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Emily's veil is tonic
4 October 1999

SHY Corrie star Eileen Derbyshire turned Coronation SHEIKH . . . to cheer up a pal in hospital. The TV favourite, who plays prim and proper Emily Bishop, hired an Arab veil to slip into the ward unrecognised. Eileen, 68, went to a Manchester fancy dress shop to collect a yashmak - a veil worn by Muslim women - with just peep-holes for her eyes. And her close friend collapsed in fits of laughter when Eileen sat down with a bunch of grapes and joked: "I think I got away with it!"

Married Eileen is so jealous of her privacy she has a clause written into her Granada TV contract saying she does not have to talk to the press or promote Britain's top soap. Last night Jonathan Mitchell admitted his Theatre Hire store made Eileen's Arabian Nights request come true. He said: "Eileen is an astonishingly private person, but we have always found her tremendous fun. "It is her decision to avoid publicity like the plague and, to be honest, I can't blame her."

Pack it in guys
6 October 1999 by Chris Brandes
CORRIE arch-enemies Ken Barlow and Mike Baldwin have had their last on-screen punch-up...because soap bosses reckon they're TOO OLD to slog it out any more. The feud between the Street rivals, played by Bill Roache, 67, and Johnny Briggs, 62, will carry on - but with insults being thrown instead of fists.

Last night, a Coronation Street insider said: "Bill and Johnny look extremely good for their age, but they're not young men any more. The fighting has to stop."Over the decades, fist-fights between the duo have been a huge ratings hit - including a celebrated set-to in the Rovers.

Tempers are sure to boil over again later this month, when Mike arrives to spoil Ken's 60th birthday party. Baldwin orders him to hand over the £10,000 he spent on Deirdre's legal expenses. But it will NOT end with fists flying.

Bill, who has played Ken for almost 40 years, said: "I think the punch-ups with Mike might have to get beyond the physical. Our exchanges might be limited to verbal ones from now on." He added that he couldn't understand why Ken was still a Corrie heart-throb. "Maybe it's the fact that he still has a full head of his own hair."

Gail's frying visit
8 October 1999

IT WAS noisier and more cramped than Roy's Rolls, but Coronation Street's cafe cook Gail Platt proved she can rustle together the tastiest fry-ups. Actress Helen Worth surprised workmen yesterday by knocking up a massive fried breakfast in the cab of their JCB as they restored Manchester's old Corn Exchange building. She joined telly chef Paul Heathcote as part of Manchester's annual Food and Drink Festival.

Meanwhile, Kevin Kennedy - who plays supermarket boss Curly Watts - has been seen zooming around the city in a brand new £33,000 navy blue BMW Z3 convertible. The sports car fanatic already owns a sporty Mazda MX5.

Street's Linda in love split
9 October 1999

CORONATION Street star Jacqueline Pirie has dumped her fiance after a whirlwind romance, it was revealed last night. Jacqui, who plays gold-digger Linda Sykes, gave Lee Atherton, an extra in the soap, his marching orders after just four months.

Jacqui, 24, told a Street pal: "It just dawned on me I was rushing into marriage with a guy I really didn't know that well. "We'd had some good times over the last few months, but in all honesty I suddenly realised I could be making a big mistake. "So I decided to call it a day. It wasn't easy."

Pals say the couple have had several big rows in recent weeks. A Street source said: "They were fighting like cat and dog. We reckoned Jacqueline realised there wasn't any real future for them."

The star fell head over heels for blond Lee, 28, after spotting him on the set in Manchester. Within three weeks she was wearing a £1,000 engagement ring.

"Frightening" lesson in TV lovers' escape from fire
13 October 1999

Coronation Street lovers Spider and Toyah's narrow escape from a fire should highlight a "frightening" lesson about trendy ornamental candles, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents has said. Only a smoke alarm saved ecowarrior Spider and his girlfriend Toyah Battersby when one of Toyah's romantic candles set alight his aunt Emily Bishop's curtains as the couple smouldered upstairs in Monday night's episode of the ITV soap.

House fires caused by unattended candles have rocketed in the last few years as they have grown more fashionable, RoSPA said. Aromatherapy and interior design shops have popularised candles of all shapes and sizes. In 1998 there were 1,752 candle fires, compared with 1,226 in 1995, RoSPA revealed. Deaths increased slightly from nine to 11, and injuries were up from 452 to 772.

RoSPA safety advisor David Jenkins said: "The increase in the number of house fires caused by candles is frightening at a time when the total number of accidental house fires is falling. "Candles and lamps should never be left unattended and should be kept well away from curtains and loose clothing. They should have a stable, fire resistant holder and should not be left burning unattended at night." "Spider and Toyah were lucky the smoke alarm interrupted their canoodling and the house was only damaged by smoke. Many other people are not so fortunate."

The chastened Coronation Street couple only face redecorating Aunt Emily's home before she returns from her holiday in Burma. A Coronation Street spokeswoman said: "We hope some good can come out of Spider and Toyah's narrow escape if people learn a lesson from this."

Soap violence not up my Street
15 October 1999 by Alistair Keely

VETERAN Coronation Street star William Roache, yesterday lamented the demise of innocent family story lines in television soaps. The actor, who was visiting a Birmingham school, said many of the peak-time plots were no longer suitable for younger viewers. Roache, who plays Ken Barlow, went on to defend Coronation Street for taking a "moral" line but said some rival shows were becoming more explicit with sex, lesbianism and Aids.

The 66-year-old actor said: "At 7.30pm, it used to be the case of grandmother and grandchild sitting down together to watch them. "They are getting more explicit but that seems to be the way. "EastEnders has done Aids, but they are a different type of soap to us. "We are much more laid back, we have much more humour."

However, Roache, who was visiting Heartlands High School, admitted extra-marital affairs were now commonplace on the Street. "They are quite open about adultery on the Street now. It is never explicit and I think it is accepted," he said. But other story lines being developed may give Roache cause for concern. "A trans-sexual has appeared in Weatherfield and previous episodes have dealt with surrogacy.

While EastEnders is recognised for its gritty story lines featuring murder, rape and arson on an almost daily basis, Coronation Street has tried to emphasise the lighter side of life. "We are not one for showing lesbians and Aids. We are a bit old fashioned, we are stuck back in time in the North-west," added Roache.

The actor was visiting Birmingham to join staff and parents at Heartlands High School as they celebrated becoming a technology college trust. During his visit, Roache revealed he is about to embark on a pop career and is in the process of recording two songs with the band Mind, Body and Soul.

Face to Faith... Soap stars in new movie relive real race tensions
17 October 1999

CHRIS BISSON is Coronation Street's Vikram Desai, corner shop manager and member of the soap's first Asian family. In real life he was born in Manchester, where his mother comes from. His father came to Britain from Trinidad in the 1960s. In the new film East Is East he plays one of two sons of a mixed-race marriage, rebelling against his strict Moslem father. So does the role reflect his real growing- up experience?

THE Bissons arrived in London in 1968. There were 10 of them and they came here, like so many at the time, looking for a better life. They were the generation who had to tolerate racial prejudice. Dad never talked much about it but I know he was insulted and abused at times. He told the story of his brother Jemil who went into a cafe and asked for a pot of tea. A very polite lady behind the counter said her boss had told her not to serve coloured people. Jemil was speechless. He told the rest, 'What's the point of trying to live in a place where you don't even have the freedom to buy a cup of tea?' He packed his bags right there and then, and took the next flight home.

Dad and the others moved to Liverpool, where they saw notices in hotel windows saying 'No blacks. No Irish. No dogs', then to Manchester. They put up with a lot of hostility and verbal abuse, but perhaps I was lucky growing up in Manchester. Maybe the races were integrated there sooner than anywhere else. I don't remember being conscious of there being two sides to the family, white and Caribbean, because that seemed just the normal way to be. Dad used to like his West Indian cooking, and Mum was a Northerner through and through, but home life was always harmonious. I've always found it amusing that people guess I must be from Asian roots, when Dad is as West Indian as they come.When I was in my teens, funnily enough, casting directors seemed to think I was very English.

My first agent actually got me an audition for the Street years ago - for the role of Steve MacDonald, of all things. I looked around the hall and there were all these very white kids with blond hair, and I just knew I was kind of in the wrong place. I was thrilled to do East Is East because of the way it handles the period and the issues. In the 70s the country was changing so much, and it's captured the kind of conflicts people had to endure, in their own families and in the community outside their own neighbourhoods. I'm proud of Mum and Dad, and all the others like them. I think they were brave - they helped to make a much better and varied society for us all today.

JIMI MISTRY plays EastEnders' Dr Fonseca, the supercool Portuguese Asian with the slick lifestyle. In real life he was born in Yorkshire, the son of an English Catholic mother and an Indian Hindu father. In East Is East, out on November 5, he plays Chris's brother, the two of them resisting arranged marriages and running into old-fashioned racial prejudices when they try to adopt Western ways. So does that reflect Jimi's own upbringing?

MUM and Dad met and fell in love 30 years ago. That was a brave thing to do. They had to go through three marriage ceremonies in one day - first the temple, for my father's side, then a Catholic white wedding with Mum in a sari, and then a register office job. My grandad, Mum's father, didn't turn up. He had a lot of objections. Although it sounds odd I can understand his views.

I can understand people who feel we should keep to our own. It makes life easier. There are fewer rows and nobody has to explain anything to the children. We have it easy now, compared to the generation that went before us. We are now accepted as British, and for what we are. But my mum went through a hell of a lot - the taunts, the insults. It still goes on today to a lesser extent, though she doesn't make a big thing of it any more. When she was younger and they were courting, that's when she faced the worst of it, the slurs about her morality and her worth. The prejudice must have hurt her a lot, which only went to prove how much she loved my father and how she was going to stand her ground and not be defeated by bigots.

The truth is that you can't take away values which have lasted hundreds of years. Perhaps you shouldn't expect to. If you live in a different country you face different cultures and certainly you have to compromise - it's dangerous not to. I have a lot of contemporary friends who went through the cultural conflict thing, and still do. They would be told, 'Marry this girl, or leave the fold'. That's not the way it should be. Nobody should be forced into that situation. Not any more, not in England.

The strange thing is, I never thought about the colour of my skin until I was about six. Mum found me in the bath, trying really hard to scrub myself white. She was quite upset, but I simply couldn't understand the way I looked. I think I took a lot of stick over my origins, but I never associated it with racism. I thought it must be that some kids just didn't like me. Today...I think otherwise.

Wimps in TV battle
19 October 1999

TWO soap wimps are in the running for best actor in this year's National TV Awards. Steven Arnold - Coronation Street's put-upon Ashley - and Joe Absolom, who plays EastEnders fall-guy Matthew Rose, have both been nominated.

Meanwhile, Michael Barrymore is in line to be named best entertainment performer for the fifth year in a row. And Chris Tarrant's Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? is being tipped as a dead cert for top quiz. Over half a million people have already voted for the awards through TV Times.

Albert Square's Jack Ryder and Tamzin Outhwaite - Jamie Mitchell and Melanie Healy - are up for best newcomer. Against them will be Coronation Street's Alan Halsall, who plays dopey Tyrone.

Corrie blimey
19 October 1999 by John Mahoney

CORONATION Street grease monkey Kevin Webster has got a long-running gripe off his chest ... he's worn the same leather jacket for 16 YEARS! Actress Amanda Barrie relaxes in her changing room while rehearsing Alma Baldwin's lines by watching horseracing on telly and flicking through the racing pages. And Ken Barlow actor Bill Roache crams his dressing room with Kelloggs Frosties and Ryvitas as he leaves home too early for breakfast.

The real-life secrets of the top soap's favourite characters are revealed in a fascinating behind-the-scenes insight into what goes on at TV's best-loved show ... and the Daily Star's got the lot. Snippets of tittle-tattle in a tell-all new book out today are as juicy as the gossip in the Rovers. Spiky-haired blonde Julie Hesmondhalgh needs 20 minutes to put on the masculine jet-black wig to play transsexual Hayley - and bosses have ordered another because it's started to fade. Newton & Ridleys bitter at the Rovers is actually pale shandy, while any lager served up by Natalie Barnes is shandy with extra lemonade. Dark spirits like whisky and brandy are water mixed with burned sugar, while white spirits like Bacardi and Rita's favourite gin are water. But scotch-loving factory boss Mike Baldwin, played by Johnny Briggs, has apple juice. And when viewers see characters tucking into hot grub it's all been cooked in a small kitchen at the back of the studios - although Betty's hotpots are ordered direct from the main Granada TV canteen.

