Coronation Street Weekly Update, October 17 2011

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

This week in Corrie Mary's musing are snaffled by Sylvia.

Why middle-aged women love Strictly Come Dancing

I've long been a fan of Strictly Come Dancing, having watched it from the second series onwards. I enjoy it more than a woman my age, with a life, really should. I love it.  I love the bling, the frocks, the make-up, the hair, the dancing, the judges' professional comments and bickering between themselves. Mind you, I could do with having Arlene Phillips back as a professional judge and Karen Hardy as my favourite dancer, but I still enjoy the programme a great deal and never miss it.

However, without wanting to sound like a pervy old granny, there's another reason why Strictly Come Dancing holds such appeal.  Where else on mainstream TV can straight women get the chance to enjoy watching blokes in tight clothes, sometimes stripped to the waist, jiggling their hips and strutting their stuff? And it doesn't matter if the male dancers are gay or straight. What matters is that in SCD the men are there to be looked at, to be enjoyed as much as straight men enjoy the short skirts, cleavage and long legs of the female dancers and celebs.

The appeal of the male dancers hasn't been lost on Cosmopolitan magazine who have published this pic of dancers Artem Chigvintsev and Robin Windsor.

Tracie Bennett as Judy Garland in End of the Rainbow

To the newly restored and quite beautiful Theatre Royal in Newcastle-upon-Tyne last night to see Tracie Bennett as Judy Garland in End of the Rainbow.

I was absolutely blown away by Tracie's performance. The acting, singing and energy of the show, which was basically a one-woman show, was incredible. It's one of those shows that's going to stay with me for a very long time. I haven't enjoyed a theatre event this much in years, and as you know, if you're a regular Flaming Nora reader, I enjoy going to the theatre a lot.

At the of the show, the audience didn't give Tracie a standing ovation, it was more of a group leap from seats, clapping wildly and cheering. Bravo! Bravo, indeed! 

Ken and Deirdre's Bedtime Stories voted Corrie fans' favourite online spin-off

Whoops! I've posted this Coronation Street story to the wrong blog.  Sorry about that! If you'd like to read it, the story is here.

 

 

   

Coronation Street Weekly Update, October 10 2011

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

This week in Corrie, Eileen Grimshaw managed to crack a smile.

Six Feet Under

I'm a latecomer to the US TV show Six Feet Under, having only started watching it from Season 1 when it was repeated on Sky some months ago. It ran in the US from 2001.

We're now well into Season 3 of the show as Sky has run it pretty much non-stop once a week and I'm as hooked on it as I was with The Sopranos and Mad Men.  It's top quality TV - a drama about a family who run a funeral parlour. It's funny, it's quirky, it's dark and disturbing.  It's wonderful and I can't rate it highly enough.

Coronation Street Weekly Update, October 3 2011

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