‘Missing' Coronation Street star signs new contract as he avoids cast cull with huge comeback storyline
CORRIE BLIMEY! 'Missing' Coronation Street star signs new contract as he avoids cast cull with huge comeback storyline
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CORONATION Street star Mikey North has signed a new contract to take him into his 18th year on the cobbles.
The actor - who plays Gary Windass in the ITV soap - recently sparked concern he had left the show when his character failed to appear in episodes for months.
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Mikey North has signed a new contract to stay on Coronation Street for his 18th year
Credit: PA
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Gary was brutally attacked last month and has been in a coma
However he recently returned to screens after his quiet time and is now part of a major storyline - and it won't end there.
The Sun can exclusively reveal that Mikey has signed on the dotted line for another year that will see Gary back at the forefront of the soap.
A source said: 'Mikey loves working at Coronation Street and bosses love having him so it was a no brainer for him to sign for another year recently.
'Gary's got a huge year coming up and it's all just kicked off on-screen and it's just the beginning.
'There's going to be a lot of Mikey on screens in the coming months.'
Viewers watched recently as Gary mysteriously disappeared after a row with wife Maria.
He had no idea he was being used by Lou as a way to get back at Maria, with her framing him for a cheating night of passion.
Gary stormed out and went to stay with his mum Anna Windass, but then failed to return.
When Maria realised he had left Anna's and was heading home but had never arrived, she began to worry.
Meanwhile viewers discovered that Gary has been in a coma after being brutally attacked and left for dead.
Watch the moment Coronation Street's Gary Windass is left dripping in BLOOD after explosive fight with new arch enemy
He is in hospital with a mystery woman calling herself his wife and calling him Chesney.
The mystery of what happened to Gary and who the woman is is set to be solved next week.
Coronation Street has been contacted for comment.
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Telegraph
22 minutes ago
- Telegraph
This is the last Tour de France on free-to-air and cycling will never be the same
When the peloton rolls out of Lille on Saturday for the start of the 112th edition of the Tour de France, it will mark the beginning of the end of one of British sport's great institutions. Nearly 40 years after Channel 4 first screened the highlights of the Tour de France in 1986 – played in by that iconic Pete Shelley theme music – ITV will this year broadcast coverage of cycling's biggest race on free-to-air for the final time. As of next year, the Tour will be behind a paywall in the UK, on TNT Sports. It is the end of an era. 'It's going to be emotional,' admits commentator Ned Boulting who has been part of ITV's coverage since 2003, and who will reprise his role this year alongside David Millar, continuing a line going back to Paul Sherwen and Phil Liggett. 'That's very nearly 40 years of continuity. So that's almost three generations of viewers within families. You know, that's grandparents, parents, and children, all of whom have come through the same very familiar routine. The same faces and voices, the same look and feel, the same style. It's unique in broadcasting.' 'A hammer blow for cycling' Once the emotion dies down, the question is: what does it mean for cycling in the UK, both in terms of viewing figures and participation? Will the sport wither on the vine, stuck behind a paywall where no one will watch it? Will the next generation of potential Geraint Thomases and Tom Pidcocks be starved of inspiration? Or might cycling benefit from being lumped in with bigger sports in the TNT Sports portfolio such as football and rugby, attracting new, crossover fans? It is fair to say fan reaction when the initial announcement was made last autumn that Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns TNT Sports, had bought the exclusive UK rights to the Tour, was not positive. There was sadness at the demise of the much-loved ITV coverage, particularly the daily highlights show. But public opinion really nosedived when WBD announced in January that it was axing Eurosport UK and cycling fans would have to shell out for the full TNT Sports subscription to access bike races in the UK. Not just the Tour, but the Giro d'Italia, the Vuelta a España, the spring classics, the whole caboodle. From £6.99 a month for Eurosport to £30.99 a month for TNT Sports – a price hike of some 400 per cent. Outraged fans – who, a couple of years ago were so spoilt they could get every obscure race under the sun for £5 a month on the GCN+ app, before it was bought and shuttered by WBD – threatened to boycott the channel, while others claimed WBD would get more people into piracy than they would cycling. The debate even reached the Houses of Parliament with Ben Obese-Jecty, the Conservative MP, securing a debate on the merits of free-to-air coverage of professional cycling in Westminster Hall on March 5. In an impassioned speech, Obese-Jecty told of how he had been inspired as a child by the exploits of British mountain bike rider Jason McRoy, whose races were occasionally shown on Eurosport. Describing the channel's demise as 'a hammer blow for coverage of cycling in the UK' he argued that cycling going behind a paywall would have a number of unintended consequences. It would mean children in the UK were not exposed to a sport which was patently good for their health. It would impact on the next generation of wannabe Bradley Wigginses. 'To be popular, a sport must be visible,' he said. 'To be visible, a sport must have a television presence. The Government would never allow the Fifa World Cup, the Olympics or Wimbledon to be put behind a paywall. With an estimated 12 million spectators attending the race each year, the Tour de France is easily the most attended sporting event in the world. 'Will the Government consider how it can inspire a new generation of Froomes and Cavendishes to take up the mantle and consider what they are doing to restore a sporting jewel, in which we have enjoyed such recent success, to the masses, lest its absence from our screens cause the sport to wither on the vine?' Stephanie Peacock, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, replied to say that she was grateful to the honorary member for bringing the matter to her attention, and that she 'sympathised' with his points, but that it was entirely up to the rights holder to determine whether any coverage will be available to free-to-air television in the future. New coverage, but less viewers TNT, understandably keen not to be painted as the villains here, say that is already happening. There is already a new hour-long programme called The Ultimate Cycling Show, hosted by Orla Chennaoui and Adam Blythe, shown on its free-to-air Quest channel, as well as daily highlights shows on the same channel during the recent Giro. The same is planned for the Vuelta a España in August. Only the Tour will remain fully behind a paywall, although a TNT spokesperson suggested the possibility of free-to-air highlights being shown on Quest next year, or in 2027, when the grand depart is once again scheduled to take place in the UK, was under consideration. What might the impact be on UK cycling by then, though? Again, WBD defend themselves. They claim over half of Eurosport viewers already had access to TNT Sports at the time of Eurosport's closure. They maintain that being part of a package which include Champions League and Premiership Rugby will introduce new fans to the sport. They also point out, rightly, that ITV declined to renew its broadcast rights for the Tour, whereas it is investing millions into cycling. Like football and cricket on Sky Sports, they promise to innovate and raise standards. That may all be true. But it does not change the fact that the Tour is disappearing from free-to-air TV and millions of fans will be left without a show which was appointment viewing for three weeks every year. As Obese-Jecty MP said: 'The reassuring tones of Gary Imlach and the encyclopaedic knowledge of Ned Boulting will no longer be staples of cycling fans' summers.' Boulting smiles at that line. 'The fact it got debated in Parliament is insane,' he says. 'David and my names are in the Hansard register now.' He does find the fans' backlash interesting, though, mainly because of how persistent it has been. 'The level of engagement with the topic just doesn't seem to have died down,' he says. 'In fact, the closer we get to the Tour the more it is ramping up. I think it's because, unlike the Ashes, or the Olympics, the Tour is every summer. It's an annual event, which just anchors its place in the rhythm of the year for so many family lives. That, I think, is the reason why the noise around it is so persistent and so loud.' Like many subscription channels, TNT does not release its viewing figures; or say how many new subscribers have signed up since shutting Eurosport down. Even if it did, it would be difficult to tell how many had signed up for cycling as opposed to its other sports. But Boulting stresses he wants the new landscape to be a success, not least because a bigger fanbase will drive more listeners to the Never Strays Far podcast he co-hosts with Millar. New TMS-style podcast planned The pair have big plans for the podcast next year, which they will confirm on Saturday. But essentially they involve Millar and Boulting driving around France in a camper van, with Lizzie Deignan as their co-host, doing live podcasts from the roadside, only looking away from the race, so the cameras watch them watching the action in the style of Soccer Saturday. 