Perhaps, pace Buddy Holly, the passing of Anne Kirkbride will be retrospectively viewed as the symbolic death of the soap opera as a medium of popular culture. After all, when her character enjoyed the height of her success, UK soaps were still recognisably distinctive regional operators, with Emmerdale post Farm, but pre-plane crash, and 'Enders gritty London ethos contrasting to the more avuncular northern culture of Corrie. In that early Nineties era also, the emphasis remained on the creation of feisty, redoubtable personalities that echoed the everyday, rather than the modern, sensationalist tendency of plots so ludicrous that they almost tend to opera buffa. After all, if audiences can no longer identify with either the characters or their experiences, is it any wonder that viewership has gone through the floor?
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Deirdre Barlow - cultural icon?
Feels very odd this; I mean Deirdre's just always been there, for as long as I can remember. -
Deirdre Barlow - cultural icon?
People still watch Coronation Street?Comment
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Deirdre Barlow - cultural icon?
Anne Kirkbride will always be Deidre Langton to me. Or the woman on the touchline in Another Sunday And Sweet FA.Comment
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Deirdre Barlow - cultural icon?
I was surprised and saddened at the news, much more than I would have expected to be. I haven't watched Coronation Street properly for twenty odd years but it was always reassuring if you were flipping through the channels that Deirdre or Ken or Rita or one of the other old stagers would still be there.Stumpy Pepys wrote: Feels very odd this; I mean Deirdre's just always been there, for as long as I can remember.
The BBC had a cast photo from, I guess, the late '80s with their obit and I could name three quarters of the characters without too much trouble.Comment
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Deirdre Barlow - cultural icon?
She hit a new stride last year, showing really good comic timing. There were these sort of surreal mini-monologues, a bit Alan Bennett, that they'd written for her. She'd be in the Rovers, just coming out with this funny stuff. It was a great relief from the other drama which could be a downer, (like Hayley's cancer and Peter's alcoholism) or simply annoying (the younger characters, mostly, and Tina's murder).
There were some good running gags, too, with her metal belt and her stuffed marrow.
I was really fond of the character and will miss her.Comment
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Deirdre Barlow - cultural icon?
Barbara Knox, Helen Worth and Bill Roche are still there, and (I think) Ian Beale is still in Eastenders, so some connections to the peak of soaps (which I think was around 1985) are still there.
I think the popularity was, in part, nostalgia for communities that Thatcher was supposed to have killed off (although in reality they never quite existed).
Early Corrie was like A Taste of Honey, much more gritty than nostalgic. I'm not sure when that was reversed and it became nostalgia, but I remember that it was definitely in that mode by the Jubilee (1977).
MsD, I wonder if Diedrie's gags were reminiscent of Hilda Ogden, whose character was a stream of running gags (especially when paired with Eddie Yeats)?Comment
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Deirdre Barlow - cultural icon?
Yeah, I was quite saddened by this in a way I couldn't put my finger on. I haven't watched Corrie for years, but it's always on at my mum's house when I go and see her. The programme just has a cosier, more comic touch than Eastenders and you can slip back into it quite easily.
Deirdre, like Stumpy says, had always been there. I was surprised she was only 60 as that put in her 20s when I first started watching it and she seemed in her 40s back then. The opposite of Ken, who's 82, but looks much younger.
Reading the obituaries, a couple of things struck me. firstly, they are mostly obituaries of Deirdre rather than the actress. Secondly, during a League Cup semi-final at Old Trafford, they flashed up the denouement of one of the many cliffhangers involving her Ken and Mike Baldwin on the electronic scoreboard.
Like Dallas of that era, it's hard to imagine a TV programme being quite so ubiquitous ever again.Comment
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Deirdre Barlow - cultural icon?
While we're on a Corrie vibe, this photo of Ena Sharples looking out over Manchester is one of my favourite pictures at the minute.
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Deirdre Barlow - cultural icon?
That photo really epitomises "Old Corrie" doesn't it?
We were avid watchers till leaving the UK in 98, then found it on a minor channel about five years ago, but it was backdated and we were watching 2002, slightly more regularly than they had been made. We figured by about 2025 we would be up to date. Then late last year it just stopped, some time in 2005 I think.
We were bereft, not having realised how much we still cared. Perhaps the nostalgia thing is stronger when you've left Britain. But this news is also very sad. Always assumed we would go back once we fork out for cable, but now I'm not so sure.Comment
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Deirdre Barlow - cultural icon?
A lot of that is down to the fact that she only played two characters on TV in her entire career. When Bryan Mosley (for example) died, a lot of his obituary was about Alf Roberts, but also included things such as Get Carter.meregreen wrote: Reading the obituaries, a couple of things struck me. firstly, they are mostly obituaries of Deirdre rather than the actress.Comment
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Deirdre Barlow - cultural icon?
Tilda Swinton's turn as the fascist politician in Snowpiercer owes something to Deidre Barlow. A bit of left-field evidence that Ms Kirkbride did create a cultural icon.Comment
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Deirdre Barlow - cultural icon?
