This storyline makes most Corrie fans groan but Derek's gnome was more than a mere garden ornament. Oh yes, verrily, it was indeed a pawn in the game of jealously and bitterness between Derek, Mavis and Norris back in 1995. Derek and Mavis were happily married, or as happy as they could be considering he was a complete idiot and she was proficient in simper. Derek decided to get fit and bought a Mile Muncher from salesman Norris Cole. Yes, our Norris! Mavis tried the machine, fell off, did herself a mischief and ended up in hospital. Derek tried to sue Norris but Norris’ then girlfriend Angela Hawthorne ordered Derek to drop the claim. (She was very forceful, was Angela). Click through below for more.
So the friendship between the Wiltons and Norris became somewhat strained, to say the least. Norris got his own back though. When Derek took in two gnomes – Arthur and Guinevere, Arthur kept disappearing and sent postcards home from around the world (although strangely, not from here). Derek then received a severed gnome’s ear with a ransom note for fifty chocolate doubloons so he lay in wait for the criminal behind some bushes and was arrested on suspicion of being a peeping Tom. On the eve of Norris’ wedding to Angela, Norris got drunk and admitted to best man Derek that he was the one who’d stolen the gnome. In revenge, Derek took Norris to the wrong church, which made him late for the wedding – and Angela, well, she was not best pleased.
Thanks to the fab Corrie book: 40 Years of Coronation Street for help in writing this post.
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I hated Norris with a passion back then. The actor just physically gave me the creeps. He's not so bad now that he's older and softened up a bit in his looks but i still don't find Norris funny very often.
I think he's turniing into Percy Sugden these days. I just wish they'd "out" Norris as he's clearly the campest thing on Corrie in years.