Yeats return a oncer

Press, 2 December 1987, Page 19

Yeats return a oncer

By

TONY VERDON,

London Correspondent “Coronation Street’s” lovable binman Eddie Yeats is returning to the Rovers Return. Actor Geoffrey Hughes left the series four years ago and has turned down repeated pleas from producers to return. Now he has relented and will appear in a oneoff Christmas special as a tribute to his old landlady, Hilda Ogden. Hilda, played by Jean Alexander, wil say “ta ra chucks” for the last time on British screens, on Christmas Day. While producers are still keeping quiet about the circumstances surrounding Hilda’s departure from the street, they have been promising “a real tear-jerker.” Geoffrey Hughes has appeared in pantomimes, a Channel Four comedy series “The Bright Side” with Paula Wilcox and the stage show “Run for Your Wife,” since leaving “Coronation Street.”

He toured New Zealand earlier this year in "Run for Your Wife.”

Britons have seen a lot more of “Coronation Street” star Chris Quinten lately than they have been used to in the sedate series.

Normally clad in overalls as mechanic Brian Tilsley, Quinten is apparently trying to stake out a career for himself as a model, and appeared recently on the front page of a tabloid newspaper wearing just a pair of sunglasses and a couple of little pieces of leather. Ivy Tilsley would certainly not approve.

The United States 'is currently being prepared for “East Enders with language lessons. Viewers

who will see “East Enders five nights a week from January are to get a crash course in cockney.

Those exporting Britain’s top-ranked soap want to be sure the show does not suffer the same fate as “Coronation Street” which crashed because few could understand the North England dialogue.

American stations taking “East Enders will offer a glossary of cockney terms and explanations of rhyming slang.

Some “East Enders stars have been having as hard a time in real life as they have on screen. Drunk soccer thugs recently set upon the four actors who play Lofty, Hicksy, lan Beale and Dr Singh in the series, beating them up while they were eating in a pizza parlour near Arsenal’s ground in North London. The soccer fans went on the rampage after Arsenal were beaten 3-0 by Chelsea.

The soap stars had been training nearby for their charity soccer squad, the Walford Boys Club. None was seriously hurt, but all suffered cuts and bruises.