IT’S not exactly a mass exodus.
But Coronation Street confirmed today that seven cast members have been axed by new producer Kim Crowther.
Fans of the cobbles won’t be surprised to learn their identities.
The entire Morton clan, led by kebab shop owner Jerry, is going.
Also departing Weatherfield are father and son bookies Harry and Dan Mason.
I spoke to ITV Granada earlier today about the decisions.
Michael Starke played Sinbad in Brookside for 16 years.
But news of his eventual departure as Jerry comes just over a year after the character was first seen on screen.
Many viewers felt the Mortons failed to fit in to the Weatherfield soap jigsaw.
Author: ianwylie
THE world is always a safer place when Spooks is being filmed.
I spent a day in and around The Grid this week as work progressed on series seven of the always gripping BBC1 spy drama.
A small group of us spoke to cast members, including Peter Firth and new arrival Richard Armitage.
We also interviewed Hermione Norris about her return to MI5 after faking the death of Ros Myers last year.
Cast and crew were busy filming episodes three and four, with the series due back on screen in the autumn.
It’s already been announced that Robin Hood and North and South star Richard plays MI5 officer Lucas North.
He’s spent the past eight years in a Russian prison – so was around before we first met Harry and his original team in May 2002.
THE summer is almost here, so it must be time to film a Christmas TV special.
As first revealed in this blog last November, Robson Green and Mark Benton are reuniting for a film, now called Clash of the Santas.
The two-hour film, to be screened this Christmas, has just gone into production in Manchester, Lancashire and the Peak District.
It marks a welcome return north for Robson and Mark after Manchester filmed Northern Lights went south to become City Lights.
And it brings them full circle to the time of year which inspired their original comedy drama – Christmas Lights.
This festive adventure sees Colin, played by Robson, and Howie, played by Mark, heading to Lithuania to take part in a Santa convention.
Rochdale’s Nicola Stephenson also returns as Colin’s wife Jackie, waiting at home for her husband to make it back for Christmas Day with his children.
Sian Reeves co-stars as Pauline, Howie’s estranged wife, who is planning a French Christmas with new man Jean Luc.
JOHN Simm’s face said it all when Life On Mars lost out for the second year in a row.
The Street is an exceptional television series, which deserves every award it gets.
Even so, I still believe the small panel of Bafta judges which decided the fate of Best Drama Series got it wrong this year.
Harry Hill’s TV Burp was named Best Entertainment Programme.
No complaint with that decision.
But it must have been particularly galling for the Life On Mars team to watch one of the clips which secured Harry that particular award.
“My name is Sam Tyler. I had an accident and I woke up as an oven-ready chicken.
“Am I mad, in a coma or back in time?”
LIFE is the name of the game…and sometimes strange things happen when you play your cards right.
Having received his Bafta Fellowship – the last award of the night – Bruce Forsyth was rushed down to talk to the press.
But when he arrived, Cranford star Dame Eileen Atkins was still taking questions on the press stage after her Best Actress win.
Clutching his award, Bruce, 80, didn’t seem to mind the wait.
All became clear as Eileen, 73, finally left the stage and embraced him.
“I was at school with Bruce,” she laughed.
So the two final winners just happened to have both gone to The Latymer School in Edmonton, north London all those decades ago.
Obviously, not in the same year – but they clearly knew each other from those days.
Didn’t they do well?
HEROES aims to conquer the world in series three, about to start filming in Hollywood.
That was the message from series creator Tim Kring in the press room at last night’s Bafta TV Awards.
He also made some interesting comments about both series two – which starts in the UK this week – and the long-term future of Heroes.
Having collected the Bafta mask for International programme, Tim came in to talk to us, along with Adrian Pasdar and Milo Ventimiglia, who play screen brothers Nathan and Peter Petrelli.
Producer and screenwriter Tim said the Heroes’ team really appreciated the British Academy TV honour.
“It’s pretty amazing. We make this show in such a little bubble.
“We work in these dingy sound stages in the middle of Hollywood and to be able to come out of our collective cave every once in a while to see how people are responding to it, is really, truly amazing.
SUNDAY night at the London Palladium proved to be an evening of shocks.
I’m just back from the Bafta TV Awards after the usual hectic evening in the backstage press room.
The online version of tomorrow’s MEN Pg 3 story is here.
I managed to grab a spot right by the side of the press stage, again situated in the Stalls Bar.
Sat beside a Palladium poster from August 1935, featuring Gracie Fields topping the bill, it got pretty crowded at times.
But thanks to large screen TV feeds, an audio switchbox and that proximity to the stage, I did my best to do three things at once.
That is – covering both what was happening on stage in the main theatre and in the winners’ interviews a few feet away on the press stage, at the same time as writing the story on a laptop with our first edition deadline looming.
BRUCE Forsyth has been a TV constant in many of our lives.
Most of us grew up with him in a corner of the room, as the ultimate television entertainer.
So it’s good to be able to report the news just released by BAFTA that Bruce is to be presented with the Academy Fellowship at Sunday’s TV awards.
Something of a full circle for the man who first shot to fame as the host of Sunday Night At The London Palladium.
That’s the time and the stage where the award will be presented by Paul Merton.
A Gift of the Council of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, the Fellowship is the highest accolade bestowed by the Academy.
It is presented in recognition of “an outstanding body of work”.
BAFTA held a photocall this morning of the preparations ahead of their Television Awards on Sunday night.
As usual, I’ll be in the press room at the London Palladium as the winners are brought off stage to talk to the media.
You’ll be able to read my reports both via the MEN website and this blog, as well as Monday’s hard copy Manchester Evening News.
Cranford is my idea of the big winner on the night.
And I’m among many who would like to see Life On Mars triumph in the Drama Series category – after the judges got it wrong last year.
The British Academy Television Awards, hosted by Graham Norton, start at 6.30pm and finish around 9pm.
BBC1 screen their two-hour “as live” highlights programme from 8pm.
The BAFTA website is also planning some exclusive online content of its own on Sunday night.
For those wondering who will be attending on Sunday – I have a list.
ASHES To Ashes is set to get slightly darker in series two, on the road to unveiling greater mysteries.
That was one of the revelations at last night’s BBC Writersroom talk by Ashley Pharoah and Matthew Graham.
They are the Emmy Award-winning creators and writers of Life On Mars and Ashes To Ashes, among many other things.
Ashley and Matthew told a packed audience of some 140 people about their sheer excitement for series two, following the first storyline meeting last Friday.
They also explained how they lost a few of the battles about the tone of Ashes series one.
And how they plan to pull the rug from under viewers in the second, and possible third, series.
The event was held at the Soho Theatre in London.
I took these post-talk photos of Ashley and Matthew in the back bar – just a short tube ride away from Luigi’s – sadly with no mural behind them.
They also shunned beer for that white wine stuff, so beloved of Italian trattorias.
Life of Wylie 