Corrie: Norris or Noretta? Cross dressing hijinks!

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Corrie cross-dresser Norris
September 17, 2008

Coronation Street's Norris Cole is apparently set to reveal a secret love of cross-dressing. The busy-body newsagent - played by 68-year-old Malcolm Hebden - confesses to landlady Emily Bishop about his female alias Noretta, after she discovers his stash of saucy ladies lingerie, according to the Daily Star.

Conservative church-goer Emily - played by 77-year-old Eileen Derbyshire - is shocked when Norris puts his sexy underwear into a bundle of clothes she is taking to the church jumble sale, but the bin liner splits open and she discovers it. Emily confronts her lodger: "I know your private life is your business, but what you get up to in my spare room is most definitely my business. Be honest - are you a transvestite?"

Norris confesses: "I won the underwear in a competition I entered while I was being Noretta Cole, and where I had to describe what my dream date with Pierce Brosnan would be like. We'd eat dozens of fresh oysters in a posh restaurant, spend the night flamenco dancing and then take a midnight hot air ride up the M60 orbital."

Coronation Street bosses apparently wrote the storyline to put some comedy into the run up to Christmas. A source said: "It's one of the funniest plots ever."

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haha, this will be funny to see - Norris is the perfect character for it.

[Kezza]

Sounds brilliant - looking forward to seeing "Noretta"

[pirtybirdy]

LOL! He's perfect for the storyline! Looking forward to it.

[SpursFan1902]

I don't currently watch Corrie, but I could start now!

[maycm]

I always had my suspicions about Norris.

[misslisalynn]

This is going to be priceless and can't wait to see it. Well, he does like to gossip like a little old lady.

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Coronation Street's Norris Cole, Malcolm Hebden
28th May 2009
blackpoolcitizen.co.uk

MALCOLM Hebden's life could have turned out very differently. A slow starter at school (he later discovered he suffered from dyslexia), Malcolm drifted from job to job as a shop assistant, and later worked as a window dresser in Burnley until his late 20s — a far cry from his present career as one of the nation's favourite soap actors.

“I went to Barden Secondary Modern, in Burnley, and was extremely slow because I'm severely dyslexic,” said Malcolm, 69, who was born in Chester and moved to Burnley before his first birthday. “Of course, they didn't know about dyslexia then. You were just dim. People from my background simply didn't go to drama schools. It wasn't an option. It’s not like it is today when there's a drama school in every town. There were just a few and getting into those was not easy."

Although Malcolm was a keen amateur actor with Accrington Arts Club, the Highcliffe Players and Burnley Garrick Club before taking the plunge into professional acting, it was seeing one of his contemporaries, actor and former press photographer Richard Moore, go to Bristol Old Vic drama school that gave him the push he needed.

"I knew Richard Moore and I watched him do it, and I thought, 'Well, if he can do it, why shouldn't I?'" I didn't have any O-levels or A-levels and so I had to go back to Accrington College to get the qualifications before the drama school would accept me."

Malcolm's gamble paid off and he has acted on stage in theatres all over Europe, and has a long association with Sir Alan Ayckbourn at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, where he has appeared in more than 10 world premieres and was an associate director. He has also had roles in many television programmes, including Heartbeat, Juliet Bravo, Band of Gold and two series of A Bit Of A Do. On top of all that, he has appeared in more than 100 radio plays.

But, of course, Malcolm — who now lives in the Ribble Valley — is best-known as Coronation Street's nosiest neighbour Norris Cole. It's not widely known, however, that this is his second role in the soap. Malcolm first appeared in 1974 as Carlos, Mavis Riley's Spanish lover. He is currently enjoying an exciting storyline, as Norris's half brother Ramsay Clegg (played by Fawlty Towers actor Andrew Sachs) has turned up and set the cat among the pigeons.

"The whole story of this half brother is actually something very different for Norris," said Malcolm. "It's not all comedy, ultimately. I'm looking forward to that challenge, doing some emotional stuff and getting involved, but it's a slow burn. The storyline is starting very slowly and at the moment I'm just being very vile to him, and I remain so until much later on when the true story comes out."