Actor Michael Le Vell constantly complains that Kevin Webster has had the same leather jacket for 16 years - but he's not alone in the scruff stakes. Eco-warrior Spider, played by Martin Hancock, has had NO new clothes since his first batch. Meanwhile the women get the pick of the show's wardrobes. Other revelations include how Sean Wilson landed the part of Martin Platt after auditioning to play Curly Watts and Terry Duckworth.

Producer David Hanson and writer Jo Kingston spill the beans in the book, Access All Areas - Behind the Scenes at Coronation Street. And it's likely to be a hit with soap fans. A Corrie insder said: "What happens when the cameras aren't rolling is as gripping for some as what happens when they aren't." And the show is obviously just too real for some readers - when neighbour from hell Les Battersby announced he was selling his van Granada TV took three phone calls from interested buyers!

Mark's back - and a new Sarah Lou
22 October 1999

Mike Baldwin's long-lost son is soon to turn up in Coronation Street, Granada revealed today. Mark Redmon, played by Paul Fox, contacts Baldwin after he returns from travelling. Mark is popular with the factory girls but is seen by Linda as a threat to her cosy relationship with Baldwin. He will make his first appearance in the episode on November 14. Soap fans will recognise him as Will from Emmerdale.

There is also a new face in the soap when 16-year-old Tina O'Brien takes over the role of Sarah Louise Platt on October 31.

Introducing Baldwin's long-lost son
22 October 1999 By Adam Keeble

Coronation Street's Mike Baldwin is in for a shock when his long-lost son turns up in the soap.Mark Redman - a love child from a fling with Maggie the florist - contacts his father after returning from travelling. Played by former Emmerdale star Paul Fox, 20, Mark soon becomes a favourite in Weatherfield, but Linda is worried his arrival could wreck her cosy arrangement with Mike.

Paul's first appearance is on November 14. He said: "My first scenes this week have been very exciting. Johnny Briggs, who plays Mike Baldwin, and Jacquie Pirie, who plays Linda, have been great to work with and have helped me settle in. "Mark appears to be a nice guy but I'm convinced there must be a bit of Baldwin in him somewhere. We'll have to wait to see his darker side."

Another Street new recruit takes over a familiar role soon. Sarah Louise Platt's character is to be played by former Children's Ward star Tina O'Brien, 16, from October 31. She replaces Lindsay King. As well as the teen hospital show, Tina has appeared in Cops and earlier this year filmed the drama Factory with former Street star Sarah Lancashire.

Ramsden's accepts £20m Granada bid
23 October 1999 By Andrew Clark

HARRY RAMSDEN'S chairman, John Barnes, insisted Yorkshiremen should be proud of the fish and chip shop chain after the company recommended a £20m takeover by the leisure giant Granada. Mr Barnes agreed to a 193p-a-share cash buyout at 4am yesterday, after an all-night negotiation in London. He said: "Classically, people tend to think large companies taking over small people is a bad thing. But people everywhere have pride in our brand name and if we keep standards up, Yorkshiremen will love seeing the chain expand."

Granada intends to roll out the brand in its motorway service stations across the country. Harry Ramsden's currently has 56 outlets, of which 51 are run by franchisees. The business was founded in 1928, when fish-fryer Harry Ramsden spent £150 opening a shop in Guiseley, near Leeds. Mr Ramsden's son, Harry junior, died two years ago and there are no remaining direct descendants. Mr Barnes said: "If Harry junior was still here, he'd be delighted at the opportunity to open up to 400 outlets."

The company's fortunes have been mixed in recent years. Last year, it suffered from a rise in fish prices and larger Harry Ramsden's outlets have struggled to compete against the growth of pub restaurants operated by big brewers. Yesterday Granada claimed control of 57pc of the shares. The leisure group bought 9.9pc in the market, adding to acceptances covering 43.8pc.

ITV puts on the Soaps At Ten as ratings slide
24 October 1999

CORONATION Street is to be screened in the old New At Ten Slot in a bid to stop falling ITV ratings. At the time viewers used to expect to see Trevor McDonald, they will be able to see five special episodes of The Street filmed in Brighton and Calais instead. ITV sources say producers of the network's most popular dramas have been told to work on a series of special episodes to halt a decline in viewers. But officially ITV denies any plans for a permanent Soaps at Ten slot.

The late-night Coronation Street specials will be screened from Monday November 8 to Friday November12. It means the show's fans will be able to watch nine episodes of the show in just one week as the normal editions of the soap will go out as normal. In the special, viewers will see The Street's bad boy Steve MacDonald (Simon Gregson) and Vikram Desai (Chris Bisson) go to Brighton on a tobacco run. Bet Gilroy ( Julie Goodyear) will also return to attend her step-granddaughter's wedding in one of the special episodes. The late broadcast of the series is the latest bid by ITV to encourage viewers to stay tuned after 10pm

A spokeswoman for ITV described the Street special as "event programming" for one week only. "It will be a bit like a Coronation Street bubble with a special story line. But it's not a long-term plan."

Square bashers
27 October 1999

CORONATION STREET was crowned top soap for the second year running at last night's National TV Awards - to the astonishment of the pundits. Telly insiders had tipped its BBC rival EastEnders to scoop the award, following a series of hot plot lines in recent months - but Albert Square lost out again to the Street. It was the biggest shock of the star-studded ceremony, watched by millions of viewers on primetime ITV and attended by nearly 3,000 at London's Royal Albert Hall.

But Corrie's victory set the scene for the rest of the telly gongs, almost all of which went to past winners. Inspector Morse and Kavanagh QC star John Thaw was named most popular actor for the second year running. His one-off wartime drama Goodnight Mr Tom, in which Thaw grew a beard to play a grumpy old man who takes a young evacuee under his wing, was named top drama.

 Silent Witness star Amanda Burton was voted most popular actress for the second year in a row. Only Fools And Horses and Goodnight Sweetheart actor Nicholas Lyndhurst was handed the top comedy performer's prize for the second time. And Stars In Their Eyes was named most popular entertainment programme for - you guessed it - the second year running. Others to score a double were Parkinson (best chat show) and This Morning with Richard and Judy (most popular daytime programme).

However, a breath of fresh air at the ceremony, hosted by Trevor McDonald, was provided by EastEnders scorcher Tamzin Outhwaite. The 28-year-old blonde, who plays Melanie Healey on Albert Square, was voted most popular newcomer.

Michael Barrymore had been hoping to win the entertainer's award for the fifth time in a row, but lost out to Lily Savage. However, he did get a consolation prize -Michael was presented with a special award to mark his life-long contribution to television.

Other winners included the BBC's Animal Hospital, Vets In Practice and Last Of The Summer Wine. Chris Tarrant's sensational game show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? surprised no one as it lifted the most popular quiz award.

 But the top telly commercial gong proved a tougher one to predict. In the end, Tesco's "Dotty on a bus" beat off Levi's Flat Eric and the Budweiser alligator.

EastEnders 'axeman' to quit
28 October 1999 By Derek Robins

EastEnders axeman Matthew Robinson is to quit the BBC1 soap next year. Executive producer Matthew, 54, transformed the show after he took up the job 18 months ago by dumping a string of big name stars.

A BBC spokesman said: "Matthew is leaving at the end of his two-year contract. He'll leave the programme in exceptionally good shape. It's top of the ratings and is a really strong show. "Matthew feels it's time to move on and he's seeking new challenges. He's very popular and the cast and crew will really miss him."

Robinson's policy of axing characters and bringing in new faces led to a huge boost in viewing figures. The soap was sagging when Robinson began as executive producer. But he has helped ratings to rise from 13 million to the current 18 million. He axed an incredible 26 characters since his reign began, including Ruth Fowler, father and daughter George and Annie Palmer, Sanjay and Gita and original cast member Dr Legge.

But new characters have proved hugely popular with viewers. Martin Kemp has been a big hit as Steve Owen, as have Joe Absolom as jailed Matthew and Tamzin Outhwaite as Melanie.

Adam Rickitt: The Real Me
29 October 1999

The real real me: my bulimia got to the point where I didn't even have to put fingers down my throat... I could just stand there and throw up 30 times a day

YOUNG singer Adam Rickitt went straight from school to Coronation Street and a starring role as Gail Tilsley's rebellious son Nicky. His cheeky character and good looks won him many young fans, and it was no surprise when, after leaving the soap, his first single I Breathe Again went straight into the charts at No 5 in April. His first album, Good Times, has just been released. Adam lives alone in London's Chelsea. He is the opposite of the arrogant brat he might have been. He's one smart boy. THE hardest thing I've ever had to do was to get over bulimia. The hardest. I always wanted to. Even from Day One. I really, really did. I hated it.

Food is what keeps us alive. But food nearly killed me. For a year and a half I was bulimic. Just bingeing and throwing up. Every day I would just eat and eat and eat. Everything. I was at boarding school and stealing food from the kitchen. Bread, puddings, leftovers from lunch, cheesecake. The lot.

I would binge for, like, four hours. You know. Throw up about a dozen times. I'd hate it. As soon as I'd thrown up, I'd be like, "Oh, why am I doing this to myself?" but for the moments I was bingeing, I was concentrating so much on what I was eating that nothing else mattered.

I was frantic. It wasn't like, you know, enjoying the food. I wouldn't hardly ever pause for breath sometimes. Just literally shovelling it down as quickly as I could. Your focus is so much on cramming in as much food as possible, that you can dissect yourself away from the other problems.

It started when I was 16. I'm 21, now. I was at a very sport-orientated public school in Cumbria - Will Carling went there - and I got into rugby. That summer I picked up a virus from polluted water on a family holiday in Devon, lost about a stone in a few weeks, and couldn't play rugby that season. My body had just gone "Whoosh!" you know, everything had just gone through.

I'd been having problems with my shoulders, so I went and saw a specialist. And, I mean, bless him, he didn't know what it meant to me. So he just said, "Oh, by the way, you've got damaged ligaments. You'll never play rugby again." AND literally, you know, within five minutes, what had been my world at that age was gone. I became incredibly depressed. And being at a boarding school where everyone had to do two hours sport a day, I would be the only person back at the boarding house.

I felt so alone. I became obsessed, because I was eating to get my weight up, and get back on the team. One day I just kept on eating and eating until I stood up. And I'd eaten so much I just threw up on the spot. But that focus I'd been able to put onto the food, for that moment, blotted out all the other pain.

I was hooked. You see, it's the same as alcoholism or drug addiction. The focus on food became like a drug. Nobody knew. I lied to everybody about it because I was so ashamed. And guilty. My dad worked himself half to death to put me in that school.

I did an amazing amount of damage to myself. I was throwing up blood. I mean, it got to the point where I didn't even have to put my fingers down my throat. I could just stand there and throw up. Without even trying. Twenty or 30 times a day, eventually.

That's when the weight really did start to come off. Which is when people probably cottoned on. I went from 12 stone to 7 1/2. I'm 5ft 11ins, a big frame, so it wasn't much. You could see all my ribs. I was so cold that I was having to wear seven or eight layers just to get to sleep.

My hair was, you know, all greasy, and my skin was very pallid, you could see through it. My eyes were bloodshot, and I had scarring on my knuckles from putting my fingers down my throat. I knew I was killing myself, I knew I didn't have much longer left. I was so weak that my heart was stopping every time I stood up, and I was passing out. I would never have killed myself. Like, drawn a knife across my wrists. But I kind of wished the decision would be taken out of my hands. By this point I knew my family knew. In the holidays they'd hear me throwing up. My dad's a big bloke, 30 stone. So I knew he was probably blaming himself, even although it was nothing to do with him. I knew my mum was blaming herself. It made me even more guilty.

And one day in the Christmas holidays four years ago, my mum came back from shopping and said: "Adam, if you throw up all this food, I will be very disappointed". Disappointed was not a strong word. But it was that one crux moment when I thought that the one person I cared most about in the world was giving up on me.

I spent the entire afternoon in my bedroom, crying. Mum came up because she heard me, and I said to her, "Mum, I have this problem. I need your help." It wasn't that from that day forth I never threw up again, because I did. And when I did stop, there was the depression to overcome. And the specialists I saw were useless. But what helped most was having somebody know. The fact that I'd actually admitted it to my family.

It was hard to start eating again, and not to binge. I so longed for a miracle cure, and there isn't one. Basically you have to pit yourself against your own soul. But it was an amazing turnaround. Within no time I started to have energy. I didn't have to sleep for 12 hours in the day. I'd wake up happy.

