The Weatherfield Recorder - back issues, October

ITV is considering a risky plan to revive the flagging fortunes of its top soap Coronation Street by moving it to later in the evening. For as long as anyone can remember, the 41-year-old show that brought Ena Sharples and Bet Lynch to British television has aired at 7.30pm.

But senior ITV executives are worried that too many viewers are switching over to BBC1 to catch EastEnders, which starts at 8pm on the days when both soaps are on air. ITV1 then struggles to win the viewers back: the peak-time schedule, from which it gains most advertising revenue, suffers a drop in ratings. So executives are considering switching Coronation Street to 8.30pm, in a move that would shore up its 9pm drama series. To maintain the strength of the early evening schedule, Emmerdale - which performs well at 7pm five days a week - would be moved to 7.30pm.

The move is seen as a huge risk for ITV's director of channels, David Liddiment, and his chief strategist, David Bergg: it would require a significant change in habit for long-standing and loyal viewers. The plan was first considered when the BBC added the fourth weekly episode of EastEnders last spring, but rejected as too risky. Coronation Street was not performing well at the time, making a move even more problematic, and the plan was put on the back burner. But now Granada, which makes Coronation Street, has installed a new executive producer with a brief to strengthen the storylines. Carolyn Reynolds is perceived to be a safe pair of hands, and executives at ITV's network centre in London, who are responsible for the scheduling of ITV shows, are understood to have tentatively revived the idea of the move. One ITV executive said: "On paper, it looks great. The question is whether it would have the desired effect in boosting the peak-time schedule, or would destroy the Street for good. It would be a very bold and risky move."

Mr Liddiment is known as a risk taker. He scored a success by screening Who Wants to be a Millionaire? five nights a week when it first launched, turning the show into an instant hit. But his attempt to change the face of the Saturday schedule by screening Premiership football highlights at 7pm failed when too few viewers tuned in. The show was quickly moved back to 10.30pm.

Mr Liddiment is facing huge pressure from advertisers to improve the performance of his network. While ITV 1 is still ahead of BBC1 in peak time, across the whole day the two channels are neck-and-neck for the first time. ITV1 is having problems with its This Morning daytime show, which has struggled since losing its stars Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan to Channel 4.

There have been a few notable peak-time hits, such as the talent search show Pop Idol, which culminates in February. The programme that spawned the idea, Popstars, returns for a second series later in the year, and the network has given a second chance to the £10m reality show Survivor, which scored only average ratings when it aired first time round.

EX Coronation Street star Amanda Barrie, who played Alma for over 10 years, spent Christmas in agony after injuring her ankle filming a TV pantomime.

This is the moment when Coronation Street's Les and Dennis are involved in a car crash with a drink-driver, spelling heartache for Janice. Viewers can see drama unfold during three episodes broadcast over New Year.

The action begins when Les, still devastated by his wife Janice walking out on him for his best friend Dennis, tries to kill himself inside his taxi. But as exhaust fumes pour into the car, his rambling final words are heard over his radio back in Coronation Street and Dennis sets off across town to find him.

Discovering him still alive, Dennis jumps in the driver's seat and sets off to the hospital in a bid to save the life of his love rival. Moments later tragedy strikes when a drink-driver slams into the pair, leaving Dennis with fatal injuries.

As the drama unfolds, back in the Rover's Return the regulars celebrate the New Year, unaware of Dennis' death. In one scene, Dennis manages to tell Janice he loves her before he dies.

A Granada spokesman said: "The love affair between Janice and Dennis has really captured people's imaginations and this dramatic climax will ensure that there is not a dry eye in the house."

The UK's oldest soap is getting a facelift as its opening credits are changed for only the fifth time in its 41-year history. The new opening shots will give viewers a wider insight into the fictional area of Weatherfield from 7 January, although the music will not change.

Computer trickery has been used to create rows of terraced houses and shops to allow an aerial shot of the street to be shown. Until now, any aerial shot of the Street would have shown the set surrounded by the Granada Television studios in Manchester.

TELEVISION'S most famous town has been given a facelift, with a little help from some computer wizardry. The opening titles of Coronation Street have been given a 21st century makeover by design experts, who have given new depth to Weatherfield by creating new areas and scenes.

The Battersbys and the Duckworths have scores of fresh neighbours, thanks to the expertise of the graphics team. And viewers will be introduced to new feline stars, Pandora and Smokey Joe, who feature in the opening shots which will be first seen on January 7.

Where previously the back yards of the terraced side of the street backed on to nothing but a wall, a whole new row of houses now exists. Where the viaduct was previously nothing more than a dead-end, a new street can be seen, complete with kids playing football.

A new suburb has sprung up around the corner from Dev's shop, where previously the only building in view was the imposing facade of Granada Television. The good news for diehard traditionalists, however, is that the instantly recognisable theme tune hasn't changed a note, and the original typefaces have been retained.

It is only the fifth time in the programme's 41-year history that the opening credits have been revamped, and the first time computer generated images have been used. The titles had to be re-shot because from January the Street will be broadcast in wide-screen format.

Experts from Manchester-based 3sixtymedia who created the new titles, have achieved the illusion of a complete Weatherfield by filming real streets in Salford, then using computers to merge them with existing pictures. Joanna Ashton, marketing director of 3sixtymedia said: ''It was certainly one of the most challenging tasks we have undertaken. We had to subtly enhance the existing titles, giving them extra dimension, but without radically changing the feel of this great British institution which could have alienated viewers.''

Those Street fans are in for a feast of sex and crime on Christmas Day, it emerged today. A dramatic health scare, a police chase and even a threatening stand-off will all ensure Weatherfield gets anything but a silent night on December 25. And with the Street's own nativity scene on Boxing Day and the new landlady of the Rover's Return revealed at New Year, TV bosses have lined up a frantic year-end finale for Weatherfield.

The opening titles of Coronation Street have been given a makeover. Viewers will see new scenes of Weatherfield at the beginning of the soap, including two new cats. It is the first time computer-generated images have been used for the opening sequence, which will change on January 7.

Changes include a new row of houses behind the back yards of the terraced side of the street and a new street where the viaduct was once a dead-end. Programmers created the new scenes by filming real streets in Salford and then using computers to merge them with existing pictures.

It is only the fifth time in the programme's 41-year history that the opening credits have been revamped. The theme tune and original typefaces have not been changed, reports the Manchester Evening News.

THE Watts of Weatherfield put the Ah into Christmas for Corrie fans with this special delivery. The soap gets its very own nativity scene - a day late - when Emma unexpectedly goes into labour. As partner Curly struggles to get home for the birth, she has only busybody Norris Cole to help deliver the baby.

Fans are in for a festive feast of sex and crime elsewhere in the Street for Christmas Day. A dramatic health scare, a police chase and even a threatening stand-off will ensure Weatherfield gets anything but a silent night on December 25.

In one scene, Deirdre, filled with Christmas spirit, ends up in bed with Dev, following his break-up with fiancee Geena. Dev soon regrets the move.

The excitement spills over into New Year week, when the Rovers Return's new landlady is finally revealed.

Coronation Street fans are in for a festive feast of sex and crime for Christmas Day. A health scare, a police chase and even a threatening stand-off will all ensure Weatherfield gets anything but a silent night on December 25.

TV bosses have lined up a frantic finale for the year's end in Weatherfield. It all begins to go wrong when the police raid the Duckworths' home as they sit down to Christmas dinner. They do not find fugitive Terry, who is hidden in the shed, but when Jack takes him a bundle of cash with his turkey, he collapses. It forces Terry to choose between saving himself and getting his father to hospital. For once, tearaway Terry decides to do the right thing and help his father, hot-wiring a car to race Jack to hospital. But it turns out that Jack, rather than being on the brink of death, was suffering no more than indigestion.

Back in Weatherfield, lovesick Les Battersby (Bruce Jones) grabs wife Janice and holds her captive, begging her not to leave him for his former best friend, Dennis Stringer.

Even Deirdre Rashid seems to have overdone the Christmas spirit when, supplied with a few over-generous glasses of brandy, she ends up in bed with heartbroken Dev Alahan, following a break-up with his fiancee, Geena Gregory.

On Boxing Day Weatherfield gets its very own nativity scene when Emma Watts unexpectedly goes into labour. Unable to raise the doctor, Emma is left with only busybody Norris Cole to help her deliver the baby.

FORMER Street star Denise Welch has been hit with a new health scare. The actress, who has had severe post-natal depression, took ill during a matinee pantomime performance.

Denise, who played Rovers Return landlady Natalie Barnes in Coronation Street, currently has the title role in Jack And The Beanstalk. But she had to be rushed off-stage after doubling up with pain at Newcastle's Theatre Royal.

A member of the audience said: "It looked like she collapsed and the curtain came down. "An announcement came over the speakers asking if there was a doctor in the house but no one told us what was wrong. "After about 20 minutes the show started again and she managed to carry on."

New mum Denise first suffered mental health problems after the birth of first son, Matthew, now 12. She immediately quit the popular soap earlier this year after discovering she was pregnant again. But doctors gave her round-the-clock care to ensure she remained well after the birth of Louis seven months ago.

The blonde actress also turned down the chance to front the revamped daytime show This Morning. She said: "I've just had a baby and I'm enjoying spending time with him. "He needs me with him and I don't want to miss his first year."

Friends were last night stressing her latest illness was physical and not proving a huge concern. A theatre spokesman said: "Denise grabbed her stomach and doubled over. "She went off stage to recover and after a few minutes was able to continue with the performance, which continued without a hitch."

CORRIE star Bill Roache has shed a stone and a half by going on a celebrity diet. Bill, whose character Ken Barlow has a new love interest in the show, followed a diet invented by American health guru Dr Robert Atkins.

By cutting out sugary foods, breads and pasta, he was able to trim down to 12 stone in three months. An insider said: "He looks fantastic."

CORRIE star Anne Kirkbride has opened her heart and revealed a private life that puts her TV character Deirdre Rachid in the shade.

In a searingly honest interview, she tells how she has battled cancer, lost her mother to the disease and suffered so badly from clinical depression that she wanted to die.

Terry Duckworth will choose to drive his poorly dad Jack to hospital, risking being caught by the police. Meanwhile, Deirdre Rachid will end up having a passionate liaison with Dev Alahan.

Jack Duckworth lends his son £5,000 to escape from the garden where he's been hiding. He then collapses with chest pains as the police are closing in.

In the other storyline, Dev will end up in Deirdre's arms after an argument with Geena. Dev will regret his actions and try to rush through his wedding to Geena in the New Year.

Coronation Street's Dennis Stringer is to die in a New Year's Eve car crash. He will lose his life trying to drive Les Battersby to hospital following a failed suicide attempt. The episode will be transmitted on New Year's Day on ITV1.

Charles Dale, who plays Dennis Stringer, told Inside Soap magazine: "As he listens to the Street Cars radio, Dennis discovers that Les is trying to gas himself in his cab. "Dennis jumps into Les's car and starts to drive him to hospital, at which point they are involved in a collision with a car which is speeding through a red light."

Dale says he will miss playing Dennis Stringer in TV's longest-running soap. "It's funny, you do get very fond of a character. I'm glad Dennis is being killed off - it was my decision to leave and this takes away my safety net, which means I've got to move forward," he said. "But I will really miss Dennis, he's become a good mate."

Charles Dale is due to appear in a new six-part drama for BBC1 called Paradise Heights. It will also star Lindsey Coulson, Neil Morrissey, Ralf Little and Pam Ferris.

Coronation Street star Anne Kirkbride says her love of the soap helped her beat cancer.

She was forced to take six months off from the show when she fell ill in 1993. But the prospect of returning to her role Deirdre Barlow spurred her on, reports the Sunday People.

"It was playing Deirdre that kept me going," she said. "I kept thinking that one day I'd be back on the Street and it would all be like a bad dream."

Anne suffered depression after being diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. "There can't have been many times in my life when I've felt less attractive," she said.

Anne talks about her life cand career in a TV documentary called Deirdre and Me on ITV1 on Wednesday at 8pm.

Corrie actress fights to save school field
13 December 2001 by Jonathan Donald

Coronation Street star Sally Whittaker is at the centre of a real-life battle - to stop developers bulldozing the playing fields of her child's school. Whittaker, 38, who plays fiercely protective mum Sally Webster, is up in arms over plans to build houses on land next to Bowdon Church School in Bowdon, Greater Manchester.

The actress, whose daughter Phoebe, five, is a pupil, said: "They can't build right next to our school. It's just unbelievable." "We don't need houses right next to our school - we need our field," she told GMTV. The actress, a Labour supporter, wants the Government to address what is a national issue.

More than 400 schools across the country have seen land given over to houses. She said: "It is a betrayal. But I'm sure once the Government sees what's happening, something will be done."

Trafford Borough Council is proposing to build 17 homes on a three-acre plot next to Bowdon Church School. Headteacher Neil Hoskinson said: "We are delighted to have support from Sally, one of many concerned parents. "These are the only playing fields left in the area so it's important to the school but also the community."

Channel 4 is to list the Top Ten TV Families over Christmas. Liz Dawn and Bill Tarmey, who play Jack and Vera Duckworth in Coronation Street, will host the show.

Among the best-loved TV families expected to feature in the poll are the Royles and The Simpsons. Brookside's The Grants and the Trotters from Only Fools And Horses are also likely to be included.

Bet Gilroy looks set to return to Coronation Street. Newspaper reports say Granada bosses will announce her comeback to the Rover's Return later this month.

The soap has been left behind by Eastenders in the ratings battle recently. Bet, played by Julie Goodyear, left the show in 1995. The brassy barmaid will return to the screens in the New Year. Julie was in the Street for 25 years. She has briefly returned before in Coronation Street After Hours, a soap spin-off special.

Former Coronation Street star Lee Warburton is swapping channels to join the cast of Casualty. He will play security guard Tony Vincent, the brother of A & E receptionist Jack, who is played by Will Mellor.

Warburton played Rovers Return landlady Natalie's son Tony Horrocks in the Street. He told Ananova :"Tony is pretty and peroxide blond. He was a bouncer at a gay club and though that's no issue for him, it soon becomes an issue in the series. "Jack keeps trying to fix Tony up with people but he's had a partner for five years and is loyal."

Warburton says he turned down the chance to return to Coronation Street after his character was first written out - then got a phone call out of the blue to say he was now "dead."

He said: "They actually contacted me after I had been written out and asked me to come back. I said I wasn't interested. "Then my screen mum Denise Welch came on the line and said 'Guess what? They've just found your body.' "They don't hang about up there."

Former Coronation Street star Adam Rickitt is to make his West End debut in the musical Rent. Rickitt has been playing the role of young film-maker Mark Cohen in the UK tour of Rent since February.

