Rita Wolf in Coronation Street
Jack Campin
Street. Am I the only person here who finds that really depressing? From
her performances in "My Beautiful Laundrette" and "The Chain", she's one
of the best actresses in the UK - and being Asian, all the work she can get
now is in a piece of mindrotting schlock like that. A dead-end role that
will leave her unemployable for anything else.
The British film industry may be generally in a near-terminal state, but
that's no excuse for it being even more racist than the US one. Is there
now ANY non-white performer who gets regular work in it?
(Has Wolf been in any other films? If so, which?)
--
-- Jack Campin Computing Science Department, Glasgow University, 17 Lilybank
Gardens, Glasgow G12 8QQ, Scotland 041 339 8855 x6044 work 041 556 1878 home
JANET: ja...@cs.glasgow.ac.uk BANG!net: via mcvax and ukc FAX: 041 330 4913
INTERNET: via nsfnet-relay.ac.uk BITNET: via UKACRL UUCP: ja...@glasgow.uucp
Tim Oldham
>I see in my local paper that Rita Wolf is joining the cast of Coronation
>Street. Am I the only person here who finds that really depressing? From
>her performances in "My Beautiful Laundrette" and "The Chain", she's one
>of the best actresses in the UK - and being Asian, all the work she can get
>now is in a piece of mindrotting schlock like that. A dead-end role that
>will leave her unemployable for anything else.
Coronation Street is a national institution, and a truly wonderful one at
that. Have you ever considered that she might have desperately *wanted* to
appear in it rather than some high-art film seen by 2 people in the
Wrexham Miners' Shed one Tuesday evening? Perhaps she'd rather be famous
than (art-) rightous or holy.
Jack Campin, ``man of the people'', turns snob. Her joining the Street
is simply a vote of confidence in one of the best-loved programmes on
British Television. Go away and come back when you've realised how
wonderful Coronation Street is, or when you have evidence that she
joined the Street because it's the only work she could get, and the
reason for that was that she's Asian. You have presented us with none.
** MINOR SPOILER FOR NON-UK RESIDENTS **
Will the Rovers' survive, do you think? Surely they can't turn it into
Yankee's? What about Bet and Alec? We *mustn't* lose them.
Tim.
--
Tim Oldham, BT Applied Systems. t...@its.bt.co.uk or ...uunet!ukc!its!tjo
Living in interesting times.
Paul Spencer
>
>Coronation Street is a national institution, and a truly wonderful one at
>that.
More than just 'national' for us across the pond... Can someone over there
tell me what the schedule for Coronation Street is? I'm trying to figure
out how they chop it up into three 1/2 hour segments for Canada (monday,
tuesday and wednesday at 2:00 pm - thank goodness for VCR's).
We're about 3 months behind... this week Eddie Ramsden just got back from
being in jail in France, and Mike Baldwin is about to lose his order for
travel bags to a co-op of his ex-workers....
....paul
--
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
...!uunet!matrox!paul paul spencer
pa...@matrox.COM matrox electronic systems
"Gimme Honda, gimme Sony, so cheap and, real phony." - The Clash
pmo...@kean.ucs.mun.ca
Paul:
A national institution...very true indeed...maybe even an
understatement. But what nation?
I was weaned and raised on Coronation Street. Here in Newfoundland,
the show is very popular. I video-tape the mon.-weds shows and watch
them later in the evenings.
By my calculation, Canada is about 6-7 months behind the U.K.
broadcast. I also understand (correct me if I'm wrong on this) that
the show is only aired twice a week in the U.K. and if that is the
case, then we in Canada should be seeing the shows presently being
braodcast in the U.K. sometime around the end of Nov. or early Dec.
this year because we get the show 3 times a week.
At any rate, it's good to see some bandwidth devoted to what i
consider one of the most consistently well-acted programs on
television. The cinematography (if that's what you call it) is
also excellent (just check out the way they do the dialogue
transitions in the Rovers by slick camera panning).
As Jack Duckworth would say, "My Uncle Cyril was a proper gentleman.
He would always go out back of the house when he had to break wind."
The show has it all - acting, pathos, comedy, crisis, swift plot
resolution...I could go on and on.
Stig (in Newfoundland)
Ray Dunn
>By my calculation, Canada is about 6-7 months behind the U.K.
>broadcast. I also understand (correct me if I'm wrong on this) that
>the show is only aired twice a week in the U.K. and if that is the
>case, then we in Canada should be seeing the shows presently being
>braodcast in the U.K. sometime around the end of Nov. or early Dec.
>this year because we get the show 3 times a week.
It has been broadcast 3 times a week in the UK for about 3 months now, and
we are about 16 or 17 weeks behind here in Canada on the CBC where Mavis
has just received a Valentine's card from person "unknown", and Derek has
just been given the position of head rep. by Victor, probably - spoiler
guess coming up - to get him out the way so that Victor can have access to
Mavis!
There are definite signs that the pressure of 50% more output to create the
extra timeslot is having a bad effect on all aspects of the show - plot,
acting and direction. The behaviour of the new couple (Jones' daughter)
who've moved into one of the new houses is far fetched, to say the least.
Percy's stumbling over his lines is getting worse, Baldwin never could act,
and it looks like there are fewer re-takes being done.
Two many changes are being written in too quickly - Aleck's daughter, the
new army couple, the demolition and rebuilding across the street, Jones'
daughter and son-in-law etc.
Plot themes are becoming extreme - deaths, divorces, separations, criminal
charges, French prisons - these of course are all valid, but there's too
many, too quickly. Characters are becoming more caricaturistic episode by
episode.
In short, the Dallas syndrome - someones going to wake up one morning, to
find the whole things been a dream, and Ena Sharples is still ensconced in
the mission hall down the street!
Yes, I do still record and watch it 3 times a week!
--
Ray Dunn. | UUCP: r...@philmtl.philips.ca
Philips Electronics Ltd. | ..!{uunet|philapd|philabs}!philmtl!ray
600 Dr Frederik Philips Blvd | TEL : (514) 744-8200 Ext : 2347 (Phonemail)
St Laurent. Quebec. H4M 2S9 | FAX : (514) 744-6455 TLX : 05-824090