It took me about six months to get back up to 12 stone, next summer. It sounds really pretentious, but I'd got so in touch with my own feelings. You get to know yourself, your strengths, your weaknesses, because you're so alone. And I knew that rugby wasn't it. That really, all I wanted was to get into this business. My mum always says I've got tunnel vision. I'm pig-headed. I had a place to study Law at university, and I got my grades for it. But the day my A-level results came through, I said to my dad, "I want to be a singer". AND he just looked at me for 30 seconds - it felt like a year - and said: "Yeah, I can see how much you want it. Go out and get it."

Within a week, I'd made a demo tape, got some snaps, got a book from the library that lists every agent, sent off to 20 of them. Got offers off 19, met them all and chose one I thought could be my friend as well. There was interest from the record labels, but on a day off, I went to an audition for Coronation Street. My manager said: "You won't get it, because you've not had any acting experience. But next time you meet record executives, you won't be as nervous."

I'd never seen a single episode, and I walked in and just read the piece, not bothered. I got a phone call an hour later saying I had the part! I was 19. The Street was a big learning experience for me. When I started, I was awful. Really bad! And suddenly people wanted to know about my sex life!

I think my mum was worried that the pressure and fame would make me slip back, but I was enjoying it. I got a recording deal, and got three weeks off last winter to record some of the album. I left The Street in April when my first single was released. When I went to No 5, I was shocked, to be honest. Amazed and thrilled. It's going to be a long, hard slog to be a solo artist, but it's so much fun. I'm really healthy now. I have a very normal attitude to food these days. I eat when I'm hungry. I eat what I want. I haven't weighed myself in about six months, and that was only out of interest. I was about 11 and a half.

But it was never about weight, or looks or image or vanity in the first place. I feel very grown-up in some respects. Going through all that has made me realise what's important, and I've come out of it a much stronger person. If this whole business came tumbling down, I'd be fine about it. I know it's not the be-all and end-all. Life itself is. Because I did come close to the edge, I realise it's a gift.

And I know what I want. I want a family of my own. I really want to be a dad, I'm very paternal, I get gooey-eyed at babies! I was in a big family myself. But my one big relationship, my one real love, ended just before The Street. And it took me a long time to get over her. So I had no girlfriend while I was there. Some papers speculated that I was gay, but I'm happy with who I am. I've stood up and said I'm straight, but I'm not going to make a big issue of it.

There's no one special now, although I've been dating a lot more. I see a couple walking down the street, and there's that sort of fire between them. And 30 years later, it's still there. Well, that's what I want. That's what I want. And I'm still waiting. But give me a chance, I'm only 21!

In the meantime, I'm loving the job I do. But even without it, I'm happy now, so I'm grateful. I'm amazingly lucky. I got Coronation Street and now I'm doing this.

But I was most blessed in life in having a family who loved me. Who, no matter what I'd done, never turned against me. I was knocking on death's door and they saved me.

My biggest downfall

JELLY sweets like jelly bears, jelly babies and cherry hoops. As soon as the packet's opened, I can't stop eating them. I nibble the crusty bit till I get the jelly inside.

Then I suck on the jelly. I like them all, but lemon, orange and lime are favourites. The trouble is, too many and the sugar content makes me hyperactive. I run around like a headless chicken.

My biggest vice

SMOKING. I started when I left school, only about five a day. But when I started on Coronation Street, it was just the hanging round, a thing to fill the gap.

But it's been about three years now, and I smoke too many. About 20 or 30 a day. A friend of mine quit recently, and he said: "The only time you can, is when you really, really want to stop." I'm getting near. I think.

My darkest days

I WAS scientific about my bulimia. I knew what order to eat, so when I threw up, it would be the dessert first. When I got to the bread, the low-fat thing, it'd be like, "Right, I can stop now".

Knowing that stomach acid can dissolve your stomach lining and ruin your teeth, every time I threw up I'd take a Rennie's and brush my teeth. Then start all over again.

My favourite drink

I ONLY drink when I go out, either Budweiser or Vodka and Red Bull. It's ridiculously unhealthy. My body can't tolerate eating butter, cream or anything rich, because I ate so much before.

But I drink three pints of milk a day, two semi-skimmed, one skimmed. And I need it for my cereal. I have a HUGE bowl every morning of Frosties, All Bran and Special K mixed. HUGE.

My exercise regime

I CAN'T abide gyms and using weights. I much prefer the idea of using your own body; it's more natural.

So I exercise at home in the mornings. I do 1,000 sit-ups alternate days, and than go for a bit of a run, maybe 20 minutes. The next day I'll do 500 press-ups, and then a run.

And I always eat a banana after. I do it six days, have one day where I do absolutely nothing.

My home life

I STILL call Manchester home, but I've been living on my own for the first time, in a tiny shoebox in London for six months. I love it!

I take all my vitamins plus cod liver oil for my ligaments, to keep me lubricated. I feel like the Tin Man! And I've just bought my first Hoover. I was so excited, the lady in the shop said, "This is your first time, isn't it?"

Julie was scared by Bet
29 October 1999 By Derek Robins

Corrie favourite Julie Goodyear has revealed that she found it tough to return as Bet Gilroy after a four-year gap. Julie, 57, who's back as Bet in the Corrie spin-off After Hours next month, said: "It was daunting. I had the jitters in the weeks before filming. "It was a real challenge when I walked on to the set for the first time. But people might think it was a doddle after being Bet for 25 years." She said she felt back in the Corrie groove as soon as she put Bet's leopardskin coat back on.

Julie, who was in 2,002 episodes, said: "As soon as I put on her clothes and make-up I could feel Bet returning. "I was interested immediately. I've never been one to shy away from a challenge and I thought it'd be a test to see whether I could still play the part."

Bet appears in Coronation Street After Hours to attend the wedding of Vicky, who now runs a wine bar in Brighton. Meanwhile, Vicky's ex-hubby Steve McDonald and Vikram Desai arrive in the resort en route to Calais for an illegal booze and ciggie run. Bet will be seen with old Corrie favourites Reg Holdsworth (Ken Morley), who now runs a hypermarket in Calais, and Vicky, played by Chloe Newsome.

Julie has never matched the success she had in Corrie since leaving the ITV soap after 25 years in 1995. She failed to make the grade as a TV chat show host. As for a full-time return to Corrie, she told Inside Soap magazine: "That's the big question. I've never shut the door completely on the Street and I don't think I ever will."

The Holdsworth guide to seduction...
31 October 1999

...a lot of fumbling, a curry and a 3-litre wine box

He's fiftysomething, with a face as round as the face of the Moon and a paunch just beginning to wobble above the waistband of his trousers. His grey hair is thinning and he blinks at the world through a pair of turquoise-framed glasses. Hard though it is to believe, we are in the presence of one of Britain's most enduring sex symbols.

Holdsworth's the name. Reg Holdsworth. In his four years on Coronation Street the Bettabuy supermarket boss caused as many female hearts to skip a beat as James Bond ever did. They loved his cheek and his patter, longed for him to spreadeagle them across the baked bean pyramid. "They knew," says Ken Morley, who played him, "that Reg was quite likely to grab them, smother them in kisses, then reach into the deep freeze for a half-pound of marge."

Four years ago his randy ramblings came to an end. Reg was written out. He disappeared into the mists of East Anglia after, typically, cheating one last time on his long-suffering wife Maureen. And that, apparently, was that. Nice while it lasted, Reg, but adieu. Except that now it's bonjour again. Starting on November 8, Reg will be appearing in a late-night Street spin-off, a sort of Where Are They Now of old favourites.

In Reg's case, it's France. The old rogue has resurfaced as manager of a Calais hypermarket. Four years have rolled by, but nothing much has changed. Women are still prepared to drop their scruples for him at the drop of a beret. When first seen he is being hotly pursued by an irate husband and has to take refuge in the back of a booze-runner's van.

"No, he's not mellowed," agrees Ken, who at one point appears on screen wearing only a pair of Union Jack underpants. "But the way I see it is this. Holdsworth is doing French womanhood a service. With their men exhausted and anaemic after refusing to eat British beef, he is giving them a little coq au vin of his own, out of the kindness of his heart. "He is introducing the locals to the Anglo-Saxon art of seduction, which involves a lot of fumbling, a curry, and the contents of a three-litre wine box."

Ken is currently on tour with the cult musical The New Rocky Horror Show - "I'm wearing suspenders...my own, of course" - and he witnesses the shock of recognition night after night. "When they realise it's Reg Holdsworth back from the dead the applause almost lifts the roof. After a show in Edinburgh, I went to the pub, like you do, and one guy came up to me, clapped me on the shoulder and said, 'See youse, Reg. Youse are an icon.'"

Ken says with some pride that he's never once been out of work since he left the Street, but he's had to roll up his sleeves and graft. There's panto, and voice-overs, TV commercials for lawnmowers, and personal appearances in clubs and supermarkets which can bring him in up to £4000 a time.

I caught up with him a couple of years ago at the Reigate branch of Safeway, where he was helping promote the new triangular tea-bag. Flanked by two people in chimp costumes, he elicited a certain amount of puzzlement. "Who is he?" asked one man in a blazer, with the unmistakable look of a retired Navy officer. "Labour or Lib Dem?" Maybe middle-class Surrey isn't the most fertile territory for an ex-Coronation Street star.

It's in the nightclubs and disco bars that he comes into his own. As near to Reg as dammit in his powder blue jacket, crimson shirt and zebra-patterned socks, he stands firm as a rock while wave upon wave of female lust breaks over him. I saw him once in a nightclub near Nottingham, approached by a blonde of no more than 20 with a Bacardi & Coke in one hand and a Magic Marker in the other. "Givvus yer autograph, yer randy little sod," she said, hoicking up her dress to reveal a pair of white buttocks and a black lace thong the size of a strip of Sellotape.

She pointed at the left one. Ken grinned and signed - "One doesn't like to let anyone down," he whispered out of the corner of his mouth - and she couldn't have been happier if Brad Pitt had done it. This man is 56 years old, I had to keep reminding myself. Fifty-six years old...

He says: "It happens all the time. I was in a club in Hull one night getting groped by the women as usual. "This girl comes up and asks for an autograph. She unbuttons her dress, gets her boobs out and says, 'Sign there.' So I did. I took my time about it as well. I signed Reginald Bosanquet Eisenhower Bagwash Holdsworth BA. "She went away happy and so did I."

Ken's wife Sue is braced for another upsurge of Reggiemania with the new show. "She takes it all in her stride," Ken says. "When the idea came up, she didn't object. Quite the contrary. She said, 'Do it, so I can lounge around and get as fat as you are.' Her motto is, 'Work the old fool to death.'" Ken and Sue have been married for 10 years. Their little boy Roger is nine. "He's beginning to get some idea of what Reg is like," Ken says. "He saw a picture of me the other day and said, 'Why are you kissing that lady, Dad?' I told him, 'You have it to do, son.' "He's growing up so quickly. We were watching TV the other night, an item about a couple who had both had a sex change and were living together. 'I know what they are,' Roger said. 'They're a pair of transformers.'"

Starring with Ken in the new show is Julie Goodyear as Bet Gilroy, diva of the Rovers Return, swathed in trademark leopardskin. True to form, Reg tries to remove it, only to be told sternly by Bet: "You're not hoisting the Jolly Roger tonight."

Ken's reappearance at the studios was typically flamboyant. He has a collection of American cars in blinding colours like pearl and shocking pink, everything from a Lincoln Continental to a Cadillac Eldorado. "It's 8.2 litres, that one. Drinks petrol. I get a card every Christmas from the Arabs. They say, next time you're in Saudi Arabia, do drop in."

When he left the Street Ken's farewell present from the cast was a movie director's chair bearing the legend Rich Fat Bastard, which he considered "a most kind and considerate message." On his first day back, the car park attendant greeted him with the words, "It's nice to see you again, Mr Morley." Then, as Ken drove off to find a parking space, he added, "Oh, and by the way, you're still a fat bastard." Ken goes all dewy-eyed. "And do you know the nicest thing about that?" he says. "I knew it came straight from the heart."

Denise quits on a high note
31 October 1999

CORRIE actress Denise Welch has turned down a £100,000 offer to sing again. The star, who plays Rovers barmaid Natalie Barnes, last enjoyed chart fame in 1995 with a version of Dusty Springfield's You Don't Have To Say You Love Me.

