Original subtitles

JASON MANFORD: They say good things come in twos.

Hey!

Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be.

There's more things in life to hot pot.

A man who's tired of hot pot is tired of life.

Coronation Street's greatest ever partnerships...

Stan? It's like salt without vinegar.

...have given us twice the laughs... It's like lager without lime.

Who needs dumbbells when you've got these?

It's like Ant without Dec.

...and double the drama.

You what? And don't come back!

Get hold of your boyfriend, Phyllis. Get off!

Let's see those dazzling smiles.

Join me as we celebrate some of the best partnerships in Corrie history.

I know you, Stan.

Well, the rest can go and rot! Yeah.

Ah, did I wake you up, chuck?

Providing comedy on the cobbles for 20 years...

'Ey, scratch my back, will you?

...there is no better place to look for one of Coronation Street's

most enduring partnerships of all-time than Stan and Hilda Ogden.

Where's yours? Same place. Right.

You know, Stan, there's nobody else on earth I'd let do that for me.

I should flamin' hope not!

Ooh, lovely. Ta, chuck.

You give them your best years of your life, and what do you get back?

For millions in the '70s and early '80s

the bickering duo WERE the street.

Well, go on, why don't you say summat?

Sat there like flamin' Rule Britannia.

He was a workshy layabout. Can I have my breakfast?

Get it yourself!

She had one of the loudest voices on the street.

No need to be vulgar.

It may be your last resort, but it's not mine.

I'll kill her!

And she turned it up to 11 if anyone picked on her Stanley.

I'm not sitting here gormless after what they've done to you.

You'll cause a scene! Too flamin' right I will.

Right, I've got a few things to say to certain people in here.

You're a bunch of filthy scum, the lot of you. Scum!

There's not one of you fit to lick my Stan's boots.

Right, I'm not going to say it twice, Hilda. Out!

I've just got one thing to say before I go...

SHE SPITS ...to the lot of you.

Get him to take you to a Chinese.

Right, Chinese it is.

This partnership was made of tough stuff.

Oh, it's lovely, chuck. Just what I've always wanted.

You wait till Fairclough and Langton see this.

They'll curl up with jealousy. For years they tried to prove

they were equal to everyone else on the street.

Where exactly are you going? The Golden Mandolin.

Isn't it mandarin?

That's right, Chinese foreign. Afternoon.

They just never got it quite right.

The kitchen's over there, and we have us meals in here,

but the serving hatch is over there.

Because that's a bearing wall. What's a bearing wall?

It holds the flamin' house up, dunnit?!

Oh... does it?

But then in '76, something to really put the cat amongst the pigeons!

There you are, that is your scenic panorama contrast wall.

You see, it gives you what is known as a Muriel effect.

Well, Annie Walker's never had one of them Muriel walls,

that I do know.

I really can smell mountains, can't you?

I can smell fried bread. Oh, go on, Stan, have a good look

and just tell me if you can't smell mountains.

Give us my fried bread, will you? Fingers, Stanley!

Let me try to picture it. You have all the Alps on one wall.

Canadian Rockies. Alps!

I get the idea that lake's sloping.

ANNIE: And you don't find it a teeny bit overpowering?

Oh, no. No, the Alps has got a special meaning for me,

ever since the film.

Oh, my word, Mrs Ogden.

Do you know, dear, I feel just a little giddy.

Would you mind if I sat facing the other way until I'm acclimatised?

Well, either you're one for the great outdoors, or you're not.

Myself, I am.

Actors Jean Alexander and Bernard Youens

had combined to bring out something special in each other.

You know, I was thinking back to when it all began...

It doesn't seem 30 years, does it?

No, it doesn't, chuck.

You know they say time only passes fast when you're enjoying life.

Aye, that's right, they do.

Stanley Ogden! Hello, chuck, miss me last night?

Oh, you rotter!

And no matter how much Hilda nagged and Stan tried to please...

Do you really think I look smashing? I said so, didn't I?

Well, give us a kiss, then. Hey?

You heard. Come on, you daft apeth.

It is the second honeymoon, you know, not the first.

...it was clear they needed each other and were very much in love.

What's that lipstick taste of?

Woman, Stanley. Woman!

Actor Bernard Youens struggled with health problems

during the early '80s.

Course, I will admit there's times when he gets on my nerves,

but then I look at him and I think, "Well, chuck,

"you're no oil painting and you don't bring much money in,

"but I'd be a lot worse off without you."

