That's what the tabloids must be screaming all over the U.K. this morning following the news that Les Battersby (Brian Jones in real life) has been sacked for being too much like Les Battersby

One of the joys of traveling to Britain for a few weeks each year is to be able to, along with millions of Brits, tune in most week nights to the current Coronation Street show - being glued to the tube like many i talk to are.

(Corrie is one of my favorite TV shows - at home i watch it on Canadian TV CBC but it has about a 10-month delay)

So it's with great anticipation that i return to my Eltham B&B to fast-forward ten months and see who's who.

Last Feb i was surprised that so many characters had disappeared - old standbys like portly Fred, Danny Baldwin and even Bad Mike Baldwin - and now two of my favorites louses - Les and wife Cilla, one of the nastiest low-lifes in Britain) are gone or going - Cilla had decided to bag it soon anyway but Les was sacked for being Les:

according to www.channel4.com news "Bruce is currently suspended over claims of drunken antics in a family restaurant, the Old Rectory in Stockport, part of Greater Manchester where Bruce (Les) downed 19 PINTS OF GUINNESS and there was a resulting tirade of abuse towards fans - including alleged racial slurs, and he was giving the story line in future shows away - such as the outcome of Tracey Barlow's trial."

Jones vehemently denied the story. Of course. Show producers will write Les out of the show - he will not return.

So another lovable Corrie character and Cilla too will be gone.

But i'll keep watching as Brits have for over 40 years i believe.

Good grief. They wanted the man to <i>act</i>?

I can proudly say that in the whole of my life I have never watched an episode of Coronation Street, in spite of even having a Cloggie girlfriend for years.

not Les....

Just tell me that Charlie is going to get his!!

on CBC currently i think Charlie's days are numbered. Wonder if his funeral will be well attended or will there be a celebration of his life, or better his death, at the Rovers?

One thing about Corrie - funerals and weddings, especially weddings, often turn out to be disastrous affairs.

So this bit with Tracey now is a set-up to pay Charlie back for his dirty dealing?

Corrie also prides itself with exits... some walk off the street, some drive, some by bus, some by taxi, some just slip into the night (Danny?)

Les it says goes on tour as a traveling roadie for a 'tribute' band, but &quot;a decision to explain his exit has yet to be formulated' - but he himself will not reappear.

And 19 pints of Guinness - i wonder is that a Guinness World Record?

Brilliant!

Vera (as in Vera and Jack Duckworth) is leaving too, due to ill health.

yes appears she says her empheysema (sp?) is getting too bad to continue - another lovable couple bites the Corrie dust.

When will Ken Barlow bag it - i think he may have been on the earliest episodes? Or Betty the barkeep.

We do our best to avoid that tripe PQB. And for information, its not even close to a true representation of my life.
I could never afford to be in the pub every lunch and evening. Besides I would be sleeping all afternoon.

However I have to confess I did watch a bit once when Noddy Holder did a cameo.

That was cr@p too.



Muck

About real life - i agree totally not representative, i hope

it strikes me as weird that practically everyone is rather bad

or at least subject to uncomely actions at times

their bad deeds seem to far outweight their good ones and that i hope is not a reflection of real life anyway - at least i hope not

Old news. He was sacked last May
http://www.whatsontv.co.uk/soaps/cor...treet/news/987

PalenqueBob - I'm pretty certain Ken Barlow (Bill Roache) was in the very first episode the 9th of December, 1960.

Sorry to read that Vera's leaving. Probably has breathing problems because of all the smoke on the set of the show.

AR: That article says &quot;Bradley's character left in disgrace almost a year ago after a fling with son Jamie's girlfriend Leanne Battersby.&quot;

That's not quite right - he just left on what we're seeing here because he found out his ex-wife, who he thought was going to re-marry him despite his having slept with Jamie's girlfriend, is instead in now love with Jamie, who she raised as a stepson.

Programe's never been the same since they got rid of Minnie Caldwell and Martha Longhurst. Actually, the rot started when they started showing it in colour.

Mind you, profound inaccuracy has always been essential to this programme. Terraced houses in NW England are NOT awash with the murders, homsexuality and perpetual unpleasantness Coronation St has been forced to include since the 1970s. As I remember, the earliest episodes all implied the residents had bathrooms and inside lavatories. In 1960, you could have counted the number of such other-worldly luxuries on the fingers of one toe.

These days, there's still a knicker factory in the story (or was last time I walked past the TV while it was on, which could have been a year or so ago): in the real world it'd have closed down at least 10 years ago. And the pubs round the terraced rows of NW England have mostly long disappeared, since you can get your beer a lot cheaper at Aldi or Lidl. The Rovers is an &quot;English institution&quot; that's a lot healthier in Islington or the leafier bits of Cheshire than in modern Salford.

Oddly, I won't watch it because (apart from being crap) it's a great deal nastier than the world it pretends to portray: Mrs F, who knows that world only from her Lady Bountiful visits to the flannerclan, is a keen fan for pretty much the same fantasy-world reasons she loves Jane Austen TV adaptations.

Question for my British friends: I have yet to meet a Brit who admits to watching Corrie. Yet from all accounts it is still very popular - here in Canada especially (only the hockey playoffs preempt it).

It is a bit of fun - a step up from &quot;As Your Stomach Turns&quot;. I have almost come to the conclusion that no one across the pond will admit to having a little fun. Relax. It won't rot your brain too much.
Of course with our 11 months of winter here and no sun we have to find something to fill the nights.

I understand that Ken and Deidre's marriage show was one of the highest rated shows ever in U.K.

&quot;I have yet to meet a Brit who admits to watching Corrie. Yet from all accounts it is still very &quot;

And your question is?

In the week of August 5, like practically every other week for the past 47 years, an edition of Coronation Street (and I've yet to meet or hear anyone call it anything else) got the highest audience of any UK programme.

But &quot;highest&quot; meant only 9.6mn viewers -so five out of six of us weren't watching it. Now soaps really don't make much sense unless you watch or listen to them most of the time: it's not just that most of us didn't watch that episode, but most of us don't watch any Coronation St episodes.

While it's on, the overwhelming majority of Britons will be in the pub, writing their presentations, going to meetings, arguing with their families, cycling or posting obsessive screeds on web bulletin boards - in other words doing the kinds of thing that get them exposed to people like Pal Q. He doesn't meet Coronation St watchers because they don't do the things that'd get them to meet him.

Incidentally, as far as I'm aware, no single-channel, single episode of a TV show has ever got an audience of half the population since TV ratings began in the mid 50s. So however exciting some people thought a programme was going to be, most people had better things to do than watch it.

Even programmes shown over several channels at once (like Princess Di's wedding) got cumulative audiences (ie, watched for at least a minute) of only just over half the population.

&gt;&gt;Of course with our 11 months of winter here and no sun we have to find something to fill the nights.&lt;&lt;

I can think of other ways than watching Corrie. Occasionally, there are some comic moments. But rarely, as flanner says, quite approaching this:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=z0izUfuroD8