Reg's Corrie return was predictable
2 November 1999 By Adam Keeble

Ken Morley knew he would return to Corrie - because a fortune-teller told him. Ken, 56, back as randy Reg Holdsworth in the ITV spin-off show Coronation Street: After Hours, from November 8.

He said: "It was amazing, really. I saw this clairvoyant in May and he told me that although I hadn't worked on Corrie for more than three years I would be very soon. I didn't believe him, but two weeks later I got the call to revive Reg. "I'd never envisaged returning as I thought Reg had run his course. I was concerned about resurrecting him as he's the kind of character who takes over your life, but I'm delighted I was asked."

In the show, Reg is running a hypermarket in Calais, bumps into Bet Gilroy in Brighton and is persuaded to pose as her dead lover. Viewers will see rotund Ken strip down to Union Jack boxers for the bedroom scene with Bet, played by Julie Goodyear. He said: "It's one of the funniest bedroom scenes ever. It's absolutely hilarious."

Street star seeks film breakthrough
3 November 1999

Coronation Street star Tracy Shaw is hoping to branch out into film. Shaw, who plays hairdresser Maxine, said she wanted to follow in the footsteps of co-star Chris Bisson (Vikram in the Street), and take a part in a gritty northern drama.

She said at the world premiere of East is East: "I really want to get into films. I just hope there's some northern writers out there. I wanted to do a period drama but it would be great to do a big northern film."

She said she thought East is East was going to be a great film and that it would open up doors for northern actors. "I heard it's a great film. I'm looking forward to seeing it. I'm here to support Chris. I think I'm more nervous than he is. I'm really proud of him. I just hope it opens doors for us all."

Tracy, who attended the premiere at Manchester's new Trafford Centre with her father, said: "I think it's great that they have decided to do it here. "It's a northern film so I hope we get loads more films out of it. From the clips I have seen it looks hilarious."

Tracy is a dady's girl
4 November 1999

CORONATION Street sexpot Tracy Shaw is hitting the town with her DAD after a disastrous run of romances. They arrived for a champagne party to launch new movie East Is East.

Blonde Tracy, who plays Corrie crimper Maxine Peacock, is keeping fellas at bay after finishing with male model Matt Bailey two weeks ago. That followed hot on the heels of ditching Habitat store manager Alex Moscovitch.

But the only one panting for 25year-old Tracy at the Manchester bash was Blake, a £10,000 Great Dane. He steals the glory in the movie, which also stars Chris Bisson - Corrie chancer Vikram Desai.

Tracy's dad Karl, 44, split from her mum Ann last year. A pal said: "The last thing Tracy needs is another heavy romance."

Screen embrace turns into red-hot passion
7 November 1999

CORONATION Street star Chris Bisson told last night how he stunned soap beauty Tracy Shaw with a passionate screen snog. Chris - who plays Romeo shopkeeper Vikram Desai - was only supposed to give Tracy a pretend actor's kiss. But as the steamy scene developed, he couldn't help turning it into a full-blown, red-hot smacker.

Tracy, who plays hairdresser Maxine Peacock, was shocked by the passionate French kiss but Chris says it was the highlight of his acting career. The cheeky star said: "That snog outside the salon with Tracy was definitely the best moment in my time on the Street. I just couldn't help myself. "It was really great - the most exciting thing I have done in Corrie so far."

The steamy snog happened when Vikram and Maxine enjoyed an on-screen romance soon after Chris arrived in the Street. As well as Tracy, Chris, 24, has had a passionate clinch with sexy Jane Danson, who plays Leanne Battersby.

And in a new six-part Corrie spin-off which starts tomorrow night, Vikram beds a sexy French hitchhiker played by beautiful Marie Antoinette Laquiere. Chris said: "I love playing Vikram because I get to do all the things I would never normally have the guts to do in real life."

Chris himself has been single for SIX MONTHS. And he admits that's because he's too suspicious when sexy girls try to chat him up. He said: "I know I could miss out on someone fantastic because I misjudge women without giving them a fair chance but I've known too many girls after just one thing."

Chris's Corrie revelations came as he celebrated at a star-studded party for the premiere of his new movie East is East, which opened to rave reviews last week. Happy Mondays' pop star Shaun Ryder and Hollyoaks actress Stephanie Warring were among the celebrities at the after-show bash at Manto's bar in the Trafford centre in Manchester. East is East - set in Salford in the 1970s - is already being hailed as the next Full Monty. Chris plays a hippy engineering student whose raunchy lifestyle embarrasses his strict Pakistani father.

Corrie slammed for 'unrealistic' storyline
8 November 1999 By Derek Robins

Coronation Street is under fire for an allegedly "unrealistic" storyline involving Spider's work at the Benefits Agency. Staffordshire civil servant Dave Gittins, who works for the agency, says: "The portrayal is unrealistic. "Spider would not be let loose on the front line after only a day or two training. Income Support or Job Seeker's Allowance training is well in excess of 12 weeks, followed by a period of consolidation, not a couple of days."

In the soap, Spider (Martin Hancock) has been trying to scare dole cheat Les. Dave says: "It gives the impression that anyone can peruse anybody's records. "Data held on the computer systems is governed by strict rules of access and anyone found making unauthorised use of data is liable for disciplinary action or dismissal."

But Corrie chiefs have defended the storyline. A spokeswoman said: "The story is that Spider is abusing his position at work to scare Les because of the way he's been treating him and Toyah. "That's why he hasn't been following the rules and regulations. We have worked closely with the agency to get our facts right. But there is some dramatic licence as well."

Streets Ahead
9 November 1999

It's Coronation Street, but at the same time it isn't. This week's late-evening Corrie spin-off may have better production values as well as 'saltier' language, but it's hardly ground-breaking television. By Nicholas Barber

On tonight's Coronation Street Special, Reg Holdsworth will be wearing nothing but his bow-tie and glasses. Bet Lynch will be using language as colourful as one of her blouses. And, to conclude the episode, both characters will be snuffed out in a Tarantino-esque bloodbath of stylish ultra-violence.

Actually, that's just my prediction, but it would explain why the Special is being broadcast after the watershed. At 10 o'clock each night from Monday to Saturday, ITV has scheduled six spin-off Corrie episodes, in addition to the week's customary four episodes at 7.30. The extra programmes move out of the Street to Brighton and Calais, but their selling point is not the settings but the cast.

For one week only, we get to catch up on some of the soap's most beloved alumni, principally Bet Lynch, Weatherfield's answer to Ivana Trump. Still regarded as the Queen of the Street, Julie Goodyear, who plays Bet, left the series in 1995. She has been in semi-retirement ever since - the BBC never broadcast the chat show she attempted - and the soap hasn't been the same without her. But is her reappearance really worth a slot of its own? Why not just include it in the 7.30 episodes?

Speak to the people behind the mini-series and you might end up believing that this is a pioneering televisual event that would do Dennis Potter proud. The producer is Mary McMurray. She admits to having directed the first Coronation Street special, "the now infamous QE2 video", but is more accustomed to such series as Miss Marple and An Unsuitable Job For A Woman. For her, the attraction was the "experiment" of making a week-long, self-contained, "real-time" comedy drama in which the events in each episode are supposed to have occurred on the day of its broadcast.

The challenge, she says, was to transpose soap characters to a "storyline with a more leisurely arc" and to make a programme "not exactly like the Street, but not so far divorced from it as to be unrecognisable." Traditionalists will be relieved to hear that Fatboy Slim hasn't replaced the wistful trumpeter on the opening credits, but we do see the rooftops of Brighton instead of Salford. A seagull stands in for the Coronation Street cat.

There are technical differences between the soap and the Special in almost every department. Corrie is shot on tape, with a multi-camera set-up. The Special was shot on film, with a single camera and film-quality lighting. Corrie is shot in Granada's studios. Most of the mini-series was shot on location in Brighton and Calais. The crucial difference was that while Corrie has to get four episodes in the can in six days, the Special required a five-week shoot for six half-hour episodes, allowing the makers to concentrate on one or two scenes a day.

The writers, who all work or have worked on the regular series, were given more time than usual to develop the story. Similarly, the five principal actors are familiar faces from the Street, but at least one of them appears in almost every scene in the mini-series, whereas on the usual programme the acting is shared between 40-odd regulars. These five had the luxury of read-throughs, rehearsals and five weeks of concentration. "It shows in the depth to the performances," says McMurray. "Simon Gregson [who plays Steve McDonald] played a blinder."

As much as this may all sound like a treat for Corrie addicts and a fascinating exercise for McMurray and co, the rest of us may feel cheated. We might even suspect that ITV were less concerned about breaking new ground in TV drama than they were about using their most popular product to bung the hole left by the departed News At Ten. So far, the only vindication the channel has been able to offer for axing its current affairs flagship has been the ratings of the recent James Bond season. Someone must have noticed the 16 million people who switch on Coronation Street every week, put two and two together, and come up with Bet At Ten.

"You're absolutely right that it's important for ITV to get healthy ratings in that slot," concedes McMurray, "but that was never discussed with us." Nonetheless, she adds that ITV should do well out of the mini-series. It will soon be available to buy on video. "And if it's judged to be successful, there will certainly be more specials to come."

Let's get to the point. How much sex, violence and swearing can we expect? "It was a question of where the story took us," replies McMurray. "We never set out to make a specifically post-watershed drama. One or two bits of language are saltier than they might be at 7.30pm and there are themes of sexual jealousy and revenge, but it's not a fantastically raunchy piece." For that at least we can be grateful.

Corrie's nasty nanny in Ballykissangel
11 November 1999 By Derek Robins

Corrie's "nanny from Hell" Catherine Cusack is returning to TV to play a police officer in Ballykissangel. Catherine, 30, who got hate mail when she was nasty nanny Carmel Finnan in the Street for five months, is BallyK's new garda Frankie Sullivan. She said: "I visited Bray Garda station in Wicklow and spent some time with a female officer to get the feel of the part. She's nothing like Carmel, which is great. Frankie is tough and no-nonsense."

Catherine is still sometimes recognised for her Coronation Street role. Carmel nearly wrecked the Platts' marriage after she lied that she was pregnant by Martin. The actress said: "I got hate mail in 1992 and 1993 when I was in the show but it was exaggerated for publicity purposes. It wasn't all that bad. There was only one letter which was truly unpleasant."

Ballykissangel is the first TV role for Catherine in her native Ireland. She's the daughter of the late Cyril Cusack and sister of Niamh. Apart from roles in Cadfael, The Bill, The Chief and the film The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne, she has concentrated on theatre work. As for working on Ballyk, she said: "I wasn't prepared for filming as you are on view to the public so much."

Art mirrors life for Mike Baldwin
12 November 1999 By Derek Robins

Mike Baldwin is to be banned for drink-driving in a sensational new Coronation Street storyline - just five months after Johnny Briggs, 64, the actor who plays Baldwin, was himself banned.

The dramatic new development in the ITV soap comes just five months after Johnny Briggs, 64, the actor who plays Baldwin, was banned for drink-driving for 14 months and fined more than £1,000. A Street spokeswoman said: "It's just a coincidence. The idea was generated by the team of writers- it wasn't Johnny's idea."

Mike will discover what it's like to have a chauffeur, just like actor Briggs. The spokeswoman said: "Mike gets a shock when he's breathalysed after a romantic dinner with Linda. He also has to spend a night in the cells before he's banned."

Briggs was banned until Sept 2000 for drink-driving after police stopped his S-reg Mercedes in May on the M6 in Staffordshire.

But the makers of Coronation Street have denied that the storyline has anything to do with the real-life ban. "There are Government campaigns against drink-driving before Christmas and the writers thought it was a good time to have a storyline about it," the spokeswoman added.

Viewers will see Mike being stopped by police on November 26. Ironically, Johnny helped launch a Don't Drink And Drive campaign in 1989.

Street chiefs tell Bet to Corrie on
14 November 1999

CORONATION Street bosses are set to bring back Bet Gilroy and Reg Holds-worth on a regular basis after the massive success of last week's spin-off shows. The Street specials pulled in 11 million viewers - twice the normal audience for ITV's 10 o'clock slot. Delighted soap chiefs are now planning a series of spin-offs for stars Julie Goodyear and Ken Morley.

Former Street producer David Hanson has been appointed director of special projects to oversee the shows. An ITV insider said: "The figures for the spin-offs were amazing. It just proves the power that Coronation Street has."

Good news for pop
16 November 1999 Dominic Mohan's Bizarre

ADAM RICKITT is doing us all a big, big favour - he is putting his "music" career on hold to try to make it as an actor in Hollywood. The ex-Coronation Street star tells me he is hoping to make it really big in the States.

