Coronation Street

I really enjoyed both episodes last night. Im glad they didnt use the "guilty or not guilty" thing as the cliffhanger between the 2 episodes. Cliffhangers like that have been done a million times before.

Agreed about the Morton scenes, I really dont like that family.

I was wondering the same thing as you aboure Number 7because I remembered it was only rebuilt in 1982 and therefore only 25 years old this year.

LOL I dont think I like Liam because of his brains! But it was actually Carla who said the houses were standing for over 100 years!

I dozed off last night waiting for the 8pm episode. Anyhoo i caught it again at 11. It was brilliant, i thoroughly enjoyed it. Gonna miss Tracy but not to worry in soapland they could probably get her of prison in 5 years if they wanted to. Oh and did they show the alternative ending?

I'm not too sure about the Morton family yet. I still see Sinbad.

So what were the ratings last night?

I saw the alternative ending on GMTV this morning. They also have it on the itv website.

Ratings were 11.3m for the first episode and 11.8m for the 2nd with a peak of 13.1m.

If you mean Toadie , the character was an older teenager when he first arrived, and therefore past the point at which he would have faced re-casting in the UK.

There are two things I find odd about the way we recast child soap characters. Firstly, it happens around the same age, usually 12 or 13. The programme's PR men always have a well-spun explanation to hand, such as "XXX left to concentrate on her education" or "the writers wanted to give the character more mature storylines".

And secondly, that almost no character is exempt from this rite of passage. Corrie have quite rightly kept Sam Aston as Chesney, but if Emmerdale gets rid of Eden Taylor-Draper in a few years time they'll be mad.

Compare that to Neighbours and Home and Away where recasts are the exception rather than the rule (Lucy Robinson, Toby Mangel). It adds something to the show when Sally Fletcher, Summer Hoyland, Sam Marshall et al are played by the same person from a young age. Even if you found Sally irritating as an 8-year old, could you imagine anyone else playing her now?

Maybe so, (and I know we're mainly talking kida so far) but when H&A recast a character, boy did they go the whole hog! Anyone remember when Pippa changed from a tiny blonde to a rather larger brunette?

Quite! It wouldn't be so bad if some "explanatory" dialogue was inserted; ie. on being faced with a flame-haired Hayley, Irene exclaims "Gawd love, what've you done to your hair?" To which Hayley answers, "Now how did I know you were gonna say that?! The hospital's got a mobile stylist, and I wanted cheering up (face drops) for all the good it's done, I'm still stuck here..."

A few years ago, rather than writing the character out for a while, didn't Home and Away temporarily recast somebody for a few months because the regular actress was ill or something?

Twice actually. Louise Crawford stood in as Selina when Tempany Deckert was indisposed, then, and for reasons unknown, Cameron Welsh was temporarily replaced by Mitchell McMahon in the role of Mitch.

It simply would not happen here - hence Deirdre being packed off to look after Blanche while Anne Kirkbride battled cancer. But I don't want to give Corrie bosses any ideas...

I thought toddie had been in Neighbours as a child, must be getting the characters mixed up, don't really watch it that often, just remember him being at school

I think if a child character comes in at around ten years old they keep the actor. it only seems to be characters born on the soaps who change at puberty because they were just picked as a baby out of Trafford General or whatever hospital rather auditioned from stage school and may not want to continue being an actor. the first incarnation of David platt, Thomas Ormson, for example wanted to quit acting to concerntrate on his football

the longest child character to be played by the same actor from birth in a UK soap is Nicky Tilsley's first incarnation, played for 16 years by Warren Jackson

unless anybody else knows differently

Tin O'Brien has quit the show according to the front page of tomorrow's Daily Mirror:

http://news.sky.com/skynews/picture_gallery/popup_paper/0,,70141-1258994-7,00.html

Surprised.

TOADIE!