Around 7-7.5 million per episode, yes. Not quite up there with the 24 million that watched Ken and Deirdre's wedding in 1981, but not bad going in these multi-channel times. (I started watching Coronation Street in 1978 - AIR, sucked in by the factory siege and Ernest Bishop's murder.)People still watch Coronation Street?
Agree with the comments regarding Deirdre's character - with a really good scriptwriter (ie, of the calibre that used to write the show from the sixties to the eighties), she could've been developed into something special in her older age.
RIP Anne Kirkbride, of course.Comment
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Deirdre Barlow - cultural icon?
Not for me to disagree, never having watch it, but surely the fact that she's in block of flats precludes it from being especially representative of a soap about a street of terraces?Sits wrote: That photo really epitomises "Old Corrie" doesn't it?
That's got me thinking - it's surprising that no-one in the 1960's or 70's decided to base a soap around the inhabitants of a tower block, what with them being seen as the new social ideal and all.Comment
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Deirdre Barlow - cultural icon?
On a similar note, if you ever want to really begin to appreciate how good British TV - even stuff like Corrie - is, move Abroad. Because bloody hell, the shit they have Abroad is awful.Sits wrote: That photo really epitomises "Old Corrie" doesn't it?
We were avid watchers till leaving the UK in 98, then found it on a minor channel about five years ago, but it was backdated and we were watching 2002, slightly more regularly than they had been made. We figured by about 2025 we would be up to date. Then late last year it just stopped, some time in 2005 I think.
We were bereft, not having realised how much we still cared. Perhaps the nostalgia thing is stronger when you've left Britain. But this news is also very sad. Always assumed we would go back once we fork out for cable, but now I'm not so sure.
I saw this for the first time a few weeks ago, and have to admit that for me, there was a bit more Betty Driver about her than Dierdre. But certainly, the generally matriarchal feel (presumably added to by the accent of the character, since the director of Snowpiercer is South Korean so presumably not cognizant with Corrie) seemed to owe something.Haddock wrote: Tilda Swinton's turn as the fascist politician in Snowpiercer owes something to Deidre Barlow. A bit of left-field evidence that Ms Kirkbride did create a cultural icon.Comment
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Deirdre Barlow - cultural icon?
Actually you're spot on there Sam. Considering here they still stomach Home & Away, says it all really. Particaulraly as we were comparing it to ten-year-old Corrie, which I assume is better than it is now.Sam wrote: if you ever want to really begin to appreciate how good British TV - even stuff like Corrie - is, move Abroad. Because bloody hell, the shit they have Abroad is awful.
We will still search out British drama (and the best US) over Aussie any time. Even good Aussie stuff has a tendency to feel parochial - they're on a sticky wicket but with one or two exceptions just can't get me over the line. If you ever get a chance to see Rake, mind, it's great stuff. Richard Roxburgh just balancing ham with quality.Comment
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Deirdre Barlow - cultural icon?
Not sure what you are all on about. That photo was taken only a couple of days ago.So Solidarnosc Crew wrote: While we're on a Corrie vibe, this photo of Ena Sharples looking out over Manchester is one of my favourite pictures at the minute.
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Deirdre Barlow - cultural icon?
To me it symbolizes the destruction of the old sooty terraces and working class culture of industrial Manchester (as epitomized by Sharples) and its replacement by the Brave New World of Hulme Crescents and other Brutalist nightmares. The fact Sharples is disconnected from the old Manchester behind her by standing on the verandah of the new adds to this image.Mumpo wrote:Not for me to disagree, never having watch it, but surely the fact that she's in block of flats precludes it from being especially representative of a soap about a street of terraces?Originally posted by Sits
That's got me thinking - it's surprising that no-one in the 1960's or 70's decided to base a soap around the inhabitants of a tower block, what with them being seen as the new social ideal and all.
Her defiant pose however may suggest that the old culture as epitomized by Coronation Street will survive into the new world. Although I may be looking too much into it.
It’s a fantastic photograph.Comment
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Deirdre Barlow - cultural icon?
It is a great photograph, but looks Photoshopped to me? Is it for real?*
One of my favourite Deirdre lines was something like "he's been doolally since her with the hair kept whacking him with the Hoover handle". (Of Tyrone, who'd been a victim of domestic abuse).
*Just looked it up, it's not Photoshop but may have been an old-school composite.
http://coronationstreetupdates.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/iconic-photo-of-ena-sharples.html?m=1Comment
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Deirdre Barlow - cultural icon?
Recreated here when Cracker came back:Geoffrey de Ste. Croix wrote:To me it symbolizes the destruction of the old sooty terraces and working class culture of industrial Manchester (as epitomized by Sharples) and its replacement by the Brave New World of Hulme Crescents and other Brutalist nightmares. The fact Sharples is disconnected from the old Manchester behind her by standing on the verandah of the new adds to this image.Originally posted by Mumpo
Her defiant pose however may suggest that the old culture as epitomized by Coronation Street will survive into the new world. Although I may be looking too much into it.
It’s a fantastic photograph.
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Deirdre Barlow - cultural icon?
Not really the same, is it?
Christ, if you'd told me-as-a-16-year-old that one day I'd be looking at pictures of Salford and getting all wistful I'd have laughed in your face. I must be going soft in the head in my old age.Comment
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