shop, I'm spoilt for choice, I don't know where to start

[@bevtilbrook1675]

Love it, just like a sweet shop.

[@glorysengo6289]

THANK YOU AGAIN. I FEEL LIKE A KID IN A SWEET SHOP, I’M SPOILT FOR CHOICE. I DON’T KNOW WHERE TO START BROTHER GLORY SENGO.

[@SueGarden]

Blanche have comment I think it was the long time she left untill 1996 then 2000😮

[@wretch1]

Jean Alexander always managed to steal every scene lol. Brilliant actress.

[@DavidRenwick-t1e]

Not when she was in a scene with Doris Speed she didn't!

[@MarcoNegrisEye]

@@DavidRenwick-t1e don't be daft, Annie Walker wasn't a patch on Hilda 😂

[@chicagogyrl4846]

The Langdon’s are the only reason I watch this, and I skip over most everything else! The Langdon’s is the reason this show survived! Every one and everything else on this show is boring and stupid!

[@MarcoNegrisEye]

@@chicagogyrl4846 here, I think you forgot this... 🎣 😂

[@keriannandrews7362]

Classic Coranation street was bloody brilliant, compared to the story line now 🎉and don’t everyone agree 🎉Annie Walker ,brought a little class to the show 🎉 RIP to all the people who have passed away from the show,that was ❤

[@glamdolly30]

Yes, sad that so many of the cast are no longer with us, but what a wonderful legacy of superb performances they left for us to enjoy.

[@Lytton333]

I have to say, Bet Lynch is utterly magnificent. I could listen to her saucy stream of consciousness all day.

[@michellefalleur960]

... She has such a brilliant delivery of her lines, no one quite like her.

[@R31922]

Amen to that.

[@geocasey6015]

Russell Brand of the 70s

[@glamdolly30]

@@geocasey6015 What a horrible insult to the great Julie Goodyear and the superb Corrie scriptwriters!

[@geocasey6015]

@@glamdolly30 I meant the hair! Apologies to Julie!

[@allysonaustin]

I was 10 years old when these episodes went out and I remember all the characters and their names. What is striking, watching as an adult, is the writing. Rita Fairclough - 'Principles are like a trapdoor, stand on them and you fall through'..... a comment made in a working class corner shop, such a gem on life. The scene where Blanche is trying to convince Dierdre to stay in her marriage was like an Alan Bennett scene, two women, sat at the kitchen table with two things between them - the ubiquitous 'gold' carriage clock, a sign of working class aspirational retirement and a ham butty on white bread without a plate, looking wilted and flat.... I almost passed over this as old TV soap rubbish - but honesly, this is just GOLD.

[@prd1073]

I was two months past 10 years old too, and yes, it’s acting and script writing gold.

[@professionalgun6674]

Get settled in for November 1978 and enjoy.

[@pheezy1970]

The joy you have given myself and others by uploading these ( again ,EY!) . Brings me back to a time when I was 8 and things were simple 💜🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[@andywright3450]

Hey you got any more episodes too put on please

[@junesymonds8340]

Thank you ☕🍰❤

[@sherylbarker9465]

Thankyou so much

[@peterraimondi9569]

PG66 is great for uploading all of these precious videos.....

[@Nobodycares668]

Thank you for these. When you get engrossed its like youre back in 1978

[@bsaunders5271]

Sometimes I wish I was.

[@paullynton-green6570]

If only

[@PaulDoe79]

Thank you so much for these videos. My mother was British and she passed recently. Watching these episodes makes me feel closer to her as she loved this show.

[@notonyournelly5475]

2.20...Eddie says let's hope she doesn't live until she is 90.. That's exactly how old she was when she died!!

[@lindarowe8550]

Professional gun 66 you're great

[@michellefalleur960]

Yes, thank you so much, these are Brilliant to have a bit of a wallow in, and go back in time, to when I was happy !

[@acesigma06]

Watching November 1978, In November 2021

[@lawrencejhutchinson]

Ray and Deirdre reunited on Anne Kirkbride's This Is Your Life - it was the highlight of the show!

[@bsaunders5271]

It was great, but Anne Kirkbride later stated she was off her face on valium at the time, and couldn't feel any emotions, just numbness.

[@paullynton-green6570]

Why was she on valium?was she ill?

