Coronation Street Weekly Update - Feb 23 2009

I've been writing Coronation Street weekly updates since 1995 and this week's Coronation Street update has just gone live here.

This week the update comes with the goddess of a go-er that was Suzi Birchall.

Snowdrops in London

A short drive away from the hustle and bustle of north London and this is what you get. A sign from the car-park pointing to Alpine Grove and millions of snowdrops. It's been a lovely day for a lovely walk.

is Hazel Blears Mrs Pepperpot in disguise?

Every time I see Hazel Blears on telly, I have to suppress a very childish snigger. She's really Mrs Pepperpot in disguise, she is.

Jo Brand

I've always been a huge fan of Jo Brand, always. And I've never been a fan of Britney Spears, never. You'll understand then why I'm disappointed Jo Brand's doing this, even if it is for that always hilarious and never naff, oh no, Comic Relief. I wonder if she had a choice?

Coronation Street Weekly Update - Feb 16 2009

I've been writing Coronation Street weekly updates since 1995 and this week's Coronation Street update has just gone live here.

This week the update comes with a shocked Sally Webster.

Morrissey more is lessy

There's not many men on telly that I fancy. Some of them are here and one of them is Morrissey. But pictures of Morrissey naked promoting his new, er, 7" leave me cold. When I see this picture my thoughts don't turn this way and that with phoar and phew. It's a disappointing hasn't he got short legs?

Boris Johnson is a numpty

Further evidence that Boris Johnson should never have been voted in as Mayor of London - he's not running Capital Woman this year.

The website still shows details for Capital Woman 2008, you know, the last one that Ken Livingstone regularly ran for the women of London. A phone message and email to him to ask about this, via his website, have gone unanswered too. What a jerk.

Guard Ian

I love reading The Guardian especially on Saturday mornings. When I travel back up north to stay with my mum, the shop at the end of the street only gets in one Guardian copy, and that's got someone else's name on it. I haven't yet figured out who this Guardian-reading mystery person is on the estate where the tabloid is King, but I keep looking and wondering. Anyway, when I go up there, I order in a Guardian for Saturday mornings. Last time I collected it, before she handed it over, Kelly the newsagent laughed at my la-di-dah London ways and told me she'd ironed it. I'm still not sure if she was joking or not.

Bitch Buzz

A fab online women's magazine blog thing I heartily recommend is Bitch Buzz. I can't abide women's magazines and never buy them any more (although I used to, oh yes) but online feisty-female-fests are much more up my street.

Corrie paste and copy blog

As regular readers will know, I blog about this, that and Coronation Street. Way back in 1995 I started writing Coronation Street Weekly Updates for a fan group online. Word of the updates spread and at its peak, there were 6,000 email subscribers to the updates until the email server collapsed under the strain of the weight and the group moved to the more stable platform of Yahoogroups. The updates featured on all of the Coronation Street fan sites and garnered some great praise over the years. They even have their own website.

Fast forward 10 years to 2005 when commercial blogging company Shiny Media launched Corrieblog. Ashley Norris, one of their three Directors at the time, asked me to be editor of this new Coronation Street blog, based on the witty, weekly Corrie updates I’d been writing for 10 years.

I edited and wrote for Shiny Media's Corrieblog for two years, all the time continuing to write my Coronation Street Weekly Updates for Corrie fan sites and the email subscription list too. I asked Shiny Media if I could bring the Coronation Street Weekly Updates to Corrieblog and they agreed. I posted the weekly update as an extra blog post in addition to the 5 blog posts a day I was paid to write.

In 2007 after two years with Corrieblog, I gave it all up. Before I left, I brought in a new writer who is still editing the site. But while I have left Corrieblog behind me, the new editor carries on writing with much the same style, tone and ideas as I always did. Flattering? Possibly.

What irks is that my Coronation Street Weekly Updates remain a part of Corrieblog long after I left blogging for cash far behind me. They’re now called Coronation Street Weekly Reviews but are written in much the same style and tone as my own. Despite repeated requests to the editor and to Shiny Media that a weekly post in this format no longer be included on a commercial site, my requests have been ignored.

When I handed over editing Corrieblog to the new person, I gave her as much help as I could over a period of weeks as she found her blogging feet, handing over pages of contacts and sources for stories, passing on emails from PRs companies and even media companies looking for a Corrie fan to interview.

However, another request last week to reconsider using the Coronation Street Weekly Updates on Corrieblog has gone unacknowledged again by both its editor and by the one remaining director of Shiny Media, Chris Price.

You're probably reading this thinking that I'm being too sensitive and over protective of these Corrie weekly updates... but after 14 years of writing them and developing the fan community around them, wouldn't you be the same?

Coronation Street Weekly Update - Feb 9 2009

I've been writing Coronation Street weekly updates since 1995 and this week's Coronation Street update has just gone live here.

This week the update shuddered at the sight of Deirdre, who is in desperate need of a new bra.

The Sopranos

Being a huge fan of mob movies, I'm still not clear how telly series The Sopranos passed me by, but it did. Anyway, that's being rectified as my lovely man bought by the whole of Series 1 for Christmas.

It's fantastic, as good as expected, and Series 2 is being ordered online as I type this. Well, after I type this, but you know what I mean.

I'm also a huge fan of Alabama 3 and one of their London gigs I went to at Brixton Academy many years ago, remains up there in my top 5 London gigs, ever. It seems they had to change their name to A3 in the States, I'm still not sure why. Anyway, watch them sing on YouTube.

Can't go wrong with Be-Ro

I was brought up on Be-Ro baking and always have the Be-Ro book in the house. I mention this because yesterday Be-Ro baking was much in evidence when I made up caramel shortcake. I can hear it now, calling me from the fridge so I'd better go and check on it, you know, just in case.

Another Alan

To the theatre for the second time this week for another theatrical treat. This time it was to see Alan Ayckbourn's Woman in Mind.

Billed as a comedy it's more of a bizarre romp through a woman's mind after she's been hit on the head by a garden rake. In turns unsettling, funny and very dramatic, the acting was superb and I loved it to bits.

There's another theatre trip out next week too. It's costing a bleeding fortune with all these trips out and pre-theatre dinners too, but while there's so much good stuff on, it's great to see it all.

Enjoying Enjoy

To one of the cosy theatres on Shaftesbury Avenue this week for the first of two trips to the theatre. I know! Twice in one week! We'll be getting talked about.

This visit was to see Alan Bennett's play, Enjoy. The Guardian didn't rate it and other reviews were lukewarm but with Alison Steadman in the lead role, I loved it and here's my review, straight from the heart.

I laughed a lot and enjoyed my ice cream. 5 stars.

Coronation Street Weekly Update - Feb 2, 2009

I've been writing Coronation Street weekly updates since 1995 and this week's Coronation Street update has just gone live here.

This week Ena Sharples got speared in the snug by darts ace Phil Taylor.

Snow envy

We had 5" in our back garden.

So, whaddid you have?