SPOILER alert: Do not read any further if you have yet to watch tonight’s (Thursday) episode of Coronation Street.
It was no secret that Jimi Mistry was leaving the cobbles.
But the death of his character Kal Nazir in tonight’s (Thursday) Coronation Street fire and explosion was kept under wraps until the episode aired on ITV.
As producer Stuart Blackburn noted: “The ability of a show like Corrie to still shock and surprise the audience is really precious.”
“I have to protect him…I’m not a bad person.”
Jenny Bradley at the centre of the drama in this week’s five special Coronation Street episodes.
As she plans to kidnap Kevin’s (Michael Le Vell) son Jack and set off on the road to Hull.
Complete with wig and a new identity as Melanie Davis.
“AT the moment Corrie’s literally, and metaphorically, on fire.”
Coronation Street producer Stuart Blackburn talking today (Friday) about five nights of explosive drama next week.
We saw that unfold at a London preview screening this afternoon followed by a Q&A with Stuart, director David Kester and members of the cast.
Some of what we saw and heard is embargoed, so as not to spoil the enjoyment of viewers.
With Coronation Street screened at 9pm every night from Monday to Friday next week.(May 25 to 29)
“I know what it feels like, that violation when somebody has been in your house.”
Les Dennis makes his Coronation Street debut next Monday (March 24) as opportunistic thief Michael Rodwell.
Having experienced burglary in real life, when he, his heavily pregnant wife Claire and their young daughter were asleep in their beds.
“Afterwards you think, ‘Oh my God, oh my God.'”
“IT’S going to be hard to walk through that door for the last time.
“I will cry. I know I will.”
Veteran actress Barbara Knox is not the only one to shed a tear in Coronation Street: A Moving Story.
“PEOPLE come, people go. And the Street goes on.
“The Street is the star. That’s how it should be.”
One of the other real stars of the Coronation Street Trafford Wharf reveal was another national treasure – Sue Nicholls.
The actress who has played Audrey since 1979 gave countless interviews to the media on the day and kept smiling in the face of hundreds of questions.
Looking much younger than the 70th birthday she had celebrated just six days before.
As is the way at these events, I waited patiently to speak to Sue as she was interviewed by yet another TV crew.
After a few minutes I was joined by one or two other media colleagues also wanting a word.
And by the time Sue was free to talk I had been joined by around a dozen others.
IT was quite a day at the reveal of the new Coronation Street set at Trafford Wharf.
The exterior lot has been upscaled and the Street itself is now wide enough for two cars to pass.
But otherwise it looks exactly the same as the current set at Quay Street in Manchester.
Where the final scene will be filmed just before Christmas.
With cast, crew and production team starting work at Trafford Wharf / Media City UK early in January 2014.
“I think this is going to be a day that nobody forgets.”
Kirsty Soames makes a prediction on the morning of her wedding to Tyrone Dobbs.
She’s not wrong.
I was at ITV’s London launch yesterday for next Monday’s two wedding day episodes.
Always a treat to see Coronation Street on a big screen with an audience.
And then a showreel of what is to come in the weeks and months ahead.
(Mild spoilers, including pics)
ALL TV soaps go through peaks and troughs.
Like waves on the shore, they take time to flow towards moments of crashing brilliance.
Footprints in the sand captured on screen to be remembered forever.
Tonight brings another high tide as the exceptional Katherine Kelly (Becky McDonald) takes her leave of Weatherfield.
DEDICATED Coronation Street fans will know that this week’s tram crash was first suggested six years ago.
My exclusive story was published in the Manchester Evening News on November 25 2004.
It revealed that a story proposal for 2005 – yet to be finalised – had been put forward to crash a tram into the Rovers Return from a viaduct at that end of the street.
Life of Wylie 