Walking The Street

Now before  you get too worried about the title  it doesn't mean that things have become so bad that I've taken to prostitution.

 What  I am talking about is that this week I spent my first two days working on the country's most famous soap opera. I have walked down “Coronation Street" And I do mean physically. It's a little bit like when David Tennant took me into the Tardis when I was working on Doctor Who. I had no scenes in the Tardis and indeed sadly no scenes with Mr Tennant. But in the spirit of the incredibly generous leading man that he is, he knew that every boy who worked on the show wanted to see inside the Tardis.

And so it was with The Street. You want to see the real thing. You want to walk down it. Thankfully the delightful and charming actor Andrew Lancel  who is playing my son took my new wife and myself for a stroll. We visited the Rovers, and we  saw familiar living rooms that we have watched on television for many years.

 Coronation Street does seem to be a true representation of Manchester in the sense that people are incredibly friendly. Regular members of the cast and crew were incredibly kind and did everything they could to make us feel at home. This was also the same in the shops in Manchester that I visited during my time off. An incredibly friendly checkout girl at Tesco Metro, a really helpful sales assistant in Boots. Here in London they are the exception rather than the rule so the North does have something to be truly proud of.

Starting any new job is always nerve wracking, but as actors normally we all start a new job together on the same day. Here however you are joining an institution which has been running and in existence for a long time. People know their place within it and how it works and coming into that can be a little frightening. All that and then you have to do the job that you were hired for at the same time.

We had a very easy  run in filming what will be our first scene first on Wednesday morning  and returning late on Thursday afternoon to film another scene. This week we'll be back up there on Thursday to film a further six or seven scenes from first two episodes. After that it's all in the lap of the gods. These characters may have a role to play in an oncoming storyline, or they may like so many others be banished to the Coronation Street archives. Either way it's been a great experience but at this moment my heart is hoping that were going to see quite a bit more of Sam and Ann on the cobbles  in the months to come.

This week Richard will be heading up to Manchester for the opening of Batman  live on Tuesday. I'll be heading  up there Wednesday for filming and then on Friday  I'll be heading down to Oxfordshire for the first eight days rehearsal on a new play called “Wedding Band" by the comedian Charlie Baker.  A really nice heartwarming funny piece that I am directing  and which will play at the Gilded balloon during the Edinburgh Festival from 3 August at 2:45 PM each afternoon. If  you've got a trip to Edinburgh planned  why not pop that in your diary?