'Misery' for Norris

[Dazzle]

I really hope Mary will stay in Corrie long-term. She's one of the funniest characters to ever grace the cobbles.

[alan45]

I really hope Mary will stay in Corrie long-term. She's one of the funniest characters to ever grace the cobbles.

I think her and Norris make a great double act. Norris was great with the late Blanche

[alan45]

Barmy Mary Taylor has a tendency to get obsessed with things - competitions, Norris Cole and now poor Hayley Cropper.

And it turns out that her alter ego Patti Clare has a bit of an obsession of her own - Coronation Street.

She was so desperate to land a role on the cobbles she penned a string of begging letters.

She even invented her own character and wrote her scene - which was rejected - before she was eventually cast.

Patti told the Mirror: "I used to write and write to the casting director asking for a job and he'd write back saying, 'Nothing doing at the moment'. I could really see myself in Corrie and was very persistent.

"So I wrote him a scene making up a character for myself called Cherise, who was to be Raquel's half-sister. She sat in the bar and didn't say anything and wore glasses and was quite dowdy and then Raquel gives her a make-over. I thought it was brilliant, but he wrote back and said, 'No, no, no, no, no, it's not going to happen.'" Eventually though, it did happen."

If at first you don't succeed and all that.

[Dazzle]

I'm glad Patti Clare was eventually cast in Corrie.