And when the actor passed away in August '84...

...it meant we had to say goodbye to Stan.

And the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away...

ALL: And forgive us our trespasses

as we forgive them that trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation

but deliver us from evil. Amen.

For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory

for ever and ever. Amen.

And the scene where Stan's belongings

arrived from the hospital,

created one of the most powerful moments in Corrie history...

...as we all mourned with Hilda.

Don't ask for much, do we?

Few wins on the pools would be welcome. Hmm.

Never mind. Been a bus ride, hasn't it?

Never mind what they say about you, you're not daft, are you?

No, chuck. THEY LAUGH

SHE SOBS

Stan and Hilda will always be the blueprint

for a golden couple in Corrie.

Now, Percy, lad, are you going to kiss me under this mistletoe?

I wouldn't kiss you under an anaesthetic.

Oh, Mr Sugden.

Whoa!

But some of the Street's most memorable pairings...

Oh, don't talk, love, you'll crack your face.

...were built for comedy.

There's no point upsetting her unnecessarily. You rat!

What's got into you? I've got to get my pleasure somewhere.

It's what you've been getting into, in't it?

Sad and desperate, you should have it tattooed on your forehead.

Come back here! You!

Like our next dynamic duo...

Alpha Male to Lone Wolf, come in, please.

...whose comic fallouts and bromance love-ins

created the perfect partnership.

See you at the finishing line.

If you make it.

Oh, I'll make it, mate. I'll be there, waiting for you.

Steve McDonald and his Streetcars sidekick Lloyd Mullaney.

BOTH: Oh!

Eclair... And when the pair weren't irritating Eileen...

Custard slice!

...they were falling out over women.

You've always been my mate's girlfriend.

Was that your idea of trying to get back at me?

It's an unwritten contract, a contract which you just tore up!

I think he's having a heart attack!

My contract says never leave your mates to face the music.

Can I come with him? No!

Well, my contract says my mate's an idiot!

Well, mine says this! And that!

Classic slapstick, their two-hander scenes had us all in stitches.

All you need now is a window! No!

Say it's your fault! No!

If that spit hits me, I'm gonna kill you!

But these boys never stayed cross at each other for long.

My brother from another mother.

They really do love each other, don't they?

If only he loved me that much.

But one of the double acts' most memorable moments came in 2009.

You're my son's best mate.

What he don't know won't hurt him.

I feel so naughty.

Ah, but you are naughty. You're a very, very bad girl.

Lloyd had broken the most sacred of non-written contracts.

And I'm not a bad girl. I'm a good girl.

Lloyd?

And only Corrie could get away with the pure farce that followed.

I said I'm busy!

It's mess I am in, Lloyd. The mess I'm in!

SNIFFS Can I smell perfume?

What?

SNIFFS No, I don't think so.

SNIFFS You know what?

I recognise it.

Lloyd. What?

It's not Becky, is it?

HE LAUGHS Of course it's not Becky.

Now go. Go and face the music.

Hey, these are my mum's keys. Are they?

Yeah, she lost them earlier, so where did you find them?

Oh, in the gutter outside Audrey's, she must have dropped them there.

Well, I'll, er, give them to her.

Yeah, good on you, save me a job. Say hello to her from me.

Who? Your mum. What? Why?

No reason.

Hey, it's a good job it's not her perfume I can smell,

because put that together with these keys

I might think it's her you're knocking off.

THEY LAUGH Hey, imagine that.

Mother, come out of there with your hands up!

Carry On... Coronation Street!

Come on, kid, let's go for it.

I was born between those legs!

Yes, we know where it is, thank you.

It's an unspoken rule!

As soon as I get a little bit of tail, you can't handle it!

My mother's not tail! You tell him, Steve!

She's the best I've had in a long time and I'm not giving her up

because of a big, fat mummy's boy like you.

Yes, you tell him Lloyd.

There's only one mummy's boy round here, and that's you!

Except that's my mummy! Come here, you!

Course, neither the scrapping or the fling lasted long.

You're crusin' for a bruisin'. You're needin' for a bleedin'.

You're flirtin' for a hurtin'. You're strainin' for a canin'.

You're bleatin' for a beatin'. You're...

Give it up. No, hang on a minute.

No, you lost, I won. Don't cry about it.

You're anglin' for a manglin'.

Coming up, more classic Corrie partnerships.