It will be interesting to see if he succeeds or goes the same, sorry way as Chris Quinten, who played his dad in the soap. He tried to make it in America but returned to Britain with his tail between his legs. The last I heard he was working in nightclub promotions. Undaunted, Adam says he has already started work on a TV series about Alexander the Great in which he plays the Greek hero. It will be screened on American channel NBC next year.

No, he's not joking! And with other classic roles in the pipeline, he reveals he is even planning to move to Tinsel Town in March. Adam, 21, told me his news when I bumped into him in London's Titanic bar. He boasted: "I've already got a place out in Hollywood and when I've finished promoting my album in March, I will be moving out there. "You can't really get the work unless you make Hollywood your base - so that's where I am going. I'd love to be in films." Adam admitted to me he's not the world's greatest actor, saying: "Did you see me acting in Coronation Street? "I was all right towards the end but when I started I was atrocious." You said it, matey.

Adam left Corrie earlier this year to pursue a music career. His debut single I Breathe Again hit No 5 in June. But the follow-up, Everything My Heart Desires, peaked at only No 15 and his album, Good Times, failed to get into the top 40.

Adam isn't the the first soap star whose pop career didn't go exactly to plan. Who can forget EastEnder Barbara Windsor's dismal You've Got A Friend. Or Tracy Shaw's Happening All Over Again which zoomed to No 46. No wonder Adam has turned to acting. For the sake of our eardrums, let's hope the Americans think he makes a worthy film star.

Tracy's a new girl
19 November 1999

CORONATION STREET sexbomb Tracy Shaw revealed yesterday that she has beaten her eating disorder . . . and now she loves her new-look boobs.

Tracy, who plays Maxine Peacock, said: "They are my best feature. They've grown and I feel sexier and more womanly."

BBC announce new soap
23 November 1999
BBC1 is to produce a new soap set in a GP's practice to spearhead its daytime schedules. The new series - provisionally titled The Practice - is being overseen by former Brookside producer Mal Young and will begin filming in January. It follows the lives of doctors and nurses.

Another new show, A Family Of My Own, will look at children in care and will encourage families to consider adoption. The BBC has been working with the Department of Health, social services and fostering and adoption agencies throughout the UK to produce the show, which will be presented by Sally Magnusson. Each show will feature case studies of children available for adoption chosen by social services, as well as success stories of families that have successfully adopted.

The shows are a move away from the game shows, light entertainment and chat that have become synonymous with daytime programmes. Some new shows will be shown before Christmas. These include Classic Cafe, which is to be broadcast once a week live from the newly revamped Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, focusing on the world of opera, ballet and dance. And on BBC2 Lowri Turner will present Shopping City which will be broadcast live from Manchester's Trafford Centre.

Other forthcoming shows include Passport To The Sun, presented by Channel 4's Big Breakfast star Liza Tarbuck from the Spanish island of Majorca and Maternity Hospital in which Sue Cook looks behind the scenes at St Mary's Hospital in Manchester. Alice Beer and Diarmud Gavin present gardening show Real Rakeovers and David Dickinson will give an insider's guide to the world of collectibles in Bargain Hunt.

Leanne's coke agony
24 November 1999

Street bad-girl Leanne Tislely is to become a cocaine junkie in a shocking new storyline. The Rovers barmaid gets dragged into a shadowy world of dealing and vice as petty crook Steve McDonald lures her into his seedy life. Yesterday a Street insider revealed: "Viewers will be shocked." "Leanne's going to go off the rails big-time - making love to Mike's son and stealing money from his flat. Then she starts to fancy some action with Steve."

Shaw looks good
24 November 1999 by John Mahoney

CORRIE crimper Tracy Shaw is keeping a stunning new look firmly under her hat. Magazine bosses have put a £10,000 price on her head after a reallife hairdresser gave her famous flowing locks the chop. She's been ordered to wear a hat and keep her new style under cover until the magazine comes out on Friday - or risk losing out on the hefty cash deal.

The 25-year old babe, who plays Weatherfield crimper Maxine Peacock, has been wearing a natty black velvet titfer when ever she leaves home for the short journey to Manchester's Granada TV studios. But Street pals on the set of the soap HAVE been treated to an eyeful of the new Tracy and reckon she's head and shoulders better than before!

Excited Trace can't wait to show off the stylish new cut in public after being whisked to sun-kissed Morocco for a makeover with OK! magazine. But until this week's edition hits stands she's been told to keep her head down and not give a sneak preview of her crowning glory.

Corrie bosses gave the go-ahead for Tracy to lose her locks after agreeing it would not affect her role as Maxine in the show.

Cope lays ghost to rest
25 November 1999 By Derek Robins

Actor Kenneth Cope, a star of the original drama Randall And Hopkirk (Deceased), has slammed a BBC1 remake starring Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer. Cope, 65, who was white-suited ghost Hopkirk, says: "The makers approached me but I don't want anything to do with it. "I read the script, and where the original left a lot to the imagination, this doesn't. I don't like remakes."

Cope says the BBC should never have shot a remake of the '60s hit. "I think the original was good enough myself. They wanted me to do a small part but it all went a bit silly and sour. "They wanted me as a link with the original, which upset me. I wasn't happy about the way they treated me. They weren't very courteous."

Reeves and Mortimer are miscast in the BBC1 remake, says Cope. Scripted by The Fast Show's Charlie Higson, Reeves is ghostly 'tec Marty Hopkirk and Mortimer his sleuthing partner, Jeff Randall. Cope says: "I think they should have swapped roles. I like Vic and Bob as they make me laugh but the organisation behind the remake has come a bit adrift."

Cope also believes fans of Randall And Hopkirk (Deceased) are worried about the new BBC1 remake: "I've had letters from fans from all over the world who are disturbed about it." The original ran for 26 episodes in 1969 and 1970. Now starring in Brookside, Cope adds: "I'll watch the remake and hope it's successful as it can't damage our work. But I don't think it will enhance it either."

The Street's temptress...
28 November 1999

I MAY BE THE TEMPTRESS OF THE STREET... BUT I'M MUCH TOO BUSY TO FIND A MAN...

IN the next room you can hear the sound of zips being undone and clothes dropping to the floor. Jacqueline Pirie, the sex siren of Coronation Street, is slipping out of something slinky into something even slinkier. Behind the closed door, Jacqui's sweet Scots voice can be heard talking to the dresser, describing a time not long ago when she was dressed up in an Abba costume.

"We were all singing Waterloo and then I leant forward and my boobs dropped out...Yeah, yeah, I mean really dropped out...The whole way..." What was it - a sequence for the Street, or a karaoke night down the pub? I strain my ears to catch more, but the moment has passed. But Jacqui...in Abba costume...topless.

Quite a lot of fantasising is being done about Jacqui these days, now that she has established herself as Britain's number one soap seductress. She's so convincing, so sultry, that you expect her to spend her days off lying on a leopardskin chaise-longue with a bucket of champagne by her side, waiting for the next man to come through the door.

The truth is that few people in showbusiness lead a life of such extreme contrasts. Off-screen, Jacqui is a single mum, without a man, who confesses to being something of a recluse.

Not that this will bother her fans as her latest storyline unfolds over Christmas and the New Year. Her character, Linda Sykes, is about to have a huge bust-up with her married lover Mike Baldwin, played by Johnny Briggs. Linda, who kicked it all off by turning up unannounced at Mike's house with a bottle of Scotch, suspects that Mike's wife Alma is coming back in the picture and she's far from happy about his grown-up son. Rumour has it that in desperation Mike is going to ask Linda to marry him. However things pan out, it looks like tin hat time.

Mike and Linda's screen affair has been so controversial because of the enormous age gap, the biggest-ever between soap lovers. Jacqui is 25, Johnny 64, but she says that has never bothered her. "When Linda first started going with Mike, a lot of people went, 'Really!' but to be honest, I never noticed the age difference. Johnny is such fun and so good looking. I never thought of him as middle-aged."

In real-life, it wouldn't worry her either. "I suppose there would be some disadvantages if the man was really old. I mean, it's unlikely he'd want to go out clubbing with you until four in the morning. He'd probably be asleep in his slippers in front of the telly by nine. But if I loved somebody, I wouldn't worry about how old he was."

All this is purely theoretical. There is no man in her life, and hasn't been since her relationship with Lee Atherton finished earlier this year. She had been engaged to blond, handsome Lee, 28, who works as a driver and occasional extra on the Street."We're still mates," Jacqui says. "But it didn't work out."

So now we have the irony of one of the sexiest women on British TV not only without a bloke, but with no intention of finding one in the foreseeable future. "I've too much to do to let another man into my life," she says. But surely she misses the warmth, the touch of having someone by her side? "I don't seem to," she says. "I'm quite content with my own company. I stay in Manchester most of the week while I'm filming and it doesn't worry me, even though I'm on my own 90 per cent of the time. "The other day, I went to the cinema by myself. Oh dear, this makes me sound like Billy No-Mates, but it isn't like that at all really. It's just I don't need other people around me constantly."

The love that flows through her is channelled towards her baby daughter, Alexandra. As you talk to Jacqui, it becomes clear that she leads not one life but two. There's the life that the world knows about - the screen life when she is playing someone else, and there's the other life, as mother to her child. Jacqui's two lives are separated by less than 90 miles. While she's working on the Street, Alexandra is looked after by her mum Patricia and dad James at the home they all share in Birmingham. "I may be a single mum," she says. "But I've got a big support network."

Saturday morning is the part of the week she lives for. "I arrive back home and have Alex just to myself. The rest of the family drift off and leave us together. I just look at her for hours on end, and we have such wonderful cuddles." Alexandra was the result of a relationship in Jacqui's past that was ultimately doomed. But out of it came this lovely little girl, the crowning moment of her life. "If you want to know what I think it was," she says, "I think it was fate." "Alexandra is two-and-a-half now, but sometimes I think she is 18. We have wonderful conversations. We sit down and I'll ask her, 'What do you want to talk about today?' She'll say 'Cushions' and off she'll go about which cushions in the house she likes best. "I never know what to expect when I get back home. One week, she'd turned us all into characters from the Wizard Of Oz. I was Scarecrow, mum was the Tin Man and dad was the Cowardly Lion. I said to Alex, 'Is it all right for Scarecrow to go out and have a fag in the back garden?' and she got very stern and said, 'No, you stay here, Scarecrow.' "The following week I said to her, 'Am I still Scarecrow?' and she said, 'No, you're Qui-Gon Jinn.' She'd been watching Star Wars."

Alexandra is aware her mum is on TV. "One day she started humming the theme tune and at the end she announced, 'Coronation Street... sponsored by Cadbury's Buttons.' At her age she's keener on the sponsor's products than she is on the show."

Jacqui discovered she was pregnant when she was on Emmerdale playing Tina Dingle, another superbitch whose acid tongue would burn holes in armour plating. Although the part brought her fame, she didn't hesitate to give in her notice. "I didn't feel there was a choice. It took guts to leave, but I knew I had to do the best for my child."

The transformation was dramatic as she gave up a well-paid, regular showbusiness job and found herself close to the poverty line. The roll-ups she makes so skilfully are a throwback to those days. To watch her is to witness a work of art: the Golden Virginia tobacco laid on the paper, the filter-tips placed just so. But it's not a demonstration of her eccentric side. "I learned how to make them," she said, "because I couldn't afford to buy cigarettes in packets."

Her baby took her over even before she was born. "I knew it was going to be a girl, even though I didn't have a scan," she says. "I planned the birth to the last detail. I had a caesarean but that was OK. I said to the doctor, 'Do whatever you have to do.' "I saw the doctor on the train to Birmingham the other day. I was going to thank him for hardly scarring me at all. He's famed for his needlework. But I didn't have the nerve."

She named Alex after a character in a Danielle Steel novel. "That's all I read nowadays, airport novels. I'm too tired after a day's work for anything deeper. I adored the Alex in the book. A powerful character, a woman with lean legs and flowing hair who rules a boardroom full of men." But in the year after Alexandra was born, Jacqui's appearance and lifestyle underwent a remarkable change. "My parents were quite worried actually. Not because I spent every waking hour with Alex, but because I began to look so different. They'd been used to me looking quite glamorous and I'd gone from that to a tramp. I slopped around the house in an old cardie and combat trousers I'd borrowed from my brother who's in the Army."

