Corrie: LeAnn & Gail

[tec]

I laughed myself silly this morning when watching Corrie and having breakfast. When LeAnn went over to the street repairman and screamed "Good Morning" in his un-protected ear. How many times have I wished I could have done something similar when being disturbed by construction noise. Totally unexpected and terribly funny payback I thought.

Now on the other hand Gail is one strange and terribly viscous woman (in this man's opinion). She knows full well that David has terrible problems as result of finding out his mother considered abortion before he was born. Then when her Sarah became pregnant I don't remember any discussions as the ones she's having with Tina about abortion. I think she was 13 then. David is going to really go a lot more demented when he learns what they are planning. I just don't understand her motivation pushing for the abortion. A good storyline though.

[SpursFan1902]

This was the only Gail Platt thread I could find and she just isn't worth starting a new one. Can I just to say that she is the biggest whiner on the face of the earth?? I just can't stand her. Now, I understand she is all broken up about Joe, although for the life of me I can't see why, but her voice is just like nails on a chalk board for me. I will be happy when this storyline is done. Maybe we won't see her for a while...I have to agree with Tec's observations above...she is one strange woman.

[pirtybirdy]

What bugs me most about her is that she talks as though everything she says is a secret. She whispers her lines quietly. She's quite capable of yelling and she has a voice, so speak up Gail!

[SpursFan1902]

That is exactly it, Pirty! She whispers and it makes her seem mousey and timid and irritating. And now, with her misplaced loyalty to Joe, she has dumped everyone in it...Tina and David will certainly go down if she does as they knew about his half assed plan...What a mess.

[pirtybirdy]

Gail made a pigs ear of everything. No wonder why she has so many troubled relationships! lol!

[Twirley]

I agree - Gail behaves like a victim. She also doesn't seem to have a handle on when to keep something secret and when to tell the truth. And why on earth did she let David persuade her what to do - not like he's the sharpest knife in the drawer (although he thinks he is!). It will be interesting to see how this story pans out but Ihope it doesn't take too long...!

[SpursFan1902]

And even if David was as smart as he thought he was, he is not the most law abiding bloke is he? He is not going to chose telling the truth as his number 1 option.

[Kezza]

[faceless]

After 35 yrs in Corrie (AND 4 HUSBANDS) I feared this plot would be my last
By Sue Crawford
7/03/2010

She has played Coronation Street's Gail for 35 years... and is as much a fixture of the well-loved soap as the Rovers Return or those famous cobblestones. But Helen Worth admits she feared the worst when she heard the character she has played since 1974 was to be charged with murder.

"My first thought was, 'Oh my goodness, I've been written out'," recalls Helen, 59, in a rare interview. "At the time I was genuinely anxious as to whether it was the end of the road for me and Coronation Street. I wasn't shocked, because it can happen to an actor at any time. But I was very pleased when I found out that whatever happens at Gail's trial, I will be staying in the show."

The case against innocent Gail builds this week, with detectives increasingly suspecting she murdered new husband Joe McIntyre for his life insurance. She is dramatically arrested in front of family and friends at Joe's wake at the Rovers Return. She is charged with murder - and, as our exclusive pictures show, is sent to prison to await trial.

Filming for the shocking prison scenes took place in a real jail, Styal women's prison in Cheshire, and for Helen it was a sobering experience. She says: "I'd never been inside a prison before and we filmed on the remand block. On remand you are presumably innocent until proven guilty, yet you are behind a locked door in a real prison and treated as a prisoner." Despite the grim reality of life in jail, Helen says the prisoners were very welcoming. She says: "They were shouting out 'Free Gail! Free Gail!' when they saw me. They all watched Coronation Street and were very interested in what we were doing."

Gail's trials and tribulations have kept viewers gripped for 35 years and as the show nears its half c e n t u r y, viewers have seen the longsuffering mum chalk up four husbands - and outlive three of them. Her first, Brian, cheated on her before being stabbed to death. The second, Martin, also cheated . Third husband Richard Hillman drowned in the canal as he tried to kill her family and her. Joe, has accidentally e Windermere while is own death.

says she loves her rbulent life: "Calm fun stories are they? en boring. now Number Fou drowned in Lake trying to fake hi And Helen s character's tur stories are not f It has never bee "And I love th make me laugh number four an - she married Br She has thre different father was born Gail h he statistics - they h. Joe was husband d her fifth marriage rian twice.

ee children by two rs, but before Sarah had an affair with an Australian. In those days everything had to have a happy ending so the father was Brian.