Uncle Fred, we did do sex education

at Weatherfield Comp, you know. Get up them stairs.

But it did not prepare you for the vagaries of feminine wiles

in the real world. Will I do?

You look a million dollars.

Toodle pip, ladies. Don't wait up for me.

JASON MANFORD: Welcome back to our celebration of Corrie Partnerships.

You want a chocky bicky?

I would love a chocky bicky, Mavis.

But where there's double the laughs...

I wouldn't be the man in her life if hell had me.

Do you remember them days, eh? I used to warm you up a bit!

...there's double the trouble!

Marry me and make my life complete.

No.

I'll get his coat.

I haven't yet begun to fight. Give us a light ale, love.

Which takes us to a relationship forged in the '80s.

What's up, Jack, nobody to play with?

How you fixed? Corrie's most famous landlady...

Act your age, love, not your shoe size.

...bold and brassy Bet Lynch...

They're spending a few bob on that pub, aren't they?

I don't wish to know that, Jack.

...and miser Alec Gilroy.

He ran the Graffiti club on the street.

The two started as business rivals.

Give us a gin and tonic.

It's like the Sahara Desert around here without The Rovers.

Ice and lemon? We actually grow our own lemons.

Well, you could definitely grow your own mushrooms, darlin'.

It's dark enough.

So when producers teamed them together...

Another day, another dollar, eh, Alec?

Is there any other way to live?

...we knew this wasn't going to be your run-of-the-mill partnership.

You were having me on

when you offered to lend me the brass

to buy the tenancy of this place, weren't you?

No.

12,000 quid.

I could let you have it today, if you like.

She took him up on his offer, but quickly became unstuck

and ran off to Spain to avoid paying him back.

Alec chased her out there.

Have you, er... Have you ever seen her before?

Margaret Thatcher.

Does it look like Margaret Thatcher?

Well, no, if you screw your eyes up

and knock a few years off, I suppose.

Egg, chips and beans... Long time no see, hey?

Oh, my God!

I'm not letting you out of my sight

till we've had a very full and frank discussion.

The full and frank chat Alec had in mind

was a surprising business proposition.

So, they're giving you the tenancy.

You're to be the next landlord of The Rovers.

Yeah, well, I intend to make it the best little pub in the borough, Bet.

Well, I had my chance and I blew it, didn't I?

There is a way you could still have somebody else working for you.

Me, for instance.

And there is a way you could still have The Rovers.

What are you on about?

If you were the landlord's wife,

you could walk back in the place with your head high.

Still be Queen of the May.

When she said yes, everyone was gobsmacked.

And not just at that dress.

Do you like her dress? Eh, Vera? No, I don't reckon much to it, no.

No, me neither.

VICAR: I therefore proclaim that they are husband and wife.

The deal was sealed... Well, go on, kiss me.

...with a less than convincing kiss.

Who needs love anyway, when you've got The Rovers?

Rovers Return.

And she made sure her now husband... Alec!

...knew who the real boss was.

He says he's not in. 'I am disgusted with you.'

Disgusted! Yes, and I'm disgusted an' all!

He doesn't like the hot pot. It's terrific, Betty's hot pot.

Ask any of the customers.

Well, then, we're both disgusted, aren't we?

Yes, we are!

We'll worry about the hot pot, you go and have your fancy lunch.

Despite odd chinks of affection...

Am I forgiven? ...and the odd marital perk...

I'll think about it.

...we were never really convinced whether the business deal...

Get up them stairs.

...I mean marriage, would last.

You see this smile? It's not really a smile,

it's the lid on a scream.

And in 1992...

I gather you're planning on putting a manager in there.

...Bet's loyalty to Alec was finally put to the test.

Alec had been offered a job on a cruise liner.

Hey, you do know we've got to get everything packed up yet?

He and Bet were to give up The Rovers and move away.

Don't you think you'd be better employed...

I've been to the brewery.

I told you I didn't want to go, Alec.

I went to ask...

if I could stop on... as manager.

We were about to find out whether it was really business

or marriage that Bet wanted.

You don't come with me tonight...

...and you'll be announcing an end to our marriage.

Bet...

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

With their leaving party in full swing...

What's she said? She's not going.

Alec!

Alec, don't...

When they ask you what happened, tell them the truth, won't you?

Bet made her choice.

The Rovers was her real love, after all.

Now, then, who's waiting?

