IT’S not easy being a dedicated Coronation Street fan.
You have to organise your life to watch five – and sometimes more – episodes a week.
Then you have to contend with the fact that Corrie never starts at the advertised time.
Set your electronic programme guide to record an episode and you will almost certainly miss the closing scenes.
Thankfully, those dreadful Cadbury ads are coming to an end.
“Trudy lights!” – currently being endlessly repeated – has to be the worst sponsorship ident in the history of television.
It will finally disappear in October when furniture retailer Harveys takes over the £10m-a-year Street sponsorship contract.

FORMER Coronation Street star John Savident doesn’t appear to be missing Weatherfield.
He’s currently rehearsing for the role of shoemaker Henry Horatio Hobson in a new production of Hobson’s Choice.
Set in 1880s Salford, it begins at the Chichester Festival on July 27.
But Guernsey-born John almost turned down the job because he didn’t want another northern role.
He told BBC1’s Breakfast today about his years on the cobbles as butcher Fred Elliott – killed off last year.
And he said fans are disappointed to learn that he has a posh voice in real life and is nothing like Fred.
“Somehow people now have forgotten what acting is like.

CORONATION Street fans worried that Antony Cotton may be lured away from the cobbles can rest easy.
The Bury actor, who plays Sean Tully, is preparing to host his new ITV1 teatime series – That Antony Cotton Show.
But even if the five-week Manchester-based run is a success and leads to other things, Antony won’t be quitting Weatherfield – at least not in the forseeable future.

COULD the Coronation Street cobbles be moved?
That’s one of the questions I posed in an interview with ITV Granada managing director Susan Woodward.
“You could move it, pick it up, do it somewhere else,” she said.
“It could look the same, feel the same, taste the same and probably work the same. But it’s a big decision to make.”
That decision – expected this summer – is about the future of ITV Granada’s 24 acre Quay Street site in Manchester.
One option is to stay put on a redeveloped site.
The other is to move to Media City in Salford.
You can read more in last Friday’s Pg 9 MEN feature – the online version is here.
Susan also told me: “Coronation Street is an extraordinary creative factory. They always want to expand the boundaries.

SPARE a thought today for Coronation Street star Bruce Jones.
The actor, who played Les Battersby, has been given the boot from the soap.
We broke the story here at MEN online yesterday afternoon.
I was never a huge fan of layabout Les.
And there will be plenty of people queuing up to have a go at Bruce for what he may, or may not, have been guilty of off screen.
But it’s always sad to see someone depart Corrie in such circumstances.
Street bosses allowed Bruce to go with a dignified statement.
I hope he, literally, gets his act together and is back working soon.

PERHAPS it’s just the dark character he portrays on screen, but Sean Gallagher has never looked that comfortable in Coronation Street.
The actor, who plays factory boss Paul Connor, was the final member of the family to arrive on screen last September.
And it wasn’t long before we learned that Paul and wife Carla lived in an apartment decorated with absolutely no regard for migraine sufferers.
So it wasn’t entirely unexpected when the former Linda Green star announced he was quitting.
We all know there’s never any escape from the Court of Soap Justice.
It was revealed earlier this year that Paul was driving when sister Michelle’s husband Dean was killed in a drunken car smash.
It was Paul who decided to place Dean’s body behind the wheel, in order to avoid a prison sentence.
The older of the two Connor brothers also orchestrated a cover up over the death of Polish factory worker Kasia.

THE theme tune to Coronation Street has remained almost unchanged since the very first episode on Friday Dec 9 1960.
Written by Eric Spear, it’s been calling viewers to their sofas for almost 47 years.
But there were once plans to release a re-worked version with lyrics. It was called Sing Me A Memory.
The eagle-eyed people over at Corrieblog spotted the story at Mobius News.
Click on the YouTube link below to hear the song, with Neil Sean on vocals.
The track was produced by Mike Stock and Matt Aitken, two thirds of the Stock, Aitken, Waterman music team, who also wrote the words.
But plans to release the song as a single to accompany Coronation Street’s 1997 video spin-off Viva Las Vegas were later shelved.

THERE are many reasons why Coronation Street is Britain’s No 1 soap.
One of them is Simon Gregson.
He’s put in thousands of screen hours over the years as Steve McDonald.
And yet his on screen performance remains as fresh as the day he started.
In the week of the high profile Tracy trial verdict, Friday’s episode – written by Jan McVerry – featured some classic lines.
Steve had already come up with a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it quip about the late, great Cozy Powell at Vernon’s expense.
But the best was still to come.
First came the entrance of grandma Liz into the Rovers with Steve and Tracy’s young daughter Amy (Amber Chadwick), who was clutching a double sherbet dip.

A busy day in Coronation Street yesterday.
First came the ratings for Tracy Barlow’s guilty verdict – watched by an impressive peak of 13.1m viewers.
Then last night it was revealed that Tina O’Brien is quitting the cobbles.
The Manchester-born actress, who plays hairdresser Sarah Platt, will leave at the end of the year.
There’s a front page pic and story in today’s MEN.
In essence, Tina, 23, is leaving to try her hand at other roles, possibly starting with a new ITV1 drama.

JUST seven days after THAT kiss between Sean and Sonny, Coronation Street embarks on another controversial storyline tonight.
Although it will take a little time to emerge, Leanne Battersby is back on the cobbles with a secret about how she’s been making cash.
You can read all about her role as a call girl in today’s MEN interview with actress Jane Danson, who plays Leanne.
Jane, who is returning to Corrie after the birth of first child Harry, told me she was a little nervous about the new direction for her character.
“Everybody seemed to know more about it than I did. I had a word with one of our press officers and said, ‘Is she just an escort, or is it going further?’