Jonathan Larson's updated version of La Boheme has clocked up audiences of 10 million worldwide since 1995. Its original London run at the Shaftesbury Theatre achieved some 1,000 performances. The current revival is at the Prince of Wales Theatre.

Coronation Street's Jim McDonald could make a dramatic return to the soap after he was jailed for killing a drug dealer. Charles Lawson says he would like to return to the Street when his character has served the prison sentence. And bosses of the show have not ruled out a return for Jim.

Lawson, who appeared in more than 1,000 episodes of the show before leaving last year, told a special documentary called Life After The Street: "Jim got eight years, didn't he, which is a ridiculously harsh sentence for manslaughter, I have to say. "So he'll do four, so in three years time, if they were going to phone me up and say would you like to come back, I would certainly go and have a few jars with the producer and find out what he or she wanted me to do. "And if it was valid and if it was worthwhile, then I'd do it."

A Coronation Street spokesman said: "The character of Jim McDonald was not killed off, he was sent to prison. Steve (Jim's son) still lives on the Street, so he still has connections there, so who knows what will happen."

Life After The Street, which will be screened on ITV on Friday at 9.30pm, catches up with 12 former members of the cast to trace their careers since leaving Weatherfield. Amanda Barrie talks about her torment at filming the final scenes when her character Alma Halliwell died of cervical cancer. She says every time she hears the show's famous theme tune she has to fight back tears. "Of course I'm going to miss Coronation Street," she said. "But it isn't an emotional wrench separating me from Coronation Street because it kind of remains in me. I'm a sentimental twit in the first place and I'll probably cry if I hear the music now."

Coronation Street's scriptwriters have lost the plot. Tony Bridgland explains why lenders would have refused Emily Bishop a home income plan

Coronation Street character Spider Nugent should count himself lucky to have an aunt like Emily Bishop. When he told her he wanted to set up a health food business in London, but was £15,000 short of the capital required, she promptly agreed to do anything she could to help. She could not simply hand him the money because she did not have enough ready cash. But help was at hand in the shape of Gail Platt's boyfriend, Richard. He told her that she could convert part of her home into cash by taking out a home income (equity release) plan.

Emily would then retain the right to live in the house for the rest of her life or, if she became too ill or frail to care for herself, until she moved into residential care. She will probably be able to move to another property, provided it complies with the terms of the home income agreement. When she dies, or enters a home, the company will sell the house and take its share of any profit

According to Granada TV's archives, Emily was born on October 18, 1929. At 72 years old, she is therefore old enough to qualify with most providers - the usual minimum age is 65. Some companies, notably Norwich Union, will consider applications from people as young as 60. At the other end of the scale, Allchurches Life will not touch men under 80 nor women under 85. It is vital to remember that the younger you are, the less the company will be prepared to pay. This is because it will have to wait longer to get its money back.

Your Move, the estate agency chain, reckons that the typical Coronation Street style house in Manchester is worth about £40,000. This. would appear to provide the first sticking point for a real-life Emily because most providers would not wish to touch a property this cheap. Home & Capital Trust, for instance has just reduced its minimum value from £80,000, but it still refuses to look at any property worth less than £65,000. Ian Frater of Norwich Union says: "Sorry, our minimum is £50,000."

Hodge Equity Release and GE Life will consider properties worth as little as £36,000 and £30,000 respectively. The snag is that both set out primarily to provide an income from the property rather than the lump sum Spider needed. Hodge says it would commute a portion to produce a lump sum, but it would not be able to offer more than £7,500 on Emily's house and GE Life says it would be unable to offer a lump sum at all in. this case.

It is beginning to look as Coronation Street's researchers failed to do enough homework to make their plot watertight. But there is still one possibility. Step forward NPI In-Retirement Services. Female aged 72. £40,000 house in Manchester suburb. Built around 1890. Wants to raise £15,000. At first sight everything seems to comply with NPI's requirements.

But NPI spokesman Ivor Oddie recoils with horror when we put this hypothetical case to him. He says: "First of all, there's Emily's lodger, Norris. A permanent lodger would preclude entry into our scheme, for legal reasons. We take care to explore all the ramifications of each case to ensure there is no repetition of the bad press that this type of business received a few years back.

"This includes making inquiries into the reasons for raising capital against the value of the house. We're talking about quite an emotive matter. Relinquishing even part of the ownership of a person's home is not a. matter for them to take lightly. We're always careful to make sure that alternative ways of raising some money have been explored.

"Emily wants to raise some cash to give to her nephew for business purposes. He is an unemployed, feckless character with no business experience and not likely to possess much acumen. The chances of the cash disappearing down the drain would be, I think, very high. In real life, I wouldn't look at the case."

There is yet a further reason why NPI could not be the firm involved in the story. Gall Platt's boyfriend Richard is a financial adviser. But NPI In-Retirement Services only deals direct. It does not operate through outside advisers.

All the companies named in this article are members of an organisation called Ship (Safe Home Income Plans). Ship is not a regulatory authority, but its members have all pledged to abide by certain rules to protect the client and their own image. Ship's two main requirements are that schemes must be portable; which means people are allowed to move home if they wish; and that plans may not be sold to anyone that has not obtained legal advice from a solicitor - who must provide a certificate stating that he or she has explained matters fully.

Coronation Street is to have a Christmas baby. Emma Watts will give birth to a baby boy on Boxing Day. The baby will be delivered by neighbour Norris Cole after Emma's husband Curly can't be found.

According to the News of the World, Curly will arrive home to find the baby, who will be called Ben, has arrived unexpectedly early.

GOOD luck to my Corrie pal NAOMI RUSSELL. The stunning star - who plays sexy factory girl Bobbi - is preparing to climb Mount Kilamanjaro for charity in the New Year. But that's not the bit she needs good luck for. Apparently, the poor lass is now on a strict regime in which chips, booze, cigs and chocolate are strictly banned. She's also having to spend hours each day running, doing cardio work and lifting weights in the gym. Poor little lamb, my heart really goes out to you...

Julie Hesmondhalgh
GOOD to hear JULIE HESMONDHALGH is already back on the Corrie set weeks after becoming a mum. Expect to see her on screen as fabulous Hayley in six weeks.

Steve's Kiss 'n' Tell
SIMON GREGSON (Corrie's Steve McDonald) on snogging scenes: "I have a ritual - plenty of mouthwash and a good clean of the teeth. Afterwards, too, because I worry about getting a cold-sore."

CORRIE bosses have apologised to BMW for a scene which showed Alan Halsall, alias Tyrone Dobbs, hot-wiring a thief-proof Z3 convertible in seconds. A Street spokesman said: "We would like to point out that none of these cars has ever been stolen."

THE so-called soap romance between EastEnders star Charlie Brooks and Coronation Street's Chris Bisson seems to have been short-lived. We hear Charlie, who plays Albert Square bitch Janine Butcher, has a new fella - web developer Simon McVeigh. Simon, 22, is 20-year-old Charlie's first serious boyfriend since her split from childhood sweetheart Jon Newman (Ozzie in Grange Hill) in August.

Broadcaster Granada's profits have fallen sharply due to a slump in advertising revenues, while its digital media arm has racked up more heavy losses. The company's profits before taxes and other one-off costs during the year to September fell by 27% to £236m, while losses at its ITV Digital subsidiary soared by 26% to £234m.

Granada blamed the disappointing figures on a 12% fall in advertising revenues, and pledged to cut costs in both its conventional and digital media operations. "The global media market has been tough," said Granada executive chairman Charles Allen. Mr Allen said Granada's loss-making digital arm has introduced measures designed to cut costs by £145m next year.

A separate efficiency drive is expected to shave another £60m off the parent company's costs. But the cost-cutting plans weren't enough to reassure investors, who pushed Granada's share price 1p lower to 147p in early trade in London.

ITV Digital, which feeds digital television through conventional aerials, has so far burnt through about £800m in cash. Granada has contributed £394m of this, with broadcaster Carlton, the other main backer of the ITV media network, providing the remainder. The digital service has attracted about 1 million subscribers so far, but needs another 700,000 to break even. In June, it emerged that many of Granada's leading shareholders believe that the company should ditch its ailing digital media arm altogether.

The results complete a difficult year for Granada. The company slumped deep into the red during the nine months to June, having made a record £289m profit one year previously. Granada blamed heavy digital media investment costs and a 10% decline in advertising sales.

CORRIE bosses have lined up a Christmas Day feast of sex, violence and tears - all washed down with the Street's traditional sprinkling of humour.

A source for the ITV soap said: "The Christmas Day special will have vintage scenes and is sure to get people talking - the measure of good storylines."

Jack's heart attack seals a lousy day for the Duckworths. First, police raid their home in a vain search for Terry as they eat lunch. Then Jack - played by Bill Tarmey - collapses as he sneaks outside to give Terry - actor Nigel Pivaro - some food. The Duckworths' wayward son is then forced to choose between saving himself or his dad. He eventually hotwires a car to take Jack to hospital but is caught in the middle of his mercy dash.

The drama is equally heart-stopping down the street when jilted Les Battersby keeps his wife Janice captive in a flat. He is on the verge of hitting her when she tries to escape but eventually lets her ring her new man, Dennis Stringer.

Top festive frolics come when serial wife Deirdre seduces boss Dev Alahan after he rows with his fiancee, Geena.

The soap source said: "They aren't the only ones to share passion. "Dr Matt and his wife Charlie can't keep their hands off each other and nor can Steve McDonald and his wife Karen. "It all adds a nice bit of romance to the day."

It's left to the Platts to provide the Christmas laughs. They are reduced to eating in Roy's soup kitchen when their gas supply is cut off.

CORRIE schoolkids Sarah Lou and her best pal Candice usually get out of their uniforms as soon as possible. But the pair kept them on at the weekend for a naughty night out.

Teenage actresses Tina O'Brien and Nicky Sanderson set pulses racing at a club event where guests could only get in if they wore school uniforms.

Other Corrie lovelies also dressed in skimpy outfits for the "Back to School" disco at Bar Cuba in Macclesfield, Cheshire. They included Tracy Shaw (Maxine), Jennifer James (Geena Gregory), Jennifer McAlpine (Fizz), Samia Ghadie (Maria Sutherland), Georgia Taylor (Toyah Battersby) and Naomi Russell (Bobbie Lewis). Chris Bisson, who plays taxi boss Vikram Desai, represented the lads in schoolboy gear.

Street stunner Tracy Shaw, 28, also donned school uniform for the bash with Corrie pals in Macclesfield, Cheshire. She looked on top form as she giggled with blonde DJ's wife Emma Toolan, 26.

Coronation Street barmaid Geena Gregory is planning to become the new owner of The Rovers. The current owner Duggie Ferguson will decide to sell The Rovers leaving the barmaids unsure about their jobs.

Geena gets the idea to buy when Betty suggests the Rovers would be ideal for a young couple. But she will need financial help from boyfriend Dev Alahan.

Duggie makes the shock announcement in an episode to be screened on ITV1 on Sunday 9 December.

Corrie Stars in Their Eyes has no street cred
25 November 2001 by Gary Bushell

WE were robbed! Where was John Savident on the Stars In Their Eyes Corrie special? He should have come on as Right, I Say, Right Said Fred Elliott singing Deeply Dripping, You're My Meat or I'mToo Sexy For My Shanks. And if that didn't appeal, I'm sure Eve would have got out her 45s and let the great man have a quick rummage for inspiration. He'd have made a fab Buster Blood vessel. Imagine "Ne-ne na-na, I say, ne-ne na-na na-na nu-nu."

Highlight of the night? Janice Battersby as BJORK! Vicki Grimshaw's performance was neither hot nor rot, more what the f...lip? Itwas priceless, the most unintentionally funny sight of the year. You looked in vain for Harry Hill. Even Matthew seemed more stunned than usual.

Dennis Stringer won as Joe Cocker, despite sounding more like Chris Rea, but the competition wasn't fierce. If only Phyllis Pearce were still alive, she could have done Louis Armstrong without straining her larynx. And Linda Sykes would have made a mighty fine Orville, no make-up required. But no, we had to make do with Our Vera as Peggy Lee (even if she did look more like a geriatric Clodagh Rodgers).

Did it ever occur to ITV to ask WHY we'd want to see soap favourites doing third-rate impressions of pop stars? Of course not. Telly execs are generally lazy, cowardly and/or desperate, and it's far easier for them to stretch existing formats than come up with anything new.

Soaps are already clogging up prime time like Japanese knotweed and if we don't call a halt soon they'll spread to late night, too. Be prepared for Rosamund Street Uncovered, Temptation Traffic Island (see Our Jack stranded with 11 lusty lollipop ladies),and Sex & The Silly, starring Fiz and Tyrone. The day they announce The Naked Chef with Betty Turpin is the day I tear up my TV licence. If I ever buy another one...

IF Matthew did an EastEnders special, would he let Steve Owen do Spandau Ballet? Or Frank Butcher say: "Tonight Matthew I'm gonna be Mike Read singing Little White Bull?" The Slaters could be Three Dog Night. And imagine Roy's face if he heard Nathan serenading Fat Barry with He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother.

How did Terry Duckworth cut off his handcuffs?
HOW did Terry Duckworth cut off his handcuffs with four-foot long bolt-cutters? It's the biggest soap mystery since Mel on EastEnders managed to pee in a bucket with both her feet and hands tied together while wearing a clinging skirt.

It's a Knox out, Peter
PETER STRINGFELLOW is terrified after incurring the wrath of the mighty BARBARA KNOX (Corrie's Rita) over plans for a lapdancing joint near her Manchester home. He tells me: "I've written to her and invited her to a meeting to discuss it. I hope she'll come." Somehow I don't think even his legendary charmwill work this time...

IS it me or did Johnny Briggs come across as a bit of a cold fish in Mike Baldwin And Me (ITV1, Friday)? All that stuff about going off to Florida "alone" whenever he can while his wife and four kids, who he only sees at weekends anyway, are stuck at home.

His wife didn't even want to take part in this documentary, while his two grown- up daughters have obviously seen so little of him they haven't stopped calling him "daddy" yet. As for his junkie jailbird daughter Karen, Johnny's stoney-faced "I don't wanna talk about it" was a total cop-out. They should have called it Mike Baldwin Is Me.

All we were left with were shots of him playing golf with "Enge" Humperdink, old clips of Corrie, and the narrator pointing out at least a hundred times that he's been in the show for 25 years. And as for Johnny's assertion that "I'm very private and I don't show off what I've got," I suppose we should thank him for showing us his luxury Manchester apartment, his luxury Cheshire home, his luxury second home in Florida and the private number plate... on his luxury car.

But he didn't have it all his own way. "If I was four inches taller I'd have been a matinee idol," he said of his early movie career. Never mind Johnny, there'll be twice- weekly matinees where you'll end up after Corrie. Oh yes there will.