[@debndavid]

These are fantastic when coronation street was brilliant acting and good story lines

[@clarkpatient7950]

Ena was so lovely to Deirdre after she broke up with Ray. I love that they mellowed her character

[@SuzyQ334]

Stan and Hilda were the best,

[@Lucy0809]

No worst decision to kill off Martha for these idiots-the producers even admitted this

[@damiencrowley2506]

Lucy Badman most viewers would disagree as Stan and Hilda were the most popular couple and Hilda won the award for best soap character of all time .

[@glamdolly30]

2:51:55 Alf Roberts looking to the left at the director for his cue to hand that extra her change!

[@tonyhancock3912]

I blame the editor for that one 😁

[@anothercomment]

An Acorn Antiques moment!

[@glamdolly30]

@@anothercomment HA! Totally!

[@02bher1]

Tracy is the crabbiest baby I've ever seen. Love going back in time.

[@glamdolly30]

Poor little mite was always crying for her mum - you sometimes saw her reaching out to her, behind the camera!

[@franceshaypenny8481]

She's in her mid-forties now! She was a beautiful baby.

[@bsaunders5271]

I hate hearing her cry, it's the cry of a little child who can see her real mum just out of camera shot and is desperate to reach her. It's just plain awful. As a mother myself I can hardly stand it.

[@blipblip88]

I started watching Coronation Street some time in the mid 80s and always was charmed by the host of characters, the mix of drama and humor. What strikes me is that, here I am, watching from a few years prior to where I started, and still find all that charm very accessable-even though I barely know the deeper plotline. Thank uou Prof -how on earth did you get all these old videos?! LOL. Well however you did-thank you so ever much!

[@stevebbuk9557]

The last few years of Coronation Street at the top of its game.

[@nitad4203]

Thank you so much for the Upload :-)

[@caroldanzer3621]

Fabulous - I love it all - thank you !!!

[@olgagarcia5710]

Mrs Sharples would be very saddened to see what the world looks like today😢😭

[@DavidRenwick-t1e]

So would Mrs Walker and Uncle Albert.

[@MarcoNegrisEye]

I'm saddened to see what the world looks like today and I wasn't even around back then 😂

[@jstewart3517]

It never really works out when you break TRUST 💔

[@cise748]

I’m in Australia 🇦🇺 Always wanted to watch Corrie. Thank you, loving it ❤

[@callahancateo8406]

Thank you!! I love these soaps. Makes me want to be British. Really, it does. 🙂

[@Lucy0809]

It’s not Britain anymore like this we were taken over 😢

[@MarcoNegrisEye]

@@Lucy0809 ain't that the truth. I never even got to experience this era which makes it worse watching how things were compared to this Orwellian 💩 hole now.

[@pamib29]

Just realised that Carol Gordon the woman that Mike offered a job too is Louisa Rix (her parents are the late actors Brian Rix & Elspet Gray) she was in Harry Enfield & Chums,Kevin & Perry Go Large (Kevin’s Mum), Brookside ( Jordaches lawyer), Colin’s Sandwich with Mel Smith & loads of other films & programs! She’s actually only 23 years old in this! 😊

[@glamdolly30]

Wow great info, thanks - I knew I'd seen her before!

[@SeanODonovan-hc1he]

The great Joe Lynch ! A great singer as well as an actor

[@mikebaldwin611]

Don't undestand why Steve cares so much about Suzie given how badly she treats him

[@shylinh5939]

Because he's a total wet fart and doesn't know when someone isn't interested, she's not even nice to him, or he likes being treated like rubbish. He's always trying to ingratiate himself with her or trying to save her, even if it's at the expense of Mike, who gave him a job and pays his wages.

[@jstewart3517]

Men seems to enjoy it

[@fionasteele3642]

Susie is extremely pretty ,but I don’t know why Steve Cares about her so very much , he just does .

[@soniaclarkstewart]

He hoping to get lucky.

[@glamdolly30]

I never thought the actress who played Suzie, Cheryl Murray, was right for the role. Suzie was supposed to be drop dead gorgeous/sexy, hence all the men going gaga over her. But she just wasn't! To be blunt, there were many prettier, more charismatic actresses around, with better figures. But more to the point, Suzie was written as a cheeky, 'naughty but nice', lovable rogue character. But Murray played Suzie as very dislikable! It was hard to warm to her. Sadly I think the actress just couldn't pull off what was required. And as often happens when an actor has settled into a role, the writers started responding to the way it's played. As a result, Suzie Birchall became a more one-dimensional, self-centred 'baddie' the longer she was in it - till finally she became so unredeemingly horrid, she had to be written out for good! Suzie betrayed her old pal Gail by trying to seduce hubby Brian, and after that Elsie finally had enough and showed her the door. Cheryl Murray cried when producer Bill Podmore called her to his office and told her he was axing Suzie. She pleaded with him to reconsider, as she'd just got a huge mortgage on a swanky house, on the strength of future earnings. But his mind was made up - and I think he was right. All Suzie had to recommend her was youth, without the charisma and sex appeal of Pat Phoenix (Elsie Tanner) she would not have aged well as a character.

