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.

Nina Mandel is the sort of woman who would drive a flash car. A topless Jaguar XJS, most probably. At least, that's what Coronation Street bosses thought when they contacted Norman Hicks, who runs the Jaguar Enthusiasts' Club. He had exactly the car that they needed for scenes where Nina drives to the Street to see Dev.

Mr Hicks was only too happy to help, even though it meant driving a 500 mile round trip to get there. But it wasn't just the car that made it to the screen. Harvey Virdi, who plays Nina, can't drive, so Norman Hicks was asked to put on a pink top, headscarf and sunglasses and act as Nina's body double for the driving scenes. "I never imagined I would be dressing up as a woman, particularly a Bollywood star, when I was driving to the studio that day," he says. "She had to sit in the car for scenes where she chatted up Dev - thankfully I wasn't needed on set for those - that really would have been a giveaway."

This week's trivia focuses on double acts, in that they involve two characters who have experienced similar circumstances.

There were two characters who died in the Rovers Return. Martha Longhurst was the first. She died in 1964 of a heart attack while sitting in the snug. She was about to go on her first holiday ever, to Spain. Ray Langton was the other character. He'd been suffering from pancreatic cancer and died sitting in a booth at Ken and Deirdre's remarriage in 2005.

Two babies have been born under the roof of the Rovers. Trish Armstrong gave birth to the spawn of Terry Duckworth, little Brad, in 1997. He was also a Valentine's day baby and was delivered by Betty Williams. This year, on February 22, Violet Wilson had her baby boy, Dylan, in a booth in the Rovers (possibly the very same one in which Ray died!). He was delivered by midwife Marcus Dent.

There are a few little known facts to bring to you today (unless you've read some of the excellent books on Coronation Street written by Daran Little!)

Coronation Street was no stranger to controversy even in the early days. In 1962, Ena Sharples was going to protest the changing of the name of the Street by writing to Prince Philip. As a result, the subject actually came up in the House of Commons. Apparently there was a law that stated that current Royal Family members' names could not be used on stage or screen! Too late. Coronation Street broke the ice and opened the way for other television shows and plays to do the same thing. (use the Royals' names, not write to Prince Philip!)

Did you know that actor Bryan Mosley, who played Corrie's Alf Roberts, was a trained stuntman? And when the death of Renee Roberts was filmed, Madge Hindle did all the stunts herself.

Email any comments.

This week's "Did you know" rambles around a bit, starting with some bits and pieces about the corner shop.

Did you know that Alf Roberts inherited the corner shop from wife Renee when she died in a car crash. He sold the shop, intending on retiring to Lytham St. Anne's with Audrey but bought it back at auction when the new owner, Brendan Scott, died on the shop floor from a heart attack. He eventually sold it to Reg Holdsworth.

The shop then landed in Maureen Holdsworth's lap after Reg left her. Maureen flirted with Bill Webster but married Fred Elliot. Within a week or so, she knew she'd made a mistake and swanned off to Germany with Bill, leaving the shop under Fred's management. She sold the shop to Fred who ran it for a couple of years and then sold it to Ravi Desai, who owned a chain of shops in the Manchester area.

We're jumping in the wayback machine today to pull some real nuggets out of the trivia bag this week.

1. Eileen Derbyshire is the second longest serving cast member as Emily Nugent Bishop. She debuted in the part in episode 15, in January 1961 but "Miss Nugent" was actually seen on screen before that and referred to by Leonard Swindley. A non-speaking extra played the part as seen in this photo.

2. Viewers from the 1960s will remember Elsie's friend, Dot (Dorothy) Greenhalgh with whom she worked at Miami Modes. Dot's first appearance was in Episode 9 but her character was credited as Dorothy Lane.

Becky Grainger starts work at the Rovers next week, and she'll be the 50th barmaid to have pulled pints in the famous hostelry.

ITV.com have assembled clips of some of the Rovers' barstaff, past and present, in pint-pulling action, from Concepta Riley in the 1960s, through Raquel Wolstenhulme, Gloria Todd, Tanya Pooley and Shelley Unwin right up to date with Liz, Becky, Betty and Michelle. There's also a slideshow of photos of all 50 - see how many of them you can remember! You can also vote for your favourite.

Today's triva was gleaned from the book, Life in the Street, by Graham Kay and published in 1991 and focuses on the classic Corrie actors.

1. Bill Tarmey and Liz Dawn recorded a pop single in 1989, titled "I'll Be With You Soon". The name on the label is "Tarmey and Dawn".

2. Liz Dawn's real name is Sylvia Ibbetson. Her husband Don was her manager when she was starting out and decided her stage name, Dawn, which is the first name of one of their children.

3. Anne Kirkbride only had a couple of very minor roles on stage and telly before she landed the Corrie character of Deirdre Hunt in 1972. She trained at Oldham Rep doing various back stage jobs before getting the chance to act. She was only meant to have a 3 line bit part, in a scene with Alan Howard which made Elsie Tanner give him an earful. She's been on the Street ever since.

This is the launch of a new Tuesday Trivia feature. We will continue to have a quiz on the last Tuesday of the month which will feature about 10 or 12 questions. On other Tuesdays, there will be trivia lists or small feature blogs gleaned from various sources (i.e. Daran Little's books, dvd interviews, actor biographies, and other books written about Coronation Street)

1. Richard Hillman showed up at Alma's funeral claiming to be Alma's cousin. He was smooth and charming (like a snake) and Audrey thought he fancied her when it was Gail he took a shine to. In interviews, Brian Capron believes that Richard made up the tale about being Alma's cousin.

2. Alma asked Audrey to rename the salon after her. She was joking and they both laughed but after Alma died, the sign changed to "Alma's". Shortly after Richard Hillman tried to kill his family, viewers noticed that the salon was named "Audrey's" again. Probably due to the alleged relationship that Alma had to Richard and Audrey wanted no reminders.

