THE ROYAL ROVER’S RETURN
Four decades on, Queen is back on the Corrie cobbles
VISITS to the local pub have had to wait for many of us during the pandemic. But when the Queen made it back to the Rovers Return yesterday, it was after a gap of nearly 40 years.
It was a fitting reunion for two of our bestloved institutions – the visit was to celebrate 60 years of the ITV show, while the monarch will mark her Platinum Jubilee next year.
The Queen, 95, who wore a teal Angela Kelly outfit with matching hat, looked happy to be back on the famous cobbles in Manchester.
Her previous visit, in 1982, had been to the old Granada TV studios, to open an enlarged set. The event was deemed so significant that it was broadcast live as a 30-minute episode. This time the Queen was at the current set in Trafford, where the world’s longest-running soap has been filmed since 2013.
Her 40-minute tour began with a chat with four veteran cast members. Bill Roache, 89, who plays Ken Barlow, Barbara Knox, 87 (Rita Tanner), Sue Nicholls, 77 (Audrey Roberts) and Helen Worth, 70 (Gail Platt) – whose service to the show totals more than 200 years – greeted the Queen with a bow and curtsies outside the Rovers Return.
Roache, who appeared in the first episode in December 1960, told the Queen he had first seen her when she visited Jamaica in 1953, where he was serving as an officer in the Royal Welch Fusiliers. He added: ‘Thank you so much for coming today.’
Miss Knox told the Queen: ‘Good morning, Your Majesty, you have brought the sunshine. You know you are like a ray of sunshine. And you’ve given us all such a lift [with] you coming, thank you very, very much indeed.’
The Queen asked the actors how they had managed to keep the show on air during the pandemic – filming paused for only 11 weeks although older cast members had to shelter for longer.
‘It’s really marvellous you’ve been able to carry on,’ she said. Roache replied to laughter: ‘Well, Ma’am, you’re the one who has carried on.’
ITV chairman Sir Peter Bazalgette and managing director of continuing drama John Whiston explained that the cobbles the Queen and Prince Philip had trodden during their visit in 1982 had been transported to the new set.
‘They’re the same cobbles?’ she asked, surprised.
But she was warned not to walk on them, as they are particularly tricky in heels. The Queen smiled as she replied: ‘I’ve been told. I’d probably better not.’
Before leaving the pub, she was presented with an original ‘Corrie cobble’, a bottle of 60th anniversary Weatherfield Spirit gin and Newton & Ridley beer mats.
Asked whether the Queen watched the show, a royal aide said: ‘The Queen is very much kept abreast of what’s going on in Coronation Street.’