Actor Johnny Briggs almost turned his back on playing womanising rogue Mike Baldwin in Coronation Street. After an 18-month stint in Crossroads in 1975, he vowed never to touch soaps again. "I said forget it," says Johnny on tonight's Mike Baldwin And Me on ITV1. "Crossroads was too embarrassing - when I slammed the door, all the pictures would fall off the wall." He changed his mind when he went home to watch the soap.

Before Coronation Street, Johnny, celebrating 25 years as MikeBaldwin, was a film star. Aged 17, he left stage school to star as a teenage tearaway in Cosh Boy - Britain's first X-rated movie- and over the next few years, was in over 80 films.

When he first arrived the set Street set, he brought with him a reputation as a ladies' man. "He came across to me with that swagger of his and said 'I'm Johnny, Johnny Briggs,'"said Julie Goodyear, who played Bet Lynch. "I said I didn't want to sleep with him but that I would make him a good friend." Bet was the first of many to be wined, dined - and ditched, by Mike.

His career has given Johnny a millionaire lifestyle, with a Manchester appartment, a family home in the West Midlands and a luxury villa in Florida. If it wasn't for wanting to put his four children through university, Johnny would have retired at 60. But the 66-year-old is ready to wind down: "I want to live in Florida in the winter because the weather is better. I'm also unknown in America - much better."

ITV1 is being launched on Sky Digital after signing a deal which ended its long-standing absence from the satellite service.

Until now the only access for digital viewers to the station has been through the terrestrial ITV Digital service and via cable. But ITV signed a deal for satellite coverage earlier this year and recently came to an agreement with BSkyB to be part of its electronic programme guide, completing the deal today. ITV1 is now available on channel 103 for its 16 regional services and ITV2 will launch shortly on channel 226.

ITV chief executive Stuart Prebble said: "This is good news for satellite viewers, who will be able to watch ITV1 and ITV2 through the Sky Digital EPG with digital quality pictures and full programme information."

Street star marks 25th anniversary in soap with singing star friend
21 November 2001

Engelbert Humperdinck has helped Johnny Briggs celebrate 25 years of playing Mike Baldwin. The singer is a close friend of the Coronation Street star. He dropped into the Rover's Return to share a pint of Newton and Ridley's with Briggs.

Michael Vernon Baldwin first trod the Coronation Street cobbles on October 11, 1976. Briggs's friendship with Humperdinck goes back to 1965. This summer, Briggs even made a guest appearance at one of his friend's sell-out shows in Las Vegas.

Humperdinck, who said his wife was a huge fan of the 41-year-old soap, said it was nice, after 36 years of friendship, to finally see Briggs's home patch of Weatherfield. He said: "Johnny and I have shared some wonderful times together over the many years we've known each other, and a few games of golf along the way."

Baldwin was at the centre of one of the show's biggest cliffhangers in 1983 when Deirdre Barlow had to decide whether to leave her husband Ken for Mike. In the end, such was the interest in the storyline, news of her reconciliation with her then husband was even flashed up on the scoreboard at nearby Old Trafford as a packed stadium prepared to watch the Manchester United take on Arsenal.

Of his reunion with Humperdinck, he added: "It's great to see Eng again, though the weather's a bit different to the last time we met." A show looking back at Briggs's quarter of a century on the Street - Mike Baldwin And Me - will be screened on November 23, at 9.30pm on ITV1.

Coronation Street's Dennis Stringer has a showdown with Eileen Grimshaw after admitting his affair. She insists he must choose between her and Janice Battersby.

The ultimatum comes after Janice also reveals the affair to husband Les. "It's explosive stuff," said a Coronation Street spokeswoman. "This is the moment Les realises that his best mate has been sleeping with his wife. "It's a double betrayal and it takes a while to sink in, but as it does it's obvious that Les is a broken man."

During the episode, to be screened on November 25, viewers will see Les refuse to accept the news, until Dennis arrives at the Battersby's house. Furious Les launches himself at Dennis, as Janice tells him that she has admitted the truth. Dennis then returns home to tell Eileen of the affair, leaving a shellshocked Les watching Janice pack her bags to leave him.

For the past four weeks fans of the hit soap have watched Janice (Vicky Entwistle) and former lodger Dennis Stringer try to resist the temptation of being with one another. But as the pair prepare to fly off to Majorca with their other halves, Janice refuses to go on with the lie any longer.

After the showdown viewers will see Les hit the bottle. "Les hits rock-bottom," the spokeswoman added. "Eileen is scathing. It had happened to her in the past and she thought Dennis was the one."

ITV has quietly introduced a fifth weekly episode of Coronation Street on Thursday night, as part of efforts to shore up its flagging audience share. The extra episode has been going out for the past two weeks at 8pm on Thursday and is billed to continue at least until mid-December.

However temporary a measure, the back-door arrival of an extra episode for such a long run will immediately renew speculation that ITV bosses want to make the 41-year-old soap a five-day-a-week fixture. "This is just a run of specials," an ITV spokeswoman said. "It's not necessarily a permanent thing." A regular fifth episode would cause huge controversy with the cast and with viewers who may resent having to spend yet another night of the week keeping up with action from Weatherfield.

The BBC faced a year of press speculation before it finally confirmed in January that it was introducing a fourth weekly episode of BBC1 flagship soap EastEnders. The extra EastEnders episode launched on Friday August 10 at 8pm and has been one of the main reasons for BBC1's strong showing this autumn, attracting up to 11.5m viewers.

Coronation Street's new instalment forms part of ITV's move to improve its audience share for the rest of the year, so that it can avoid the ignominy of being beaten by BBC1 for annual viewing share across all hours for the first time ever. The broadcaster is also playing comedy drama hit Cold Feet on Sunday and Monday night for four weeks in an effort to boost ratings.

But it looks likely, from unofficial overnight figures for last week, that BBC1 will extend its unprecedented unbeaten run over ITV to 15 weeks. BBC1 had a 28.8% audience share between 6am and 1am for the week ending Sunday November 18, while ITV had 25.6%. At the end of the previous week, BBC1's viewing share for the year to date stood at 26.7%, with ITV just ahead at 26.9%. There are now just six weeks of the year left and BBC1 usually wins the Christmas fortnight.

It's Street Fighting Time for Love Cheat Janice Battersby
20 November 2001

THIS is the moment Coronation Street's Janice Battersby takes it on the chin over her affair. Janice's romance with neighbour Dennis Stringer finally comes out, and Dennis's girlfriend - and her best pal - Eileen Grimshaw, decides enough is enough.

But Vicky Entwistle, who plays Janice, and Sue Cleaver - Eileen - aren't the only two slugging it out over the story that has gripped Corrie fans for weeks. Spurned husband Les, played by Bruce Jones, turns on best pal Dennis, played by Charles Dale, after he is told of the affair.

Everything spills out and finally comes to blows as the four prepare for a sunshine holiday in Tenerife, only for Janice to decide she can't live a lie any longer. Viewers will see the drama unfold on Sunday's episode of the soap.

Stars of Coronation Street have had a dress rehearsal for their Stars In Their Eyes special. Suranne Jones, who plays Karen McDonald in the ITV soap, will take to the stage as Madonna. She wears a white suit with matching cowgirl hat and gold jewellery.

She is joined by Liz Dawn, better known as Vera Duckworth, as Peggy Lee in fur and diamante.

Scott Wright, who plays mechanic and part-time stripper Sam Kingston, takes the role of George Michael.

Other stars set to appear include Charles Dale (Dennis Stringer) as Joe Cocker, and Vicky Entwistle (Janice Battersby) as Bjork.

Star In Their Eyes: Coronation Street Special is presented by Matthew Kelly. It is on ITV, Saturday November 24 at 9.20pm.

HERE are the stars of Coronation Street as you've never seen them before. The cast of Britain's longest- running soap joined Stars In Their Eyes presenter Matthew Kelly for a Coronation Street special to be screened this Saturday - and some of the resulting transformations are astounding.

Battleaxe Janice Battersby, 31-year-old actress Vicky Entwistle, will amaze fans when she becomes Icelandic pop diva Bjork. Elizabeth Dawn drops dowdy Vera Duckworth's character and shines as Fever chanteuse Peggy Lee, while Charles Dale, better known to Corrie fans as love cheat Dennis Stringer, is a deadringer for Joe Cocker. Suranne Jones, who plays sexy knicker-factory worker Karen McDonald, gets into the groove as another sex siren ... Madonna. Finally the soap's heart-throb Sam Kingston - played by actor Scott Wright - sports a dodgy wig as former Wham! frontman George Michael.

It was Vicky who upstaged all her fellow actors, however - she slipped on sweat left by the male dancers in her act and fell on her backside. She managed to brush off her bruised pride and bottom to come back and finish off her Bjrok classic after a 10 minute break. She admits: "It was the best thing that could have happened to me on the night we recorded the show. "The dancers were half-naked and had to lift heavy tyres as part of the routine, so they were dripping in sweat and I slipped on it. "I'd been really nervous about making a fool of myself - but after that I didn't care. I hurt my arm, but when I came back out to do it again I got such a massive cheer from the audience my nerves just disappeared."

Vicky, who will be singing for the first time before an audience, said she chose to play Bjork because she already shared similarities with the singer. She says: "I thought 'who's my height and a bit kookie?' I'm not a singer and she's a character that I can approach from an acting point of view. I also think she's so cute I just want to cuddle her. "I've never sung in front of an audience before - it's my first time and probably my last. I think the rest of the cast will laugh their heads off and think that I'm an idiot - but a brave one."

Corrie actress Liz wasn't a complete novice when it came to singing before a live audience - as Peggy Lee, Liz will show she hasn't lost the amazing voice that helped earn her a living. She says: "I sang for a living when my children were small. I sang in working men's clubs to earn extra money, which I think are good grounding. I knew what it was to have a good night and a bad night." Although Liz said she loved Peggy Lee's voice, she admitted her favourite group is girl power band Atomic Kitten.

Actor Scott, who once stripped off in one Corrie episode, said he expects to get more laughs from his fellow cast members playing George Michael. Scott says: "I have great admiration for George Michael's voice and songwriting, but the rest of the cast will all laugh their heads off at my wig. "It was a great honour to be asked on the show. I thoroughly enjoyed it - it was wonderful."

Suranne, who looks stunning as Madonna, said playing her pop heroine took her back to when she used to sing her songs into a hairbrush. She adds: "I'm sure I won't do her justice but it'll be great. To be going on Stars In Their Eyes at all is amazing, let alone as someone from Coronation Street."

Charles, who sings Joe Cocker's famous hit With A Little Help From My Friends, was also a semi-professional singer before he got into acting. He says: " I started out as a singer myself in pubs and clubs - folk songs and blues songs. I'm a big fan of Joe Cocker. I've listened to him a lot over the years. "We all had great fun on the show, a really good laugh. I think the other cast members will be quite surprised."

This is the seventh celebrity version of Stars In Their Eyes, the first to feature the Coronation Street cast. Host Matthew Kelly say that just because they are in showbiz doesn't make celebs less nervous. In fact, they are sometimes more. The show is screened on Saturday ITV, 9.20pm.

BBC 1 hits a 20-year high in the ratings
19 October 2001 by Lisa O'Carroll & Jason Deans

Greg Dyke's battle to rejuvenate BBC1 and lure back millions of lost viewers has paid off as the channel has achieved its highest ratings for 20 years. For 14 consecutive weeks, BBC1 has overturned ITV's lead in the audience stakes. It has achieved this by screening a mix of feature-length dramas, such as Dalziel and Pascoe, wildlife programmes such as Blue Planet, and the Friday episode of EastEnders.

BBC1 has also been helped by ITV's continuing woes. The rival channel's decision to put football highlights in the peak-time Saturday schedule proved disastrous for ITV's ratings. BBC chiefs believe their winning streak could be sustained, making BBC1 the most-watched channel in 2001. This would be the first time BBC1 has overtaken ITV, which is traditionally the UK's most popular channel.

The corporation's ratings transformation comes just over a year after Mr Dyke, the director general, ordered a new-look BBC1. He relegated Panorama to Sunday nights and shifted the news to the later 10pm slot to pave the way for more drama and entertainment.

According to the audience research board, Barb's figures, the channel's share of viewing across the day has averaged 27.3%. ITV has slumped to 24.9% from a share of 26.9% for the year so far. Over the same 14-week period last year, the BBC trailed ITV by 1.2 share points in all hours and by 6.5 share points in peak-time.

The BBC is still open to criticism for dumbing down the BBC1 - there are no arts series in prime-time and Panorama is going largely unnoticed on Sunday nights. However, senior executives are privately delighted with the ratings victory, particularly the instant success of the fourth episode of EastEnders, which is pulling in more than 11.5m viewers. The soap's impressive performance was unexpected - its rival, Coronation Street, has struggled to establish its fourth episode on Sunday nights.

Although ITV still wins the peak-time ratings battle, its poor-performing programmes, particularly its daytime shows, have dragged down its share. ITV's audience share for the first 45 weeks of the year stands at 26.9% - down from 29.2% in 2000.

"It feels to me that BBC1 is just much healthier and stronger," said Adam MacDonald, the BBC's head of planning and scheduling. "Daytime is really on fire at the moment, while the extra EastEnders episode has allowed us to create a new Friday night schedule around it. "Two years ago there was a complete misbalance in the BBC1 schedule and we had too many middle-range factual programmes, and too many docusoaps," Mr MacDonald added. "Now we have got things like My Family and Linda Green. And big factual pieces, such as Blue Planet and Walking With Beasts, are still in the heart of the schedule."

It is usual for BBC1 to triumph in the weekly ratings on only a few occasions during the year. These are generally at Christmas and during big sporting events such as Wimbledon, the World Cup and the Olympics. The closest BBC1 has come to overtaking ITV on total audience share in the past 20 years was in 1996, when it had a 33.5% share - just 1.6 points behind its rival.

An ITV spokeswoman said: "It has been a highly competitive period, but ITV is still ahead across the year." She added: "As a commercial channel in a tough economic climate, our ratings priority is clearly peaktime, where ITV has been in front every week this year."

Christmas for Corrie stars... but not crew
15 November 2001 by Nicola Methven

TV CHIEFS at Granada have cancelled all staff Christmas parties - except for the stars of Coronation Street. Bosses have banned dinners, dances and celebrations for 7,000 workers across Britain because of the firm's financial crisis. But the cast of flagship soap Corrie have been spared as their annual party is officially classified as an "anniversary" bash.

The decision, announced to workers by email, has affected staff at Granada in Manchester, LWT in London, Anglia in Norwich, Yorkshire in Leeds, Tyne Tees in Newcastle, Border in Carlisle and Meridian in Southampton, Reading and Maidstone.

