For twenty-five years,
Julie Goodyear became part of everyone's family when she played Bet
Lynch, the loveable brassy barmaid of the Rovers Return in Coronation
Street.
Julie's father walked out on the family soon after her birth, so, she was brought up by her mother and stepfather. At just
thirteen, Julie had to deal with her beloved grandmother's death when
she was found in a canal. Julie fell pregnant at sixteen, marrying Ray Sutcliffe. The marriage lasted three years.
In 1966, Julie made a six-week appearance in
Coronation Street as Bet Lynch from Elliston's Raincoat Factory, a role
which made her Britain's best-loved barmaid.
In 1996, she was awarded an OBE. Julie's
much anticipated autobiography reveals, for the first time and with
incredible candour, the truth, sadness and spirit behind this larger
than life woman.
My Review:
It
was horrific about her experience of having a baby with that
bitch of a nurse humiliating and assaulting her. That seriously evil
witch should never have been in charge of a ward, causing fear and
misery, mistreating patients and babies alike. I'd never read anything
like it! Having to crawl around the floor under the beds to sneak some
time with her own child? Being abandoned after the delivery and left
untreated and having to be rescued later by a doctor? Our NHS now has
problems at times but I seriously hope that things like this are not
happening. Julie was (reluctantly) married at the time yet was abused
for being 'that sort of girl' who would amount to nothing. I think my
favourite part of the book was when Julie sees that nurse again on a
ward at the height of her Corrie fame...!
Julie is open about her
bisexual relationships throughout the book and this was common
knowledge in the media through her career so I knew about some of what
she had to say. I was pretty shocked when her partner of four years
decided to abandon her on the eve of her cancer surgery, only to come
back after it was all over and expecting to pick up where they left off.
Nice woman that! The time you need the support of your loved ones is
times of stress and illness and I know myself what it feels like to be
abandoned. I really felt for Julie. It was also horrible to see the way
the press behaved when her mother was dying, trying to get a photo of
the poor woman. To have these lowlifes yelling through the letterbox to
give them the photo so they could all go home was shocking, but not a
great surprise.
I don't actually remember the fraud trial that
Julie had to endure. What is it they say, no good deed goes unpunished?
Well that was certainly true here. Julie wanted to see better screening
for cancer and was raising money through a charity set up in her name.
When people involved in the charity were accused of fraud, she was
dragged into it. Despite it being obvious that she had done nothing
wrong, it was when when Julie found out who her true friends were. Close
friends vanished when she was accused and then crawled back a year
later when she was cleared. Yeah it's always lovely to have friends that
shaft you like that.
There is also good humour in the book, like
the time that she was trying to knee Denis Thatcher in the privates at a
Downing Street party for touching her breast! In fact, Julie tells her
story with a lot of humour and emotion which makes it a really good
read. I'd recommend it for Corrie fans and those who like a good memoir.
Born Shirley Broadbent,
Amanda Barrie has been working since she was three. She has performed
on stage countless times, from chorus girl to West End lead, appeared in
a number of films and has been a familiar face on television from its
earliest beginnings. In this autobiography, Amanda recounts anecdotes
from her packed professional life, including her famous roles in "Carry
On Cleo", as Alma in "Coronation Street" and conwoman Bev in "Bad
Girls". She also reflects, with characteristic humour, on events in her
personal life including her disrupted childhood, disastrous school life
and her relationships with men and women including the remarkable
threesome that she shared with her husband Robin Hunter.
My Review:
What
a fascinating woman Amanda Barrie is! I've known her work from Carry On
Cleo and Coronation Street and her own story has more shocks and
scandals than a soap script!
I knew from the media that she was
bisexual but I had no idea of the struggle she had through the years
with her sexuality. It must have been tough for a lot of celebrities in
the public eye to keep their private lives private for fear of
destroying their careers. Amanda is blunt about her horrific eating
disorders, her mental breakdowns, her dyslexia, her body image issues
and her drug habit. How she managed to stay alive to make it into
Coronation Street is a mystery to me.
