All aboard for a tram trip with... the Grim Reaper

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TRAMS and “Coronation Street” have never made for happy bedfellows — just ask Alan Bradley.

The producers clearly had a one-way ticket to the Corrie coffers this time round, in the wake of Rita’s bumped-off kiss-me-quick cad in Blackpool all those years ago.

And now the only tram in Manchester not to have been derailed by the snow ends up plunging from the viaduct. Typical.

There may have been more on-screen deaths this year than an “I’m a Celeb” best-bits compilation — add Blanche and Jack to the mix and 2010’s golden year has been a shade blacker than most. The drama, however, clinches tighter than Ena Sharples’s hairnet.

This week’s theatre of screams has an hour-long live encore tomorrow to mark 50 big ones.

It was billed as four funerals and a wedding. Pretty apt. Just as the hand of tragedy is regularly dealt, a sprinkling of magic continues to run deep through those two-up-two-down terraces like a stick of seaside rock. It’s grim up north — but boy, we love it.


PLEASE don’t call, your votes won’t count and you may still be charged. Sound familiar? At least “The X Factor” and “I’m a Celebrity” have the common decency to outline the rules before fleecing the public of their hard-earned cash.

If you’re an English World Cup hopeful on the other hand — forget it.

One minute everything was on track. And not the one we all saw coming on the Weatherfield mainline. A bit of a wobble and crash — Blatter flattens everything.

Perhaps the major surprise was the fact England were knocked out in the first round, and not on penalties — there’s always the Qatar finals I suppose.

If only we’d known that developing nations stood a better chance, we could have held the thing in Barnsley. Instead, with only two votes (one of them our own) recession-hit England has shelled out £15 million only to be told that Russia (yes, Russia) can do it better. Pass me the voddie.



Soap roar: “I think I know when two people are having an affair.”


— Ken puts Deidre in the picture after catching Street harlot Leanne in a clinch with Nick. “You should know – you’ve had enough experience.” — Round one to Deidre.


Soap bore: “What’s all this about Nick not making our wedding?” Peter quizzes two-timing bride-to-be Leanne.

“Something came up.” Obviously.