|
|
My 10/10 rating is for the sterling work that Jean Alexander and Bernard Youens put into 'Coronation Street'. For two decades, they played to perfection the warring Ogdens. So good were they in these roles that many became convinced they really existed. When Stan got into debt, for example, offers of financial help flooded into the Granada offices. You may think that amusing, but it shows how much the public took the Ogdens to heart.
The Ogdens were Stan, an obese layabout who cleaned windows for a living ( when he was not feeding his face with bacon sandwiches or swilling pints of Newton & Ridley's ), and Hilda, a head-scarved harridan with a fondness for gossip, not to say singing out of tune. They lived in less than opulent surroundings. Who can forget those plaster ducks on the 'muriel' ( mural )?
In spite of their constant quarrelling, there was genuine affection between the couple. They brought humour, warmth and pathos to the show.
To celebrate the Silver Jubilee in 1977, the Street's residents decided to ride around on a lorry dressed as characters from British history - Annie Walker as Queen Elisabeth 1, Len Fairclough as Sir Francis Drake, and Ena Sharples as Queen Victoria, and so on. Only Stan would be so stupid as to leave the lorry's lights on all night, hence the next morning the battery was dead!
In one lovely episode, the Ogdens won a weekend at a luxury hotel, and to see them living the high life was an absolute joy. The deflated look on Hilda's face as they returned home spoke volumes about the sort of humdrum lives they led.
The Ogdens helped make 'Coronation Street' ( I refuse to refer to it as 'Corrie' ) one of the best programmes of the '60's and '70's. Youens died on 27/8/84. Of course Stan had to die too. It presented the writers with a problem as Albert Tatlock had recently been written out because of the sad demise of Jack Howarth. Not wishing to kill Stan off so soon after, they pretended he was still alive but confined to bed. Several weeks later, Hilda discovered his lifeless body. An icon of 'Coronation Street' was no more.
I do not watch 'Coronation Street' these days. It is a different programme now, aimed at a much younger audience. I doubt whether Stan and Hilda would feel at home in the Street these days. As Granada Plus's repeats showed, the Ogdens were simply irreplaceable.
score 10/10
ShadeGrenade 25 June 2006
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1401818/ |
|
18-10-2020 14:05:10