[@angelapay3718]

The way Dierdre binned Ray was beautiful NEVER take back a fella that fucks you over……… NEVER. Elsie does herself no favours does she?

[@Lucy0809]

Elsie awful actress 🙀🤮

[@susandoig4192]

Ray was just after another women any woman

[@marieince1479]

Was different when dreary went off with Baldwin

[@williamf4544]

The days when you could just up sticks an bugger of to any part of the world you felt like to live - not quite so simple now is it

[@clarkpatient7950]

Especially after Brexit.

[@williamf4544]

Yes thats true - messed up a lot of young folks dreams thst has - In both directions -Its them i feel sorry for in regards to Brexit@@clarkpatient7950

[@pauljefferson2107]

@clarkpatient7950 It doesn't present any obstacles whatsoever to migrants, illegal immigrants and bonus asylum seekers ... ☹️ all with the blessing of the Eurocrats of the EUSSR.

[@pauljefferson2107]

​@@clarkpatient7950 The EUSSR sees to it that migrants, illegal immigrants, and bogus asylum seekers have no problems in that respect ... especially when dumping them on 🇬🇧 Britain from France 🇨🇵 !

[@bibakroll8999]

Oh I don’t know - I thought you could just jump into a rubber dinghy …

[@SeanODonovan-hc1he]

Deirdre first said it was between Canada and Australia, and then a few days later it was between Australia and New Zealand

[@PatJenningsGloves]

Then Holland and finally back to Weatherfield.

[@michealbrett1983]

❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤I love your coronation street ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

[@anothercomment]

Ena had become a much nicer person compared to the woman she was in the first episode almost 18 years previously.

[@franceshaypenny8481]

She mellowed, didn't she.

[@paullynton-green6570]

​@@franceshaypenny8481we all mellow with age

[@lewisgreen1633]

Max Wall!! Absolutely brilliant

[@joshirley2308]

I thought I recognised him.

[@derekhorne8076]

Yes! Before he moved to Kings Oak and ponced off Kath Brownlow!

[@adrianmole7431]

Wally Soper didn’t like him in Crossroads either.

[@5gx673]

Thanks for these, I love them.😊 Hope we get to see a lot more of that DC 😂

[@connielincoln8681]

Oh wow they mentioned my homeland new Zealand so proud

[@sherylbarker9465]

Coronation street mentions NZ quite often, always puts a smile on my face, my homeland to

[@zanducktv2398]

We knew Hilda would apologise and Deirdre would accept her apology and they’d be friends again, because we wanted it to happen and also because that’s the kind of characters they were. Even Rita softened after being such a cow to her the day before. Alright, Hilda was tactless and incurred Deirdre’s wrath, but there was no need for Rita to be so scathing. If that was a scene between today’s characters, they wouldn’t be speaking for weeks.

[@shylinh5939]

Rita was regularly rude and snide towards Hilda and scathing about her to others, about the 'the Oggies' in general. She was always a cut above them - a bit of a discount Annie Walker, She ridiculed and bullied Mavis, her so-called best friend, she was arsey towards Deidre and often Bet too. And obviously, she was full of venom when Elsie was around. though why I don't know, she's the one who ended up with Len. On second thoughts, that's enough to make anyone toxic.

[@nicolataylor6011]

Rita's horrible..dont know who she thinks she is

[@williamf4544]

Todays characters would have murdered each other and hid the bodies

[@anothercomment]

I agree, Rita should have kept out of what went on between Hilda and Deirdre, it was none of her business and not very professional for someone running a business. She must be one of the most unlikeable characters in these classic episodes of Corrie, acting all superior and the 'tough' woman. Thankfully, the character became less of a bully in her later years especially after Len dying and grew up somewhat.