It was necessity that forced Jacqui back to work, first playing a robber in BBC's Casualty then finally on Coronation Street. "I enjoy work so much more, now I'm a mum and there are other things in my life," she says. Among those other things are a love of painting. She is so proficient at it that several of her paintings have been exhibited. "It's landscapes mostly. I started when I was 17. At the beginning, I was in love with the idea of being a painter, just looking the part. I borrowed an old shirt from my dad and daubed paint all over it. My dad wasn't impressed. 'What's that?' he said, when I showed him one of my early efforts. 'It's an abstract sky,' I told him. 'Jacqui, it's s***e,' he said. But he's come round now and he quite likes them."

The only thing Linda is likely to be caught painting is her toenails. But Linda holds a fascination for Jacqui. he's everything I'm not. I couldn't be like her, not in a million years," says Jacqui. "I prefer nice people...100 per cent, genuinely nice.It's the same with love. I mean, lust is OK, lust is dangerous, but it doesn't beat real love and affection. "I've never been a wild child, well, not since I was a young teenager. Me and my schoolmates would go to the ice rink on a Friday night having got terribly drunk on white wine and cider to ogle the boys. One night they put a pair of skates on me and pushed me on to the ice. You can imagine what happened, and on top of that I was spectacularly sick"'.

Even then she'd set her heart on being an actress, and her break came when Central TV launched a recruitment drive around Midlands schools for a new drama workshop. It took her all round the world. Jacqui knows that in the world of TV soaps, fact and fiction tend to intermingle in the public consciousness, and some people would like to believe that she and Linda are as one. In fact, her fan mail contains so much heavy breathing that it's a wonder the envelopes don't steam themselves open. "You can tell the weirdos by the scratchy handwriting. I also get a lot of wives writing to me, saying 'My husband's got a crush on you.' I suppose they are too shy to write themselves." "If only they knew," she smiles. " Do you know what I'll be doing on New Year's Eve? I'll be sitting at home with Alex, just the two of us, in our pyjamas. We'll see it in together, singing Auld Lang Syne. Alex is already practising linking arms."

A look of mock horror crosses her face. "Hey you'd better not put that," she says. "It will destroy my image. Better say I'm being whisked to Paris in a private jet by a secret lover." Such a seduction technique would be unlikely to impress her. "I'm not a romantic at all. In fact I'm quite cynical. If someone turned up for me in a stretch limo carrying a bunch of red roses, I'd say, 'Oi, what are you after'?"

Maybe she gets rid of all her wickedness by acting it out on screen. "Perhaps that could be it," she concedes. "I do like playing bad girls, girls with a bit of a history. When I go for parts playing nice people, the auditions tend not to last long. 'Hello,' they say. Then, 'Goodbye.' "I think it's to do with the way I look. I've got a square jaw and pointed eyebrows and a scar on my forehead where I fell off my bike as a kid."

She's a warm, strange woman is Jacqui, but she is a realist. She is not expecting offers to play Mary Poppins to come winging through the post. "I've come to realise," she says, "I'm not exactly sugar and spice material."

Baldwin in clink !
28 November 1999

IT'S the moment all of Coronation Street has been waiting for. After years of back-stabbing and double-dealing, dodgy businessman Mike Baldwin is banged up at last. Mike is brought down to earth with a jolt in tonight's episode when he is thrown in the clink after being arrested for drink-driving. As the heavy cell door slams shut, the normally cocky wheeler-dealer - played by Johnny Briggs - is seen sweating and squirming while he waits for a blood test.

Mike was arrested by Weatherfield's finest as he drove home from a romantic meal out with money-grabbing girlfriend Linda Sykes. And in a storyline that mirrors Briggs' real-life drink-drive ban earlier this year, he is revealed to be over the limit. Mike protests that he has had only a couple of glasses of wine and is soon shouting the odds again as he demands to be released from jail. But his troubles aren't over yet. Much to the delight of his many enemies in the Street, the worried businessman faces a day in court and his future behind the wheel hangs in the balance.

A spokesman for Granada TV said: "It's an exciting storyline that will leave everyone on the edge of their seats. "Drink-driving is a real-life problem and the show will deal with it carefully and with conviction."

Star Briggs, 63, was banned from driving for 14 months and fined £1,400 in June after police stopped him on the M6. The father of six, who was driving a brand new £40,000 Mercedes, was found to be almost twice the drink-drive limit.

I'm such a lucky curl !
28 November 1999

GORGEOUS actress Emma Linley has revealed that her Corrie crimper boyfriend Tom Wisdom has kept her on a permanent wave of excitement in bed - for seven years. Emma, 26, says the hunky star who plays hairdresser Tom Ferguson "knows exactly which buttons to press". "We've even had sex on the kitchen table," she said.

But Emma revealed there is a downside to living with hunky Tom - she has to constantly fight off sex-mad girl fans. They besiege their flat and try to drag Tom away when he takes her to nightclubs.

Emma, star of the Channel 5 soap Family Affairs, was heartbroken after being dumped by a string of previous boyfriends. But she says Tom, 26, is a far better lover than the rest. She said: "We can't keep our hands off each other. Both of us are deeply in love and our sex life is still absolutely incredible. We both know how to satisfy and turn each other on. "We know exactly what to do without having to ask one another. He certainly knows which buttons to press."

That's a far cry from when they first met at drama school in London's Whitechapel. Tom had to be led to bed by Emma the first night they made love. Emma said: "It happened after a cosy night at a flat where I was living in East London. "We had stayed in, sharing a take-away and a bottle of wine. We were sitting chatting about acting and friends but throughout the whole conversation I couldn't stop thinking about how much I fancied him. "I then impulsively grabbed his hand and told him to follow me to the bedroom. "He looked a bit shocked but without a word we dashed upstairs, desperate to rip each other's clothes off. "We fell through the door on to the bed without even turning the lights on - but that just added to the excitement! "Within minutes we were both naked and I can still clearly remember Tom's strong hands touching every inch of my body. Both of us were extremely nervous and when we finally began to make love it was slightly awkward. "But we still managed to keep going for several hours which isn't bad considering it was our first time together."

Since then Tom has certainly lost all his sexual inhibitions - even in the kitchen. Emma said: "We have actually made love on the kitchen table - but that turned into a total farce. I was standing making a cup of tea when Tom crept up. "But just at the critical moment my landlord arrived unannounced! "We heard the key turn in the door and froze. Our clothes were scattered all over the floor so in a panic we scrambled around to pick them up. Then we ran naked into the bathroom where we shivered for an hour until he left."

But Emma told how coping with Tom's army of sex-mad fans can be a real battle. She said: "At nightclubs women can be incredibly flirtatious - introducing themselves and trying to get him to go home with them. "They often want to take photos of him - but of course it's just HIM they want - which means I have to shuffle off. "Some girls act like I'm not there. They come right up to talk to him and ignore me. It's so frustrating."

The couple's two-bedroom flat in Islington, North London, is often under siege. Emma said: "It's amazing - even when we've been sitting in our lounge hordes of teenage girls have started banging on the window. "But at the end of the day I know I'm the one with Tom and not them. "We've got a rock solid relationship and although he has countless propositions from female fans I know he'd never do anything. "Why would Tom have cause to look elsewhere anyway? Our love life is amazing. No-one will ever come between us."

Tom was hired for the Coronation Street salon by Maxine, played by stunning Tracy Shaw. He soon had to fight off Maxine's amorous mum Doreen. And recently he had a torrid affair with Maxine's bridesmaid Melanie who was already engaged. Meanwhile Emma has been playing man-eater Gabby in Family Affairs. Emma said: "In the shows we've both had various partners, while in real life we've been together for seven years. "My character is the worst - I go through men at a rate of knots in a desperate attempt to find Mr Right. "Gabby follows her heart rather than her head, jumps into bed with guys, then always gets hurt because they dump her. "But unlike Gabby I've never had a one-night stand. "I couldn't bear the thought of sharing myself with someone and never seeing them again. "But like Gabby I have been hurt by men. Before I met Tom I went out with a succession of guys who dumped me. "I was probably too open and trustworthy for my own good. But everything changed when I met Tom."

Tom will quit the Street in January and wants to break into films. Emma says: "We've always been there to support one another through the high and low and next year will be no exception. "Tom's not overly worried though because he's got me for support - and as long as we're together, that's what really counts."

Shaw missed 'im
29 November 1999 Exclusive by John Mahoney

CORONATION Street babe Tracy Shaw is back in the arms of her hunky model ex-flame Matt Bailey, thanks to a life-size poster. After the lovers split, Tracy was constantly reminded of his good looks when he appeared on an advertising board close to her home with the logo "Objects of Desire". She realised how much she missed him - and now TV's most lusted-after lass is cuddling up with the 22-year-old for cosy nights-in watching smoochy romantic videos. "The poster was a constant reminder to Tracy and she realised just how much she missed him," said a close friend.

Tracy, who plays Corrie crimper Maxine Peacock, never really fell out with male model Matt when their relationship cooled two months ago. The sex-pot, 25, hit town and partied at showbiz bashes with only one man: her 44-year-old dad Karl. But now says a Street friend, she is "happier than she's been in yonks".

That's bad news for ex fiancee Darren Day, whose mates never ruled out his trying to lure her back after their bust-up last year. Stage star Darren, 31, arrives in Manchester today for a theatre run, in which he dresses up in stockings and suspenders, He plays Frank 'n' Furter in the Rocky Horror Show less than a mile from where Tracy works at the Granada TV studios.

But according to her pals, there's no way SHE wants to rekindle the happier times. Another plus for Tracy is that Matt thinks her new-look hair style - a natty blonde bob - looks "absolutely fantastic".

It's Tracy Shorn
5 December 1999

COOL, sophisticated soap star Tracy Shaw, who plays Corrie hairdresser Maxine Peacock, has ditched her bubbly girl-next-door image for a classy, seductive look which is more West End than Weatherfield. Out have gone the trademark shoulder-length curls and in their place is an ultra-modern bob with warm honey-blonde highlights. It's a hairstyle to dye for and beautiful Tracy carries it off with style and confidence on a sunny Moroccan photo-shoot which is a million miles from the trials and tribulations of life on the Street.

Whether she is relaxing by the pool in a black and silver bikini or dressed for a night on the town in a satin bustier and sparkling choker, Tracy oozes elegance and sophistication. It's definitely a world away from crimper Maxine's normal Top Shop look of mini skirts and crop tops but what would strait-laced screen hubby Ashley make of the pierced belly-button and those sexy, see-through sarongs?

Tracy, 26, says she decided to go for the chop after growing bored of her old bubbly blonde curls. The new cut is the work of top celebrity hairdresser James Galvin - whose clients include ex-EastEnders star Patsy Palmer - and Tracy just loves the results. She says: "I'd been wanting to have my hair cut for a while, but obviously it had to be written into the Coronation Street script, so I had to wait for the right time. "When Maxine married Ashley, it seemed like the perfect opportunity for her to have a new look. "I've had long hair for such a long time and it got to the stage where I was always wearing it up just to keep it out of the way."

But the sexy star almost got cold feet just before her long locks were cropped. She says: "Once I'd made the decision to have it cut, I felt really confident - until the night before, when I started to think: 'I'm not sure about this. What if I don't like it?' "But I loved it instantly. Every time I caught sight of myself in the mirror, I nearly jumped out of my skin because I forgot it was me. My dad thought it made me look younger, although people at work have been saying that it makes me look more mature. "Sue Nicholls, who plays Audrey, has told me she thinks that she should get the same cut to keep up with Maxine."

The star looked happy and confident as she relaxed on her Moroccan holiday with good friend and Coronation Street co-star Chris Bisson who plays Vikram Desai. And she revealed another reason behind her radiant appearance - her on-off romance with hunky model Matt Bailey is definitely back ON.

Tracy told OK! magazine: "I've been seeing him for about six months. He's beautiful and I'm very fond of him but I'm not sure if I want to settle down just yet. "I think it's fatal for me to say, 'Yes, this is definitely the man of my dreams' because I've done that before and it's backfired on me." But with her love life blooming and her classy new hairstyle, Tracy knows that just at the moment she is a cut above the rest.

Tracy Shaw and Chris Bisson in Morocco will be featured on OK!TV at 8.30pm on Friday December 10 on ITV.

Angela's antics
5 December 1999

THE ex-lover of sexy Holby City star Angela Griffin has told how her stormy Jekyll and Hyde character helped kill their two-year relationship. Hunky actor Will Mellor revealed that former Coronation Street beauty Angela was prone to ferocious fits of anger and sudden emotional outbursts.

