Ghost of Pat Phoenix stalks the Coronation Street set, says the Sun. "So many people have seen and felt the same things that there has to be something in it," says Sue Cleaver.

They try to make Peter Barlow go to rehab, but he says "no, no, no," according to the Star.

There's an excellent interview with Corrie producer Kim Crowther over at Digital Spy.

Over on ITV.com, there's a video of Jennie McAlpine, Katy Cavanagh and Craig Charles when they appeared on This Morning. They also have the nominations for ther British Soap Awards, and one of them is pocket-sized genius Alex Bain (Simon). Hurrah!

Showbiz gossip site Holy Moly's weekly newsletter produced this little rant which was apparently emailed to ITV by a Corrie viewer: "On Monday evenings episode of Coronation Street Peter Barlow apparently (according to the dialogue and the pack produced from his jacket pocket) just purchased a packet of Gypsy Creams from Dev's Corner Shop. I was amazed as I haven't seen a packet of these biscuits for years. Can you tell me where your props department bought them from and are they available to the general public or have they made quite a monumental mistake? Either that or Dev must have a very old supply of these and the sell by date must have long expired."

The deeply wonderful NiceCupOfTeaAndaSitDown website (what do you mean, you don't have it bookmarked already?) confirms that the Gypsy Cream is, indeed, a rare breed. "We don't know of any mass produced Gypsy cream being available any place in the UK right now, although we have heard that some small bakers make them. The distantly related Romany Creams can be found in South Africa made by Bakers, or made under license in Australia as Kingstons made by Arnotts," they advise.

Eric Spear's iconic Coronation Street theme tune has come in at number ten in a survey of the favourite sounds of people in Britain. Since the other nine sounds were birdsong, children laughing, heavy rain, wind whistling through trees, ice cream van jingles, applause at cricket, waves breaking, hearing someone say "I love you" and the chimes of Big Ben, then this officially means that Coronation Street is the favourite piece of music.

Before we get too excited, it's perhaps significant that the company who commissioned the survey, Amplifon, makes hearing aids.

Thank you to everyone who replied to my question about the painting that hangs inside the Barlows' hallway. Tainted Love, Sue B and Abby Krim all thought it must have something to do with the scouting movement and its affiliation with the church. Edward Godding said that he'd had a friend in Bolton who had the same picture in his house, and now that he's been living in Canada since 1958, seeing the painting always reminds him of his friend Frank. Mike remembered that the painting was in the house when it belonged to Uncle Albert.

Another Canadian Corrieblogger, Pauline Hunt, came up with the full story. The picture is called The Pathfinder and was painted by Ernest Carlos, who founded the 107th London Scout Troop. His paintings portrayed the meaning of scouting, and his work was very popular, with many reproductions of The Pathfinder being displayed in scout headquarters worldwide. It has also been reproduced as cards and as a stained glass window in several churches. It has featured in Coronation Street since the very beginnings of the show in 1960. If you'd like to know more about this fascinating picture, have a look here. Thanks to Pauline for uncovering the information.

I've long been puzzled by the glimpses we get of the painting hanging in the Barlows' hallway. In fact, in my pre-Corrieblog existence I even wondered if it was a picture of Jesus arresting a cowboy. As we can see here, it's not so much a cowboy, more a boy scout. But why? Does anyone know? Email me if you have any information at all about this very odd piece of art.

I apologise for Kirky having his big head stuck in the way, but here's a nice close-up view of the photos they have on the wall at the Rovers' Return. There's a couple of Stan and Hilda (in fact it looks almost like the same one twice), and I can see Annie Walker there, a younger Gail and Audrey, Jack Duckworth with Alec Gilroy... Who else can you spot? And where else do you know of a pub that has photos of customers from years gone by proudly displayed (some of them a tad too close to the dartboard). Let us know!

As if it hasn't already been a bumper year for Coronation Street babies, a cast member has given birth to seven more!

Tess, who is one of the dogs who plays the role of Eccles, the Barlows' Border Terrier, gave birth to a litter of seven recently. It's her second litter, and mum and pups are doing well. While Tess is on her maternity leave, she's being replaced by her niece Maeve. There's a gorgeous photo gallery of the new babies here.