[@mattburke3457]

I'm surprised more people don't have a go at Hilda, she's always in everyone else's business and takes too much pleasure in the misfortunes of others

[@ironknobsteelworks4063]

Interesting fact. Stan used to model Y fronts for empire stores catalogue.

[@michellefalleur960]

Well ! ... Talk about ' learn something new every day ' !!

[@soniaclarkstewart]

So Stan was an underwear model! 😂😅

[@gubbins1933]

Pics or it didn't happen. 📸

[@stuartcooper631]

But Hilda /Jean lived till 90, for a few days

[@ZowieBBowie]

Don’t go Ray, stay. You’re missed to this day.

[@katy4779]

Never understood Steve's continued concern for Susie and Gail, when he clearly warned them, yet they chose to carry on taking the mick out of Mike Baldwin. Their attitude to their job would have seen them fired from most places.

[@carasmith549]

Soppy Steve seems like a forerunner to soppy Ashley Peacock, who was to arrive nearly 20 years later.

[@angelapay3718]

Because like most blokes he was ruled by his tallywhacker.

[@ZowieBBowie]

hahaha

[@theresapierce3934]

Pat phoenix was a fair actress, but she rushed her lines and fluffed them a lot.

[@gilliangrant8764]

I agree! She was terrible for it. Makes you wonder just how bad she really was, if the ones left in after God knows how many takes are as bad as they are...

[@shylinh5939]

I know she fluffed her lines at times, but when they were delivered rapidly, I assumed it was reflecting the character's impulsivity, the inclination to speak and act without thinking.

[@williamf4544]

I think it makes her seem more natural and realistic to be honest few of us are always word perfect all the time in real life

[@thertraumatic]

Thats why we love her!

[@Lucy0809]

Awful acting Winds me up 😡

[@ronnysimon30]

I always fancied Betty Turpin. Right cracking bird.

[@notonyournelly5475]

yes, she was a hottie.

[@ronnysimon30]

@@notonyournelly5475 I still keep a pic of old Betty when I go drinking . The more I fancy her the less I want to drive home

[@Peaceandlove13]

Ray and his screaming banshee,wife,mother-in-law and tracy, he didn't stick around to see adult banshee tracy,mother-in-law blanch didn't want ray for son inlaw until she heard money contract then she want sour dearie to stick with him.😂😂😂😂

[@Sarah-z1f6c]

Tracy was such a cute little kid

[@cliveeardley7355]

Max Wall is brilliant in his guest role as Harry Paine.

[@malcolmroache7010]

I remember the original broadcasts of some of these episodes,

[@DavidRenwick-t1e]

And as it happened Deidre did end up stuck on the Street forever.

[@MarcoNegrisEye]

She did get to Morocco for a short while though.

[@GinaRussell-c2c]

46 years since these episodes wow where as time gone, I think Hilda and Stan were good together both good on the show,Hilda always got straight to the point and Stan listened!

[@chicagogyrl4846]

She said she was going to get her face on, but she didn’t even put on any lipstick! 🤣😂

[@melissakrauss9180]

Deidre, Ray, and Blanche are perfect for each other. Blanche the control freak, Deidre, the coward wanting to run and hide, and Ray the selfish bastard. Perfect for each other!

[@jstewart3517]

1 big happy family

[@marieince1479]

Bet she didn't think about adultery when she did it to ken Barlow she always got on my nerves .

[@StCloud-ns7vt]

ugh this show is so gooooood

[@chicagogyrl4846]

Why is the pub closed at 5:30??! 😂🤣

[@Cackle77]

Old British licencing laws

[@Handlebar-MustDash]

Suzie Birchall was stunning back then, gorgeous.

[@susandoig4192]

Rays mate is like boycie in only fools and horses

[@chicagogyrl4846]

“I’m not going.” 🤣😂

[@peterraimondi9569]

2:51:56. At this point, you see Alf looking for his cue to begin the scene.

[@mikebaldwin611]

Are we meant to feel sorry for Gail and Suzie? They were takinh liberties at work and stealing yet they seem to fell their entitled to Mike's unconditional forgiveness. Sure Mike was looking for any excuse to sack them but if anyone deserves it it's those two.

[@roderickscott7429]

jack duckworth ,on 1 hour , 24 minutes.

