Dear God, Please Muzzle This Child

[DanaC]

OhSweetJesusMaryMotherofGodandAlltheSaints.

That was entirely unnecessary.

As was the Parliamentary time given over to a discussion of her imprisonment. *deadpan*

[Urbane Guerrilla]

What, that was Christine Keeler??

[DanaC]

That wasn't Christine Keeler :P

That was the much maligned Deirdre Barlow.

[CzinZumerzet]

Go for it Dana, explain Deirdre if you can, and will she survive the night?

[DanaC]

I can explain many things Caz...but Deirdre Barlow (or whatever her current married name) is not one of them :p

[CzinZumerzet]

I'm guessing this is entirely inappropriate Dana but did you watch tonight? For others benefit, tonight marks 50 years since the first episode of Coronation Street, the nation's favourite soap so tonight in addition to much much more they screened the first ever episode in black & white on a square screen!

It was brilliant! I was a mere um ... 13 year old and remember seeing commercial breaks for the first time.

So sorry for hijacking the thread, really sorry!

[Sundae]

It's not hijack CZ, it's just slippage.

I did watch modern Corrie tonight because it was a landmark moment.
Was gutted that I watched the first 30 minutes though - no death, no disaster, no trams! I came back down to watch the second episode though, and wasn't disappointed. I didn't bother with the Olden Days Corrie as I'm not a Corrie fan, but Mum has been for years, and Dad pretends he isn't but will not stir from his seat when it's on, except in the advert breaks.

I'll probably watch on Thursday anyway, because there's always a slight frisson about live episodes (a la Quatermass!)

[DanaC]

I didn't watch, no. But Mum did. She was fascinated watching the first episode of corrie: she remembers watching it when she was 16.

I do recall, though, watching an old episode of Corrie, on a special programming night on tv. They did a tv line up as it would have been that day in the particular decade. They did a night for each decade, starting with the 40s.
What struck me about the corrie episode was how good it was. These days Corrie is almost pantomime. It has over the top villains and comedic stooges. It is based on a Manchester that exists primarily on TV rather than a Manchester I recognise. But the original Coronation Street was 'Kitchen Sink' drama at its height. It launched some of our greatest modern playwrights. It was grounded in the culture of working-class Manchester and Salford, and it had some powerful social archetypes that anyone living in that area at the time would have instantly recognised. It had real depth and dramatic edge.

[Sundae]

Meh - horses for courses.
Catch Mum & dad watcing A Taste of Honey or Look Back in Anger or even Days of Wine and Roses.
Their taste has always run more to light entertainment. But for the amount of time they have to prepare and the real lack of consistency in characters, I think soap actors do a bloody good job. Not good enough for me to watch them regularly - and mostly because of the unreality - but I admire the job they do all the same.

I miss real drama of the Alan Bennett calibre on TV, but amd guilty of not making an effort to watch it. Unless it stars one of my heroes of course. How celeb-obsessed is that?

[monster]

I don't think it's hijacking, we were all done with the original topic. I missed stuff like Corrie when I first moved here even though I didn't watch it all that much, but then I found it on Canadian TV and realised it had changed so much I didn't recognise it any more. Dana was right with pantomime.