Coronation Street: 60th Anniversary — House of Commons, 2020-12-02
Topic: Other
Nigel Martin Evans (Conservative, Centre-right): I am not going to let the moment pass without saying a few words. This is rare and exceptional, but we are going to do it, and I am grateful to Mr Speaker for allowing me to chair this part of the Adjournment debate. Congratulations, Tracy, there is nobody more appropriate than you to have this particular debate. I have to say, as well, that I have seen many Ministers answer Adjournment debates with speeches prepared by their own Departments, but John, you wrote every word of that speech. I was looking at it, and that is your handwriting. I do not know if you could read it, but none the less it is your handwriting. You have grown up with the series, as we all have in this Chamber I know that Mr Speaker would have wanted, in normal circumstances, to have done a big reception at the end of this debate and had many of the stars past and present in his state rooms, but I am afraid covid has meant that that cannot be. We cannot even go into the snug in the Strangers Bar, because that is closed. None the less, I am sure that at some stage we will be able to properly mark the 60 years of "Coronation Street" in the Palace of Westminster. I know that that Chamber would have been full of some of the stars looking down before we went on to the reception I grew up in the 1960s watching "Coronation Street" on the huge TV we had in the corner—a small screen, but a big TV—all in black and white. I lay on the floor and listened to the haunting melody on a Monday and Wednesday. My father would close the shop early in order to watch "Coronation Street" because he loved it so much. Little did I think, watching that series, that I would be chairing a debate on "Coronation Street" in the House of Commons as Deputy Speaker I remember once meeting Jean Alexander, the great Hilda Ogden, and I could not get over how posh she sounded when she was not being Hilda Ogden. She was such a great actress, and that is part of the thing about "Coronation Street": the great actors and actresses—yourself included, Tracy—who have performed in the amazing, longest running soap opera in the entire world In the 1960s, Bill Roache opened Swansea carnival. My mother dragged me down to the front to watch Bill in the back of an open-top car. I thought I was looking at a Hollywood actor—that is the height of the fame of people who starred in "Coronation Street" in those days. Little did I think then that I would represent the Ribble Valley, in the north-west of England, in Lancashire, or that in the village I bought a house in, Pendleton, I would be living opposite Vicky Entwistle—Janice Battersby—who is now a personal friend. I went to her wedding in Manchester, when she married Andy Chapman. Lots of stars of "Coronation Street" were there Bill Roache, too, has become a personal friend of mine over the years—a wonderful man. He has helped me out in a couple of general election campaigns, as he has a number of people who became MPs. Bill is the longest-serving actor in the longest-serving soap. What an amazing accolade! John, you mentioned Jane Luca, and she helped me to get on to the set of "Coronation Street" as well. We are all grateful for the fantastic facilitation that Jane has given many people over the period. Another thing that has come out about "Coronation Street" is the humour—yes, the drama, and the fact that it treat difficult subjects, but it is one of the most humorous things on TV, more than some of the other soaps on at the moment, where you feel a bit depressed at the end. With "Coronation Street", humour runs through the entire series, the entire 60 years of its production. For me, as far as broadcasting is concerned, you can stick your "Crowns"; I am going to stick with "Corrie", as I have for the past 60 years, and as I am sure we all will in the future It is a real shame that at the end of this debate, we cannot have that haunting melody of "Coronation Street" playing, which I am sure we are all thinking about now. It is the thing that got us there to watch the show and, even at the point of highest drama, there would be silence in our living rooms as we listened to that closing melody. So thank you, "Corrie", for everything that you have done over the past 60 years Question put and agreed to.