He doesn't pay me much, but I'm getting plenty of experience.

Ashley, what the piggin' heck am I paying you for?

Our next partnership was one of master...

With my head for business... Head for business?

...and apprentice. Diddling old ladies, more like.

And your enthusiasm will turn this place into a little goldmine.

I say, a goldmine.

A double act that had more in common than first met the eye.

I say, first met the eye!

Come on, Ashley, shift yourself!

Foghorn Leghorn butcher Fred Elliott.

Excellent! Well, you might think so.

Bossed and cajoled, his high-pitched nephew Ashley.

If anybody asks what it is,

remember it's summat new, but don't tell them what it is

until they've actually had a taste.

Hmm, not bad, that. What is it?

Reindeer.

It's not the lad's fault. His father came from bad stock.

Just shut up about my dad.

It were an ill-advised marriage. At least he wasn't a pervert.

Fred did fancy himself a bit of a ladies' man.

Oh, dear, what have you done? Aerodynamics, Audrey.

Quick in and out. Makes you look quite dangerous.

Oh, fast cat!

But it turned out Ashley had more luck with the women.

What's up with you? Get out of t'road!

Not that he was allowed to enjoy it.

Writers had a field day coming up with funny scenarios for the duo.

Well? And we loved it!

Worth going out for?

By 'eck, worth coming home for!

What's he doing here?!

You've done wonders for me will to live!

Look, there's something I've got to tell you.

But Corrie are great at throwing in a curveball.

It's about your Uncle Fred and Audrey.

Do you think I don't know about him chasing her?

No, Ashley, look...

...it's about his son.

It's right what they said in t'war.

Careless talk costs lives. Oh, Fred, come on.

And in 1999 their partnership came under threat

after Ashley found out his uncle had a secret son.

I thought it might be you.

Of course it's me! I want to know what you think you're playing at.

I know it's right about you having a son. I ain't being taken for a mug.

And I'm sick of your promises.

How you'd see me right and how t'business would be coming to me.

I've trained that lad.

I've worked on him like an artist.

Taught him everything he knows about the butchery trade.

It's all down to me!

If you want someone to do your hard work for you...

...get your son to do it!

Them who's said something they rather shouldn't.

They know who they are!

But what came next... You're right.

...was a twist fit for the silver screen.

I've not been frank with you, I admit it.

About time! It's very difficult is this.

I have got a son.

I knew it. Aye.

It's you.

I'm not your Uncle Fred, Ashley. I'm your father.

It was a moment that shocked us all.

You're my lad, Ashley.

And one that would pave the way...

Let me be your father!

...for an even stronger partnership.

Ashley "The Butcher" Peacock!

CHEERING

Being father and son...

You are. Oh, by God, you are!

...only created more comedy.

Well, what did she give you for your tea last night?

Sausages. Vegetarian sausages.

What did you say? I said vegetarian...

Keep your voice down!

Oh, 'ey up, they're getting ready to heave him out.

If word gets out, we'll be shut within a week. I say, within a week.

But I'm not a vegetarian.

No, well, make sure it stops that way.

But all good things have to come to an end.

So where is he, any road?

Oh, he's over the road having a manicure.

It must be love!

Just as Fred was set to wed Bev Unwin,

Audrey, the one that got away... What would you have said, Audrey?

...was about to drop a bombshell.

Fred, I've have said yes.

She's put me in a terrible situation.

Audrey's not right for you. She's a tease.

You'll be happy with Beverley for t'rest of your life!

But on the big day, Fred did a runner.

Dad!

But Ashley needn't have worried.

I'll never forget you.

All Fred wanted to do was say goodbye to a lifelong friend.

I will certainly never forget you.

Be happy. I say, be happy.

Little did any of us know that this final farewell...

LOUD THUD

What are you doing? Fred?

...would be his last.

Fred?

Oh, no! Oh, Fred!

He wasn't without his faults, but I loved him for 'em.

Don't know why I did.

And I'll miss them just as much as I'll miss him.

Fred's time had come.

And with a little nudge...

...we bid farewell to another classic Corrie couple.

Bye, Dad.

It's a good job there are always plenty more double acts

waiting in the wings.

Because my heart belongs on the open road to you!

You're kidding!

Very handsome. Very... Bruce Willis.

More like Bruce Forsyth in this get up. All right, my love?

Good game, good game! But we'll have to wait and see...

So, will you marry me? ...where their stories take us.

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