A growing passion of mine over the last couple of years has been collecting autographed photocards from a variety of famous faces. So, sitting bored one grey afternoon in January, I decided to further my collection by opening up to the possibility of collecting autographs from the cast of Coronation Street.
After some light research as to how to go about this, I found the process relatively simple. To receive a signed cast card of a Corrie actor and actress, you simply had to write to the star you wanted requesting an autograph and pop it in the post, along with a SAE. I thought I would give this a go to see if I had any luck, and so randomly selected Gray O'Brien - Tony Gordon - to be my first shot.
A mere ten days later and - hurrah! - success! A familiar envelope dropped through my letterbox containing a photocard of Gray, personalised for me. And so the pen came out once more, and over the next few weeks and months I began writing to each of the 60+ cast members.
Now, six months on from my first letter, my collection is continuing to grow! I've now had over 30 successes, and I'm delighted that I've made the effort to obtain these wonderful Corrie keepsakes. Many of them have personalised the photocard to myself, and a few even added their own notes of thanks for writing.
Some of the cast were particularly fast at responding, and some take longer, but it's great that so many take the time to reply to their fans. I still have around half the cast to receive replies from, so hoping that some more will still respond!
I've not posted the address for writing to the cast on the blog as I wouldn't like to see the cast being spammed, but if you are interested in writing to anyone from Corrie drop me an email and I'll let you know the address! Also, let us know if you've had any successes of your own with writing to Coronation Street - we'd love to hear about them.
Look out for some competitions coming soon to Corrieblog with a chance to win some Corrie castcards of your own!
This has been a hobby of mine for a while now. I have over 120 autographed cards, some personalized and with notes. I've also had actual letters back from Jack P Shepherd, Jayne Tunniclifffe, Peter Armitage, Sue Nicholls, Meg Johnson, Jean Alexander and Roy Hudd.
My favourite Corrie item is a tshirt I have with a photo of my husband and I in the Rovers, which now has 43 autographs on.
You can take a look at the link above to see my autographs. (I don't put my letters on there as they are personal)
Great to hear from you Deborah, I've taken a look at your collection and it is very impressive. Looks like you've met a lot of the cast as well, lucky you! :)
I've also got a few many years ago but you need to be careful. Some actors cards had pre-printed signatures. My card from the mid-90s from Elizabeth Dawn had a pre-printed signature, and with pen it read 'To Alan' at the top. Not sure who wrote that.
One that wasn't was the late Bill Waddington (Percy). No only did he send me an personalized autograph, he sent another a few weeks later with a very nice note saying that he wasn't sure if he had responded so he wanted to send another just in case. The first autograph also included a handwritten letter! You could tell his appreciation was sincere. He really was a special man.
I also have cards from Julie Goodyear and Barbara Knox that I got in 96.
Alan
Hi craig
Ive sent you an email to give me the info for katherine kelly if you wud that would be great :-)
Also alan, how do you know when the autograph is printed on?
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Sometimes if you don't hear back from an actor, it could be because they haven't been on set for awhile. Our local group organizes visits by a Corrie actor each year. When Steven Arnold was coming, we'd had an itinerary and package dropped off at the studio for him but he never got it because he'd not been at work for 3 months! So keep the faith! You may hear back from some of the laggers yet!
Seanie, its usually quite easy to tell if a signature is printed. I'm a semi-serious collector and have learned what to look for.
A pen will leave an impression and a marker will make the signature feel raised. You can also hold the item at an angle and if you don't see any color or reflection difference it is a good chance it is printed. A magnifying glass can help as well.
Another thing is that some celebrities (not Corrie stars that I know of) use something called an auto-pen. It creates a real signature with a pen/marker or whatever on any item. The signature is entered by the celebrity and 'memorized' by the autopen device so it can be reproduced over and over. To a collector these are esentially worthless because each signature is 100% the same.
The only way to be 100% sure a signature is authentic is when you get it in person - and its the most fun :)
Some reply back very quickly, while others can take ages. I've had some replies a year after writing to them. Some like Eileen Derbyshire don't reply to fanmail at all.
One funny story I have is I got an autographed photo from Bruce Jones (Les) and I hadn't even written to him.
I agree with Alan, getting them in person is the best if you can!!
Is anything happening on this site? Seems rather quiet for a good few days now?
what is the address i need to send my SAE to?
I have a signed vinyl 7 inch [singalong at the rovers] with authentication, now i am not a serious collector and tbh i was given this at my work place. The actual year of the vinyl and signatures is from 1967 and it has about 11 signatures of the original cast on the cover itself.
Now if any of you on here are interested id be willing to sell the item for a fair price.
If your interested please email me :D
richardmable007@hotmail.com