Coronation Street

Sad news. he played Mike Baldwin brilliantly. I saw his death scene when I was only 7. RIP. I believe he was a Londoner at heart?

He was born in South London.

RIP Johnny Briggs

Peter Kay will make his cameo appearance as a shopfitter in tomorrow's first ITV3 episode.

Not sure if this has been mentioned in this thread but on ITV3 a few weeks ago former Corrie producer Phil Collinson appeared in 1 episode, 13 years before he became the shows producer in 2010.

I am not enjoying modern Corrie as much as Classic Corrie at the moment. The drugs storyline seems to be copying Hollyoaks. Simon is basically Sid/Charlie, Jacob is Jordan and Will Mellor's character will probably be like Victor! Corrie will need to do well for this to be anywhere near as good as Hollyoaks did with this storyline.

It's sad looking at Alf in these episodes, he really does look like death warmed up ever since he returned. Even worse with us knowing Brian Mosley would be gone in only a little over a year after these episodes were made. In all honesty he should have been written out for the good of his health a lot earlier than he actually was. I think he disappears again for several months soon because of further heart trouble.

One of the greatest ever rovers will return soon:

https://www.itv.com/presscentre/press-releases/acclaimed-actress-tracie-bennett-return-cobbles-after-22-years

Hold onto your hats, acclaimed actress Tracie Bennett is returning to the cobbles as Sharon Bentley after 22 years!

Find out more 👉 https://t.co/jZCoA0z6Q9#Corrie #CastingNews @ITV @WeAreSTV pic.twitter.com/pV6u6OmuHV

— Coronation Street (@itvcorrie) March 10, 2021

One of my all-time favourite Corrie characters.

Indeed he doesn’t look nor sound great in the current ITV3 episodes. The documentary about Audrey Roberts that was shown a couple of years ago kind of addressed this and Bryan Moseley wanted to go on for as long as possible but was eventually persuaded to be written out for his own well-being. The tragic thing being that Bryan died 6 weeks after Alf did in the show.

It’s worth noting that Spider Nugent makes his ITV3 debut within the next week.

I don't think he was even persuaded, they just wrote him out anyway. I've read an interview from the time where he's angry and claimed he was in the best health he'd been in a long time- though the fact he died only a few weeks later suggests otherwise.

I’m also finding modern Corrie quite hard going at the moment. It’s always at its best when there’s a good mix of light and shade, and currently it seems like it’s all gloom and misery. It probably doesn’t help that I simply can’t warm to Simon Barlow, and really don’t care what happens to him.

Incidentally, I was trying to work out which characters still haven’t returned since production resumed after the first lockdown. I’m thinking Beth, Izzy and Gemma’s quads. I guess you could count Norris, but he’s only an occasional visitor these days anyway. I’m sure there must be someone I’ve forgotten about...

I think they're suffering from social distancing. It was a novelty at first but I think it lacks energy with no big pub scenes and everyone standing miles apart.

That probably doesn’t help, but the mix of storylines seems particularly dark right now.