Ges on the Box; Hobbling off the Street cobbles

IT’S going to be like losing a couple of old friends when Rita and Jack (Barbara Knox and Bill Tarmey) bow out of “Coronation Street”.

Still, we’re being weaned off them gradually, they’ve both, apparently, asked for a lesser role as they get ready to retire — and who can blame them?

Rita’s been Rita for almost 40 years and as she’s fast approaching her 76th birthday I suppose it’s time she put her feet up.

Not that she’s doing badly — still a redhead in her seventh decade. But look at the neck. That’s where you’ll see the years, my gran always said.

And dear old Jack, too. A mere youngster at 69, I expect he wants more time to race his pigeons. After 30-odd years in the Street, I suppose it was inevitable that he felt it time to move on once trouble and strife Vera popped her clogs. We’ll be able to watch him leave with her ashes tucked under his arm.

But where is he off to? At the risk of spoiling the plot, I’ll tell you: new friend Connie is a secret millionaire living in Middleton (wouldn’t you move to Torquay if you had a bob or two) and, I suppose, lives happily ever after.

It won’t be long before we lose some more faces too, I reckon.

Betty “Hotpot” is 89 in real life (55 on screen) and though she insists she has no plans to take things easy, nature could well find a way of telling her to slow down.

Then there’s the real-life ages of Emily, who’s 78, 75-year-old laugh-a-minute Blanche, much-married Ken who recently celebrated his 77th by having a bit of a fling with barge-running Martha

So who will the Street be left with when the old codgers get dropped on the cutting room floor?

Marvellous Maria and pop-eyed Tony, surely soap’s most unlikely pairing . . . it wasn’t six months ago she was convinced he’d done away with her one true love. Which he had, of course, but we’re the only ones who know that.

Then there’s dozy floozie Rosie, snide snob Sally, tedious Tyrone, Dev’s diabolical uncle, fobbed-off Fizz, philandering Kevin and Molly, not to forget her wheeler-dealer aunt, gorgeous Gail and her boyfriend Joe (oh, no... he’s leaving to take up another starring role — in “Strictly Come Dancing”), same-sex Roy and Hayley and, of course, belligerent Becky and her will-he, won’t he, soon-to-be husband (or maybe not... yawn) Steve.

Oh, and David Platt. God help us.

Bring back Ena Sharples and Annie Walker that’s what I say.