IAN HYLAND
On last night’s telly
Queens Of The Street, ITV ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
The great thing about settling down to watch any documentary about Corrie’s legendary ladies is that you can be fairly sure you will see your favourite character of all time.
I mean, there have been some great male characters over the years too. Let’s not pretend, though, that women have done anything other than rule the cobbles for six decades.
ITV didn’t package this show as a chart countdown but I think we can all agree on our No 1: Blanche Hunt. Sure, it was close.
Ena Sharples’ classic line “She just sat up, broke wind, and died” almost swayed me her way.
Ditto Hilda Ogden’s “Woman, Stanley. Woman.” However, the minute the “Blanche at the AA meeting” clip came on it was game over.
This documentary had great access to cast members both past and present.
As they discussed their characters, what struck me most was that they talked about them as if they were real.
I couldn’t decide whether this was plain weird or just a massive tribute to Corrie’s writing team. It’s probably both.
The ladies also treated
us to some fabulous backstage anecdotes, the pick of which was Julie Hesmondhalgh recalling the last- minute panic when she showed up with cropped hair for her first day as Hayley.
“I assumed I’d be wearing a wig,” explained Julie. “So we just found a wig in a cupboard and shoved it on.”
This threw up two questions. One, how did they gain access to Paul Mccartney’s cupboard?
And two, how did he react when he saw it was gone?
The ‘ Blanche at the AA meeting’ clip was game over