Bet's back, with a few old faces from the Street, to give Coro a sucy makeover for the noughties. TIM WATKIN takes a gander as Brighton rocks.
As she rides back into our television lives, resplendent in the back seat of a stretch limo, sassy old Bet Lynch tells her driver, "I used to live in a street that was shorter than this."
It's vintage Bet, but this spin-off is a far cry from vintage Coronation Street. For the six-part series, Bet's wee Weatherfield St stretches all the way south to Brighton.
That's right chuck, the dreary old north gets left behind briefly for a "major new spin-off" in one of Britain's hippest cities. Trade in your cobbles and hotpots for secrets, seductions and plenty of neon.
It's a bold step for the Street-makers, fiddling with television's longest-running success story.
Viewers will find it odd to hear that famous theme music played over seaside shots of Brighton's piers, pavilions and pebbled beaches. There's not a cat in sight.
You can't help but wonder what Ena Sharples would have thought of this carry-on. Especially when you look at the scurrilous storyline. It centres around a planned trip to France by bad boy Steve McDonald and his wide-but-slightly-clueless mate, Vikram Desai. Their aim: To smuggle back a load of cheap cigarettes and wine. But first, Steve wants a detour to Brighton.
And who do we all know who went to live in Brighton? Yep, Vicky, Steve's ex-wife, who now owns a wine bar (imaginatively called Vicky's), and has picked up the pieces of her life after escaping from Steve's cruel manipulations.
Actress Chloe Newsome, who plays Vicky, walked away from a similarly torrid situation when she left the soap in 1995, straining under the pressures of fame and allegations of drug-taking in a Sheffield club. Since leaving she has rebuilt family relationships and is going out with the son of the owner of one of Sheffield's poshest restaurants and hotels.
If only Vicky were so lucky. In all his nastiness, Steve has decided that Vicky's money and fatal attraction for him are good reasons to get her back in his life. As he assures Vikram: "Vicky won't take long. She never could resist me."
So, will Vicky ever get to marry sweet, but simple, Robert? What on earth is Reg Holdsworth doing in a French hypermarket? What is the gorgeous young French woman who Vikram picks up really after? And why is the B&B owner a cross-dresser?
Oh yes, this is Coronation Street getting racy; a continuation of the trend of recent years. This spin-off has been labelled Coronation Street After Hours, which probably sounds too much like Baywatch Nights or even some porn film for the producer's liking. But while they have to keep long-time viewers happy, the pressure's on to attract, and keep, younger viewers raised on soaps with more action. Goings-on on the Street have to compete in the British domestic market with those in Brookside, Emmerdale, and most particularly, Albert Square.
When this series ran at 10 pm in Britain last November, the country was in the grip of the compelling Eastenders murder trial.
Still, whether these extra episodes were a pitch for the kids, retaliation against the competition or a pre-Christmas ratings puller, the fact is they bring back Bet. And they let us know what she's been up to for the intervening years. That's got to be reason enough to watch.
One of the best defined characters in the wide world of soap operas, Bet left the Street four years ago for Tenerife, her dreams of buying the Rovers Return in tatters. Her final scene was a moment of soap history.
Actor Julie Goodyear says she had no regrets leaving the programme after 25 years and is loving life on a 12 ha farm in her home town of Heywood, Lancashire.
"It takes an awful lot to get me away from there. I'm a homebird. I've never lived anywhere else," she says.
"I'd been in it for such a long time, I wanted some time off and some freedom. There are no windows in studios and I hadn't seen much daylight in 25 years."
So what lured her back to the high hair and leopard skin, albeit temporarily?
"The quality of the scripts, which are absolutely outstanding. A combination of that and members of the public. For 25 years they would shout at me, `pull us a pint, Bet' and for the past four years it's been, `when are you coming back?'"
The work she describes as "an absolute romp" and Brighton as "a posh Blackpool." However Goodyear admits she doesn't watch the show much these days.
"I don't think it would be very healthy for me to sit glued to it, sitting at home in my leopard skin and a shawl. I'd much rather be out in my fields, dancing through buttercups with no make-up or shoes on."
The question is, after all these years away, will Bet still be a match for Steve McDonald.
"He sends a shiver down me gusset," she says.
We know what you mean Bet. Better watch out.
TV: Coronation Coast
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