Meridian said last night: "Any Christmas party that the group subsidised has been cancelled, across the whole group. "Staff were told in an email that because of the current financial situation, which I think everyone understands is pretty dire, the celebrations were not going to happen. "Everybody was disappointed but understanding - to some extent."

Many of the TV stations will now lose deposits for pre-booked hotels and restaurants adding up to thousands of pounds. In Manchester, Granada staff will miss out on their festive party - despite the fact that it is held in one of the company's own TV studios and last year they were charged £1 a drink. A source said: "It is still subsidised so it will not be happening. I know we're in trouble but cancelling Christmas just makes us more depressed."

But Corrie stars will be saved from the carpet ban on Christmas bashes. Their "anniversary" party will go on as it is held near the show's December 9 birthday.

This Morning will also go ahead with a Christmas do on December 21, although the team will be forced to pay themselves. However, a party for LWT staff, traditionally held in a top London hotel, has been canned.

Granada's profits have plunged because advertising revenue has fallen during the recession. Its digital venture with partner Carlton has cost £850million but has less than a quarter of the subscribers of Sky's service. Shares in Granada were £1.50 yesterday, a three-year low and down from £2.65 in March last year.

The cast of Coronation Street are the latest celebrities to put their vocal chords to the test in an ITV1 Stars In Their Eyes special. Vicky Entwistle, who plays Janice, is set to impersonate Bjork, while Elizabeth Dawn, best known as Vera, will try her luck at Peggy Lee. "I was asked and I thought I just wanted to walk through the doors and be someone other than Vera Duckworth," she said. "But I am sure I do not sound a bit like Peggy."

Elizabeth has had some grounding when it comes to singing in public. The 62-year-old actress used to perform in working men's clubs to earn extra cash when she was younger. "I think people will be shocked when they see me," she said. "They are used to seeing me frying chips in my pinny in Roy's Rolls!"

Vicky, 33, always said that she would never perform on the programme - until now. "I never thought they would get me up there but they have," she said. "I am not a singer, so Bjork is a character I can approach from an acting point of view. I have never sung in front of an audience - it is my first and probably last time!"

Host Matthew Kelly has praised the bravery of the celebrities who take part in his show. Vicky and Elizabeth will join cast members Charles Dale (Dennis), Suranne Jones (Karen) and Scott Wright (Sam) in the spotlight. "It is a tall order," said Matthew. "Even though they are used to being on television, most of them get far more nervous than some of our regular guests."

Coronation Street's Vicky Entwistle is to impersonate Bjork for a Stars In Their Eyes special. The actress who plays Janice Battersby will be joined by other stars of the soap.

Elizabeth Dawn will imitate Peggy Lee in the show on Saturday, November 24 at 9pm. Meanwhile Charles Dale will sing as Joe Cocker, Suranne Jones will perform as Madonna, and Scott Wright will be turned into George Michael.

Stars In Their Eyes: Coronation Street Special is the 7th celebrity edition produced by Granada. Host Matthew Kelly said: "All of our celebrities are very brave to take part - it's a tall order. "Even though they are used to being on television, most of them get far more nervous than our regular guests."

Coronation Street's Janice Battersby is to shock the residents of Weatherfield by admitting to her affair with Dennis Stringer. She will then move in to a new flat with Dennis.

The admission will be shown on Sunday November 25. Husband Les will take the news badly and turn to the bottle. Dennis's partner Eileen will vent her frustration by punching Janice at the factory later in the week.

CORONATION Street battleaxe Eve Elliot is set to strike terror into the soap's tipplers when she becomes the new landlady of the Rovers Return. Current landlord Duggie Ferguson calls time at Christmas after buying his old rugby club.

Eve, played by Melanie Kilburn, who only joined the soap last year, persuades new hubby Fred Elliott to buy the boozer.

CORRIE bad boy Terry Duckworth is up to his old tricks again as he springs from the dock and flees court. Vera's wayward son is back in hot water after being locked up on remand on a charge of attempted murder.

Vera, played by Liz Dawn, has already spent her life savings on the best lawyer in a bid to prevent Terry, alias Nigel Pivaro, being jailed again. But when he makes his first appearance in court Terry, who has fed his devoted mother a story about being stitched up after getting involved with a policeman's wife, has a plan to break free.

Terry will be seen fleeing the court in a special episode to be screened a week on Thursday. He goes on the run and ends up hiding in his unforgiving dad Jack's allotment shed.

Coronation Street's Terry Duckworth is to escape from court in a new storyline. It will be the latest twist in a storyline that sees Terry being put on remand in prison on a charge of attempted murder. His mother Vera will use her life savings on the best lawyer money can buy in a bid to prevent Terry from being found guilty.

But according to the ITV website, the first time Terry appears in court he will make an attempt at freedom. After asking security staff if he can go to the toilet, Terry tries to make a run for freedom only to find that there is nowhere underneath the courtroom for him to run to. Then as he is led back into court, Terry will break free, springing out of the dock and fleeing the courtroom in a special Thursday episode.

In the weeks to follow, Terry will go on the run and end up hiding in his father's allotment shed. The episode will be shown on November 15.

CORONATION Street producers have been slated over a storyline in which Vera Duckworth claims legal aid lawyers aren't as good as privately paid barristers. But Manchester lawyer Janet Hall said: "The Street's writers are mistaken. The Legal Services Commission supervises all solicitors working within the criminal legal aid system."

A former Emmerdale producer is taking over the same role on Coronation Street. Kieran Roberts oversaw Emmerdale's transition from three to five episodes a week. He is expected to start his stint as producer of Coronation Street at the beginning of December.

Roberts will take over at the Street following Jane McNaught's move to Granada's drama department. McNaught had been Coronation Street producer for more than two years. But the show lost viewers during that period, and bosses hope Roberts can arrest the decline and take the show forward into the future.

In addition, Jane McVerry, who has worked on programmes such as Brookside, Playing The Field and Clocking Off, is to become the Street's new story consultant.

Roberts joined Granada in 1984, and was responsible for shows including The Krypton Factor and You've Been Framed. He said: "I've been a fan of Coronation Street for many years and I'm thrilled to be taking over as the new producer of what is simply the biggest and best loved programme on British television."

Ex-Corrie star Charles Lawson cannot stop drinking booze - even though it nearly killed him. The liver of Lawson, 42, who played volatile Jim McDonald, was on the brink of collapse when he used to down two bottles of whisky a day and sometimes go on all night benders.

In a TV interview he claimed to have changed - but said he still drinks. "Now I only drink beer and wine and I would hate to give it up. Life would be so boring," he told Trisha on ITV2. "There was a period of almost three or four years when I was out drinking every night and all night. "Drinking whisky, I almost did serious damage to my liver. "I had blood tests that showed my liver was about to pack in and I was only 34. That was an alarm call. "My second wife made me think I don't have to go out and get slaughtered. I would now rather go home, have a bottle of Burgundy and cook dinner. "I ride racehorses and keep fit and I want to go out for the crack. I'm an Irishman and I like going to the pub and having a laugh."

THE battle of the soaps reached boiling point yesterday as angry Coronation Street bosses launched a blistering attack on their rivals. Despite big name stars being written out, a dip in viewing figures, and awards going to EastEnders, ITV say Corrie remains the best performing drama series in the UK.

ITV's new director of programmes John Whiston said he wanted to "dispel a couple of myths" surrounding the show. Whiston said in the last year Coronation Street - which stars Tracy Shaw as Maxine - averaged 57 per cent of the audience while EastEnders has averaged 54 per cent.

Last week Jane MacNaught stepped down as producer of Coronation Street. Whiston added: "Jane has overseen some fantastic highlights for the show, including at least three episodes which delivered over 65 per cent share." He said that MacNaught, who was shifted as part of restructuring plans at Granada, wasn't moving "down, sideways or out". Whiston added: "She is moving into the main drama department to produce a high-profile comedy drama. She'll do it brilliantly."

Spider is set to upset Toyah on his return to Coronation Street. He will try to rekindle his old romance with her and anger current boyfriend Sam.

Spider returns to the soap on Sunday, November 11. He will also ask Toyah to start a new life with him in London. Emily will consider trying to help Spider raise £20,000 for his planned business venture in the Capital.

LIKE every red-blooded male in the country I have loved watching Kylie Minogue dancing around singing I Can't Get You Out Of My Head for the last two months. But that enjoyment was cruelly shattered by Coronation Street's heartless scriptwriters on Friday night (ITV1).

Because Dennis uttered the exact same phrase to Janice Battersby the morning after he finally gave in to her whining and slept with her. And now what I can't get out of my head whenever I hear Kylie is the thought of what went on in THAT bed under THAT duvet. "I kept asking myself 'what am I getting into?'," said Dennis the next morning after he'd sneaked in through Janice's back door.

He wasn't the only one asking that question because that dirty brown duvet cover has to be among the worst patchwork I've ever seen. Did Janice knock it up from offcuts during her lunch break at Underworld? "I thought stuff like this only happened in films," said Janice, minutes after they had done the deed.

She was right of course. This had Carry On Coronation Street written all over it, with a bit of Nightmare On Rosamund Street thrown in for good measure. "I'm a tigress when I get going," Janice went on as Dennis laid there like a great big pussy trying to use the duvet to disguise the fact he is at least one cup size bigger than she is. It didn't work. The way they ended up in bed in the first place was a masterstroke of contrivance involving Linda's mad brother Jimmy deciding to torch Underworld, Terry Duckworth getting banged up in prison and the revelation of Vera Duckworth's affair 30 years ago with a carpet fitter who lived above a chip shop. His plaice or yours, Vera?

Earlier in the week Dennis had been strong when he told Janice they couldn't let their desires go any further. "When we see each other we'll look, and we'll know," he said. "But that'll have to be enough." And he had a point because one look at Janice is usually enough for most men.

I'm not knocking the acting because soap love scenes are meant to be embarrassing. What happens next is important and I reckon Corrie will struggle with this one because it can only descend into panto - Les will fight Dennis and shout a lot while Eileen and Janice will have the kind of battle which uproots cobblestones.

The Matt and Maxine affair is proving more fruitful. Tracy Shaw showed she's got more in her locker than tit-tape and backless dresses especially when it came to her, "I. Can. Shout. Louder. Than. You" scenes with Stephen Beckett. Poor old Ashley is still way off the pace, forcing Maxine to go and see Matt to confirm what she already knew - she's pregnant.

Still, his reason for doing so provided the line of the week for me. "I'd sooner have it from you," he told Matt. So would Maxine, Ash. So would Maxine.

CORONATION Street layabout Les Battersby has proved he's got a heart of gold - by raising cash for a seriously ill schoolgirl.

Bruce Jones - who plays Les - phoned nine-year-old Rachel Williams' parents out of the blue after reading about her rare illness. Rachel - who stops breathing dozens of times a night - needs £15,000 for treatment in Ohio. Bruce said: "I'm happy to do whatever I can to help Rachel. I'll try and raise the cash with some charity concerts." Rachel's mum Debbie, of Anglesey, North Wales, said: "We never expected anything like this. We can't thank Bruce enough."

CORRIE seamstress Naomi Russell swaps making undies for modelling them, and shows what a sexy sew-and-sew she is.

Naomi, 23 - Bobbi Lewis in Mike Baldwin's lingerie factory - appears with hardly a stitch on in December's Loaded magazine. The actress started out as an underwear model in her teens. Now she's making a brief comeback in the mag - on sale now - and revealing a lot more than just her pins. Just wait till Baldwin cottons on!

CORRIE's Tracy Shaw needed a hair of the dog in the Rovers yesterday after the boozy party to celebrate the National Television Awards. The actress had to be piled into a taxi after the bash - but she wasn't the only one who overdid the champers. A string of famous names - who had been snapped earlier arriving in all their finery - were the worse for wear after the bash. And one of them even appeared to pass out.

CORONATION Street's Ken Barlow is to get a new female admirer, it was revealed yesterday. But actress Nichola McAuliffe is sworn to secrecy over whether she is destined to be Ken's 24th lover. Nichola said: "There's a bit of a sparkle between them, but I can't say any more than that."

Surgical Spirit star Nichola joins next month as Anita - a leading light of the Weatherfield Historical Society. She falls for Ken, played by Bill Roache, after he gives a talk to the local group about his book. Anita becomes fixated on Ken and does all she can to bump into him. Delighted Nichola said: "I love Coronation Street. My sister and I discuss every episode in detail."

Thrice-married Ken has bedded 23 women over 40 years since losing his virginity to librarian Marion Lund, 12 years his senior. Soap producer Granada said: "It's a very traditional storyline and we're sure she's going to be a memorable character." Nichola recently won a Best Actress prize at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and has also scooped a prestigious Olivier Award.

ITV1 is launching a teatime ratings offensive with a new family soap, Night And Day. Starring Joe McGann, Lesley Joseph, Glynis Barber, Gareth Hunt, Cathy Tyson and a host of newcomers, the 30-minute soap will be broadcast Tuesday to Thursday at 5.05pm, with an omnibus edition on Thursdays at 10.20pm. Pop star Kylie Minogue recorded the Always And Forever theme tune and, unusually, the omnibus will feature additional "adult" scenes.

Night And Day is filmed in Greenwich and focuses on the lives of six families living in and around fictional Thornton Street in East London. "We felt we need a backbone for the show," says creator Caleb Ranson. "We wanted strong characters and a through road that everything would fall off."

Lysette Anthony and Joe McGann play matriach Roxanne Doyle and partner Alex, while Sally Dester takes the role of high-flying best pal Natalie. Lesley Joseph plays meddling teacher Rachel Gulgrin, who works with Fiona, played by Glynis Barber. Gareth Hunt is pub boss Charlie, with Cathy Tyson the returning vicar.

TV bosses promise the late-night omnibus will feature additional scenes with "adult" themes. "The omnibus is an extension of the daytime show, with a distinctly adult twist," says LWT's drama boss, Damien Trimmer. "It's naughtier, more thrilling and altogether more adult."

Night And Day is sure to be a hit, says Lysette Anthony, who plays central character Roxanne. "It's unique and I'm sure the public are ready for something different," she says. "It's sexy, glamorous and very funny."

Dennis and Janice will get a shock during Coronation Street's Bonfire Night episode. The lovers will escape to the factory for some privacy. But they get a rude awakening when a firework is pushed through the letterbox.

Elsewhere, Gail's bonfire party will start badly when Les's fireworks fail to live up to expectations. But Dr Matt will share his fireworks with the party-goers leaving Maxine feeling uncomfortable in his presence.

EastEnders has won the award for Most Popular Serial Drama at the National TV Awards. Two members of the New York Fire Department came on to present the award. Most of the EastEnders cast went on stage to accept it.

Michael Greco, alias Beppe di Marco, said : "EastEnders is on the crest of a wave. "We've been TV ratings toppers for every week this year except two, which is some going."