3. Alan Bradley started a video lending library out of the back of the Rosamund Street Kabin. It was called Ace Video. The Kabin was also the site of the first cafe in the neighbourhood when Rita put a couple of tables in the back and served up cups of tea and bikkies. Joe Dawson opened up a bakery next door and the cafe proper was born.

There are a lot of sad pictures coming up next week, with Maria losing her baby. So I decided we deserved a close up view of this lovely giraffe, which I spotted on Claire and Ashley's wall. Presumably the work of the very talented Our Joshua.

Click here for spoilers about upcoming storylines

One thing we do know about Julia Haworth (who plays Claire Peacock) is that she's expecting a baby in July. She and her husband Jon Wormald are delighted. "Jon will be a tremendous dad," she told Inside Soap. "I know he'll put his heart and soul into fatherhood - he intends to be very hands-on."

In the same article, we also discover some things we maybe didn't know about Julia:

• She's a very bright woman, having got three grade A's in her A levels and a first class honours degree in drama from Manchester University.


• She loves to paint and write, and has co-written a comedy series with a friend.


• Her charity work involves supporting DebRA, a charity devoted to finding a cure for the condition Epidermolysis Bullosa.


• She loves watching the TV show Property Ladder, and its presenter, Sarah Beeny, is her idol.


• Julia is very style-conscious, and says she wouldn't touch Claire's frumpy wardrobe with a bargepole!

In last night's episode we saw Lauren leafing through a magazine called "Moxy," and in Weatherfield this is the magazine of choice for young women. I'm fairly sure I've seen Sarah Platt, Rosie Webster and Maria perusing its pages at one time or another. Whenever anyone hovers near the magazine rack in the Kabin, you'll always see a Moxy - it looks rather like the cover of Heat.

It made me wonder what "Moxy" meant, so I had a little google, as you do, and found this definition(beware this link contains what's often referred to as Strong Language):

If you are told that you have moxy it means one of three things:
1) What the Hollywood world today calls 'it.'
2) You have an great amount of courage or bravery to do what you want do to.
3) You have Herpes

It's also a type of dumper truck, a Canadian hard rock band, and a carbonated beverage (spelled Moxie).

I also found this "Ugly Doll" called Moxy, available from this website which says she "really has Moxy! She's the go-getter of the troop, and quite mischievous, and, from what we have learned, she uses her antennas to find out where the party is!" Sounds like Lauren!

The Mirror is reporting today that TV fashion expert Gok Wan wants to makeover the cast of a British soap. He says, "I would like to do a revamp of a soap. In America they are impeccably dressed. Over here they all wear the most awful clothes. I would like to get down and dirty with them and make them look like Hollywood starlets."

I wonder if he got the idea from Corrieblog? Only last week our Fan of the Week, Suzanne Ackermann, suggested that she'd love to see Gok Wan making-over the Corrie women. "No more polo necks for Gail," she suggested for starters.

You see how far your influence can spread if you're Fan of the Week! Why not have a go yourself? Click here to find out how.

No need to describe to you the distinctive, trumpety wail of the Coronation Street theme tune - it's the siren song that calls you to your armchair on a regular basis. Written by Eric Spear (who was reputedly paid £6 for his troubles) it's been little altered in the almost 50 years that Corrie's been on the telly.

But how does it sound to a dog? A lady called Christine Conway has been telling The Sun that her dog, Percy, yelps along every time he hears the Corrie theme tune. Christine says, "It must be something in the pitch of the music that gets him excited and makes him always want to join in. If he is in his bed and hears the music, he will start moving his head from side to side." It has that effect on me, too, and like me, Percy is unmoved by other soap tunes such as Eastenders or Emmerdale.

I had a little rummage over on YouTube, and apparently Percy is not alone. There's a very pretty collie called Ziggy singing along here, a cute little terrier called Murph adding his own harmonies, and a soulful version from a particularly musical Westie. In fact you could watch dogs howling along to the Corrie tune all day long if you wanted to - but you may find that people start avoiding you.

Click the Continue Reading link for a great YouTube clip of cats auditioning for Coronation Street in 1989, and Bill Waddington (Percy Sugden) grappling with a large ginger tom!

Tupele Dorgu writes a column for the Manchester Evening News (who also have the rights to this picture - isn't her hair getting long!) and the latest one is all about mobile phones. See, hers broke and she was bereft since she felt she was addicted to her mobile. Years ago, you had to always make sure you had change to make a phone call and now you just reach into your pocket. She talks about the history of the mobile phone, from brick to mini. Do you remember the first two characters to have one of those enormous block type mobile phones? Mike Baldwin had one in his car but I can remember scenes in the pub where Steve McDonald, upcoming entrepeneur, was flashing a mobile one about. It wasn't very long after that Mike had one too, if I'm remembering it correctly. Now everyone has them, young and old and they've come a long way from the "brick". I'm waiting for one that hoovers and does my washing. My life will be complete.

By the very nature of Corrieblog, we're a little bit obsessed with Coronation Street. But we still make mistakes - such as the time I referred to "Maria Sullivan," and several people asked if Maria was in fact the long-lost daughter of Rita. I had to blush prettily and admit that I had, in fact, meant Maria Sutherland. A quick search on Corrieblog revealed I wasn't the first to make this mistake.

I had a giggle just now when I read on the Sky Showbiz website that "Violet Carson is about to pop." Images of the Ena Sharples bursting like a balloon and leaving hairnet debris strewn around the place amused me a lot. Then I realised they meant Violet Wilson - Violet Carson, of course, having passed away in 1983.

Spotted any other Corrie-related bloopers? Let us know.