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Mentioning this very briefly on the "Television for the coming of age, 1996 style" thread that I wrote last year, it's amazing how a 17 year old teenage boy like myself back in the summer of 1996 seemed to be interested in various characters in regular series such as soaps at the time; Angel from Home and Away was one of them, and Minnie Crozier from Shortland Street (Central region) was another. What with the countdown to my own 18th birthday coinciding with the end of the summer (and the end of my childhood in the process), the memories of coming back after a summer's day outside and viewing an evening's viewing, just before Emmerdale and Coronation Street both shared the same evenings together. Speaking of the latter, the summer of 1996 onwards had for me, very strong feelings for a certain female charactrer from the Street at the time; Des Barnes met her on a market stall, and she was a widow. She was strawberry blonde and so was her daughter. Teenage boys do get excited over older women, a la Eric Brown v Sylvia Kristel in the film Private Lessons, but one's teenage years can be understood for the "right place, right time" situation.
I am referring to the more-or-less forgotten Claire Palmer played by Maggiie Norris; a character which seemed to score the least number of points when a poll of the best ever Coronation Street characters was made in around 2020, and Jack Duckworth seemed to get the most number of points. Her screen daughter, Becky Palmer (which I also used to call "Claire" as well for some reason) was played by Emily Aston, possibly a Tracy Barlow experiment which was only partly successful, and was part of the Aston clan in which Joseph Aston had made a better career in the series just a few years later thanks to the Battersbys moving in around a year later. Both mother and daughter were hosted by incumbent Barnes, and were invited to live under his roof for around nine months until around April 1997; I believe that she made her final appearance in the same episode as neighbour Derek Wilton's funeral in that month and her final scene was at the funeral buffet before taking her final leave. She appeared in 59 episodes in total.
Immediately, her second appearance in the Street in mid May 1996 presented her as some sort of bimbo, drawing attention to everyone in a wine bar, getting what she wanted all the time, while being with her new screen partner Des. Becky would soon be introduced in her next appearance. Claire seemed to do the latter half of her stint working as an assistant in the Corner Shop, but perhaps she would have preferred to have been a shop assistant in a bigger store, complete with name badge with "Claire" written on it, very similar to Des' first wife Stephanie in the perfume counter of a Boots-alike store. Better still, let's just put her into a grey pencil skirt and she could become a Primary School teacher! Claire was a fascinating character, and I suppose that my own Coming of Age in 1996 which was the main reason why she was indeed: A) Fascinating; B) Interesting; C) Influencing; and: D) Memorable to someone like myself. Characters who make their first appearances during the summer are more nmenorable than ones who make the entrance in the winter. Once she had that change of hair colour, (presumably courtesy of Fiona Middleton's salon), she looked rather different and so became what felt to me like a different character to me than what she was before. Claire does sounds like a sexier name than Maggie does.
The episodes seen just after my 18th birthday in September 1996 seem memorable, and not even as a result of looking at the super-omnibus editions put on YouTube in around 2021. Here, in more than one episode we see Claire in "first thing in the morning" scenes and white nightshirt and buttons, telling Des that he has to get rid of his dope plant, and Des gives the plant to Mavis next door, saying thatit happens to be a rare pot plant. The conversation moves onto talking about X-rated videos and horror films such as 9 1/2 Weeks and The Evil Dead which is an 18 certificate (and I assume they were referring to the 1981 film as the other films on the IMDB mentioned were made after 1996). Claire mentions that she and Becky like horror "at Carol's Place", while doing a seductive Sharon Stone impression with her legs when she sits down in her white nightshirt, prompting me to record the Wednesday afternoon repeat from the Yorkshire TV region as Central no longer did afternoon repeats at that point. Getting prepared for its return courtesy of the Corriepedia website, I knew in advance that ITV3 repeated the episode in September 2020, almost exactly 24 years and one week to the week that it was first seen.
Incidentally, it was also around the same time as the ITV3 repeats that I managed to do a birthday card autograph project; sending blank birthday cards to agents' addresses; TV and radio stations; sports clubs and other places where familiar people are based, and get them to autograph a birthday card before sending it posting to me in a stamped, addressed envelope. I wrote to Maggie Norris (who was based at some threatre place in London by then) in order to autograph a blank birthday card where she signed: "Dear George, Happy Birthday! I hope you have a wonderful day - Maggie Norris". Great timing as it was a week or so after my birthday, and it made up for it in 2020 as any plans would have been cancelled due to coronavirus. Whether I did have a wonderful day on my birthday was presumably indeed up to her!
I had never heard of Maggie Norris prior to her stint in Coronation Street; it felt that she briefly had celebrity status during those nine months in the soap and once she left, she just went back to just being an actress. Prior to Corrie she had made guest appearances as early as 1983 in Brookside, and also Bergerac; Only Fools and Horses playing a Policewoman; and All Creatures Great and Small. Just before Coronation Street she made a brief appearance with Ant and Dec. After she left the Street for good, Peak Practice beckoned her call, calling herself Jacqui Shaw; Casualty invited her to play the fortune teller-esque name of Madam Rosa, while its Elstree counterpart Holby City gave her the name of Frances Spencer which sounds like a female version of the protagonist from Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em. And Doctors, where she appeared over the years as a trio of Laura Mansfield, Margaret Monks and Anna Williams. Even her then screen daughter Emily Aston had appeared in Oranges are Not the Only Fruit in 1990; Children's Ward (just like a lot of young future Corrie cast members at the time) in 1990, and Casualty just before her stint in 1995, and kept her acting portfolio going after she left around the same time as her screen mother. Like Mother, like Daughter, indeed.