Eccles is usually played by three dogs - Tess, Phi and Maeve. In the scene where Eccles jumped into the canal and was dramatically rescued by Martha, it was Tess who was seen walking along the towpath with Ken, then Phi did the actual jump into the water and the bit in the canal (Phi is obviously the action dog of the trio, although she wasn't in the actual canal but a mock-up in a studio with nice warm water), and then Maeve was seen being dried off by Martha.

Recently, I've been getting a bit worried about Michelle Keegan. Tina wears those great big hooped earrings - they've become as much of a trademark with her as Vera's orange plastic earrings, or Becky's "Becky" necklace. But have you noticed what they're doing to her earlobes? They seem to be getting longer in every episode, and recently a little line has started to appear like her earlobe is creasing under the strain.

A recent report in The Times said, "Wearing heavy earrings can cause the holes from piercing to elongate, sometimes to the point that the earring tears all the way through the lobe. Ear lobes will not repair themselves, so surgery is needed to stitch the two pieces of flapping skin back together. It is not just splitting. The lobes swell and they have lumps the size of a marble that look like dumb bells on either side of the lobe." Ewwwwww!! I think it's time Tina gave her ears a rest and went the cubic zirconia studs route for a while.

Rochdale Online had a piece the other day about a lady called Edie Shufflebotham who was celebrating her 102nd birthday. Edie has watched Coronation Street since the first episode, and is such a big fan that she celebrated her 100th birthday with a tour of the Corrie set. Surely at 102, Mrs Shufflebotham must be Corrie's oldest fan?

Not according to the New Zealand Manawatu Standard, who feature the 103rd birthday celebrations of one Mrs Myra Letts, who has been an avid Coronation viewer since it was first aired in 1960. "I really lived for Coro, everybody watched it," she says. She'll be celebrating with family and friends, but doesn't want any presents, because, "I've got everything."

Darts were flying all over the place on Monday when the Rovers Return darts team proved that they weren't very good. I couldn't help noticing that a stray arrow managed to pierce a Coronation Street icon - Ena Sharples. But isn't it nice to know that Ena and Minnie still have a place in the Rovers?

The iconic brass band wail of the Coronation Street theme tune has been voted the tenth greatest TV theme of all time in a recent poll. The tune, written by Eric Spear (who was paid £6 for his work) was beaten in the poll by Only Fools and Horses, at number one, and That London-Based Soap which was number five. The top ten are: 1. Only Fools and Horses, 2. Minder, 3. Dr Who, 4. Match of the day, 5. EastEnders, 6. The A-Team, 7. Friends, 8. The Pink Panther, 9. Ski Sunday, 10.Coronation Street.

Read more: Corrie theme tune makes dogs howl
Man has phobia of Corrie theme tune

This is a question that's been popping up quite frequently in Corrieblog comments recently, ever since the Windass family first appeared in Coronation Street.

And the answer is - the name Windass originates in Yorkshire and Humberside. 161 Windasses appeared on the UK electoral register in 1998, so it's not a common name, but you're most likely to come across a Windass in the York area.

Other notable Windasses include Hull City footballer Dean Windass and playwright Dave Windass.

Corrieblog reader Cobblestone remarked on this first, but I was going to blog about it anyway, honestly!

Craig Kelly, who is going to be joining Coronation Street soon as factory boss Luke Strong, made his name in the Channel 4 series Queer as Folk. And his mum in that brilliant show was played by none other than Denise Black, who of course played hairdresser and former love of Ken Barlow Denise Osbourne in Coronation Street.

Antony Cotton, Corrie's Sean Tully, had a major role in Queer as Folk as Alexander Perry. As well as Antony and Denise, two episodes of the series featured Alan Halsall (Corrie's Tyrone) as Midge, and Paul Copley (who played Ivor in Corrie last year) also appeared.

ITV have put some of their favourite bits of Royal footage online for your viewing pleasure. One of them is the 2000 visit of HRH Prince Charles to the Coronation Street set. He was there to celebrate Corrie's 40th anniversary.

It's not the most spectacular piece of film you'll ever have seen - mainly of lots of people under umbrellas - everyone has a purple one apart from HRH who gets a restrained black one. It's fun seeing the Corrie cast as it was then - particularly a cheeky-faced schoolboy who grew up to be demon king David Platt.