Malcolm is partly responsible for getting Sachs the role in the soap, after he mentioned the idea to Corrie producer Kim Crowther. "Andrew Sachs had shown an interest in wanting to play my half brother a few years ago," explained Malcolm. "But the idea got lost because we've had two different producers since then. I happened to be at a charity dinner with our current producer Kim Crowther and I mentioned it to her. She picked up on it immediately and said: 'Ooh, we must make that happen.' She approached Andrew and he said he would be happy to do it and I'm very lucky to have got him to work with."

Outside Coronation Street, Malcolm values his privacy — you'll never see him falling out of a nightclub or in the pages of Hello magazine. "I am a private person. I live alone and I quite like it like that," he said. "I don't hide away, though, and I've been filmed shopping in Sainsbury's on someone's mobile phone once — it was on Youtube. You do have to be careful though. I don't go out clubbing at night. For one thing I'm too old, but I don't anyway because when people have had a few drinks their attitude can be slightly different. Norris is a very popular character in general, though, and he's also very popular with children, which surprises me. I would have thought he'd get on our nerves, but he doesn't."

So are there any similarities between the man and the character?

"Well, I suppose I look like Norris for a start," said Malcolm. "But other than that I'm not like him at all. Norris has never moved away from the one area and I've worked all over England and in Germany, Holland, Belgium, and France, so I suppose I'm more sophisticated than he is. I can be a bit obsessive, but I don't have Norris's nosy streak. I don't peep around net curtains and things. I would hope I'm not as annoying as Norris. He can be infuriating. I'm amazed he gets away with what he does. People are very forgiving."

Free time is a rare commodity when working on a soap but Malcolm is currently renovating a house and also enjoys local charity work. "We never know from one week to the next what days we're going to be working or what times, so it's very difficult to plan ahead," he said. "My house is taking up a lot of time and a lot of money but when that's finished I will start working on the garden, which is new to me, so I'm rather looking forward to getting into that.

"I also do quite a bit of work for Leonard Cheshire disability charity and Derian House children's hospice. It's an enormous privilege and it certainly keeps you grounded. When I do charity work I always come away thinking how lucky I am not to be in that position, and if I can do anything to make life easier for those people I'm more than happy to do it."

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Norris Cole in love horror
Norris is to have a dramatic new storyline. The newsagent agrees to go on holiday with his admirer Mary Taylor.
19 February 2010

The pair go to a remote cottage near Haworth where the Brontë sisters wrote their novels. It is thought that Mary (Patti Clare) then sabotages the car and the cottage's phone keeping Cole captive. To Norris's horror Mary then becomes more demented and violent.

Corrie producers are said to have taken inspiration from Stephen King's novel Misery when coming up with the storyline. The 1988 book tells the story of an unstable fan Annie Wilkes who kidnaps a novelist and keeps him in a remote location.

A Corrie source told the Daily Mirror: "Mary convinces herself they are reincarnations of Heathcliffe and Cathy and keeps trying to share his bed. Norris escapes to a phone box. When Mary arrives he tries to run and hide but falls and sprains his ankle. Mary refuses to take him to hospital and returns him to the cottage telling him, 'The more helpless you are the stronger I get'."

The story continues as Norris tries to barricade himself in the cottage when he spots Mary in the yard with an axe. The insider added: "At first viewers will be amused by Norris's plight. But they'll soon realise that Mary is seriously demented."

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[Twirley]

I love these two together! This is going to be hilarious.

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No Way Out Of Mary's Misery

A WEEKEND break turns into Misery for Coronation Street veteran Norris Cole when he is held hostage by his obsessed friend Mary. The Kabin owner agrees to a trip to a remote village with love-struck Mary, but events take a sinister turn when she kidnaps him and keeps him prisoner.

In a copy of the Kathy Bates movie Misery, Mary (Patti Clare) sabotages his car and turns violent. Poor old Norris, played by Malcolm Hebden, has to make a bid for freedom to escape his stalker's clutches. As our pictures show, he makes it as far as a phone box where he tries to call friend Rita to raise the alarm. But Mary soon catches up and drives straight for him. The plucky pensioner dives over a stile to try to get away, but ends up face down in a muddy field - with Mary standing over him.

The episode will be shown on ITV1 next month.