EastEnders thrashed Corrie 5-0 at the TV Quick Awards and trounced it again at the National Soap Awards

A string of TV lovelies drew gasps from the crowds outside the Albert Hall with a succession of stunning outfits. Newlywed Corrie beauty Tracy Shaw wore a royal blue backless dress by London designer Kyri, with a slashed-to-the-thigh split. Tracy, who plays Maxine, also showed off her new hair extentions. She said: "I'm dead nervous - this is the biggest night of the telly year."

She wore her revealing outfit despite Corrie bosses slapping a BAN on their stars showing too much flesh. Jennifer James, who plays barmaid Geena, said: "They've told us to cover up. They said they didn't want any bras and knickers showing."

Eva Pope says she has no desire to return to Coronation Street. The actress played barmaid Tanya Pooley in the ITV soap before she left in 1994. She is set to appear in the new series of Peak Practice as bitchy nurse Claire Brightwell.

"They asked me for three years running to go back to Coronation Street but I just didn't fancy it," she says. "They wanted to make her more acceptable and I didn't think it would have benefited me or the programme. "They thought I had left because she was so tough, bitchy and a little one dimensional. "So they tried to change my mind by saying they would make her a broader character but I didn't think that would work."

Eva says fame has had a detrimental affect upon her life. "I have attracted some strange people," she says. "I have had men send me photographs and then turn up at my door. "There was one man who really liked me. He used to buy me presents - like flea-ridden kittens. But I wouldn't say he was a stalker. I shook him off by being nice to him. He soon got the message."

Neil Morrissey is to star in a major new BBC drama called Paradise Heights. The Royle Family's Ralf Little and Corrie's John Bowe will star as his screen brothers. Their characters run a troubled warehouse company, based in Nottingham.

They begin filming the six-part drama in December. Neil says the BBC is already planning two more 10-part series of Paradise Heights.

He told Teletext: "They run their own business but a rich guy in the area is putting the squeeze on them. "I have taken my time choosing TV roles as I wanted to do something really good." Neil is also starring in a Bob the Builder UK tour from February. His new gangster film Trigger Man is released the same month.

Angry ex-Street star Denise Welch has hit back at tabloid claims she used illegal drugs and "canoodled" with a married man. Denise, who played feisty barmaid Natalie for four years, described the Sunday Mirror report as "scurrilous". But she admitted: "I made a number of flippant remarks about drugs which in hindsight I should not have made." And Denise, 43, claimed: "They were subsequently used out of context."

The article claimed drug use left her "off her face and slurring her lines". But Ms Welch said she was betrayed in a "horrendous and public way" after befriending an undercover reporter while filming ITV drama The Vice. "I have been accused of having a drug habit which impaired my abilities as an actress, and that is totally untrue. "I am very proud of the work I did."

She laughed off suggestions that she "canoodled" with a married man, or of having an affair. "If I were having a torrid affair with this man, surely I would have his mobile phone number, which I don't. "My friends have always warned me against being too trusting but I, until now, have never had any reason to doubt my own instincts."

ACTRESS Denise Welch has sensationally admitted to having a cocaine habit. And the former Coronation Street star - who has always made a big play of being happily married to actor Tim Healy - spent the night with an East End hardman after admitting being "off her face" during one marathon binge.

Denise, whose second child is only seven months old, canoodled with snooker hall boss Chris Karanikki in a bar then took him and two friends back to her hotel room. When the friends left, Denise and Chris spent over an hour alone together. The following morning Chris, who has told friends he is besotted with Denise, was seen blowing her a goodbye kiss outside the hotel.

Denise has admitted her favourite drug is cocaine - and that she prefers it to ecstasy. She told our undercover reporter two days ago: "I just like coke. It's my favourite drug. "I'm not really an E person - it's that thing of putting something in your system and having to let it takes its course and having no control. "With the other (cocaine) you have control and think, 'I don't feel very well, I'll just stop now' - the other one's much more my thing'."

Denise, 42, was happy to help try to set up a drugs deal for our reporter by making a phone call to her drug contact. News of her drugs habit and wild ways will come as a shock to the world of showbusiness. She lives with husband Tim - currently busy filming a new series of Auf Wiedersehen Pet - in a luxury farmhouse in Alderley Edge, Cheshire with their son Matthew, 12 and baby Louis. After giving birth she sold photos to a glossy magazine and vowed to "sit back and enjoy being a mother".

Denise's all-night session began on September 19 when she was in London to film the ITV drama The Vice. She and Chris met friends at Min's, a swish bar and restaurant in London's Knightsbridge. As they walked into the bar Chris was holding her arm. They joined two male friends and two other women.

Denise took off her long leather coat to reveal black trousers and a black, slinky sleeveless top. She sat next to Chris, who whispered into her ear while she affectionately placed her arm on his back. Their conversation appeared intimate. She regularly put her arm around him and gently touched his back.

When she left him sitting there to go to the ladies she brought up the subject of drugs to our reporter without being prompted. She admitted: "I've done the worst day's work I've ever done because I was completely off my face for the whole day."

Denise said she has friends in London who are "alcohol drug addicts". And she said: "I couldn't live with them all the time because I'll say, 'I'll just come for one' and end up.....". Denise then gestured to show she was drunk.

She talked of the problems of combining her party life style with her demanding job. During that day's filming Denise said she had slurred her lines on-set and was "off her face". She confessed: "I'd had no sleep and had to talk. I slurred my way through the scene. "I was p***** last night. It gets to 4 o'clock and you've had no sleep and you have to be up for 6am - you just think, 'What's the point of going to bed?'. "I was doing a restaurant scene this morning at 7 o'clock and I was desperate for wine. "Other people were wanting coffee, but I'm a night person and I'm still wanting f... wine. "By 10 o'clock I think, 'this is a legitimate time..." Denise revealed how the next morning she was due at Spitalfields Market to carry on filming The Vice in which she was playing a high-class hooker. But work was the last thing on her mind.

Denise stayed drinking at Min's until about 12.45 am. Just before leaving she swopped phone numbers with our reporter. She then went to private members bar Soho House and stayed until closing time at 3am. Denise and Chris and their two friends then got a taxi back to her hotel - the St George's off Regents Street. The four went to her room. At 6.20 am the two men left leaving Chris and Denise alone. They emerged just before 7.30am. Chris blew her a kiss then jumped into a cab as she got in a car to be taken away to start filming.

Denise has forged an intimate relationship with East End entrepreneur Chris, who owns a seedy snooker hall in Walthamstow. They were introduced by one of her closest friends and immediately hit it off. When they can't meet up in London they keep in constant touch by phone. Chris told a friend: "I can't ever get her out of my mind. I miss her so much when she's away working. "I just want to give her a hug. Whenever things get tough I just want to hear her sweet voice again. "I'd do anything even to get just a few hours with her."

But their plans to again meet in London were thwarted by Denise's family life. Two weeks ago, when our reporter rang to see if she was again going to London, Denise said could not get away to party because she had to look after her kids.

But last week, on a photo-shoot in Spain, she happily talked about her drug habit, admitting: "I just like my bit of charlie (cocaine). "I do, I do really enjoy it, but I've got to write-off the next day completely, because I can't do a little bit of everything or a little bit of anything - that's the problem. "When I come to London I'm so stressed because my friends down there do much more than my friends in Manchester do."

Denise also bragged about her drug connections - and the dealers who are constantly on hand to indulge her habit. She told how one of her regular suppliers - whom she nicknamed "Zorba bin Laden - the most wanted man" - had recently fled. She said: "Our normal guy had to take off for various reasons. But he has left another guy in charge Sam. We've got somebody else."

She happily agreed to set up a drug deal for our investigator. She promised to make a call - and 10 minutes later a man called. He was cut off - so Denise then put us in touch with a friend. She explained: "What's happening is that my friend is trying to call Sam, the dealer and then trying to call you." Denise then gave her friend's number to our reporter and said: "He'd be delighted to talk to you."

Denise is one of Britain's most successful actresses. She has starred in Byker Grove, Soldier, Soldier and Spender. But she is best known for her four years as the feisty barmaid, Natalie Horrocks in Coronation Street. She left the soap in December 2000. She is in the process of completing a new BBC drama series set in the 1950s, Heart Of The Valley, with James Bolam and Michael French. Denise plays a mother of six who struggles with ill health and a seventh pregnancy.

She met Tim Healy at a friend's dinner party. She later said: "He made me laugh. I always used to think he was a bit grumpy and guarded, which he can be when he doesn't know people. He's been well known a long time, so you do put up that front." They married in 1988, when Denise was 30. Their first son Matthew was born in 1991. Their second son, Louis was born earlier this year and needed surgery for a a bowel defect. He has since made a full recovery.

When asked what was the most romantic thing a man's ever done she said: "When we were first dating, I told my husband how much I missed my sister, who was working on a cruise ship. He found out where the ship was next docking and surprised me by flying me out to her. Family means everything to me - and the thought that my husband cared enough, not just about me but my sister too, really won me over."

Denise recently turned down the golden offer to be presenter of This Morning for the sake of her family. She said: "I don't feel at this time in my life that I want to uproot my family for a whole year. I've just had a new baby and I'm enjoying spending time with him."

Last night Denise said of the drug allegation: "I've got absolutely no comment to make."

FORMER Coronation Street star AMANDA BARRIE has filmed a sick TV game show poking fun at her tragic screen death. Amanda, whose popular character Alma Halliwell died of cancer, will appear in cult late night show Banzai posing in a COFFIN. In the new series, which starts on E4 next month and will be repeated on Channel 4 later, viewers will see several closed coffins and be asked to guess which one the star is in.

The move is a remarkable act of hypocrisy for Amanda, 63, who blasted Corrie after her TV death. She accused soap bosses of using her illness as "a cheap ratings ploy" and said she was shocked at the "irresponsible" way the subject was treated. "If you are going to take an issue like this and use it for entertainment you have to be so very, very careful," she stormed.

Yesterday a Granada insider hit back: "After everything Amanda said, this is outrageous. If anything will upset people with cancer it's this." Banzai said: "It's a fun show. Our celebrities have a great sense of humour."

FROM along the studio corridor that leads to Coronation Street comes the trilling of a mobile phone and some loud, throaty laughter. Clare McGlinn is wrestling with this brand new gadget. "Look," she says, jabbing at buttons, "it receives faxes, works the internet, brilliant. The only trick it won't do is switch off. What's the solution?" Clare buries it in her pocket where it can't be heard. "Daft thing," she says, in a flat-capped accent that is still authentic, native Wigan.

For a moment you're reminded of her other disorganised self, Charlie Ramsden, as the wife of the Street's wayward Doctor Matt, the man who has just had a steamy affair with Maxine - played by Tracy Shaw - and may yet find out he is the father of her child. When confronted with a problem, according to Charlie's Law, then bury it, preferably in a bottle of vodka if she can remember where she left one.

It's a year this week since Charlie and Doc Ramsden arrived in Weatherfield, apparently bringing a touch of posh with them. He was the smoothly capable professional, she preferred coffee and croissants rather than a chipped mug of tea and a fry-up at Roy's Rolls. The snooty type, some said. But look how they've changed - Doc Ramsden has turned into a worried wimp, while Charlie has become the local lush.

"Now hang on, I won't hear Charlie criticised without understanding her problems," Clare, 32, says. "She's not just some hopeless drunk. I always suspected from the start that there must be some kind of trouble in her past, and we're only just starting to discover what it is. "I'm getting to know her, and why she's like she is. There's a potential Charlie in all of us. She's just been pushed closer to the edge than most."

There's no husband - errant or otherwise - in Clare's life. Though it's true there have been broken romances, Clare says. A long-term relationship with a handsome Frenchman had looked promising, but in the end...well, he was in Paris, she was in Manchester. She lives alone, somewhere in the country. On the other hand, she does keep taking that dinky, purple phone out of her pocket, to check if she has missed any calls. From someone special, obviously?

"All right, it's true, there is a new guy in my life, and I'm very, very fond of him. "I wouldn't be on my own out of choice. I like companionship. I have a wide circle of friends but there's something special about a partner. "So I think I was looking around, without realising it. Then this man was coming into my life and I didn't spot it. "I was playing hard to get and didn't know it. Lucky for me, he persevered.

"We met when I was with the crowd on Tracy Shaw's hen night, of all things. He was with a bunch of guys across the room, and one of them said, 'Hey what about that Tracy Shaw?' and he said, 'Yeah, she's terrific, but I love that one with her'. "It was probably my laugh that distracted him. People say that they can hear me before they see me. "The blokes came over and bought us some drinks, and there was no great chat-up line, just very nice conversation.

"I discovered he was South African, came here years ago to play professional cricket and stayed to start a restaurant. "And the great thing was, he didn't have a clue who I was. "He didn't watch the Street much, didn't know about Charlie, and in the evenings he was busy running his restaurant.

"In this business, it's not hard to meet people, but it's very hard to meet nice people. "I've dated guys who have wanted to know me just so they can say they've been out with some celebrity, and it's a vulgar experience. "But this man was different. He's good looking, of course, and athletic, but also enigmatic and charming. A few days after that first meeting, he called the studios asking for me. He was asking me out. "I remembered him and there must have been something special because my heart was going bump-bump.

"I told him I would check my diary and call him back. Then I went all coy. I called his restaurant and he wasn't there, so I gave up. "When I bumped into him weeks later in Manchester, I was all flustered and apologetic, and he said it really didn't matter, if I had dinner with him. "Seven months later, we're still having a romantic time.

I LIKE the way he considers me. He'll surprise me with little gestures - for instance, if I'm going to his place after work he'll have run a bath for me, and surround it with scented candles. "We both love food - I've been out with vegetarians in the past, and I've got really frustrated - so our idea of a romantic evening is to cook for one another. "We play squash together, we play tennis, he has even started taking me to his cricket club.

"But you know what I enjoy about it? He's a real man's man, and we fit into this social circle which is completely different from showbusiness and no one even mentions the job I do. "So I'm very, very happy, that I've found someone special. Life is wonderful at the moment. Do I love him? I must do, because I'm going to spend eight days up Mount Kilamanjaro with him."

For a moment, this sounds like one of Charlie's rambling fantasies. Actually, Clare and her man will be scaling the 19,000ft peak in February, among a group of soap stars raising cash for the Bobby Moore Cancer Fund, which helps to fund research into bowel disease. In her appearance on a celebrity edition of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? recently, she won £16,000 for the same cause.

In the Street Charlie has no idea yet - and the tension builds in a special episode on ITV tomorrow at 8.30pm - what Doc Ramsden has been doing. But there's already enough trauma in her life. No sooner had it been revealed that she was adopted than her natural mother turned up - and rejected her.