Click here to see the video.

Today's trivia is a mixture of things, from wedding related trivia to statistics regarding babies and children. Do jump in with a comment if you remember more characters that fit some of these categories!

Oldest brides to wear a white dress to get married in would be Gail when she married Richard or Bet when she married Alec, both in their 40s at the time of their weddings. There have been older brides but they usually wore suits or nice dresses.

Dierdre and Gail top the list of most married women, four each, including twice to the same man (Deirdre married Ken twice and Gail married Brian twice). Ken's been married four times, twice to Deirdre.

A few people have three weddings to their name, including a remarraige to the same person. 1: Kevin who married Alison, and Sally twice.
2: Liz who married Vernon, and Jim twice. Steve who married Vicki and then Karen twice. Time will tell whether Steve hits the next level with four weddings. Will he and Michelle actually tie the knot? Hard to say. They've been on and off more times than Sally's knickers!

In honour of "Murder Week" on Coronation Street, this week's Trivia focuses on the criminals of the Street.

Characters that have spent time in jail:
Ken Barlow for not paying a fine - 7 days.
Tricia Armstrong for not paying her television license - 7 days.
Les Battersby for assault on a cop (though the cop threw the first punch)
- 6 months
Kevin Webster for assault on John Stape - 28 days but served 14.
Tracy Barlow for murdering Charlie Stubbs - 15 years.
David Platt for damage to property - 4 months, served about 6 weeks or so.
Steve McDonald for posession of stolen property (jail time) and for selling stolen car radios (fine).
Alan Bradley for assaulting Rita (but released at trial for time already served in remand)
Terry Duckworth for GBH.
Jim McDonald, once for breeching a peace order against Liz and 8 years for manslaughter (Jez Quigley).
Don Brennan for arson (torching Mike's factory).

And here we are in October already! Wow, time flies! October on Coronation Street seems to have turned into Wedding month in recent years, with Sarah and Jason tying the knot last year and Les and Cilla (illegally) marrying a couple of years before that. Eddie Yeats married Marion in 1983 on Halloween as well. Jason is the only one of those characters left on Coronation Street! in past years, though, Halloween also saw catalysts for a lot of storylines to pitch forward into momentous happenings. Read on!

You may remember that both Hilda Ogden and Maud Grimes had a hobby, they read people's tea leaves. Do you remember that Maud read Raquel's tea leaves in 1996, less than a year after she and Curly married? Maud saw Raquel traveling over water and having a new career. Within days, Raquel has landed an interview for a job practising aromatherapy...in Kuala Lumpur! She was gone within a month but several years later the back story was rewritten and we were told that she didn't get past London, because she was pregnant. She ended up in France.

The theme for today's trivia is a peek into the backstages of Coronation Street. Thanks to "Access All Areas: Behind the Scenes at Coronation Street" by David Hanson and Jo Kingston. This fascinating book looks into how the show is made, and is well worth picking up if you can find it second hand. It's also a book in which Glenda Young aka Flaming Nora had a hand in.

The "Green Room" is a lounge in Studio 1 of Granada Studios and is where the actors can go when they're not needed on set. Actors may catch up on their reading, play video games, talk on the phone, study their lines or just socialize. It's a room where all celebrities are equal and it can be very intimidating to the rookie actors that are confronted by so many veteran and famous faces all at once.

Today'sTuesday Trivia is all about Jean Alexander, RHilda Ogden. I recently read Jean's autobiography, The Other Side of the Street and enjoyed it very much. Of course, it was written and published in 1989 so any of Jean's more recent work and activities are missing but I thought I'd glean a few facts I learned from it, Corrie.net's biography and Wikipedia's Jean entry. Check back tomorrow for a gallery of photos.

Jean was born in 1926 in Liverpool and her full name is Jean Alexander Hodgkinson. She has an older brother, Ken.

Jean's first job was as a librarian but she decided she wanted to be an actress and joined a rep company in 1949 in Macclesfield. Other companies she joined included ones in York, Oldham and Stockport.