She is more honest than
most about who she liked and didn't like from her time on Corrie and she
talks openly about the rising workload that the extra episodes brought,
leaving many of the cast exhausted. I've always agreed that there are
too many episodes a week because of the stupid ratings war. When you
watch Corrie from the 1970's the quality is great because there were
only two episodes a week. Once they started with four episodes I think
many great characters vanished because there was too much stress on the
actors. Amanda also talks about her exit from her show and her anger
over the storyline. She gave the management notice so that they could
construct a good exit but believes it was rushed and medically
unrealistic. She also objected to trying to give Alma a romance as she
fought cancer. It was interesting to get that insight into the clash
between the actress and the producers and scriptwriters.
I also
enjoyed a lot of things in the book like the tour of South Africa that
she did with her husband in Cabaret. The numbers of ways that she
annoyed the Apartheid Government amused me and the efforts she went to
in order to do a secret show for a black only audience was great. I
really admire a lot of what she has done in her life.
This was a fascinating book on so many levels.
My Review:
I read a lot of biographies of the stars of Coronation Street, hoping to
get the behind the scenes gossip about the fights, who got on well and
who fought with each other. This is the nearest I have got to that and
it was an enjoyable read. Bill talks about his time in charge of Corrie
and has strong opinions on the most talked about events, a few of which
are below:
1)Peter Adamson (Len Fairclough)-his alcoholism was
well known and Corrie stepped in to get him help, which was a great
success. He was not sacked for the child abuse allegations which he was
cleared of. He had been given warnings for selling stories to the media
and was finally sacked for continuing to do so.
2)While the
character of Fred Gee was a success, Fred Feast was unpopular with the
cast for being rude, arrogant and his wind habits! After badmouthing the
cast and management when he left, years later he asked when he was
being invited back to Bill's horror!
3)Renee Bradshaw's character
was stifling the potential of Alf Roberts when they married and she had
to be killed. The hiring of an inexperienced young actress to play
Susan Barlow and the relationship with Mike Baldwin was a mistake.
Having Eddie Yeats marry was a mistake as it caused the actor to quit.
4)Pat
Phoenix was a diva who broke all the rules and had a difficult
relationship with Jean Alexander. Pat, Peter Adamson and Barbara Knox
were all angry at the storyline of Len marrying Rita as each feared
losing screen time. The actress who played Minnie Caldwell had foul
mouthed rants when she wasn't happy.
Bill goes into detail about
the pay dispute with Stephen Hancock which led to the murder of Ernie
Bishop and almost saw the character of Emily axed. He does not paint
Stephen as the troublemaker that he was alleged to be in the media so it
was nice to see the full story. He talks about how many times Ken
Barlow was saved from the axe up to the early 80's. There are other
interesting disputes and sackings that are discussed but I don't want to
tell you everything and spoil it!
This is a good book for Corrie fans who want a real look behind the scenes.
It is 1914 and for
fifteen-year-old Ena Scholfield, life will never be the same again. As
she joins the waving and cheering crowds, Ena watches childhood pals,
workmates, and neighbours proudly marching off to War. Ena's friendship
with Mission caretaker Gladys Arkswright brings her into daily contact
with the occupants of Coronation Street and she is welcomed into a
community bereft of young men, but one where there is never a dull
moment.
Packed full of wartime romance, emotional hardship and resilient
humour, "Keeping the Home Fires Burning" embraces all that the show's
twenty million fans love about Coronation Street.
My Review:
This is a Coronation Street novel set against the backdrop of World War
One and featuring characters from the series when they were much
younger.
It follows the life of young Ena (who becomes battleaxe
Ena Sharples) as she watches all the men start to leave for war. She
feels sympathy for shy Albert Tatlock who has nobody to write to him and
she agrees to be his new friend. She finds first love with Phil, nephew
of the Mission Hall caretaker Gladys, who takes Ena under her wing.
There are also Ena's friends which include sharp tongued Martha and
dotty Minnie.
