It's the last day of the September showcase for soap operas! And as it's Video Sunday, I wanted to make it really special. So I thought I might profile a character played by one of my favorite actors. He only was on ten episodes, but he has expressed interest in one day returning to the role.
Putting the "world" into Toobworld, we have to go across the Atlantic to meet him.
Welcome to Inner Toob Sir Ian McKellen and Mel Hutchwright!
From Wikipedia:
Lionel Hipkiss, using the alias Mel Hutchwright, is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera, Coronation Street, played by Ian McKellen. He makes his first on-screen appearance on 1 May 2005 and is last seen on 22 May 2005.
In March 2005, it was announced that British veteran actor, Ian McKellen, had joined Coronation Street for ten episodes as a "dodgy novelist". Producer Tony Wood said: "We are delighted that an actor of Ian McKellen's calibre has agreed to appear in the show, it is a testament to the direction we have been taking the show in the last 12 months. Ian will be perfect as Mel Hutchwright and the cast and crew are looking forward to working with him on what promises to be a very funny storyline."
Mel Hutchwright, the author of novel "Hard Grinding", turns up at a Book Club meeting having been invited by Blanche Hunt. Norris Cole, Rita Sullivan and Emily Bishop are in awe of the author but Ken Barlow is unimpressed. Norris offers Mel a bed for the night at Emily's, while Blanche buys his drinks. Mel tells the book club how he has been suffering from writer's block. In the Rovers, he is enthralled to see the women fighting and declaring it has cured his writer's block and decides he will stay in Weatherfield to complete his book.
Mel continues to sponge off Emily and Norris. When he hears that Ken has written a book he enjoys poking fun at him. Mel continues to scrounge drinks as he feigns sincerity with Fred Elliott and Norris saying that he has named two of the heroes in his novel after them. He also dupes Roy Cropper into giving him a free lunch at the café.
Mel takes Audrey Roberts for lunch at the Clock Restaurant. He gets drunk and manages to dupe Audrey in to paying the bill by promising to base the hero of his book on her late husband Alf. Drunken Mel suggests to Audrey they should go for a "lie down", which she refuses.
Mel is not who he appears to be and the first signals of this happen when Norris discovers Mel isn't typing in the front room of Emily's house at all, but it is a tape recording of someone typing. He's hurt realising Mel lied to him but Mel manages to worm his way out of it. Norris intends to persuade the Book Club to raise the money to fund the publishing of Mel's next book. Mel is about to leave, having stolen some of Emily's ornaments, when Norris tells him his idea of raising money for his book. Mel secretly replaces the ornaments, and agrees to stay.
Norris then gets everyone at the Book Club except Ken to agree to put in £200 to pay for the publishing of Mel's "The Canary's Last Song". Ken doesn't trust Mel and resolves to expose him for what he is. Mel tells Norris to get the Book Club members to make their cheques out to Lionel Hipkiss, his publisher. The Club meets and hands their money over to Mel, and in thanks he reads a passage from his book. Ken arrives at the Book Club and exposes Mel for the fraud that he is. Mel's real name is in fact Lionel Hipkiss and he has pulled scams like this at book clubs all over the country. Emily, Blanche, Roy, Rita, Audrey and Norris are shocked and demand their money back. Norris manhandles Mel out of the door after he insults them all. None of the Book Club members report Mel to the police, embarrassed that they were taken in by a conman.
I hope he does come back! But even if he doesn't, I'm going to make sure his "legend" continues. In my Toobworld adventures, Toob Cooper has an extensive library of books only to be found in the TV Universe. And I'm going to have a signed copy of "Hard Grinding" tucked away on the shelves.
So that's it. The first attempt to dedicate an entire month to sop operas. I'm not sure I could undertake this again on such a massive scale, but I will be inducting four new Friday Hall of Famers from Daytime Dramas next September.
My thanks to Michael Trupia for showing me that I could get at least one month's worth of material for Inner Toob out of the genre, now on its last legs....
BCnU!
Putting the "world" into Toobworld, we have to go across the Atlantic to meet him.
Welcome to Inner Toob Sir Ian McKellen and Mel Hutchwright!
From Wikipedia:
Lionel Hipkiss, using the alias Mel Hutchwright, is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera, Coronation Street, played by Ian McKellen. He makes his first on-screen appearance on 1 May 2005 and is last seen on 22 May 2005.
In March 2005, it was announced that British veteran actor, Ian McKellen, had joined Coronation Street for ten episodes as a "dodgy novelist". Producer Tony Wood said: "We are delighted that an actor of Ian McKellen's calibre has agreed to appear in the show, it is a testament to the direction we have been taking the show in the last 12 months. Ian will be perfect as Mel Hutchwright and the cast and crew are looking forward to working with him on what promises to be a very funny storyline."
Mel Hutchwright, the author of novel "Hard Grinding", turns up at a Book Club meeting having been invited by Blanche Hunt. Norris Cole, Rita Sullivan and Emily Bishop are in awe of the author but Ken Barlow is unimpressed. Norris offers Mel a bed for the night at Emily's, while Blanche buys his drinks. Mel tells the book club how he has been suffering from writer's block. In the Rovers, he is enthralled to see the women fighting and declaring it has cured his writer's block and decides he will stay in Weatherfield to complete his book.
Mel continues to sponge off Emily and Norris. When he hears that Ken has written a book he enjoys poking fun at him. Mel continues to scrounge drinks as he feigns sincerity with Fred Elliott and Norris saying that he has named two of the heroes in his novel after them. He also dupes Roy Cropper into giving him a free lunch at the café.
Mel takes Audrey Roberts for lunch at the Clock Restaurant. He gets drunk and manages to dupe Audrey in to paying the bill by promising to base the hero of his book on her late husband Alf. Drunken Mel suggests to Audrey they should go for a "lie down", which she refuses.
Mel is not who he appears to be and the first signals of this happen when Norris discovers Mel isn't typing in the front room of Emily's house at all, but it is a tape recording of someone typing. He's hurt realising Mel lied to him but Mel manages to worm his way out of it. Norris intends to persuade the Book Club to raise the money to fund the publishing of Mel's next book. Mel is about to leave, having stolen some of Emily's ornaments, when Norris tells him his idea of raising money for his book. Mel secretly replaces the ornaments, and agrees to stay.
Norris then gets everyone at the Book Club except Ken to agree to put in £200 to pay for the publishing of Mel's "The Canary's Last Song". Ken doesn't trust Mel and resolves to expose him for what he is. Mel tells Norris to get the Book Club members to make their cheques out to Lionel Hipkiss, his publisher. The Club meets and hands their money over to Mel, and in thanks he reads a passage from his book. Ken arrives at the Book Club and exposes Mel for the fraud that he is. Mel's real name is in fact Lionel Hipkiss and he has pulled scams like this at book clubs all over the country. Emily, Blanche, Roy, Rita, Audrey and Norris are shocked and demand their money back. Norris manhandles Mel out of the door after he insults them all. None of the Book Club members report Mel to the police, embarrassed that they were taken in by a conman.
So that's it. The first attempt to dedicate an entire month to sop operas. I'm not sure I could undertake this again on such a massive scale, but I will be inducting four new Friday Hall of Famers from Daytime Dramas next September.
My thanks to Michael Trupia for showing me that I could get at least one month's worth of material for Inner Toob out of the genre, now on its last legs....
BCnU!
No comments:
Post a Comment