I used to think how lucky Des was at the time, not to mention Philip Middlemiss as being able to play a screen partner like Claire Palmer.
I am referring to the more-or-less forgotten Claire Palmer played by Maggiie Norris; a character which seemed to score the least number of points when a poll of the best ever Coronation Street characters was made in around 2020, and Jack Duckworth seemed to get the most number of points. Her screen daughter, Becky Palmer (which I also used to call "Claire" as well for some reason) was played by Emily Aston, possibly a Tracy Barlow experiment which was only partly successful, and was part of the Aston clan in which Joseph Aston had made a better career in the series just a few years later thanks to the Battersbys moving in around a year later. Both mother and daughter were hosted by incumbent Barnes, and were invited to live under his roof for around nine months until around April 1997; I believe that she made her final appearance in the same episode as neighbour Derek Wilton's funeral in that month and her final scene was at the funeral buffet before taking her final leave. She appeared in 59 episodes in total.
Immediately, her second appearance in the Street in mid May 1996 presented her as some sort of bimbo, drawing attention to everyone in a wine bar, getting what she wanted all the time, while being with her new screen partner Des. Becky would soon be introduced in her next appearance. Claire seemed to do the latter half of her stint working as an assistant in the Corner Shop, but perhaps she would have preferred to have been a shop assistant in a bigger store, complete with name badge with "Claire" written on it, very similar to Des' first wife Stephanie in the perfume counter of a Boots-alike store. Better still, let's just put her into a grey pencil skirt and she could become a Primary School teacher! Claire was a fascinating character, and I suppose that my own Coming of Age in 1996 which was the main reason why she was indeed: A) Fascinating; B) Interesting; C) Influencing; and: D) Memorable to someone like myself. Characters who make their first appearances during the summer are more nmenorable than ones who make the entrance in the winter. Once she had that change of hair colour, (presumably courtesy of Fiona Middleton's salon), she looked rather different and so became what felt to me like a different character to me than what she was before. Claire does sounds like a sexier name than Maggie does.
The episodes seen just after my 18th birthday in September 1996 seem memorable, and not even as a result of looking at the super-omnibus editions put on YouTube in around 2021. Here, in more than one episode we see Claire in "first thing in the morning" scenes and white nightshirt and buttons, telling Des that he has to get rid of his dope plant, and Des gives the plant to Mavis next door, saying thatit happens to be a rare pot plant. The conversation moves onto talking about X-rated videos and horror films such as 9 1/2 Weeks and The Evil Dead which is an 18 certificate (and I assume they were referring to the 1981 film as the other films on the IMDB mentioned were made after 1996). Claire mentions that she and Becky like horror "at Carol's Place", while doing a seductive Sharon Stone impression with her legs when she sits down in her white nightshirt, prompting me to record the Wednesday afternoon repeat from the Yorkshire TV region as Central no longer did afternoon repeats at that point. Getting prepared for its return courtesy of the Corriepedia website, I knew in advance that ITV3 repeated the episode in September 2020, almost exactly 24 years and one week to the week that it was first seen.
Incidentally, it was also around the same time as the ITV3 repeats that I managed to do a birthday card autograph project; sending blank birthday cards to agents' addresses; TV and radio stations; sports clubs and other places where familiar people are based, and get them to autograph a birthday card before sending it posting to me in a stamped, addressed envelope. I wrote to Maggie Norris (who was based at some threatre place in London by then) in order to autograph a blank birthday card where she signed: "Dear George, Happy Birthday! I hope you have a wonderful day - Maggie Norris". Great timing as it was a week or so after my birthday, and it made up for it in 2020 as any plans would have been cancelled due to coronavirus. Whether I did have a wonderful day on my birthday was presumably indeed up to her!
I had never heard of Maggie Norris prior to her stint in Coronation Street; it felt that she briefly had celebrity status during those nine months in the soap and once she left, she just went back to just being an actress. Prior to Corrie she had made guest appearances as early as 1983 in Brookside, and also Bergerac; Only Fools and Horses playing a Policewoman; and All Creatures Great and Small. Just before Coronation Street she made a brief appearance with Ant and Dec. After she left the Street for good, Peak Practice beckoned her call, calling herself Jacqui Shaw; Casualty invited her to play the fortune teller-esque name of Madam Rosa, while its Elstree counterpart Holby City gave her the name of Frances Spencer which sounds like a female version of the protagonist from Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em. And Doctors, where she appeared over the years as a trio of Laura Mansfield, Margaret Monks and Anna Williams. Even her then screen daughter Emily Aston had appeared in Oranges are Not the Only Fruit in 1990; Children's Ward (just like a lot of young future Corrie cast members at the time) in 1990, and Casualty just before her stint in 1995, and kept her acting portfolio going after she left around the same time as her screen mother. Like Mother, like Daughter, indeed.
I used to think how lucky Des was at the time, not to mention Philip Middlemiss as being able to play a screen partner like Claire Palmer.