Was that story quite natural for Corrie at the time or might it have been in response to the launch of the grittier Brookside. Similarly did they do anything of note in 1985 to try and take attention away from the early days of EastEnders?
When Bill Podmore got back on the hotseat, one of his first decisions was to transform Alan Bradley into a baddie. He wouldn't admit it, but Eastenders, doing well in the ratings at the time, had Dirty Den which almost gave them the upper hand. Corrie ebbed and flowed but there was no real bite about it.
By the summer of 1988, Alan Bradley was voted 'Britain's Biggest Rat' by the Sun newspaper, so the transformation was working.
Eden wrote in his autobiography he hoped the door was left open for Alan when he was sentenced to prison for attacking Rita. The powers that be used the break to decide whether to kill him off, or keep him. Podmore, after some misgivings, voted death. But interestingly he or Mervyn Watson never told him when or how he would die until shooting (to stop the press from leaking info). Had he known he would die, Eden wouldn't have returned to work!
Eastenders and Brookie were strong in the 80s, but Corrie held its own. The 90s you could argue was a testing time; you had Sharongate and the Patio burial, but Corrie in the mid-90s was a snoozefest. The gnomes! The storylines looked inferior to others for the first time. Liddlement cleverly made stylistic changes that benefited the soap in the long haul and added a third episode. In 1989 though it was doing fine in the ratings, especially once repeats were factored in.
You could argue things got serious in the 90s as Emmerdale massively upped their game in the face of Carlton threatening to pull it. It became a serious competitor and the others kind of started playing catchup.
That said I don't think even the tram crash has bettered the plane crash. You probably wouldn't do it like that now but for 1993 it was revolutionary.
Looking back it was amazing Emmerdale got the chance to reinvent itself - you look a decade later at the reboot of Crossroads and how that was treated and I don't think any later Emmerdale would have been given the chance to evolve into the major player it is today.
At the moment Don Brennan is still a pretty average character, but at some point in the 90s he became the resident villain too, trying to kill Mike and then driving himself and Alma into the canal, before getting killed himself in another failed attempt to finish Mike off.
When did his character begin to change? ISTR it started when he was revealed as Denise’s stalker?
It all started when Brian Tilsley was murdered. Ivy became obsessed not only with the memory of her son but her first husband. This left Don feeling neglected and when Denise was sympathetic and friendly, he grew too fond of her.
Ivy left Don who then attempted suicide and lost a leg. He reconciled with Ivy shortly after but eventually she left him again. He then developed a gambling addiction and ended up owing money to Mike Baldwin. Mike came up with some sort of deal whereby Don would buy the garage and pay him over a period of time. But it was a scam and overvalued the garage.
So Don then focused all his anger built up over the years onto Mike.
If you watch in 1988 and then again in 1997, it seems like a huge change in character, but it all happened over a long period of time and was a gradual change.
:-(
A former member
Ivy was sacked for being a real life drunk. Don also had another affair didn't he? I think that could has more steam to the story.
I still don't understand why the new producer in 96 disliked reg his lover, and mavis.
There's several confilicting stories about why she went (I'm sure Lynne herself said she went of her own accord), but the lip story seems to be the one most people think of.
ITV3 haven't shown a Granada Plus edit since around April 1988, hopefully we've seen the last of them! Could still pop up through until February 1994 though.
Still a complete random mix of ITV Generic and the old Granada endcaps at the end of episodes though. In fact two of the episodes they've shown that are on the Network DVD with the generic endcap have been on ITV3 with the old blue one.
There's several confilicting stories about why she went (I'm sure Lynne herself said she went of her own accord), but the lip story seems to be the one most people think of.
And what about when she appeared on Granada Men & Motors and got those plumped up lips a little too close to a muscular gentleman? Was this after her Corrie downfall?
Was she actually drunk during her Men & Motors appearance? How on earth did Granada allow this to happen?
And what about when she appeared on Granada Men & Motors and got those plumped up lips a little too close to a muscular gentleman? Was this after her Corrie downfall?
Was she actually drunk during her Men & Motors appearance? How on earth did Granada allow this to happen?
It think the drunk appearance on M&M was after she left Corrie. She had already done quite a few appearances on other chat shows, so I suppose Granada were just getting some more publicity out of their former employee.