Will, who is still heartbroken by his break-up with Angela nine months ago, opened his heart to the Sunday People to answer claims that his womanising was to blame for the split. The former Hollyoaks star said: "Angela had two sides to her - the loving passionate side which I fell in love with and the volatile side which could blow up at any minute. "She could be very jealous and insecure and would fly off the handle at the smallest thing. It came to the point where I felt I could not do anything without upsetting her."

Angela, 24, stars as stroppy nurse Jasmine in the hit BBC show Holby City. And Will revealed how she often mirrored her TV character's bad temper as she:

• stormed out of their hotel room on a romantic weekend in Paris;
• CHUCKED him out of her flat because she thought he was messy;
• refused to talk to him for days on end;
• Threatened to dump him because he wanted to visit friends;
• flew into a jealous rage when the couple spent time apart.

Will, 23, told how Angela's fiery temper flared up on what should have been one of the couple's most romantic times together - a trip to Disneyland Paris last year. He said: "We were sitting on the sofa in the hotel room quite late at night and I got up and said: 'I want to get ready for bed'. She immediately got angry and accused me of being rude by getting up. "She followed me into bed in her pyjamas where she carried on yelling. I got fed up and since the room had a spare bed, I decided to sleep there. "But that made Angela more livid and the next thing I knew she had stormed out of the hotel room in her Mickey Mouse pyjamas and slippers. "She was charging down the lobby in a huff while I stood there in my boxer shorts begging her to come back. God only knows what everyone else in the hotel thought. Angela came back to the room and started packing her stuff but eventually I managed to calm her down and persuaded her to stay."

The couple had another big bust-up when Will went to visit Angela in her new flat in London and she accused him of being too messy. He says: "She was furious so I thought it would be better to leave the flat for a short while so she could calm down. But when I came back she had packed all my things and threw my bags at me, demanding I left. "She eventually calmed down but the atmosphere had been ruined. "Another time, Angela invited me to her place for a romantic meal. When she finished cooking she suddenly went into a fit because I hadn't laid the table even though I didn't realise she had wanted me to. "She started shouting at me and calling me ungrateful and we ended up eating in stony silence. The problem is when Angela gets angry she has no sense of reasoning. "Once, after another row, she told me to leave, so I decided to go and visit friends in Liverpool instead of taking more abuse. "But Angela called me on my mobile when I got to the station and threatened to end our relationship if I got on the train. I didn't want things to finish so I went back to her."

Often after a blazing row, the couple would not speak to each other for days. Will says: "Angela was an expert at giving me the silent treatment. "She never wanted to be the one who backed down after an argument and I was equally stubborn at times so we would spend all day in silence." Although Will grew tired of the constant arguments, he admits that Angela's strong-willed and feisty character was one of the things that first attracted him to her. He says: "Angela definitely knows her own mind which was partly what drew me to her in the first place. "We are very similar in lots of ways. Maybe that was part of the problem - we were just too alike and neither of us was ever prepared to back down."

Will first met Angela at a showbiz party in London two and a half years ago. The couple realised immediately that they had a lot in common. Will continues: "We had similar backgrounds, the same sense of humour and were very down-to-earth. "You could say there was a lot of chemistry there - it felt like we had known each other for ages. "We were very happy in the beginning. We practically lived in each other's pockets and did everything together. We hated being apart. "Angela may have a reputation as a party girl now but then she was a real homebody. Our idea of a romantic evening was being curled up on the sofa together watching Friends and sharing a Chinese takeaway. "Our nights together were always great because Angela is an extremely passionate person."

But carrying on their romance in the full glare of the public eye soon began to take its toll on the hot young celebrity couple. Rumours spread after Will was spotted going out with soul singer Shola Ama. He denies having an affair - but Angela had her doubts. Will explains: "It was all very innocent and well-meaning. "I happened to be on my own in London for a night and Shola rang me up and asked if I would accompany her to a party. I told Angela all about it but when the pictures appeared of me and Shola together, rumours started that I was cheating. "Angela demanded to know what was going on and even though I told her nothing had happened, she didn't know what to believe. I loved and respected her and would never have dreamed of cheating on her."

Will admits that their relationship never fully recovered after that. He says: "We had been so happy before and it was hard for things to go back to the way they were. "We started having rows about the most ridiculous, petty things. "It was particularly bad when we were apart because Angela would get jealous when I went out and always wanted to know what I'd been up to. "It would often reach the point where I could not remember what we were arguing about in the first place. "We both realised things could not go on like this and decided it was better to end it rather than drag it on any further." Despite the rows,

Will prefers to remember the good times with Angela. Nine months after their split, he is still single and says that he is simply not interested in any other women. He is concentrating on his career and will soon be starring in a new BBC sitcom with ex-Coronation Street star Beverley Callard. Will says: "Angela meant a lot to me and I have not been interested in anyone else since. She was my first big love and I really wanted us to make a big go of things. "It hurt a lot when we broke up but I realise now that we were simply not meant to be."

Tracy Shaw and anorexia...
5 December 1999

THE quiet, squeaky voice on one end of the phone line belonged to a desperate young woman who weighed no more than four stone. Speaking softly at the other end was TV's Coronation Street star Tracy Shaw, who knows the agonies of anorexia through bitter personal experience. "It was just a few months ago when the studio got a phone call from the girl's grandma who was in a terrible state," says Tracy. "She was crying because she couldn't get her granddaughter to eat or drink anything, not even water.

"It's difficult for me to get involved with something like this, because although I know the horror of having an eating disorder, I'm not qualified to give help. "But this time I felt it was important to reach out to the girl - her grandma didn't know where else to turn. "The girl was so weak she could barely walk to the phone, and she had this little, squeaky voice. She was obviously in a very bad way. "She'd had a big falling-out with her parents and they'd turned their back on her. "She'd also been discharged from hospital because they said there was nothing they could do to help her, which infuriates me.

"People die from this, and that was what her grandma was so scared of. "I just tried to win the girl's confidence and talked about how it would only get better if she wanted to help herself, which she said she did. "I asked my counsellor to call her a few minutes later and she told me that after our talk the girl had had a drink of milk. "Often anorexia is about confidence and hers was very low. She felt really unloved at a time when she really needed something or someone to help turn her around. Thank goodness she had her grandma. "I realised then that just putting your hand out can be a start.

"I get more than five letters a day either from girls who are suffering from eating disorders or from their friends and family asking for help. "Each one breaks my heart because they are all so sad. Some are girls who don't want to tell anyone else, others are women who've had a problem and got over it, but then their husband left them and they went back to it. "They all want to know how I have put it behind me. I just think I found the right counsellor and had good support from my family. "There is a lack of help and understanding in the North-West. I didn't realise how serious the problem was until I got such a huge response to talking about my own experience. "There's still a tendency to sweep it under the carpet or tell the sufferer to stop being so stupid and eat something or else they'll die.

"Now I want to start raising funds for hostels for people with eating disorders. I started the idea off earlier this year and I've had such a big response, now I've got to put the words into action. "I'd like to set up a hostel where they will be treated as proper patients by good counsellors and also be able to meet other sufferers. "There's always a mental problem at the root of it and often people don't bother trying to find out what it is - they think the answer is to force-feed the patient."

Tracy, 26, struggled with the anorexia when she was at drama school. Her condition grew out of fears that she would lose her stunning figure. At first, she kept it a secret from her family but, when her weight plunged to six stone and her thoughts turned to suicide, she knew she couldn't conquer the illness on her own. "That's what made me think I had to go into hospital, because I had to get some help," she says.' But the treatment failed and, when her weight fell to an alarming five stone, her worried parents persuaded her to seek private counselling which helped her win the battle.

Tracy is talking as concern over Victoria Beckham's weight loss makes front page news. Posh Spice has denied having an eating disorder, but with her ultra-slim figure she has been accused of being a bad role model for girls. Tracy says: "I've been criticised for talking about eating disorders so much, but I do it because I want to raise awareness of the problem. Nobody would turn their back on someone who had cancer, but people do that to those suffering with anorexia or bulimia."

It's hard to believe the beautiful woman shimmering in a bronze evening gown with newly-cropped, sun-kissed hair was herself once ravaged by anorexia. Tracy doesn't eat meat but she enthusiastically tucks into a tuna salad roll for a mid-morning snack and a jacket potato smothered in ratatouille for lunch, washed down with a can of fizzy drink. After regaining her shapely figure Tracy's body sprang another surprise on her. "Once I started feeling more womanly I became very broody," she reveals. "In the summer it was really bad."

So how did she respond to these instincts? Did she set her sights on finding a man who was good father material? Or wander aimlessly round Mothercare, fondling baby booties and picturing herself in a maternity smock? No. She bought herself a Furby! "I took it everywhere with me," she jokes, "to make-up, out with friends - I even took it to the wedding when Maxine married Ashley in Coronation Street. "Georgia Taylor, who plays Toyah Battersby, had two, and mine didn't like one of hers, but got on well with the other one - Furbies are like that. "On the way to church they were talking to each other in the back of the car. I love that when they've got a rapport."

At this point you almost expect Tracy to start fumbling round in her bag and whip out a photo of the beloved creature, when suddenly she stops mid-flow. "I can't believe I'm recounting all this," she squeals, collapsing in a fit of giggles. Fortunately Tracy now has a new "baby" her life - a blue-eyed little bundle of fun called Bella. She's a fluffy Chocolate Point Persian kitten which looks like she's been pulled out of a tumble dryer.

Bella is the latest member to join the cast of the Street. But when the cameras stop rolling, it's Tracy who the kitten goes home with. "I can't say too much about it yet, but the producer wanted someone to adopt Bella," says Tracy. "I snapped her up and I'm her mummy now! "But the cat doesn't like Furby at all. I woke Furby up the other day and she freaked, so he's been left asleep now."

Kittens and Furbies are of course excellent training for the real thing - but before she gets the baby she has to find the father. It's too early to say if her on-off relationship with model Matt Bailey will lead to marriage and a family, but it has helped her get over the pain of splitting from actor and singer Darren Day. "Matt's a very genuine guy and I love him to bits, but I've still got big hang-ups myself. I'm insecure because of past relationships and that's difficult to take on board. "It really is the longest relationship I've had since parting from Darren, and I know Matt is in love with me not the job. "I was so open about Darren and it all backfired in my face. Now I don't want to say, 'Here's the man I'm going to stay with for the rest of my life', until I know it's true.

"In the meantime I'm enjoying being a career girl and when you've got a job that's this demanding you'd have to step aside from work for a while when you start a family. "Also I've always wanted to be with a man that I'm always going to be with when I have a child. "But I'll know when the time and the guy are right. "Or maybe I'll just end up an old spinster with six cats, arriving at work every day covered in fur!" she roars with laughter. And if you believe that you must be away with the Furbies.

Jeeves asks Carlton & Granada for £78m
Sunday5 December 1999 by Damian Reece

GRANADA and Carlton Communications are to set up a British version of Ask Jeeves, the US-owned internet search engine, in a joint venture worth $125m (£78m).

The two media companies will each spend £20m buying themselves a 25 per cent share in Ask Jeeves UK with the remaining 50 per cent being owned by Ask Jeeves in the US, a Nasdaq listed company with a value of $3.6bn. The deal demonstrates that Carlton and Granada are still prepared to co-operate despite Carlton's plans to merge with United News & Media.

Ask Jeeves has become the most popular internet search tool in the US with 4.7m users. Unlike most search engines which rely on key words and long lists of possible matches, Ask Jeeves allows people to ask direct questions such as "where can I buy the cheapest camera?" It responds with further questions to narrow down the search and then takes users direct to the relevant web site. Granada intends to use Ask Jeeves as the search engine offered to visitors at its G-Wizz internet site.

Glum all ye faithful
7 December 1999 Exclusive by John Mahoney

SO MUCH for a Merry Christmas. Coronation Street's lonelyhearts are looking as glum as a turkey on Christmas Eve. Rovers landlady Natalie Barnes invites Curly, Kevin and Jim round for dinner on Christmas Day, to get their spirits up. But she is reduced to mistletoe misery herself when boyfriend Vinny Sorrell goes missing.

The forlorn foursome, whose love lives have taken a real stuffing, resort to drowning their sorrows. Curly is still pining for his runaway wife Racquel. It's the first Christmas alone for Kevin Webster and Ulsterman Jim McDonald doesn't know where to turn since splitting with his wife Liz.

