Controversial Storyline for Corries 50th - Contains Spoilers

[alan45]

Coronation Street last week gave us a lot to take in, what with bars exploding, trams crashing and plenty of tears flowing.

But eagle-eyed fans may have spotted one notable absence during the milestone episodes - Michelle Connor.

The barmaid turned factory employee, played by Kym Marsh, was said to have nipped up to Scotland to see her son Ryan.

Now actress Kym Marsh has explained why she wasn't around for the anniversary week, which included an hour-long live transmission.

In her New! magazine column, she wrote: "The Corrie 50th anniversary episodes went down a storm and everyone was delighted with the reaction. You probably noticed that I didn't appear, and that's because there were stunts involved.

"Because of my pregnancy, the producers thought it would be better if I didn't take part. They explained my absence by saying Michelle had gone to see Ryan in Glasgow.

"Of course, I was a little disappointed not to be part of it, but there's no contest when it comes to the wellbeing of my baby.

"It was great to watch the episodes as a regular viewer and I also really enjoyed the screening of the first ever episode - the humour was evident from the beginning!"

Kym announced her pregnancy in March. It comes less than two years after she and fiance Jamie Lomas tragically lost their baby Archie Jay, who died moments after his premature birth.

Meanwhile, Corrie's Michelle is certainly in for a shock when she returns to cobbles...

[tammyy2j]

Coronation Street fans have now seen the last of the soap's 50th anniversary deaths, Digital Spy can confirm.

Last week, viewers saw Ashley Peacock (Steven Arnold), Molly Dobbs (Vicky Binns) and Charlotte Hoyle (Becky Hindley) all perish as the soap marked its milestone with seven special episodes which saw disaster hit the cobbles.

However, as the celebrations concluded on Friday night, some fans were left wondering whether there was more tragedy to come as trailers for the 50th anniversary had contained the tagline "Four Funerals and a Wedding".

DS can now confirm that the mystery fourth death was the taxi driver and father-of-three mentioned by firefighters in Thursday night's live episode. He had been close to The Joinery when the bar exploded.

Corrie bosses had created the "Four Funerals" tagline as a red herring in a bid to increase the speculation and secrecy surrounding the high-profile week of episodes.

Show producer Phil Collinson today confirmed to DS: "It was vital that we created as much anticipation and intrigue as possible for anniversary week. The 'Four Funerals' tag was too good to resist and encouraged the speculation about who would and who would not survive this terrible week in Weatherfield.

"In this case, speculation became a big part of the viewers' identification with the drama and therefore enhanced their enjoyment of it."

I am disappointed tbh there should have been more deaths (of known characters) and serious injuries at least

[Abbie]

I agree actually they made such a big deal about death and destruction

[Chris_2k11]

Oh there she is Kym Marsh again!

[Abbie]

I didnt even notice she was gone

[Siobhan]

Oh there she is Kym Marsh again!

Are you sure she was told she couldn't do it due to the stunts... I mean not everyone needed to be blasted across the street.. I reckon that was just a line she was told so they could get her out of the way...

[Abbie]

Was it only the live episode she was missing from?
cos maybe with her going to be bigger for the live epsiode, they didnt want her in the episode before looking thin and then gain weight within an hour to be smaller again the epsiode the next day

[Perdita]

She was away all week

[alan45]

She was away all week

No loss there then

[alan45]

Coronation Street actor Michael Le Vell has confessed to becoming emotional while watching last week's dramatic episodes.

Le Vell, who has played Kevin Webster on the soap since 1983, claimed that he was almost brought to tears after viewing a preview of the shows, in which a number of characters died.

"I'm not normally an emotional kind of person, to be honest," he admitted to the Daily Star. "But I was taken aback at the end of it all.

"It was all quite emotional."

Last week, Corrie celebrated its 50th anniversary with a series of special episodes which saw local bar The Joinery explode as well as a dramatic tram crash.

The storyline resulted in the deaths of main characters Ashley Peacock, Molly Dobbs and Charlotte Hoyle.