The book does cover a lot of what was happening
during the war. The local shopkeeper and his wife are targeted and
beaten because she is German and gossips wrongly claim that she is going
to poison the customers. This was a really ugly scene in the book which
you can imagine did happen to innocent people. There is the pressure
being put on men to volunteer and even underage boys are feeling forced
to go and sign up in case they are thought of as cowards. The day to day
struggles are worsened when the telegrams about the dead and injured
from the Street start to get delivered. You just just imagine the terror
of seeing the postman stop at your door if your husband and sons are
fighting. Every family have relatives or friends who are fighting far
from home and they share the delight of letters home and the dread of
what could be happening.
Ena is a kind and tolerant young girl
who is eager to help people around her. She does not share the wild
patriotism of her mother and she is one of many to suffer the grief of
losing loved ones. Her friendships with Albert and the married son of a
shady doctor, Alfred Sharples, get the tongues wagging around her.
Friendships are also tested when the man Minnie loves and wants to marry
makes a pass at a horrified Ena, and Martha continues to spread her
bile and gossip with little regard for truth or accuracy.
This
was an enjoyable book featuring characters we know from the TV series as
well as characters that were introduced through various Daran Little
books about the Street ie the spiteful and evil Ivy. What is it about
that name in Corrie! I recommend it to fans of Corrie, fans of
historical fiction and those with an interest in the home lives of those
during the war.
One of our most popular actresses, Denise Welch got her television break in the BBC's Spender opposite Jimmy Nail and followed it by achieving success in ITVs worldwide hit drama Soldier Soldier. She really became a household name when she took on the role of Rovers Return landlady Natalie Barnes in Coronation Street. Today she stars in the award-winning drama Waterloo Road and is a regular on the hugely popular Loose Women, where her warmth and honesty have won the nation's hearts.
But
even as her career was taking off, Denise was hiding a secret—that she
was suffering from a crippling post natal depression so severe that she
was at times suicidal. As she concealed her heartbreak on the set of Coronation Street, she turned to alcohol and drugs to cope. She even had an affair that threatened her marriage.
Now
she reveals for the first time the full details of her battle with
depression and alcoholism, how she fought back and, helped by the love
of her husband Tim Healy, turned her life around. Powerful and moving, Pulling Myself Together is ultimately an uplifting book that will appeal to her many fans old and new.
My Review:
This
was a well written and interesting book which didn't pull any punches
and was full of the worst of her behaviour. It seems that some people
were shocked by the book because of its content but for me, there is no
point in a celebrity biography that misses out the embarrassing or
contraversial things. I want to read the full story, not edited
highlights. This book certainly provides a lot of detail.
I used
to watch Family Affairs and thought that David Easter was seriously hot
but Denise is blunt about her destructive relationship with him. I try
not to judge when I've only read one half of the story but if what she
says is true, I would not have wanted to be in her shoes. She claims
that he was a possessive bully and a serial cheat, all of which he has
since denied. Her second husband Tim Healy seems to have been the polar
opposite and Denise took a long time to really warm to him. He sounds
like a decent bloke for the most part.
Denise talks about her
battles with depression, which I could very much relate to and I am so
grateful that I never went down the road of feeling suicidal. Quite a
few of her doctors could have done with a good slap for the way they
treated her. Thankfully, healthcare has improved a lot since her
treatment and more help is available for depression now. She talks also
about her drug taking which I had less sympathy for and her battle with
alcohol.
She talks also about her varied career-Byker Grove,
Grease stage show, Spender, Soldier Soldier, Coronation Street and Loose
Women. How she was able to perform so well in these shows with all her
problems is beyond me. The other thing I found interesting was the
jealousy shown to her by Robson Green when Simon Cowell was looking to
offer her a record deal after seeing her sing on Soldier Soldier. Robson
obviously didn't like the idea of anyone stealing his thunder and Simon
had to withdraw his offer when Robson threw a tantrum about it.
Interesting book.