Corrie's Christmas cracker
7 December 1999 By Julia Davis

Corrie's Kevin Webster has a big surprise in store this Christmas when he tracks down runaway fiancee Alison.

Alison (Naomi Radcliffe) is interviewed in this week's Woman mag. She reveals that Kevin gets news he can't forget when he finds her in Morecambe. She refuses to return to Weatherfield saying she wants to carry on waiting tables in a cafe.

Alison was devastated when Kevin suspected her of abducting and even drowning his daughters Rosie and Sophie. She threw her engagement ring at him, packed her bags and left. She had confided in Kevin that her parents blamed her for the drowning of her little sister years before and his mistrust forces her to flee. Alison is not moved by his words of love and tells him to leave - but not before she imparts some big news.

The couple are pictured on the cover of this month's Woman mag with their hands placed on her tummy, suggesting perhaps that she may be pregnant? "Don't read too much into picture," says a Coronation Street spokesperson.

Soaps attacked for ethnic stereotypes
7 December 1999

British soaps have been criticised for inaccurate portrayals of ethnic minorities and negative stereotyping, claims a new a report. The Broadcasting Standards Commission study, Include Me, states that TV soaps present ethnic minorities as two-dimensional characters without portraying how they fit into society.

ITV's Coronation Street came under fire when viewers attacked the soap for showing Tyrone's black squatter friend as a criminal.

A new report from the Broadcasting Standard Commission has attacked TV soaps for using characters from ethnic minorities to simply "make a point". Viewers were concerned that EastEnder characters Gita and Sanjay were only different because of the colour of their skin and did not represent any issues affecting Asian families. One said: "They don't show any religious ceremonies or relatives or stuff like that. What's the point if they are not portrayed honestly?"

Storylines in EastEnders and Coronation Street have been slammed for not giving a true picture of our multi-cultural society. Annabelle Sreberny, author of Include Me for the BSC, said: "It wants mainstream white Britain to see the diversity of society and the diversity of their lives. "Thinness of characterisation is worrying. People want the characters to be fleshed out and not just plot devices."

Corrie's Leanne vice
10 December 1999 By Nigel Pauley
CORONATION Street wild child Leanne Battersby will sink into a nightmare spiral of sex and vice after getting hooked on cocaine. Newly-divorced Leanne gets a taste for the "champagne" drug - but she struggles to find enough cash to feed her habit and ends up owing £500 to Steve McDonald's vicious pal Jez. The sleazy drug baron, played by Lee Boardman, offers her £60-a-gram cocaine if she has regular sex with him, then tries to get her to set up a robbery to grab the millennium takings at the Rovers.

Fans will be shocked by the gritty storyline, which is at odds with the Street's cosy image of friendly neighbours and cobbled streets. But it will be the core of the ITV soap over the festive period. The plot will see Leanne, played by Jane Danson, plunged into a murky world of sex, drugs and crime.

A Street source revealed: "It is probably the most graphic storyline we have generated for years, and we will be treading a very fine line as far as possible protests are concerned. "It is based on real life when girls become hooked on drugs and cannot fund the habit. "Some have sex with their supplier. 'Others take it a step further, and go into prostitution."

Spice-y new girl for Corrie
15 December 1999 by Caroline Sigley

CORONATION Street is set for a fresh blast of girl power - from a Mel B lookalike. Model Naomi Russell, who as you can see from our exclusive photo, is the spitting image of Scary Spice, will join the cast in March as a worker in Mike Baldwin's underwear factory.

One Street source said: "Naomi and Mel B are both absolutely gorgeous. They have the same hair and the same sexy eyes. "Naomi is sure to get pulses racing at the Rovers Return. "She certainly isn't just going to be a background character. She's beautiful and obviously we have high hopes for her. "The factory girls are very popular and I'm sure she will be a big hit."

The 24-year-old was given a three-month contract after Corrie bosses spotted her in Granada's The Millionaire Show. They have yet to finalise her character's name, but hope she will help tilt the ratings war against arch rivals EastEnders. The insider added: "She also looks like Angela Griffin who played Fiona Middleton. But I'm sure Naomi will make her own way in the Street. She's in no one's shadow."

Street child star quits after nine years
17 December 1999

Child star Emma Collinge, who was introduced to the nation as Coronation Street's Rosie Webster when she was 10 days old, is quitting the soap. Nine-year-old Emma, from Blackley, Manchester, told Granada Television that she wants to leave so she has more spare time for her gymnastics and to pursue other interests.

A Granada spokeswoman said: "We are sorry to lose Emma but we must respect her decision. We understand her reasons for wanting to leave and we are happy to do what is best for Emma." She added that the television company would now re-cast the role - Sally and Kevin's eldest daughter.

Emma's final appearance in the soap is on New Year's Eve.

Street's Linda Targetted By Wrinkly Pests
19 December 1999

CORONATION Street star Jacqueline Pirie has become the target of elderly sex pests since she started her on-screen affair with the soap's factory boss Mike Baldwin.

"I get a lot of old men coming up and patting me on the bottom," said 25-year-old Jacqui who plays Linda Sykes in the show. "They must think that because Linda goes out with an older man, they are in with a chance. "It is all getting a bit embarrassing."

Her affair with Baldwin, played by 64-year-old Johnny Briggs has helped to boost the soap's ratings, and now her love life is about to take another twist. Viewers will see her bed Mike's handsome son Mark, although she is almost caught out when Baldwin senior arrives home unexpectedly. "But Linda doesn't regret it," said Jacqueline. "In fact, she's on the point of making love to Mark again when Mike walks in." And Mike is still so besotted he proposes - and Linda jumps at the chance of becoming the the Street's fourth Mrs Baldwin.

Kissmas At Rovers
19 December 1999

STREET barman Vinny pulls a real cracker for Christmas - Rovers landlady Natalie Barnes. The pair end up enjoying a passionate first kiss at the Rovers after Natalie invites him round for turkey - and all the trimmings. It marks the start of a torrid affair - and the end of a year of heartache for Natalie, played by Denice Welch, following the death of her husband Des.

Actor James Gaddas, who plays Vinny, said: "Kissing Denise was great fun - and she's a dream to work with. "But my most memorable kiss has to be the first one I had with my wife, Debbie. We kissed after a couple of days and when we did, I knew I'd met the woman I wanted to share my life with."

Unlike Rovers romeo Vinny Sorrell, James, 39, was a loser in love throughout his teens. He was 20 before he kissed his first girlfriend. Twice-married James, whose wife is expecting a baby in spring, blames being bullied at school for making him agonisingly shy. He's obviously keen to make up for lost time - and there's snow stopping him now.

Terry (didn't) Duckworth
21 December 1999

Street bad boy KO'd exclusive

IT'S the moment you've all been waiting for - when Coronation Street bad boy Terry Duckworth finally gets a hiding. Terry is knocked to the floor by grief-stricken widower Gary Mallett in what is tipped to be the soap's best-ever brawl. Street chiefs who gave The Mirror this exclusive punch-up preview are expecting record ratings for the hour-long Christmas Day special.

One of the show's bosses said: "When Gary belts Terry, we reckon the whole nation will be cheering. "Terry has deserved his comeuppance for years, and what a way to get it. "There's so much drama packed into the lead-up to the fight, and more afterwards, we're confident it will go down in Street history."

Christmas Day starts happily enough at Jack and Vera Duckworth's B and B where Gary and twins Becky and Billy have come for lunch. Then "adopted" son Tyrone answers the door...and in comes burly Terry bearing gifts.

Terry - played by Nigel Pivaro, 39 - tells them: "Come on, it's Christmas. Let's put the problems behind us." But Gary, who still blames him for the death of wife Judy, heads for the hall. Terry follows him, pleading: "No hard feelings mate. I'm sorry about your wife, but..."

Before he can finish Gary, played by Ian Mercer, batters Terry in the face, knocking him to the floor. Jack and Tyrone do their best to pull him off. The source said: "Gary ends up crying with rage and grief." Things get even worse for Weatherfield's bad boy after he comes round.

Mum Vera (Liz Dawn), who has been a rock of support, says she has finally had enough of him. "People will wonder whether Terry will ever be able to show his face again," said the source.

Street hearts
23 December 1999 by John Kelly

CORRIE stars let their hair down with each other - after sweethearts and partners were banned from a festive frolic.

The Daily Star was on hand as actors and actresses from Britain's favourite soap let offscreen friendships twinkle. Martin Platt strode out beaming with fellow nurse Rebecca Hopkins! Their on-screen hospital romance is about to set pulses racing in the soap. And in real life actor Sean Wilson and co-star Jill Halfpenny seemed the best of chums.

The two were among 250 guests at Manchester posh Mash & Air restaurant. Ten security guards made sure only cast and crew were allowed in. Stunning sights included Anne Kirkbride, who plays dowdy Deirdre Rachid, in a sexy leather mini-dress. Actor Johnny Briggs, who plays Scotch-drinking factory boss Baldwin, arrived by a taxi after being banned from driving in real life for being over the limit.

Afterwards some like Simon Gregson, who plays Steve McDonald, forgot how to hide their "exhaustion" - and left looking just bushed. An insider said: "It's the only time of year the cast and crew get to have a really good night out together.

Corrie pay through the nose to keep Leanne
30 December 1999 by John Mahoney

CORRIE bosses are coughing up a fortune - to keep cocaine- crazed wildchild Leanne Battersby on the Street. Sexy Jane Danson, who plays lovely Leanne, has taken over as the show's top totty. So Granada chiefs were desperate to keep 21-year-old Jane at all costs . . . and it could be £100,000 a year. She's been rewarded with a hefty pay deal to keep her in Britain's best-loved soap.

Writers will turn Leanne into a ravenous Millennium man-eater who will shock the show to its roots in a stack of power-packed storylines. Her earnings are expected to nudge six figures - unheard of for an actress who arrived in Weatherfield just two years ago. Fans have seen loudmouth Les Battersby's daughter elope and marry Nick Tilsley, get divorced, have an abortion, play the field and then fall into the murky world of drugs. She has already pinched cash to feed her habit.

For Jane, it's a long way from singing in a talent contest at a Pontins holiday camp in Weston-super-Mare when she was seven. "It's been a wonderful year for me," she said. Jane, who has been dating Emmerdale heart-throb Robert Beck, 29, for the past eight months, added: "Leanne started to get a bit cosy when she wed Nick. "I much prefer it when you get to see her wilder side." Jane spends every minute off camera with Robert, who plays Gavin Ferris in the farming soap.

A Street insider said: "Jane has done brilliantly this year, bearing in mind her future was up in the air when Adam Rickitt left the show as Nick. "She has really impressed with her strong storylines leading up to the drug taking. "It's been made perfectly clear there are big plans in store for her in 2000. "Tracy Shaw has dominated the female side of Coronation Street for the past few years - so it's a welcome change to see a new young face grabbing the honours."

Stars kiss in the new Millennium
31 December 1999

CORONATION Street have lined up two steamy scenes to set pulses - and audiences - soaring over the New Year. The first is a New Year's Eve romp between seductress Linda Sykes and Mark, son of her out-of-favour lover Mike Baldwin. Then, on Sunday, a special episode sees an even more unlikely clinch involving hapless Curly Watts and his long-lost bride Raquel. The former Rovers barmaid returns to the Street after a three-year absence.

For Jacqui Pirie, the actress who plays Linda Sykes, the storyline is her most demanding to date - and secures her place as one of the Street's rising stars. Linda's affair with Mike Baldwin came under pressure over Christmas when she grew jealous of Mike's cosy trysts with his estranged wife Alma. It didn't help when Baldwin bought Linda sexy underwear for Christmas, and she accused him of regarding her as a toy. In tomorrow's episode, Linda finds comfort in the arms of Mark. Jacqui, 25, said: "It's a brilliant role. Linda's dream to play. I love all this bad girl stuff. I'm quite envious of her really. She knows what she wants - and she makes sure she gets it."

Corrie bosses have dedicated Sunday's entire 45-minute programme to Raquel and Curly - the first time in the Street's history that a single episode has been given over to just two characters. Raquel, played by Sarah Lancashire, opens her heart to Curly about why she walked out on their marriage to start a new life in Malaysia. A source said: "Raquel believes she left a lot of things unsaid when she left and she wants to put the record straight. "She knew she broke Curly's heart and wants to let him know she still has feelings for him."

Since leaving Curly - played by Kevin Kennedy - back in 1996, nothing has been heard from dizzy barmaid Raquel, who went to work as a beauty therapist in Kuala Lumpur.

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