[@chicagogyrl4846]

He’ll be making a packet of money down there??! Doing what??! 😂🤣

[@R31922]

Brilliant Bet ❤

[@vinnyvincent2862]

Imagine if they were still around today ( despite their age ) Stan would now be Hilda and Hilda would now be Stan ! 🤯

[@DavidRenwick-t1e]

Did anyone notice Bill Tarmey AKA Jack Duckworth..1:23:05

[@adrinathegreat3095]

Steve is a decent loyal guy but utterly hopeless in business, he knows the shop is losing money, Gail and suzie keep leaving early, borrow gear from the shop, use the phone for endless personal calls, yet can't understand why mike wants to sack them and sell off a business that's losing money

[@chicagogyrl4846]

This guy is lying right to his face, and stands there and says I’m not a liar! 😂🤣

[@SueGarden]

The last time we see Ray was in 1978 he came back in 2005 poor Neville he see Ann 😇he died in 2020

[@nicolataylor6011]

Deirdre get to that Olland, or you've a life with Ken Barlow waiting for you

[@kevinoldham8421]

😂😂😂

[@theresapierce3934]

A fate worse than death. Ken the most boring, self centred, drone voiced, up himself man, whoever trod the cobbles.

[@bibakroll8999]

@@theresapierce3934 And I have a feeling he was the same in real life!

[@ironknobsteelworks4063]

If I were Ken i would be buying dreary the 4 eyed fishwife a one way ticket to Holland.

[@michellefalleur960]

Ha !!! .. well said !

[@gertchacowsongertcha]

One thing I have noticed is that the women in corrie in 1978 were a helluva lot sexier and attractive then, and Deidre even in a pinny looked gorgeous

[@theresapierce3934]

Poor Hilda, Rita needs a good slap, behaving as if shes something special.

[@anothercomment]

Rita was highly obnoxious in these classic episodes, one of the most unlikeable characters.

[@janethammond5925]

​@@anothercomment And hard as nails, especially where money was concerned.

[@paullynton-green6570]

Gold digger​@@janethammond5925

[@paulblighe4173]

I love mavis looking back at those years, she has such a kind hearted lady

[@jenlfpotter3870]

But her voice alone, totally turns me off her, sounds like her windpipe's being pulped every time she speaks, or she's having her feet pulped to make her screech every syllable like that. god!

[@mrsteel9026]

Hilda's great. They don't make em like that anymore.

[@mariemurray3638]

Poor wee ‘Tracy’ does a lot of crying for her mummy, doesn’t she?

[@cicerodiello1]

A nightmare from the day she was born.

[@soniaclarkstewart]

She also caused Deidre to cry a lot 😂😂.

[@jenlfpotter3870]

She doesn't cry so much in this November 1978 Corry though... but she is one heck of an emmotional annoyance.

[@marieince1479]

Tracy turned out rotten to the core

[@bsaunders5271]

I'm conflicted, because it's good riddance to rotten Ray, but his departure leads us into a new phase, where we get to see Dierdre living life as a 'Single, looking to mingle'. And 'mingle' she does. Repeatedly.

[@vashna3799]

“Rotten Ray”? He was a terrific old school Jack the Lad. Stood up to Blanche when no one else did. Wasn’t a boring sod like Ken. Only had that affair because Deirdre was becoming a nagging middle aged fishwife.

[@notonyournelly5475]

@@vashna3799 I do agree.

[@Lucy0809]

It’s unbelievable that he would allow Tracey to be adopted

[@apollonia-ava]

Blanche !!! Young !!! Wow .. was a great actress ❤

[@bsaunders5271]

​@@vashna3799oooohhh that's no excuse

[@algie-t2w]

Mavis does well in feeding the old ones. I think one day she'll make a good "dinnerlady".

[@lucywilliamsx1002]

I'm so glad I wasn't an adult back them everyone looking at deirdre as if she's the one who's done wrong for not forgiving when it was ray who couldn't keep it in his pants makes me sick

[@michaelgregory8322]

Ray wasn't that bad, Deirdre put him to shame later it the show with her affairs, good character,s all the same

[@glamdolly30]

Agreed, it's shocking how even Deirdre's Mum Blanche who can't bloody stand Ray, is urging her to stick with him after he cheated on her! It shows how sadly dependent women were on men back then. I seem to recall even Rita made a pious little speech about what a fool Deirdre was for throwing out a perfectly good husband. Which was prescient, since she would soon split with her own grotty hubby Len, before taking him back because she couldn't stand supporting herself as a middle aged, single woman!

