Mud flies in ‘The Street’

Press, 18 February 1983, Page 15

Mud flies in ‘The Street’

The kidnap qf the famous racehorse. Shergar, in Ireland, and the hunt for 13 bodies believed to be buried around a house in north London have had to take second place in Fleet Street’s popular papers this week to goings-on in Coronation Street. "The Sun" and the "Daily Star” have competed with grandiose front page headlines as Peter Adamson, who plays Len Fairclough in the television series, tells all about “The Street." Add to that television workers striking on Sunday night when an affair between Deirdre Barlow and Mike Baldwin was about to get underway on screen, and no news of lesser international importance has managed a

look in. Peter Adamson is reported to be facing the sack as he tells "The Sun" readers such items as Julie Goodyear, who plays the barmaid, giving him an old car when he was down on his luck. Jean Alexander, who plays Hilda Ogden, handed over a cheque for £5OOO just when he needed it, he reveals. “I was so moved I cried — and I can still cry now when I think of it,” he says. Bernard Yoens. who plays Stan Ogden, “bumbles along struggling with Stan's dialogue” because of an illness which threatened his speech, according to Adamson. These titbits and many more have infuriated Adamson’s, co-actors, who have hit back in print with a ven-

geance. "If he says anything about me I’ll sue him for everything he’s got. And that goes for the rest of the cast too." Pat Phoenix, who plays Elsie Tanner, proclaimed in a front-page “Daily Star" story headed: "Len faces the sack." “His name is mud at Granada." she added. “How could he do it? We have all been offered a small fortune for our stories. But you don't rat on your mates, do you?" Today's big “Sun" revelation story from Adamson is titled: “Twenty lusty ladies stripped me in a lift." The "Daily Star" goes one better with a two-page interview with Adamson's brother, Clifford Adamson, calling Peter “a rotter.” "If I sound bitter, then I

am." he says. “Peter, the youngest of six brothers and sisters, was the apple of my mother's eye. but she died broken-hearted — destroyed by the lies he told about our family in the press.

"We tried for several days, as she was dying, to contact our famous brother. But when we finally spoke to hqn he said he was 'too busy’ to see her before she died.” Peter Adamson’s sister. Hazel, has also leapt into print to say she was glad Clifford had spoken out.

"Before he took to drink there was no nicer man in the world than Peter," she said. “Now I don't think he knows what he is saying."

Winter in London has brought a fair share of mud for “Coronation Street."