Steph Barnes
Deborah McAndrew
Amelia Bullmore
Reg Holdsworth Ken Morley
Liam Connor Rob James-Collier
Previously a writer of Granada potboilers like Biggles and Shadow Squad, Warren had begged to be allowed to write about “something I knew and understood.”
Shobna Gulati, (BA Middle Eastern Studies, 1988) is still in The Street as Sunita Alahan, long-suffering wife of Lothario shopkeeper Dev.
But no-one could have known then that The Street would become the longestrunning TV drama ever.
Since 1960, thousands of actors have appeared in Coronation Street. University of Manchester Drama graduate Deborah McAndrew enjoyed two spells on The Street in the 1990s. She was lucky enough to get her first break as free-spirited student Angie Freeman shortly after gaining her degree in 1989. She recalls: “I had not actually grown up in a culture of watching The Street. It just happened that I was at a teacher training college after leaving University and also trying to get my Equity card when I heard there was a part going. It never occurred to me that I would actually get it.
Daily Mirror TV critic Ken Irwin famously got it wrong when he derided the show as “doomed from the outset.” Originally commissioned for just 13 episodes, the show ran and ran through the decades. As the years went by, the cast list featured many other names that had first trodden the boards as undergraduates at this University. Amelia Bullmore, who played Steph Barnes in the early 1990s, went on to a distinguished career as a writer as well as acting cameos with Steve Coogan in I'm Alan Partridge. Rob James-Collier, a 2001 Masters graduate in Marketing, had a stint on The Street as Liam Connor. He first appeared in 2006 but was killed-off two years later in a brutal fashion when Liam became the subject of a murder-mystery plotline. Rob has since appeared on screen as brooding butler Thomas in Downton Abbey.
18 YOUR MANCHESTER
“I did not like what went with being in The Street, the fact you were always in the public eye. But I learned an awful lot and I am still in touch with people like Kevin Kennedy, who played Curly Watts.” Sue Cleaver, who plays Eileen, is also a friend. “We did The Rise and Fall of Little Voice together at the Bolton Octagon.”
Sunita Alahan Shobna Gulati
Photo by ITV / Rex Features ©
Angie Freeman
After 50 years at a location close to the old Granada Studios on Quay Street, Corrie’s cobbles will be re-created at the new MediaCity in Salford. But Deborah McAndrew, now also a writer who has worked with Northern Broadsides Theatre Company and Radio 4, sees no reason why Coronation Street should not be around in another 50 years. “Actors like me come and go. But the storyline and the characters have always been wonderful and there are great actors like Bill Roache and Helen Worth (Gail Platt) who are prepared to stay. That means generations of viewers can literally watch the characters grow old in front of their eyes and share their experiences. That's its real strength.” Read about some more class reunions on page 30. Want to meet your old student friends like Ken did? If you’d like to organise your own reunion we can help you trace old classmates, send invitations and publicise the event. For more information visit Your Manchester Online and click on ‘reunions’ www.manchester.ac.uk/ yourmanchester