[@chicagogyrl4846]

They went through two bottles of champagne at lunch??! 😂🤣

[@Sarah-z1f6c]

So Ray left and he was replaced by ‘our Brian’ 😮

[@MsArrowroot]

2:51:56 Alf waiting for his cue to give change.

[@KuchiKopi179]

Blanche looked like a very glamarous granny.

[@glamdolly30]

Blanche was a very attractive woman in middle age. She went so thin and wizened in old age, and became quite a different character. Very waspish and very funny - but it's hard to believe it's the same woman we see in these episodes!

[@shylinh5939]

@@glamdolly30 I didn't realise she was the same woman. She's very good in these and old Blanche was excellent, so sharp, critical and funny.

[@glamdolly30]

@@shylinh5939 I agree, Maggie Jones was a very talented actress, and always totally believable as Deidre's mum. They looked increasingly like mother and daughter as the years rolled by, didn't they - even down to the glasses! After graduating from RADA in the late 1950s, Maggie Jones played several leading West End theatre roles, among them in the all-female cast of 'The Women'. Her first ever TV role in 1961 was in Coronation Street - as a policewoman! I recognised her again in a fleeting Corrie role in black and white from 1967. She played Maggie Monks, a scruffy shoplifter who got chatting to a mortified Annie Walker in a police station waiting room. Maggie advised Annie to do what she did whenever she was arrested - pretend to police she had lost her memory! (Annie was there, rather improbably, for accidentally breaking a shop window, while researching football hooliganism for herself!) Maggie took over the role of Blanche Hunt in 1974, after the suicide of actress Patricia Cutts, who played the role for just two episodes. Maggie popped in for flying visits as Blanche from 1974 - 1998, becoming a permanent cast member from 2000 to her death in 2009. She breathed life and fire into the character Blanche Hunt, making her one of the Street's best ever battleaxes. Who could forget Blanche's love-hate relationship with son-in-law Ken Barlow? Blanche had so many hilarious scenes over the years, but for me, two in particular stand out - when she hijacked her grandson Peter's Alcoholics Anonymous meeting and turned it into family therapy, and her sudden, unshakeable conviction that Ken was gay! Maggie died aged 75 in December 2009, and her screen daughter Deirdre, alias Anne Kirkbride, died just over 5 years later in January 2015, aged 60. Two very special and much-missed women and actresses - and an utterly unforgettable screen mother and daughter.

[@shylinh5939]

@@glamdolly30 Thanks for taking the time to write all this information. It's an interesting rundown on Blanche and Maggie Jones' history in Coronation Street. She and Deidrie made a good mother and daughter combination. Blanche was domineering and intrusive, but Deidrie stood up for herself, which was essential to avoid repeatedly compromising her own life and freedoms, the way Mavis did with her manipulative aunt. Blanche didn't sugarcoat anything, always upfront and direct, unsentimental, indelicate and sometimes wounding. She was also endearing and very funny. I don't remember the episode where she hijacked Peter' AA meeting, but I'd like to see it. I do remember her conviction that Ken was gay -brilliant. I loved the way she cut straight through Ken's pomposity and sense of his own rightness in everything. After years of Ken's moral and intellectual grandstanding over his less well-equipped neighbours, it was so refreshing. Blanche was in the tradition of older no-nonsense strong, opinionated matriarchs but with her own twist, avoiding stereotype. Characters like this are an important addition to soaps and one that's absent from today's CS. Maybe Rita and Audrey come the closest but neither are really in that mould.

[@glamdolly30]