Clare's own parents divorced when she was 14. Her dad, Pat, went back to work as an engineer in Africa, and mum Angela brought up their four children. Her mum became one of Wigan's first female bus drivers. "I was mortified that anyone should see me with my mum in her uniform," she says. "It was only much later that I came to realise why she did a man's job - it was so that she could earn a man's wage."

Clare went off to Leeds University to study classics, philosophy and Latin. But after a year the ambition to act was starting to smoulder. She quit university, driven by the kind of determination which, she thinks, she inherited from her father. In the final two years of his life, she grew close to him and recognised his strength. "He had contracted malaria twice, through working abroad, and it had damaged his liver. There were complications, and he died of heart failure. But I'm grateful for our time together."

Is she saddened that he never lived to see her TV success - first as a policewoman in Cops, and now in the Street? Clare is adamant he knows about it. "I've had messages from dad from a spiritualist," she says. "She said that he wanted us to know he was happy, and that has been a comfort to all of us. "She asked me if I was in some kind of trouble, because she could see lots of police uniforms and police cars. "A few months later I spent all my money on a holiday in Cyprus. "I was lying on the beach with a friend when the call came from my agent - they were casting for Cops, this new series, and they wanted to see me! "Then it fell into place...the uniforms, the police cars, it wasn't trouble but a career move."

Then there's that laugh again and she says: "I've never been back to see her. To be honest, I'd be petrified."

THEY dragged Mike Baldwin's car out of the river in CORONATION STREET. His cheating wife Linda may be sleeping with the fishes. The only surprise is that Weatherfield didn't erupt into a mass chorus of "Ding dong, the witch is dead".

Did Mike kill Linda? Of course not. Baldwin is innocent, OK. But would jail hurt? The bloke is selfish, arrogant, manipulative and a ruthless employer. He was the first person ever to have a heart attack without actually possessing a heart. Maybe a spell behind bars would do him good. It'd give him time to reflect, Scrooge-like, on the worthlessness of a life that has left him with two, maybe three, dead wives and an invitation to join BT's Friends & What's Left Of Your Family scheme.

It's a set-up, of course. Linda (played by Orville the duck) has clearly framed Mike via a cunning plan hatched from watching Emmerdale, where Kim Tate did the same to Frank. My question is: Why did Mike marry her? Linda wasn't the sort of woman you could confidently send to Temptation Island. You wouldn't trust her to stay faithful for the boat trip over.

Unlike the lovely Maxine who had every intention of staying loyal to Ashley...until she ended up under the doctor. Now the whimpering crimper is trying to kid herself her unborn baby could be Ashley's. It could. The poor love doesn't produce many sperm but in fairness they don't have far to travel. Trouble is when the tot is two and 5ft tall who will believe her? Dirty doc Matt should be struck off.

Unlike Tyrone who should just be struck often. What a twerp. He lost lovely Maria (with her magical ability to fit into Maxine's clothes despite being a foot shorter) and ended up with frightful Fiz. Maria walks into the Rovers and turns heads. Fiz does the same and turns stomachs.

Unlikely relationships abound. Duggie has the hots for Sunita, who looks like the love-child Jagger and Streisand never had, while Dennis is on the verge of a fling with gobby Janice Battersby.

Odd woman, Janice. She's normally the dead spit of Zippy from Rainbow but gurning through the tears on Wednesday she looked more like Chucky from Child's Play. What would it take for Dennis to make love to her? Experts can't be sure but a safe bet would be ten pints and a blindfold.

CORONATION Street bosses last night dumped producer Jane Macnaught - dubbed the Tyrant Queen by the cast. Macnaught has been in charge of the soap for two years, during which it has come under fire for its controversial storylines.

Macnaught also caused fury among the cast with a series of contract disputes. An insider said: "Jane rubbed a lot of people up the wrong way. "Clashing with the major stars wasn't wise. But she also annoyed many of the backroom staff. "The rumblings have been going on for more than a year over the direction the programme has been taking. "It was decided that it was time for a fresh face to come in."

Programme-makers Granada announced Macnaught was being moved to a new post in charge of drama. No replacement has yet been lined up to take her place on Corrie.

Macnaught was branded the Tyrant Queen last year after introducing a two-tier pay system for the cast. Some stars like Sue Nicholls, who plays Audrey Roberts, signed a two-year deal guaranteeing them as much as £250,000. Others, like Michael Le Vell, alias Kevin Webster, got a 12-month contract guaranteeing fewer episodes and less money. Shortly afterwards, three senior writers walked out. And in February, the backroom team was warned to pull up its socks and develop new ratings-grabbing storylines.

A Street spokesman said: "Jane has had a highly successful stay at Corrie. "But two years is the usual length of time that producers stay."

Fans have been up in arms over recent Corrie storylines. Only this week Record writer Joan Burnie warned that the Street was losing its way. Corrie still regularly pulls in nearly 14million viewers a week, a million more than EastEnders.

Coronation Street's Julie Hesmondhalgh says her baby's birth was a real-life drama. She had to have a Caesarean after complications in labour. Doctors found the umbilical cord was wrapped around the baby's neck and leg.

The actress, who plays Hayley Cropper, had hoped to have a home birth. But a few hours into the labour things began to go wrong. Julie said: "It was quite frightening really, I had been in labour for quite a long time and nothing was happening. "I was taken into hospital and they soon found that Martha was stuck. I had to have an emergency Caesarean under anaesthetic because I hadn't had an epidural as I had hoped to have as natural a birth as possible. "It was very strange because I came round from the anaesthetic to be handed my daughter. It wasn't how I had envisaged the birth at all."

She praised hospital staff who delivered the 10lb 8oz baby girl called Martha Mo: "The most important thing is that we have got a beautiful, healthy baby daughter. "We were obviously disappointed not to have Martha at home but any preconceived ideas we had about hospital births disappeared once we were there. "The staff couldn't do enough for us and made me feel really at ease at what was a pretty scary time. They were absolutely wonderful."

Granada has shunted Jane Macnaught sideways to work under its drama controller, Carolyn Reynolds, leaving the flagship soap without a producer. During an explosive morning at the Manchester offices of Granada, it was reported that the storyline editor, Di Burrows - criticised by outgoing actor Amanda Barrie earlier this year - had also been sacked. But she remains in place. Ms Reynolds takes overall charge of Coronation Street and will appoint a producer "in due course", Granada said.

Macnaught's move from the role of executive producer was being regarded as effectively a demotion. Previously she had reported directly to Granada's director of programmes. Now she will report to Ms Reynolds. John Whiston, the director of programmes for Granada Content (North), paid tribute to Macnaught in a statement issued today, saying she had ensured the show had gone from "strength to strength". Macnaught said: "I have always loved Coronation Street and have huge pride in what the team has achieved during my time with the show."

Her first project in her new role will be a 90-minute comedy drama for ITV to be shot in the new year, and will take responsibility for day-to-day management of the drama department in Manchester. "There are many fantastic and exciting opportunities coming up for us all," she said.

Sources said soap producers generally have a shelf-life of two to three years and that Macnaught was held in high regard at Granada. But Mr Whiston, newly appointed to the Manchester programme director position, has a new vision for the soap and is expected to undertake an "audit" of the show. A rocky period is expected ahead as new writers are brought in to revitalise the veteran soap.

Macnaught leaves Coronation Street
Jane Macnaught, the executive producer of Coronation Street, has been moved out of her job after a troubled period at the veteran soap, MediaGuardian.co.uk can reveal. Macnaught, who is said not to get on with some members of the cast, is thought to be taking up a development position at Granada. The broadcaster is to make an announcement later today, but staff on the soap learned of the news this morning.

It is understood ITV network centre has been concerned about the performance of Coronation Street, which has recently appeared lacklustre compared with its BBC rival, EastEnders. The BBC soap has been performing strongly since it moved to four nights a week this summer, with a run of high-profile storylines. Storylines at Coronation Street, which celebrated its 40th birthday with a live episode last year, have not had the same impact.

Relations between Macnaught and the cast soured when she imposed a new pay regime, reducing annual retainers and imposing stricter contracts. A number of long-serving scriptwriters quit the soap during her three years as executive producer.

The woman behind many of Coronation Street's recent hard-hitting storylines has left. Jane McNaught was executive producer on the show for two and a half years. She is moving on to produce new dramas at Granada TV. McNaught was responsible for stories such as Toyah's rape, Alma's cervical cancer death and Sarah's teenage pregnancy.

She told The Media Guardian: "I have always loved Corrie and have huge pride in what has been achieved during my time with it. "The live episode for the 40th anniversary was a piece of TV history."

Granada's drama controller Carolyn Reynolds is currently looking after the show, and will reportedly appoint a new producer "in due course."

The Independent Television Commission (ITC) is calling on the government to create legislation which could pave the way for a merger between broadcasters Carlton and Granada. It wants new legislation to be introduced to combat a downturn in advertising revenue.

In his speech to an ITC dinner in Edinburgh on Wednesday, chairman Sir Robin Biggam said action was needed sooner rather than later. His address is being seen by broadcast media as an indication that the ITC wants Carlton and Granada - ITV's two largest shareholders - to be able to form one company. He said the proposed moves to relax the rules on media ownership and the setting up of the super-regulator Ofcom, scheduled to take effect in 2003, was not soon enough.

He said interim legislation was needed to enable commercial TV to compete with the BBC in what he called "tough times". "As a regulator, our hands are tied," Sir Robin said. "We are governed by the current legislation, which, in key areas such as media ownership, is hopelessly outdated at a time when flexibility is required to meet the changes in the market and the technology."

Produxion.com reports that Carlton and Granada are facing a cash crisis due to a drop in advertising revenue and that closer collaboration could mean significant cost savings. Carlton and Granada own most of the companies which run the 15 regional licenses of ITV. Sir Robin said the BBC was still well served as the primary public sector provider. "But the commercial sector - which also has public service obligations - is not in a position to compete," he added.

The economic climate had changed as it affected commercial TV companies, he said. Advertising revenues had collapsed and forecasts for the take-up of broadband and interactive technology were in "steep decline", he added. Sir Robin said the economic downturn was also putting ITV's regional services under pressure. But he said if "flexibility" was given, a better service could be provided for the nations and regions in the UK. "The key components of a new settlement with ITV will be their continuing investment in the delivery of services in the nations and regions, back-up by local governance and accountability and the support for a vibrant production sector out of London."

The Independent Television Commission acts as a watchdog for commercial TV in the UK by regulating and licensing it.

Granada staff have reacted angrily to the company's decision to freeze pay, with unions demanding that senior management forgo executive perks to shore up the company's flagging revenue. Broadcasting union Bectu, the National Union of Journalists and the Amalgamated Electrical Engineering Union have called on Granada's senior management to adopt a 'fairer' company system following the pay freeze announcement last week. The unions have urged executives to give up all share options no longer open to staff. In July, the company's four senior directors received share option payouts worth about £2.3m at the time. Unions have also demanded a meeting with Granada chief executive Steve Morrison.

Granada's internal internet message board has been deluged with complaints from disgruntled staff, one of whom claimed: '[It] stinks and the management know it. However, I agree with the union and hope something good will come out of this fiasco.' Staff have also hit out at Granada chairman Charles Allen's £1m revamp of senior managers' offices at Television Centre in London.

The pay freeze is the latest move from the beleaguered broadcaster, which has axed 400 staff from its workforce of about 5,000. However, observers have suggested that most job cuts have been from the non-executive roles and the company is now 'top heavy'. Granada pledged to cut 100 management jobs when it announced its interim results in June, yet so far only one significant departure has been announced - director of broadcasting Stewart Butterfield.

Further jobs are expected to go within regional production if Granada proceeds with plans being drawn up to cut its regional programming to the Independent Television Commission minimum requirement across all its franchises.

Coronation Street's Halloween episode is set to be a frightening one for Mike Baldwin. Mike will find a threatening message written on the mirror in lipstick saying 'You're dead'. He discovers there's no sign of a break-in so whoever did it has got a set of keys.

It will be broadcast on ITV1 on October 31 at 9.45pm. Recent episodes have seen Baldwin persecuted by the local community in the wake of his wife Linda's disappearance.

Flagging ITV drama Peak Practice has been given a sexy facelift with the help of ex-Corrie barmaid Eva Pope. Eva, 33, has been recruited to play man-eating nurse Claire Brightwell in the 13-parter from October 25. Claire wreaks havoc when she arrives in Cardale and is soon making a play for the village menfolk.

Producer Neil Zeiger said: "It has got a sexy new look, it has gone from a medical show to an edgier drama about the lives of the three main doctors." In the opener Claire strips down to her bra twice, the second time to seduce a rival who she blackmails, so she can get his nursing job at The Beeches. Eva, who was Tanya Poole in Corrie, said: "Claire is a strong, powerful woman who knows what she wants. She has psychological problems but she's a fantastic character."

Peak Practice's sexy revamp comes after ITV bosses ordered its team to come up with better storylines or else. The number of episodes has been cut from 26 to 13 and it seems to have worked. Producer Neil Zeiger said: "We assume ITV chiefs like what they see as it was going out in January but it's been brought forward to next week. "We hope this means there will be another series next year."

The show, created by Lucy Gannon, began in 1992. It has also been given a jazzed up new theme and a new base at Longnor, Staffs. Simon Shepherd, 44, who plays Dr Will Preston, said: "It is a character-led show now, not diseases of the week. The show has gone back to its roots. "The characters were getting lost but now we've gone back to Lucy's original dream."

Eva said of her new character: "She affects everyone's lives at The Beeches. She makes a play for Dr Tom Denely (Gray O'Brien) who is the lover of her pal Dr Alex Redman (Maggie O'Neill). She is bent on splitting them up." Another big plot revolves around the long lost son of Dr Will Preston, who wreaks havoc as he's a drug-taking criminal.

CORRIE star Julie Hesmondalgh has given birth to a bouncing baby girl. Martha Mo weighed a hefty 10lbs 8oz when she was delivered at the weekend. Julie's actor husband Ian Kershaw, 31, was at her side during the caesarean birth at a private hospital.

From her bedside yesterday, the 31-year-old actress said: "We are all absolutely thrilled and delighted and Mo is just gorgeous." A Coronation Street pal added: "Julie rang to tell us the news and was absolutely ecstatic. She can't wait to show us their new daughter."

Julie - Street transsexual Hayley Cropper - fell pregnant weeks after falling for Tetley beer ads actor Ian. The couple only moved in together in December then discovered Mo was on the way after a New Year trip to Paris.

Corrie bosses dressed Hayley in overalls to hide Julie's growing bump from viewers. Scriptwriters eventually wrote Hayley out after her stint in jail for going on the run with foster son Wayne. The soap's storyline currently has Hayley recovering from the trauma out of sight.

A Street spokesman said: "She is not seen on screen, although Roy still refers to her to give the impression she is still around. "We send Julie our congratulations on Mo's birth until we see her again in the New Year."