Today's trivia theme is "keeping it all in the family"

Audrey had two children, Gail and Stephen, each with a different father. Audrey's daughter, Gail, has three children, (Nick, Sarah Lou and David), two from one father (Brian) and one with a different man (Martin) and there was the suspicion at one point that Sarah Lou was not Brian's child. Sarah Lou, Gail's daughter, had two children (Bethany and Billy) by different boys/men (Neil and Todd). Talk about keeping it all in the family!

Terry Duckworth has three children by three different women. Eileen Grimshaw has two sons by two different men. Ken Barlow has three children by two different women and adopted a fourth child. Mike Baldwin had three children by three different women.

Here are Andrew Dunn (Roger) and Sue Cleaver (Eileen) when they appeared together in the TV comedy Dinnerladies. Andrew had a starring role as canteen manager Tony Martin ("I'm a lonely celibate, me. I do nothing. I go home and fry eggs. If I ever do get a girl to come back to my place I won't know what to do with her. I'll be flicking hot fat at her with a spatula), while Sue appeared in four episodes as Big Glenda, the bread delivery woman whom Tony thinks is a transsexual.

Dinnerladies also featured some other notable ex-Coronation Street people - Thelma Barlow (Mavis Wilton), Anne Reid (Valerie Barlow) and Shobna Gulati (Sunita Alahan). There are lots of clips on YouTube.

A bit of a mixed bag for you today in our weekly trivia post.

Did you know that...

You remember mad Casey, the Peacock stalker? The actress was on the show before, as Spider's girlfriend, Log.

Fiona Middleton had sex with Steve and his father Jim (no, not at the same time!) Linda Sykes has been with both Mike Baldwin and his son Mark Redman. Frankie Baldwin was married to Danny and later had an affair with Danny's son, Jamie.

Deirdre's father, Donald Hunt, was a bank manager.

Today's trivia traces some of the history of Mavis Riley and her relationship with Derek Wilton.

Did you know that the first time spinster Mavis met Derek Wilton, in 1976, he was a furniture salesman? He'd stopped in to the Kabin to ask directions and fell for Mavis' charms. Things progressed but even though she went to the Lakes with him for a week and also cooked him a romantic dinner for two, he only did as much as shake her hand. It didn't work out that time around because his mother didn't like her. She thought Mavis and Derek were too much alike!

Mavis drowned her sorrows in creative writing and decided to write a novel called Song of a Scarlet Summer and her main, and surprisingly passionate, characters were based on Rita and Len. It wasn't accepted for publication and Mavis was rather relieved in case her thinly disguised versions of the Kabin customers recognized themselves!

In a storyline currently running on Coronation Street, David Platt finds out from Tina's emails that she likes the band The Courteeners, and buys tickets to a gig.

And The Courteeners are chuffed to have a mention on Britain's top soap. Singer Liam Fray told NME, "Corrie is a real institution isn't it? So we're proud to get a mention in it, proper impressed." He proved his Corrie credentials by adding, "I just wish they'd bring the ghost of Ivy Tilsley back."

Another band Tina and David mention a lot is Foals. It's not known what they think of their Weatherfield fans.

For all the latest music news, have a look at our sister site, My Chemical Toilet

Reader Karen B. emailed me and wanted to know why Paul Clayton didn't have his father's last name (Duckworth). I replied to her but then thought... oh heck, should have saved that for a Tuesday trivia so here it is: Terry Duckworth fell in love with Andrea Clayton. She got pregnant but her parents did not want her marrying Terry who they felt was from a very common faamily. They moved away and Andrea had the baby on her own and brought him up with her maiden name as his last name. Only one of Terry's three biological children has his last name, his son Tommy who's mother was Lisa Horten Duckworth. The other son, Brad, is Trish Armstrong's son. That was a result of a one night stand and Terry had no intention of claiming the child.

Keeping along the same theme, We're guessing that Steve McDonald's daughter Amy still has Barlow as her last name though is living with her father for the foreseeable future. No shortage of children that have their mothers' names instead of their fathers' since there have long been single mums on Coronation Street and a few single dads. Plenty of blended families too. By birth, Claire is not Joshua's mum, Ken is not Tracy's dad, Ryan is not Michelle's son, Leanne is not Janice's daughter, Les is not Toyah's dad just to name a few.