'We're going to call it Never Strays Far: Live in France,' Millar says. 'So we'll be on the race, following the race, watching the race, and just relaying as much of it as we can. We'll put it out as video as well, almost certainly on YouTube, but across as many platforms as we can.' 'Think TMS [ Test Match Special ],' Boulting says. 'It will be whimsical, irreverent. We'll chat to fans. We'll broadcast from random squares or places on the route. We won't be rights holders so we won't be able to show race footage. And we won't have accreditation. That's very important. But we can always go see riders in hotels or wherever. 'The Tour de France has always been about much more than the race,' he adds. 'And I think that's one of the things that our ITV viewers really understand and value. And we want to encourage a big percentage of these suddenly disenfranchised viewers to keep the Tour de France in their lives in this new form, where they can. We are very familiar voices and faces to them. And Lizzie will be an absolutely unbelievable addition to our team.' Will they sleep in the camper? Boulting laughs. 'Funnily enough that was Lizzie's first question. No. We're going to have plastic key cards to get into Campanile hotel rooms.. In fact, we might try and do the whole thing in Campaniles. The dream.' One more emotional lap It remains to be seen how it all shakes out; what exactly the loss of free-to-air will do to cycling in the UK. But in the meantime Imlach, Boulting, Millar, as well as reporters Daniel Friebe and Matt Rendell, are preparing for one final, emotional lap of France. 'I think the producers are definitely going to celebrate the heritage,' Boulting reflects. 'You know, it's tricky for ITV because they don't want to put up on great big billboards: 'We're leaving the sport'. But on the other hand, this is a unique programme, a unique event, and a unique association that has gone on for a long time. So they acknowledge that, and they are going to celebrate, you know, in style I think. 'For sure, we're going to hear the Channel 4 theme tune that so many people are nostalgic about. We're going to drill down into all that history, repeatedly, throughout the three weeks. The Tour de France allows us that. It gives us that time to be reflective and to sort of dredge the seabed of memories that people have.' How will he feel when it's over? 'I find it emotional at the best of times. When we sign off on the show each year, when the sun goes down behind the podium and you get the Arc de Triomphe in the background, I always find that a very emotional moment. Because we're tired, we've been on the race for three weeks, we've made it to Paris, and that's it, we're signing off. Signing off for the final time in three weeks will be a very hard thing to get right.'
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Aged 11, Quatermass gave me the willies. Now it's even scarier
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Close Encounters has a similar documentary feel, but its benevolent musical aliens and flattering vision of humanity are the Pollyanna to Quatermass's Greta Thunberg. Like its predecessors, the series was written by Nigel Kneale, a man whose talent was for thinking, 'What's the worst that could happen?' and then trebling it. (He was married to Judith Kerr, creator of Mog and The Tiger Who Came To Tea – never were opposites more attracted.) The reviews slated Quatermass for being a slow downer, and for featuring hippies as a main plot element, which in the age of punk rock made it seem dated. (In fact, Kneale had written the script years before, but the gestation process of television had kept it incubating for a decade.) But Kneale was 46 years too early; this Quatermass is the dystopia for our time. The Britain of Quatermass is beset by blackouts, fraying infrastructure, and the rise of private security in place of a defunct police force. OAP Professor Quatermass himself has retired to the country, and doesn't realise how catastrophically far things have fallen until he enters London at the start. The cities are torn apart by gang warfare – he is brutally mugged in the opening moments, which sets the tone for the whole thing. Television itself is represented by the Tituppy Bumpity Show, a pornographic entertainment for kids complete with furries, dildos and rainbow-bright cut-outs which looks exactly – and I do mean exactly – like an LGBTQ+ event in schools, or one of Channel 4's self-satisfied excursions into 'inclusivity'. And there's a generation gap – well, more of a canyon. We meet a youth cult-cum-protest movement called the Planet People, whose members look exactly – and I do mean exactly – like our own Just Stop Oil/Antifa/Queers for Palestine marchers, though slimmer and cleaner. (Amusingly, both Corrie's Brian Tilsley and Toyah Willcox can be seen among this throng.) 