CORONATION Street used to be the champagne of soaps. It sparkled, it fizzed, it bubbled and usually left the viewers feeling the world was a brighter and better place. Unlike the younger pretenders, such as Brookside, Corrie never took itself too seriously. There was no message. There was no examination of "ishoos" and the only grit in was the odd speck of dirt in Raquel's mascara.

Of course, Coronation Street wasn't ever "real life". Even in the black and white days with Ena Sharples and her hairnet in the snug and the late Pat Phoenix as Weatherfield's Marilyn Monroe, the Street was always Never Never Land, a fantasy island, somewhere over a TV rainbow where reality very seldom intruded. But its strength, what kept it going and us watching was that for a couple of hours a week, it created a community in which we could not only believe but in which we wanted to believe.

As Jean Alexander, who played Hilda Ogden for nearly a quarter of a century, said: "Who would want to live in Coronation Street now?" It's gone flatter than the Newton and Ridley's bitter in the Rovers Return and, like the Baldie Man's hairdo, its desperate, risible plots are both thinning and as believable as Bobby Ewing stepping out of the shower in Dallas. So the producers and writers drag a few stray sorry storylines over an increasingly empty shell and hope the viewers won't notice that everything else, including the humour and the humanity, are long gone.

IF we laugh at all these nights, it is at the sheer silliness of some of the things we are expected to swallow such as Sunita and Duggie as an item, Steve hitching himself to Karen for a bet and the late lamented Linda having a red hot affair with Mike's son - or for that matter - Mike himself. Then there was the indecent haste with which they buried poor Alma and married off Eve. In the space of a year, we had 13-year-old Sarah-Louise getting pregnant, wife-bashing, shootings, drugs, murder and rape - none of them done particularly well or realistically. At 7.30 of an evening, you can't get away with that, no matter how good - or ropy - the acting and the story.

The Street has also lost its heart. As Roy Barraclough, who played Alec Gilroy off and on for 16 years, says: "There's no community feel. At one time, everyone got involved in a storyline. Now it's just isolated incidents strung together - sketch TV." Most of all, The Street no longer has any strong characters - those people with whom we could identify, who we thought we knew and who were our friends. In short, we cared about them. We cared about Hilda and Stan Ogden, about Raquel, about Bet, about Alec, about Derek and Mavis in a way which is impossible with the latest rent-a-cast and shock horror plotting.

What we now have are not so much characters as caricatures, from Fat Fred to identikit baddie Peter Baldwin and the latest in the line of pneumatic blonde barmaids, Shelley. They are not only unbelievable but they are also unlikeable. There is also a preoccupation with appealing to a younger audience so they've ditched the grown-ups and wheeled in a bunch of interchangeable teenagers and twentysomethings to wander in and out the plots. Not that any of them behave like any real kids out there. For one thing, they usually party with their parents and drink in the Rovers, a place in which the average clubbing, cocktail-drinking, clued-up twentysomething would never be seen dead.

IT'S the same, of course, with watching Coronation Street. If the younger generation watch TV soaps at all, it will still be Brookside or the much-improved EastEnders. Some of the old stagers remain. Rita's improbably marmalade wigs still reign in the Kabin. Jack and Vera Duckworth continue to amuse sporadically - even though they, too, were given the now obligatory sex scene when they celebrated their recent anniversary.

Of the relative newcomers, Roy and Hayley Cropper are the most promising. Or at least they were, until they too were sandbagged by the ludicrous child kidnapping saga. Peter Baldwin, who played the dithering Derek until he was dumped, claims many of the older cast members are in despair and know the soap has lost its way. He said: "But they have jobs to think about so would find it hard to speak out."

Obviously, someone who was axed is not an unbiased observer. But there is also the evidence of the recent soap "oscars", where The Street limped in way behind its main rival, EastEnders. It only managed to pick up a paltry three awards against Walford's haul of 13 gongs.

However, Coronation Street spokeswoman Alison Sinclair denies the show has lost either its appeal or its way. She said: "People seem to have a cosy opinion of what it is about. "It would be unrealistic and we could not keep the audience interested if we stayed exploring issues which were relevant when we began. "The Street has always carried dramatic storylines. Ernie Bishop was shot at close range in the 1970s, Tracy Barlow collapsed after taking an ecstasy overdose and needed a kidney transplant in the 1990s. "In 2001, things which are relevant are different, hence the Internet storyline which would never have happened 10 years ago. "As for relationship stories, they are timeless and will continue."

Of course they will, but what Sinclair and her Corrie colleagues appear to forget is that the storylines also have to be believable. And the current crop of Corrie stories are anything but believable.

To get the Street back on track and into our affections - as well as back into a position where it is taking the lion's share of TV awards - it is going to take more than changing Gail's hairdo and pushing improbable mix 'n' Maxine couples underneath the duvets. Maybe global warning will come to their aid. Yes, we could have floods hitting the Lancashire Ship Canal and a massive tidal wave swamping Weatherfield and drowning most of the current cast - with only the Duckworths and a few well- chosen others making it to safety. Now, admit it, that watery ending is a much more attractive storyline than Dev and Dreary.

Julie Hesmondhalgh has given birth for the first time. The actress plays sex-swap character Hayley Cropper in Coronation Street. Her daughter Martha Mo Kershaw weighed 10lb 8oz. She was delivered by Caesarean section because of her size.

A Coronation Street spokeswoman said: "Both mother and baby are doing well." Hesmondhalgh said: "We're absolutely thrilled. She's gorgeous."

In the soap, viewers have seen Hayley and husband Roy end up in jail after going on the run with a youngster they were struggling to adopt. Hesmondhalgh, 31, stopped filming two months ago to prepare for motherhood. In the show her character is keeping a low profile after the trauma of prison. The actress - whose partner Ian Kershaw has also appeared in the soap - is resting in hospital after the operation.

THIS is the moment Coronation Street loudmouth Janice Battersby falls in love - with a man who takes his socks off for sex. Pint-sized Janice and burly mechanic Dennis Stringer fall into bed next week and start a torrid illicit affair.

Janice, played by Vicky Entwistle, is delighted when Dennis takes his socks off for their romp, because her layabout husband Les always keeps his feet covered during sex. But their romance will cause deep rifts in Weatherfield and threaten to wreck Janice's marriage to Les, and Dennis' relationship with her best pal, Eileen Grimshaw.

Dennis, played by Charlie Dale, becomes Janice's knight in shining armour when he rescues her from Linda Baldwin's mad brother Jimmy Sykes. He holds her hostage at Mike Baldwin's factory before Dennis breaks in to save her.

A spokesman for the show said: "It will be a full blown affair that will cause a lot of heartache for everyone involved."

Soap spot
NEWLY crowned Sexiest Babe In Soap TRACY SHAW is launching an exercise video for Christmas. It's all based on Salsa moves.

Corrie bad girl moves East
FORMER Coronation Street bad girl TRACY BRABIN has landed another baddie role in rival EastEnders, I can reveal. In Corrie, Tracy played hard-up single mum Tricia Armstrong, who later fell pregnant with Terry Duckworth's baby Brad. Now she's moving to Albert Square as a friend of runaway Zoe Slater. At first it seems as if she's helping Zoe put her life back together. But she's not all she seems.

Dennis battered
WATCH out in Corrie for the unlikely sight of Janice Battersby (VICKY ENTWISTLE) as a sex siren. Janice seduces Dennis Stringer (CHARLES DALE) after he saves her from an intruder at Underworld. And soon the pair throw caution and their clothes to the wind...

CORONATION Street bad boy Jimmy Sykes attacks factory manager Janice Battersby in a dramatic new storyline. He pounces on her as he attempts to set fire to Mike Baldwin's lingerie factory.

The scene is featured in a highly-charged one-hour special episode of the ITV soap. As screaming Janice (Vicky Entwistle) is grabbed by Jimmy (Danny Cunningham), Dennis Stringer (Charles Dale) runs to the rescue. And when married Janice falls into his arms it reignites the passion they have tried to ignore for so long. The episode, due to be screened on October 25, follows the mysterious disappearance of Mike Baldwin's wife Linda after her affair with his son.

As the finger of suspicion is pointed at Mike, Linda's brother Jimmy is hell-bent on getting his own back by torching Mike's factory. A Street insider said: "Dennis really sees red when Janice is being attacked. "It marks the beginning of a full-blown illicit affair."

TINA Hobley is planning a break. Not from our screens - but away to a secret romantic destination with her husband. She shakes her head in disbelief. "Do you know why I decided we needed to get away? The other day I came back from work, walked in through the front door and asked how my little girl Isabella was. "Steve, my husband, said: `You never ask how I am' and I was stunned. He was right! It's so easy to get stuck in a rut. I'm either working 13 or 14 hour days, then I'm coming straight home to be mum. "When you have a child it's so easy to stop giving your husband attention. So now Steve and I are planning our latest break away, just the two of us. Not as mum and certainly not as any man-eating nurse!"

Tina, who shot to fame as Rovers Return barmaid Samantha Failsworth, burst back on our screens in a new role last week - as Holby City's Sister Chrissie Williams, a man-eating super-bitch. Tina, 30, grins: "It looks like I'm going to sleep with as many men as possible! Let's face it, the role does call for me to put it about a lot."

Chrissie, whose bedside manner breaks up marriages and whose sharp tongue lashes her staff into place, is Tina's first new role since giving birth to Isabella by an emergency Caesarean two years ago. Tina has spent most of her time since just enjoying being at her London home with her first child and husband Steve Wallington. "I had to work for the first six months after Isabella was born but then I took some time off to be with her," she says. "I love being a mum, it's an incredible experience, even though it's a lot harder than I could have thought. Isabella takes over my whole world. And all those things I used to worry about before she was born such as work, don't matter any more. "In fact, I don't have time to worry about anything! I've always been an anxious person, willing to take on anyone else's troubles. Now, between being a mum and being one of TV's worst man-eaters, I've finally been forced to calm down. "Steve and I would like another child but not for a while. We would like maybe three or four. I got pregnant very quickly with Isabella - it would have broken my world if I couldn't have had kids."

Though Tina had work opportunities during her time off with Isabella, nothing really grabbed her until the role of Chrissie came along. "I was approached last summer and asked if I would like a part in Holby City. When I said `yes' they created the character around me," she says. "That was great but a bit frightening when you see what Chrissie is like! I have some cracking one-liners and the other staff call me Cruella de Vil! It's the best part I've ever had."

The role also marked a new-look Tina. Her trademark auburn hair has been replaced by sexy blonde and gold streaks. Tina is also super slim, even though she swears she never sets foot in a gym and never diets. "I lost a stone pretty quickly after Isabella was born and the rest gradually fell off," she says. "It's funny how, once you've got over the shock of childbirth, you start to re-gain your shape, your looks and bags of confidence."

Tina is insistent that, despite punishing filming schedules, Isabella and Steve come first. "I took time off from filming when Isabella started at nursery," she says. "She was meant to start in April but I took her home again because she seemed so young. Indeed, I defy any mum to leave their child at nursery for the first time and not weep buckets! "Isabella started again at nursery in September, when she seemed ready. I'd like her to be a confident child because I never was. I was really shy and clingy with my mum even though I had a loving upbringing. Even as a teenager, I was completely lacking in self-confidence. It seems strange looking back - it's taken me so many years to become outgoing."

Those who see Tina marching around the corridors of Holby in her latest role will see no hint of any shyness. She smiles. "Of course I'm nothing like the character. I had to search very hard to find her. Isabella knows I'm on TV sometimes but she would prefer it if I was in the Tweenies." Tina leans forward and winks. "And I expect in many ways Steve wishes I was a bit more like Chrissie when I get home...she's very saucy!"

EastEnders and Emmerdale are giving mechanics a bad name, according to a new poll. It found the majority of mechanics are fed up with the way they are portrayed on TV. They say TV mechanics are shown as being selfish, unreliable, lazy and unprofessional.

Over 200 mechanics were interviewed for the survey, by Egg Sport for the British Touring Car Championship. It found that EastEnders had the worst set of mechanics. Characters Phil Mitchell, Jamie Mitchell, Ricky Butcher and Garry Hobbs were named as the main culprits.

ITV bosses are depending on flagship soap Coronation Street and a series of specials to boost poor viewing figures. An extra 90 minutes of Corrie will be broadcast in the week beginning October 22. Several simmering storylines are set to boil over.

The Bond movie Goldeneye will be repeated and planners hope the National TV Awards will help reverse the early autumn trend. Viewing figures have plunged in what is traditionally ITV's strongest period. Popular long-running rural drama Peak Practice returns later this month as ITV pulls out all the stops to halt the ratings slide.

Programme schedulers are rejigging their listings as viewers change their watching habits in the wake of the September 11 atrocities. An ITV spokesman said: "We're not losing viewers - they're just tuning in to our extended news bulletins. We've had record figures for factual programmes." One high-profile casualty of the autumn battle for better ratings is Ross Kemp. The ITV detective drama Without Motive has been moved from peak time to late.

The final episode of the six-part Bob And Rose, about a gay man who falls in love with a woman, has also been shifted from a prime 9pm slot to a post-10 O'Clock News position. The Premiership, which caused so much consternation in its early days, now seems to have settled down and should keep its 7pm Saturday slot.

Apart from John Thaw (Buried Treasure) and Sarah Lancashire (Back Home), ITV has also got Albert Finney in My Uncle Silas at the forefront of its ratings battle. Described by an ITV spokeswoman as "a lavish costume drama - part of our prestigious catalogue", Uncle Silas is based on the stories by HE Bates. The spokesman added that Heartbeat would be celebrating "a decade as Britain's favourite drama" when it returns to ITV1 on Sunday October 28.

ITV's ace card could turn out to be the 30-something series Cold Feet. ITV director of channels David Liddiment was once reported to be considering shifting Cold Feet from Sunday nights to Mondays in an effort to encourage the under-40s to stick with the channel. Now he is said to be drawing up plans to screen the comedy drama on Sunday and Monday nights in mid-November to shore up ratings in the short-term.

A new TV show which featured Coronation Street actors test driving new cars has been scrapped after the actors managed to smash them up. The programme, which was called Car Crazy Corrie, has been re-launched with ex-page three girl Katie Richmond as the presenter instead. The show will now be called Car Crazy Katie.

Coronation Street stars Simon Gregson and Scott Wright, who play Steve MacDonald and mechanic Sam, wrote off two cars worth £65,000 within days. Wright was loaned a Lotus Exige while Gregson got to drive a Mitsubishi Evo V1 for the six-part series. But just days after getting the cars, Wright flipped the Lotus and Gregson smashed the Mitsubishi into a tree.