"If that story was written now it would clearly have been the Australian - and I always wished it had been. Then I would have had three children by three fathers - bring it on!" Off screen Helen has little in common with her screen character... she is cultured, elegant and amusing. She is currently single, having divorced husband Michael Angelis, also an actor, in 2001 after ten years of marriage. She lives in London and has a busy social life - but without the ups and downs Gail has endured. She says: "I'd be in a mental institution if my life was like Gail's. I come home and see friends and go to the theatre. Luckily I find it quite easy to switch off - I'd be a nervous wreck if I didn't."

Helen also supports charities, particularly ActionAid and the Born Free Foundation, which works to protect wild animals. She joined the charity at the House of Commons in 2006 to speak about proposed changes to the Animal Welfare Bill and campaign for Anne, the UK's last circus elephant, to be retired.

Helen says: "Elephants are the most divine things and in a great deal of trouble at the moment because of the ivory trade. One hundred elephants a day are killed by poachers and the minute anyone buys a trinket or a small pair of ivory earrings that's another elephant dead. It's horrendous. I don't expect to change the world. I have no illusions about that. But if I can just do a little bit then it's very hard to say no."

Helen auditioned for two other Coronation Street roles before landing the role of warehouse clerk Gail Potter. But it was three years before her character really took off. Gail and her flirtatious friend Suzie Birchall moved into number 11 Coronation Street to live with Elsie Tanner, to form one of the Street's most glamorous households. But while today's young female stars quickly becoming fixtures of gossip columns and lads' mag shoots, Helen admits that in the Seventies life was very different for the soap's actresses.

She says: "It wasn't like that when I joined. It was a more innocent time and they have a lot to cope with now. Goodness, when I started journalists used to ask what your hobby was. The poor publicity officer is still waiting for my answer all these years later."

But Helen - now the sixth longest-serving cast member - has become one of the show's most recognisable faces and is often stopped in the street by fans. She says: "Everyone seems to enjoy Gail's problems. She makes them feel their lives aren't that bad. I'm there to show them how not to do it!" As for the future, Helen has no plans to leave, saying: "I initially joined for six weeks, but it's so easy to stay here because it's a great place to work. The Street has given me the opportunity to enjoy a great life and I love the people I work with."

Helen was born in Ossett, West Yorks, and grew up in Morecambe, Lancs, where her parents Gladys and Alfred ran a seaside hotel. She took dancing lessons from age three, appeared in many school theatrical productions and then at 10 was invited to read stories on Granada Television's news and current affairs programme Scene at 6.30. She went on to appear on Z-Cars then at 12 played one of the von Trapp children in The Sound of Music at London's Palace Theatre. She returned to Morecambe to finish her education then went to drama college in the capital. She worked in repertory theatre and, at the age of 17, played an urchin in the 1968 film Oliver!.

She was in the Prime of Miss Jean Brodie as a schoolgirl, six episodes of Doctor Who and prison drama Within These Walls before she won the role of Gail. She has appeared in more than 900 episodes of Corrie and in 2006 was honoured with an outstanding achievement award at the Inside Soap Awards. The only downside appears to be her character's less-than-glamorous wardrobe - a limited choice of jeans and polo-neck jumpers.

Helen says: "The clothes are the most difficult part of Gail. If there's something I really don't like, I try to throw it out when the wardrobe department isn't looking." Gail's arrest and trial is set to be one of the big stories of the show's 50th year - but whatever the outcome, Helen says fans should not blame Gail for the mess she is in. She says: "She's someone I know very well and I like her. She's gullible, she's romantic, she's optimistic and she's strong. Not in the sense that she's out in the street shouting about her rights, but mentally she is incredibly strong. She hasn't had a nervous breakdown and how come after all she has been through? Who knows? Maybe that is the next storyline for her!"

To support Helen and Born Free's campaign against the ivory trade go to www.bornfree.org.uk

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There's a chunk of this article which is all garbled - it was like that on the original page too... shoddy!

[SpursFan1902]

wow, I thought it was because I hadn't had my coffee yet!

[faceless]

Bail fail nails pale Gail's jail tale!

[faceless]

[pirtybirdy]

Do you mean I have to watch this sulky bitch in prison until July? How torturous! lol!

[Kezza]

Wow, women in Weatherfield have the best prisons guards ever!!! How nice was that guard with Gail -- checking on her because she wasn't eating?

Jeez, she's getting treated better in prison than she does at home!

[SpursFan1902]

Let the Gail bashing begin again! I can not stand this nosey, simpering, whinny cow!!! I for one am happy that she was stupid enough to fall for Lewis....she deserves it. All of her pushy, nosey, I cant let that happen to my family ridiculousness has finally cost her and I for one am thrilled! I hope this means she will drop out of sight and lose her house. Now that Becky is solid in Barbados, she can send Kylie and David the money for the down payment or loan repayment to make it their house and she can just go. I would not miss her in the least. Plus she has stupid hair. Whew...that felt great!