Coronation Street fan of the week

This week's fan of the week is the brilliant author Christina Jones. Her new book, Heaven Sent, is a magical comedy literally full of fireworks. Here's how she answered our five questions:

How long have you been watching Coronation Street?
For ever! For forty years plus (I was only a babe in arms then, of course!). I was hooked right from the first episode - vividly remember the fresh-faced and snooty Ken Barlow returning from university and being appalled at his dad mending his bike in the living room. I could immediately identify with that, and was cross with Ken for trying to ignore his roots, as my dad always fixed his motor bike in front of our fire and I thought it was what everyone did. It was like my Down South prefab had been transposed to an Oop North terrace. In fact, I blame my early and ongoing Corrie obsession for the types of books that I write now - cosy, retro, almost-camp stories about small, tightly-knit communities, working together with good humour to overcome the most appalling emotional entanglements - and with great dollops of laughter thrown in to give them a real feel-good factor and a happy ever after ending.

Who’s your favourite character?
Oh - that's tricky! There are so many that I love - but I've always thought Corrie's strength lies in its double-acts with clever writing, stellar acting and spot-on comic timing: Annie and Jack; Minnie and Martha; Stan and Hilda; Bet and Alec; Liz and Vernon; Jack and Vera; the truly wonderful Roy and Hayley; the fabulous repartee between Norris and Rita - just to mention a few, and all absolutely brilliant. Then there have been the solo stars - Elsie, the tart with a heart, just like one of my mum's friends when I was little - blowsy, loud, man-mad, but always, always there when you needed her; the superbly acidic Blanche; Norris who should be prime minister; Ena - truly a woman of her time; Emily - the put-upon stalwart; and of course, at the other end of the age scale, the current Corrie Brat Pack are all out of this world. But if I have to pick just one it has to be Steve McDonald - he can do comedy and tragedy with equal skill and inch-perfect timing. He's a real star. Someone give the boy an Oscar soon please!

What’s been your Corrie highlight or favourite story?
Oh, again so many to choose from: some have made me weep - Rita's heartbreak on Len's death then discovering his infidelity; Alma's untimely death-bed scene with Mike and Audrey; Steve and Karen's on-off-off marriage; Fred dying before he and Audrey could be together - and Ashley's grief; some have been simply scary - Richard Hillman, Tracey and Charlie - and David Platt who is wonderfully evil; but most have made me laugh out loud. I guess, though, like most people, the storyline that had me totally hooked was the very real Deidre/Ken/Mike love triangle.

What would be your Fantasy Coronation Street storyline?
Well, having just spent a fabulous week in Manchester canvassing votes for my shortlisting in the North West libraries Pure Passion Award and having been asked what my writing ambitions were, I had to come clean and say if I could write an episode of Corrie I'd die happy. And the plotline? Oh, something funny - like Norris and the rest of Angela's Exes fetching up at an Over 60s pole dancing club and finding Rita and Doreen as the star turns.

Have you ever visited the Street set, met any of the cast, or do you own any Corrie memorabilia?
On an earlier visit to Manchester courtesy of the Writers Bureau, I did get to catch a glimpse of the famous cobbles but they were filming at the time, so I couldn't actually set foot on them - and then the tours stopped, so that was as good as it ever got. Still, it was good enough for me. I felt like I was in heaven just being there. And on the recent visit I was really over-excited when Sarah, Bethany and Jason were filming the departure scenes at Piccadilly station on the day we arrived.

Heaven Sent by Christina Jones is published by Piatkus and is in bookshops now.

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Read about previous fans of the week, and book lovers, have a look at our sister site Trashionista