@@shylinh5939 It's a real pleasure chatting with another fan of vintage Corrie. I'm fascinated by the plotting and scripting of these old episodes, which are surely some of the finest TV drama the UK's ever produced. Crucially the action is always character-driven, which is what powers it and gives it truth and authenticity. It also boasted a superb cast list back then. I gave up on modern Corrie about 10 years ago. Today it's so far from the quality drama it once was, it shouldn't be allowed to carry the Coronation Street name at all IMO! As you identified, the Street's female characters were fantastic, providing the backbone of the soap from its launch in 1960. Strong women are what made it so gripping - reflecting creator Tony Warren's own family and his formative experiences of working class Lancashire life. They might not have been able to admit it, but the women ran the show - on and off screen! As a child, Tony Warren would hide under his mother's kitchen table and eavesdrop on the women, aunties, grandmas, cousins and family friends, gossiping over pots of tea. This no doubt, is where he got his superb ear for dialogue - especially female badinage - and probably a few juicy plots too! As I mentioned, I don't watch Corrie now, but I recently caught a TV report about Maureen Lipman's character. She was clearly intended to be a battleaxe in the Blanche Hunt style, but the clips of her I saw were just a load of badly overacted, poorly written, cliched insults. Not a patch on Blanche, or any of the legendary battleaxes of old - Hilda Ogden, Ena Sharples, Annie Walker, Vera Duckworth and Ivy Tilsley among them - who graced vintage Coronation Street. Hilarious how Ken was the Street intellectual, regarded on a level with Stephen Hawking just because he went to Uni! The number of professional careers he walked into with ease (some with questionable qualifications), was ridiculous. In the Seventies his council 'job description' appeared to be clutching a clipboard and loitering in the Rovers selling raffle tickets. Did he really need a degree for that?! He also had various stints as a teacher at primary and secondary schools, and a sudden, crunching gear-change to become a taxi driver. In the 'eighties he inexplicably morphed into Weatherfield's answer to Rupert Murdoch, as editor of a free sheet that employed only one reporter! But of course Ken was drunk with power and abused it to do a hatchet job on his nemesis Mike Baldwin's new Graffitti nightclub. The newspaper's owner wasn't having that (Mike was a big buyer of advertising), and put Ken firmly back in his box! Ken's pathological pomposity was constantly asking to be pricked, and a bloody huge, razor sharp 'pin' arrived in the shape of Blanche Hunt. I loved Blanche from her earliest appearances, giving her loutish son-in-law Ray Langton a tongue lashing for refusing to change Tracy-luv's nappies. It's a miracle Deirdre persuaded so many men to marry her (Ken twice), when she came as a package-deal with the mother-in-law from hell! If you've never seen Blanche's magnificent 'Alcoholics Anonymous' takeover of 2009, you are in for a treat. Here's the link - Enjoy! XXX kzbin.info/www/bejne/j5Cnhnhnn756ncU

[@ddrose06]

Poor Hilda. She brings it all on herself.

[@TARZANBOYWRESTLER]

Grenville from Nearest and Dearest at 3h 23

[@chicagogyrl4846]

If I had $1 for every time that I have heard “daft” on here! 🤣😂

[@Handlebar-MustDash]

Not many people realise that calling someone a Berk is cockney rhyming slang - 'Berkshire Hunt .... C*nt !'

[@olgagarcia5710]

If I were Deidre I would not move. Hold your head high, who cares about the gossipers.

[@chicagogyrl4846]

I’ve never seen a bigger collar than on Elsie! 🤣😂

[@chicagogyrl4846]

If he’s closing the shop, he will need to find another job, anyway! I would tell the girls, so that they can go work for the new shop opening up! 😂🤣

[@alans.2735]

Ken swanning in and out whilst Mavis and Eddie do all the cooking is aggravating!!!

[@williamf4544]

These is something in the British peoples mindset (myself included) that thinks every country would welcome us with open arms should we decide to move there when in fact the may well see us in the same way a lot of people here view people coming to the UK from abroad

[@Kevin-1969]

I wish Suzie had stayed on

[@chicagogyrl4846]

So just where does this Deidre work??! I’ve never seen her anywhere but at home, at that store, or the pub! Never heard any mention of one, either! 🤣😂

[@ZowieBBowie]

A very sad episode seeing Ray leave , I know he wanted to be written out but looking back at this it’s almost as though he took the heart out of Coronation St when he left, a dark heart at that . These miss you nights are the longest .

[@chicagogyrl4846]

So she already got her wedding dress, then backed out! 😂 Well, this is no surprise! 😂🤣

[@chicagogyrl4846]

The Rover has champagne all of the sudden??! 😂🤣

[@Handlebar-MustDash]

I wonder if Stan, Hilda and Eddie were really swingers but the story was too hot for 7.30 TV. Damn the watershed ......... 😂😂😂.

[@kathystahl4690]

Deidria doesn't want to go 2nd thoughts

[@chicagogyrl4846]

Yeah, it’s gonna cost a packet to get the 3 of you down there, too! And just where is he going to work when he gets down there??! 🤣😂

[@brianmcneill1972]

Continuity mistakes again, in 1974 Eddie Yeats cooked Xmas Dinner for him, Albert Tatlock, Ena Sharples and Minnie Caldwell as he had been chef in Walton Nick!

[@bibakroll8999]

It’s a pit Dreary didn’t leave when Ray did.

[@Kiinell]

OLLAND?