THAT’S ANOTHER FINE MESS YOU GOT ME INTO STANLEY!

I was never going to be anything but an entertainer. The stage beckoned me as a child and once I’d had a taste of it I was away!

I come from a stagey family. My grandfather was what they call a television icon. His name was Bernard Youens and he played the part of Stan Ogden in Coronation Street for over 20 years. It meant that we didn’t get to see a great deal of him because back in those days they had to learn all their lines as though it was being performed in a theatre. These days they have a read-through of the script and then record each part with lots of cuts so the learning process is much easier.

Why I am telling you all this? Well, Grandad died back in 1984 but people still remember him with a lot of affection, so much so, that he is featured on the latest second class stamp in the UK. When I saw the news on the internet I was delighted. It is such an honour to see his face, along with Jean Alexander (Hilda Ogden) on a stamp. My mother was delighted. I had some postcards made up for her of the stamp so that she could send them to her friends and family. It could have been a different story. When Coronation Street started, grandad was offered a different role in the show.

He was given the part of landlady, Annie Walker’s husband, Jack, which he turned down because Corrie was originally only going to be a 13 part series. He was the TV announcer for Granada TV at the time. It was a well-paid and steady job and he had 5 kids to feed. The show never came off the air and 4 years later they offered him the part of the lovable layabout Stan Ogden. If he had taken that first part in the show, he would never have been the icon that he is and would never have been on that stamp all those years after he has passed on. Needless to say, I am bursting with pride at the moment and excited about seeing that stamp for the first time.