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Quatermass is obviously dated in other ways. We have an old man as the hero, and a white, middle-class old man at that. It's age, experience, Western science and culture – mixed with Jewish ingenuity – that are the only hope of saving the day. Imagine trying to get that past TV execs today – a show with a leading man aged 71 would be unthinkable. As in all Kneale's work, though, female characters are up front. Brenda Fricker, Barbara Kellerman and Margaret Tyzack all play competent, intelligent professionals. Unlike modern TV, this feels perfectly unforced – they're just there. Quatermass, like a lot of 1970s drama, (think of Upstairs Downstairs, I, Claudius, Rock Follies) has an outspokenness, and casually assumes its viewers are intelligent and paying close attention. The production values of these shows are often rotten by our standards (though not in this case – it looks amazing, bar a plasticky stone circle), but they confront very uncomfortable subjects – race, sex, violence – in ways that ours stick flimsy plasters over. Watching when I was aged just 11, Quatermass gave me the willies. The aliens, not so much; it was the bleak future of Britain that shook my infant soul. In the intervening years, I sometimes thought back and chuckled complacently at Nigel Kneale – well, he got that wrong, I worried for nothing. But looking around us in 2025, I'm not so sure. Come, lovely lightning, and drop on us!
Wales Online
2 hours ago
- Wales Online
Coronation Street's real-life mum and son appeared on soap and fans 'had no idea'
Coronation Street's real-life mum and son appeared on soap and fans 'had no idea' Coronation Street has seen a number of real-life family members appear on the cobbles over the years - but fans were left stunned after realising two stars are mother and son Coronation Street's real-life mum and son appeared on soap and fans 'had no idea' (Image: PA ) Two stars of Coronation Street share more than just their talent for captivating audiences. The popular ITV soap has a history of featuring real-life family members on its iconic cobbles, including siblings, cousins, and even parent-child duos. Cousins Brooke Vincent and Ellie Leach have both enjoyed successful stints on the show, while the late Rick Neelan (played by Greg Wood) was actually the real-life brother of footballer Tommy Orpington (portrayed by Matt Milburn). However, they're not the only ones with familial ties both on and off screen. Fans were recently taken aback by the revelation of a mother-son duo who graced the soap years ago. Sue played Gloria on the soap (Image: Granada TV ) In 1985, Sue Jenkins joined the cast of Coronation Street as Gloria Todd, becoming a regular face at the Rovers Return pub. She worked alongside Julie Goodyear, who famously played landlady Bet Lynch, reports the Daily Star. Article continues below Beyond her time on Corrie, Sue also portrayed Jackie Corkhill in Brookside from 1992 to 2001, and made a brief appearance in Emmerdale in 2008 as Bonnie Drinkwater. Interestingly, Sue's son is none other than Richard Fleeshman, who also had a role on Coronation Street as Craig Harris. Her real-life son also appeared on the soap Richard became part of the Coronation Street family in 2002, joining as part of the Harris clan, who were under witness protection. His character, Craig, had some significant storylines during his tenure. He adopted a goth lifestyle, much to his father's disapproval, and became Rosie Webster's (portrayed by Helen Flanagan) first boyfriend. The plot thickened dramatically when Craig's sister, Katy Harris, killed their father following a heated argument about her clandestine relationship with Martin Platt. Fans have been left floored (Image: Granada Television ) Their mother, Angela Harris, attempted to protect Katy by covering up the crime, but overwhelmed by guilt, Katy took her own life. In the aftermath, Craig planned to flee to Berlin with Rosie, but ultimately departed alone, bidding farewell to the cobbles in 2006 for good. The revelation of Sue and Richard's roles on Corrie left fans astounded. On X, previously known as Twitter, one viewer posted about Sue's stint on Corrie. Another fan responded: "That's Richard fleeshmans mum!". A third person commented: "Wow, all this time watching and I never knew that, I can see her son in that photo now." Yet another added: "Her real life son played Craig Harris, son of Psycho Tommy!" Article continues below Coronation Street airs Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 8pm on ITV1 and ITVX
