CORONATION STREET 1977 LIVE!

Taurus Bar, Manchester

Written by Harry Kershaw

Joan Kempson (as Hilda Ogden) with Ian Curley (as Eddie Yeats).

Directed by Colin Connor and David MacCready

Review

Rating: 5 stars

 

“This is our Chaucer; these are our people” announced producer Gareth Kavanagh in his introduction to this special preview of ‘Coronation Street 1977 Live’ at Taurus Bar (the actual run of the production is at The Lass O’Gowrie pub). As part of this year’s Midwinter Lass Fest, and following on from last year’s critically-acclaimed ‘Coronation Street 1968 Live’, this is another slice of the golden years of the ever-popular ITV soap. BAFTA award-winning casting director June West has assembled a remarkable team to bring to life some of the most iconic television characters ever created, and the result is pure Lancastrian magic. The production has been designed to be presented in promenade fashion in the actual bar area of The Lass O’Gowrie pub (where the audience will be standing and following the action happening around them), but for this preview we remained seated. Following the tv script, the action features a multitude of short scenes much in the way that the very early episodes would have been transmitted live. In fact, the whole half hour experience (tonight’s preview was a single episode; the run at The Lass will feature two) gave one the vivid impression of how it must have felt to be in the actual studio during a transmission.

Rovers Return landlady, Annie Walker (a splendidly aloof Christine Barton-Brown) has taken delivery of an impressive monogrammed carpet from local scouse layabout Eddie Yeats (Ian Curley, delightfully mischievous), and relishes the opportunity to impress her staff and friends with it. Unfortunately for the forever upwardly mobile Mrs Walker, local gossip merchant Hilda Ogden (an hilarious Joan Kempson) has gotten wind of where Eddie has obtained the carpet. The premise and set up are simple, but the execution is sublime. Writer Kershaw’s script is sharp, tight, and breathes dynamic life into every single character and situation. The comparison with modern day Coronation Street is startling, with careful consideration given to the minutest of detail and the wealth of humour and pathos inherent in the most basic of domestic activities. Kimberley Hart-Simpson is a firecracker Bet Lynch with her machine gun delivery of wicked one-liners, more than ably supported by Mike Woodhead’s brow beaten barman Fred Gee. Amidst the generally light-hearted goings-on, Jeni Howarth-Williams’ faded siren Elsie Tanner wafts in and out of scenes like a lost soul, doomed to roam the cobbled streets looking for love among the ruins. There’s a classic daggers drawn face-off between Elsie and Rita Fairclough (Amy Searles) over a pair of laddered tights, with a hapless Len Fairclough (Jimmy Allen) finding himself between a solid rock and a very hard place indeed. Once again, Kershaw’s writing gives us warm-hearted banter with some disturbingly dark undertones as the vulnerable Rita has to face her husband’s old flame (and there’s clearly a few embers still smouldering there). Matt Lanigan and Kathryn Worthington are another winning double act as would-be lovers Alf Roberts and Renee Bradshaw; a scene with Alf trying to sort Renee’s accounts out while hovering too close for comfort echoes the romantic and sensual pottery scene in the film ‘Ghost’. Denice Hope gives us a magnificent Betty Turpin, her face conveying a million and one different emotions in a millisecond; she forms yet another fabulous double act with Barton-Brown’s artfully condescending Annie Walker. John Draycott’s Stan Ogden, and David Crowley’s Ray Langton have less stand-out moments but register just as strongly.

Gareth Kavanagh is absolutely correct; this is our Chaucer. These are our people. This is our language.

 

Runs until Monday 7^th January