According to the Glasgow Evening Times, Granada TV has decided the show would be too much of an insurance risk with the Corrie stars involved. A Granada spokeswoman says: "Between them the Coronation Street actors managed to write off £65,000 worth of cars in less than a week." "We had to pull the show because, with their Coronation Street contracts, the actors are quite high profile and highly insured

Granada is drawing up plans to offer profit share rewards to staff who develop successful programme formats in a bid to find its own global hit. The deal would mean staff who generated successful formats would be rewarded with a slice of the back-end profits, similar to rewards offered by some indies.

The news comes in the same week that Granada announced it had been forced to freeze pay across the company. Staff were due for pay increases in January but the company has deferred them until July. The move affects all staff except those who earn less that £13,000, who will receive a fixed £200 increase.

In a letter to staff Granada chief executive Steve Morrison said: 'All UK companies are facing tough times and you will know that our sector has been affected particularly badly.' The decision follows a similar edict from Granada's ITV partner Carlton. The profit share will now look extremely attractive to Granada employees. The scheme is part of a drive by the company to exploit the international market for programme content which has seen it expand its formats operation and rebrand it as The Hothouse. The division is headed by Granada Content creative director Andrea Wonfor and Granada Content creative controller of entertainment formats and development Duncan Gray. While the company has produced a number of hit ITV programmes, such as Blind Date and Stars in their Eyes, it does not own the formats and cannot export them to the international market.

Granada has been spurred into a change of policy by the downturn in ad revenue in the UK. It has watched aghast as indies such as Celador, creator of Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, have developed highly profitable formats for ITV which have generated massive worldwide sales. One senior Granada insider said: 'It's vital for Granada's future that we offer incentives for staff to develop programme ideas.' Scottish TV operator SMG - in which Granada holds a 18.5 per cent stake - this week offered voluntary redundancy to its 1,700 staff.

CORONATION Street is to have a Hindu wedding for the first time in its 41-year history. And it promises a "very beautiful" ceremony when smoothie Dev Alahan and Rovers' barmaid Geena Gregory tie the knot.

Last weekend, viewers saw Dev, Jimmy Harkishin, pop the question to Geena, Jennifer James. She had just about given up hope because his parents are uneasy with a mixed-race relationship.

A Street insider said: "It will be Geena who suggests a Hindu wedding in a bid to heal the rift." Researchers will consult the Hindu community to learn more about their wedding ceremonies. Actor Jimmi, 36, said yesterday: "I think it's good that the problems of a mixed-race relationship are being explored."

Glenn Hugill is delighted by his transformation from soap villain to host of Channel 5's adventure gameshow The Mole. Glenn, 31, played cop Alan McKenna who jilted Fiona Middleton (Angela Griffin) in Corrie in 1997 and he says: "I do not miss soap fame - women recognised me and used to hit me with their umbrellas. "People know me because of The Mole now and they are a lot nicer to me."

Glenn says presenting and producing The Mole is the "most amazing" job he has ever done. In this second series, 10 contestants take on a variety of tasks as they bid to win £200,000. But one of them is a saboteur - The Mole - who does his or her best to ruin the others' efforts. Glenn says: "It is a gripping show as it puts people through physical and psychological tasks. It is very intensive for them."

Contestants were put through the mill with a series of scary challenges during four weeks of filming in Canada. They included walking on a high wire 450 feet above a dam and swimming across the rapids of a river. Glenn says: "On the wire people had heart rate monitors and they had to stop if it went above 140 beats per minute. We were very safety conscious, but it was tough for them to stay calm in that situation."

The Mole is chosen using MI5 techniques. Glenn says: "It took us three months to pick the person to play The Mole. We used the same methods as MI5 use to recruit spies. "The Mole had to sign a contract not to spill the beans to anyone, not even in their sleep. Even I did not know who The Mole was until the very end of filming. It almost drove me mad!"

The format for The Mole has been sold to nearly 50 countries. Earlier this year it won a Golden Rose of Montreux for best programme idea. The first series last year on C5 was a major success, with 2m tuning in. Glenn says: "I think it is such a hit as people can play it at home. It has been described as a cross between Mission Impossible and Who Shot JR? It is a thriller, a whodunnit, a soap and an adventure."

Glenn was stranded in Chicago for a few days because of the US terror attacks on September 11. He says: "After filming finished in Canada I went to see my girlfriend Emma, who works in Chicago. "After the attacks on the Twin Towers in New York the airport was closed and I stayed a few extra days. It was scary as there were fears that the Sears Tower in the city was going to be next. " I went to a memorial service there and it was very moving."

While UK viewers know him best for The Mole and Corrie, Spanish viewers have a different perspective on Glenn. He has made TV commercials for lager there for five years. He says: "I am a Walter Mitty-type called Berg and I have had to dress up in a chicken suit and as Jerry Lee Lewis! "It is great as I get to spend time in Madrid every year making the ads. I might do them for another five years as they are very popular and Spaniards recognise me a lot."

EVERY time Angela Griffin sees the photograph of three grinning nurses on her bedroom wall, she just can't help grinning back. The picture of her, and best mates Lisa Faulkner and Nicola Stephenson in Holby City uniforms, is among Angela's most treasured possessions. "Our friendship's so important to me and that photo reminds me of all the laughs we've shared together," she says.

In fact, the fun-loving trio have celebrated a special anniversary to mark their relationship. Angela explains: "We had September 19 marked in our diaries. It's the date we signed our Holby City contracts. So we celebrated three years together! "After a lazy lunch at Harvey Nichols, we shopped for clothes, then got dressed up and headed to one of our local bars in West Hampstead, North London. "It turned out to be quite a wild night - the barman gave us free cocktails all night. Lisa and Nicola were fine, but I'm afraid I ended up being very sick. I've never been great at mixing my drinks! "Normally, I'd go and eat a kebab after drinking. But that night I just couldn't and I suffered for it the next morning. "I had to be up early for an interview and I think I just sat there being quiet and looking a bit green. It was straight home to bed afterwards. "Lisa and Nicola are like my London family and I need that. We live about two minutes from each other, so we're always popping in on the others. They're the people I cry with, laugh with and I chat to them constantly."

And when the three of them get together, boy do they chat! "It amazes me how we can just witter on at each other. We speak to each other on our mobiles about three times a day, then we meet up in the evenings and still manage to have masses to say. "Whenever I've been heartbroken, they've been there for me as much as I've needed."

Happily, at the moment Angela is far from heartbroken because of her boyfriend, Mike, who she affectionately calls "my boy". Actually, Angela claims, with a smile, she has found herself a true blue romantic at last. Last July, Mike whisked her off to Paris for a surprise birthday treat. She says: "Mike had set the alarm really early and I was just about to complain when he told me that he was whisking me away as a big, special surprise. "I was surprised all right! He'd put in so much effort into organising it. He's not a flashy guy, so it really touched me. It was a lovely thing to do."

Angela doesn't take such things for granted. She grew up on a Leeds council estate with her mum Sheila and two brothers. Her father Desmond left for New York when Angela was just four. She says: "I'm from a proper working class family. We never had much cash and sometimes we really had to struggle. But I'm glad in some ways - at least I always appreciate the value of money."

Angela continued her part-time job at Burger King for six months after she landed the part of Coronation Street hairdresser Fiona Middleton at just 16. "I was terrified they wouldn't keep me on," she admits. "Even now I'm careful with what I spend. Ninety per cent of actors are out of work and I know there will be months in the future when I won't have any money coming in."

Her one big indulgence is not, as you might imagine, clothes - but cars. "Since I was able to drive at 17, I've got through eight different cars. I just love them. "My latest one is a jeep. I kidded myself that I needed it in case it snowed!"

Most people would think twice before leaving the security of a role on Holby City. But Angela dismisses the idea that she has been particularly brave. "I didn't have other work lined up but I made sure I had enough money to support myself for a year, just in case. "If I still hadn't got a job by then, I would've sold my flat, moved back to Leeds and then gone off to college to study psychology. "Mind you, I think I would have found it hard being taken seriously as a psychologist - I'd have always been `that bird off Holby City'."

Luckily for Angela, she soon landed a role in the murder mystery series Waking The Dead and will appear next as Chantelle in BBC2's drama Babyfather - a funny take on black, British men. "When I was told I'd got the part in Babyfather I was on such a high - it was like winning a prize."

Angela has often said how she longs to be a mum. Now she says: "I still really want to have kids, and a husband and to live in a nice house. But that hasn't happened yet. So I'm going to take advantage of the fact that I have no ties or responsibilities. "At the minute I'm enjoying having fun and I want to concentrate mainly on exciting new roles. "Well, so long as they keep coming up," she adds, smiling. And you get the impression that, somehow, they'll do just that.

CORONATION Street veteran BARBARA KNOX is on the verge of quitting over a cash row which could see her salary reduced by 25 per cent.

Top earner Barbara, Rita Sullivan for 20 years, nets £172,000 a year no matter how often she appears. But under a new pay-as-you-play rule, stars like Barbara, JOHNNY BRIGGS (Mike Baldwin) and BILL ROACHE (Ken Barlow) would be paid only for the episodes they appear in - £1,500 a time. So her annual salary - even with a guarantee of 86 episodes a year - could plunge to £129,000.

Last night, a Corrie insider said: "Barbara is close to quitting over all this. She is very upset with what bosses propose." On top of the pay row, the actress is said to be angry that the best plots seem to be going to younger female stars. Barbara made her feelings clear at a recent crisis meeting. But producers wouldn't budge.

Insiders say the Corrie cast are suffering because of losses on Granada's satellite channel Breeze.

CORRIE folk are forever calling it the greatest show on earth, which makes it particularly satisfying that someone's trying to do a number on them. An email circulating Granada's offices and beyond suggests the image of peace and love on the Street is a load of old hotpot. Information thought to be currently on the loose includes:

Now bosses are desperate to find out who the deep-throat is before the next instalment drops. Here's wishing them no luck whatsoever.

Jonathan Guy Lewis
REMEMBER nasty Ian who broke Sharon Gaskell's heart in Corrie? The actor who plays him, JONATHAN GUY LEWIS, will fetch up in Crossroads.

Scott Wright
HUNKY SCOTT WRIGHT (Corrie mechanic Sam) is moving into a bachelor pad next to Street beauties SURANNE JONES and NAOMI RUSSELL.

Coronation Street's Mike Baldwin is suspected of murder in a dramatic new twist to the soap's storyline. After this week's revelations on BBC One's EastEnders, ITV 1 bosses will be hoping that the new Street plot will attract more viewers to the UK's longest-running TV soap.

In Monday's episode Mike Baldwin - played by Johnny Briggs - will fall under suspicion when an investigation into his wife Linda's disappearance leads to a dumped car with Baldwin's personalised MVB plate. Linda - played by Jacqueline Pirie - was last seen weeks ago after having an argument with her husband. Her worried mother Eve - played by Melanie Kilburn - then called in the police.

Linda and Mike Baldwin's marriage was already in trouble, after she was found to have been having an affair with his son Mark. After the subsequent row Linda failed to turn up at her mum's wedding to Fred Elliot (John Savident) and when she had still not turned up when they returned from their honeymoon Eve called the police. The trail to Mike Baldwin's car starts with the discovery of one of Linda's shoes in the river. Police then haul Baldwin's car out of the river.

A Coronation Street spokeswoman said: "Over the coming weeks we'll see Mike Baldwin face his biggest low point. "He's a hard man but his this could be the final nail in the coffin for him, this could be thing that breaks him."

Mike Baldwin is to become a murder suspect when police recover his Jaguar from a riverbed. An investigation into the disappearance of his wife Linda leads to the recovery of the waterlogged car. It has Baldwin's personalised MVB plate.

Linda was last seen weeks ago after having a blazing row with her husband. Her mum Eve's suspicions lead to police being called in. The couple's marriage got off to a rocky start earlier this year when it emerged she had been having an affair with his son Mark. Police initially find Linda's shoe in the river and as darkness sets in they discover the car then haul it out.

Programme makers went to great lengths to stop any environmental impact from dumping the vehicle in the water. The engine was removed, the sump sealed and the Jaguar was steam cleaned to avoid any pollutants escaping.

A Coronation Street spokeswoman said: "Over the coming weeks we'll see Mike Baldwin face his biggest lowpoint. "He's a hard man but his this could be the final nail in the coffin for him, this could be thing that breaks him."

CORONATION Street actress Sue Nicholls has revealed that she almost committed suicide because of her depression. Nicholls, who plays the street's Audrey Roberts, has suffered from depression for over 20 years. She said: "My problem is due partly to my choice of career. In the early days, I was fraught with nerves. "I would hate it, although I loved the ambience. I would be nervous."

She told the ITV programme My Favourite Hymns, to be aired on Sunday: "Not being able to have children also contributed. It wasn't just the fact that I couldn't. "I think the problems, the gynaecological reasons were an enormous contributory factor to my depression." But she resisted the thoughts of suicide. "The reason I didn't do anything was that I would hurt so many people. I don't mean that in a silly conceited way but, when you see the hurt that is left when somebody goes, commits suicide, you think, however much YOU are suffering, you will make others suffer 10 times worse. "My husband Mark Eden was a tower of strength. It must have been awful for him."

The Granada Medical Centre and the doctor she consulted explained to the actress that her condition wasn't her fault but down to a chemical imbalance. Nicholls still occasionally suffers from bouts of depression but she said: "I can cope with it. I can talk about it in a grown-up fashion. It's made me a nicer person, a calmer person."

EastEnders has been voted Best British Soap by the readers of a national television magazine. The BBC One show beat rivals Coronation Street, Brookside and Emmerdale for the title at the Inside Soap Awards. The best overseas soap award was picked up by Australian daily programme Neighbours.

Coronation Street took four awards at the ceremony, including funniest character for Norris Cole (played by Malcolm Hebden) and best young actor for Jack P Shepherd, who plays David Platt.

The Who Shot Phil Mitchell? storyline in EastEnders was crowned the most dramatic of the year. Some 20 million people watched the episode in which Phil's would-be assassin was revealed to be ex-girlfriend Lisa Shaw. Martin Kemp won the best actor award for his brooding portrayal of businessman Steve Owen. June Brown, who plays Dot Cotton in the soap, was voted best actress. And the square's Jessie Wallace, who plays Kat Slater, was given the best newcomer award.

Viewers also picked Corrie's Tracy Shaw and EastEnders' Michael Greco as the sexiest actress and actor. Best bad boy went to Emmerdale's Cain Dingle, played by Jeff Hordley, and best bitch was awarded to EastEnders' Janine Butcher, played by Charlie Brooks. Channel 4 show Brookside picked up a single award for the best exit for the death of Susannah Morrissey.

A lifetime achievement award was handed to Barbara Windsor, who plays the former landlady of the Queen Vic pub in EastEnders. The magazine's readers chose the winners in all categories.