The Coronation Street cast come across as immaculate professionals on-screen, but it’s a very different story behind-the-scenes.
Even the best actors in the world aren’t immune to the occasional blunder – and when you’re making six episodes a week for 52 weeks of the year it can’t always be perfect.
Corrie would be a very different show if they used some of the hilarious scenes that we get to see on tonight’s Soap Slip Ups special.
From misbehaving props to wardrobe malfunctions, corpsing to missed lines, all manner of things can go wrong on set.
The cast look back at some of their most awkward gaffes while filming the much-loved ITV soap and reveal some shocking secrets.
One cast member has to stab himself with a cocktail stick when he does scenes with the cast’s biggest joker – to the point where he starts bleeding.
Here is a look at some of the biggest Corrie slip-ups:
Messed-up lines
(Image: ITV)
What you see on-screen is very polished, but the Coronation Street cast do sometimes make mistakes with their lines.
“The worst one you’re going to fluff is when it’s a massive scene. And you forget and you corpse and everybody thinks you’re a t***,” says Jack P. Shepherd.
Occasionally forgetting what you’re supposed to be saying is an occupational hazard, but sometimes it takes countless retakes to get it right.
Jane Danson, who plays Leanne Battersby, gets worried just thinking about the time she kept getting flustered by an unintentional tongue twister.
“I remember that scene so well. I have to say indust…I still can’t say it,” explains Jane, who was supposed to be speaking about an industrial tribunal in a scene with Ben Price (Nick Tilsley).
“And in my head I was thinking oh no it’s coming the words ‘industrial tribunal’ are coming but I was talking really quickly. And when I get nervous I talk even faster. I just made it up.
(Image: ITV)
Jane finally got it right after a dozen failed attempts, but there was another embarrassing twist as Ben ruined the take by getting his final line wrong.
“Ah s***,” says Ben after watching the hilarious blunder.
“I had one line at the end and she got all the way through it and I made a mistake. I still remember that, she looked at me like, ‘Please don’t make me do that again’.”
The cast admit they also accidentally use their co-stars real names in scenes, explaining that names that are a similar length are a nightmare, such as Bill and Ken or Bev and Liz.
Corpsing
(Image: ITV)
The problem with Corrie is that the writers love throwing in a naughty double entendre or cheeky innuendo.
To the point where some of the cast reckon they are having bets in the pub over what they can get the cast to say during filming.
“Some script writers, every other line you can’t really work out what to say without it sounding rude,” says Jennie McAlpine.
One of the most notorious was in the scene where Cathy Matthews was giving Roy Cropper a key to her house.
Actress Melanie Hill had to say: “You don’t want to be kicking my back door in every five minutes do you.”
Poor Melanie put her head in her hands, while David Neilson (Roy) burst out laughing.
“David is bad. He can give you a real twinkle in his eye. He can look like Roy but behind it his eyes,” says Ben Price.
While Peter Barlow actor Chris Gascoyne, who once started laughing so much they were made to have a tea break, admits it can get close to the line.
He adds: “Sometimes its very close to the knuckle, I had a line to Adam and I had to say, ‘It’s a shame, that customer in line at the taxi rank had big tips’. And everyone is like, ‘What did he just say?’.”
The biggest prankster
(Image: ITV)
When the cast are asked who is responsible for on-set mischief, one name crops up time and time again.
Simon Gregson.
The Steve McDonald actor, who has been on the cobbles since 1989, is constantly getting his castmates to laugh in the middle of a take.
During one of his first scenes with Paula Lane (Kylie Platt), Jack P. Shepherd had to passionately snog her in the pub, but Simon kept messing up his line to prolong the scene.
“Simon kept on screwing his line up on prupose. Kept going again and again and again. Awful human being,” jokes Jack.
Simon admits: “I do have a habit of trying to make people laugh on purpose for my own sick pleasure.”
Jack is not alone in thinking Simon can be a bad influence on set.
(Image: ITV)
Alan Halsall, who plays Tyrone Dobbs, agrees: “He’s terrible for it. If you give Simon an inch he’ll take a mile. He loses his way a lot and he makes others do it as well.”
Jimmi Harkishin (Dev Alahan) admits it’s a struggle to work with Simon, while Chris Gascoyne says he can’t even look at him because he will start laughing.
One castmember has a very extreme method of coping with filming alongside Simon – stabbing himself in the hand.
“If I’m with Gregson that’s really bad,” explains Ben Price, as he lets us into a major secret.
“So in the Bistro, I don’t think I should be saying this, I have to put a cocktail stick in my hand because if he walks in to order a drink he’ll pull a face and I laugh.
“And I have to bury the cocktail stick into my hand to stop laughing. And it’s every scene. At the end of the day I’ve got this bleeding hand.”
It’s a good thing that Craig Charles, who played Steve’s best friend Lloyd Mullaney, has left the soap because the pair would wind each other up by going off-script to trip catch the other one out.
Foul-mouthed swearing
(Image: ITV)
The bleeper has to work overtime during this Corrie special, as the cast are always effing and jeffing on set after messing up their lines.
Even the much-loved Helen Worth, aka Gail Platt, has turned the air blue during a scene.
During one outrageous moment, Jack P Shepherd stops a scene to point out on-screen brother Ben Price’s weird pronunciation of a word.
Jokingly getting angry, Ben shouts: “I’ll concentrate on my f***ing bit and you concentrate on f***ing doing your bit.”
Prop disasters
(Image: ITV)
From car doors not opening to straws falling all over the floor, props can provide annoying problems on set.
Ben Price is known for being bad at props so tries not to use them in set.
One of the most entertaining moments came when teenage Colson Smith (Craig Tinker) knocked over a stand in Dev’s shop and sent items flying all over the place.
With an expert crew of 280 people, occasionally they may steal limelight from the cast.
Mark from props once walked into the Bistro to move a balloon during the middle of a take – and ws completely unaware until Michael Le Vell (Kevin Webster) pointed it out.
Slamming doors can also be an issue as they make the walls of the set shake, while Eileen Grimshaw’s door is notorious for getting stuck on the carpet.
Speaking of Eileen, actress Sue Cleaver once had to cut a scene in the cafe because she spilt beans down her top.
Bill Roache
(Image: ITV)
The longest-serving actor on the soap, the legendary Bill Roache barely has a blooper to his name despite working on Corrie for 60 years.
“Bill never forgets a line. He looks and goes, ‘Yep yep yep,’ and says it all perfectly,” says Jack.
The Ken Barlow actor is cool and calm with props and rarely gets phased, even when a set once collapsed behind him.
But there was one occasion where he sat down during a wedding scene and smashed some plates.
Keep calm and Corrie on.
*Coronation Street: Soapy Slip Ups airs tonight on ITV at 8pm
Originally from https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/coronation-street-slip-ups-exposed-22943593