The fantastic new Coronation Street website over at ITV.com is going from strength to strength, and well worth a look.

The character profiles section is now complete, and is a brilliant way to find out more about the show's stars, right down to even Schmeichel! Timelines from each character's duration on the show are given, and some even have video interviews with the actor/actress.

How do you like the new-look website? Comment below!

There's lots of fan websites out there extolling the virtues of Coronation Street and Flaming Nora just discovered a new one, via a link from a blog that celebrates the 1980s. It's called Coronation Street - Back on the Street. It looks like it's just started up and the author, Andy, writes about Coronation Street history. He's featured vintage photos and interviews and Corrie related items such as the original street that they used to model Coronation Street on, called Archie Street in Salford. There's a great entry on a character called Joe Dawson and how he came to start up a bakery/cafe on Rosamund Street, which, of course, over various incarnations is now Roy's Rolls on Victoria Street. It is a great mix of history and vintage media, all sorts of bits and bobs. Definitely worth a look as is the main '80s Actual blog which also mentions Coronation Street quite often.

I was amused by this snippet from the showbiz gossip website Holy Moly. Their weekly email mailout has a section purporting to be extracts from the duty logs of viewers' calls to TV stations about programmes.

And, apparently, some eagle-eyed Corrie viewer has offered the following vital information to ITV:

"The car involved in Liam's death was K851VNC. I have passed this on to Greater Manchester Police. The driver was the same person who stole Kevin WEBSTER's breakdown truck who was paid off by Tony GORDON. Hope this helps."

Isn't it reassuring to know that there are such good citizens in the world?

CBC in Canada has an online shop and they have quite a number of Coronation Street items from DVDs to tshirts to mugs and other assorted items. I know we've mentioned the online shop in the past but I was looking today to see if they had the new Coronation Street Official Calendar (they do and it's quite nice with photos and trivia and even Betty's Hotpot recipe!) and came across this item! A USB Corrie-mouse! It's got a little floating beer mug and the Corrie logo on it. It's $19.99 (CAD). CBC will ship internationally though the cost is a bit high. If you're ordering for Christmas, order early to make sure it gets to you in time!

If you're after the Corrie 2009 calendar, there are other places you can get it including eBay, Amazon, Play.com, and Blighty's Tuck Store (Canada, with other Corrie merchandise available).

Once again, the Soap Show is featuring a Coronation Street podcast, Word on the Street a conversation with RFlamin' Nora, aka Glenda Young who has a witty way with words. You know her as a former editor of Corrieblog or you may be well aquainted with her Weekly Updates. The current podcast is to be broadcast in two parts, one now and one on August 4. This week, Glenda talks about the return of Jed Stone (Kenneth Cope), including a bit of insight into the character Jed used to be and a bit of a catch up on Kenneth Cope himself. There is a discussion all about Dev's upcoming storyline and she's of the opinion that Steve McDonald gets overlooked. Tune in to find out what she means. Glenda loved "Auntie Pam" straightaway and also favours new character Ted but moans the absence of Doreen Fenwick. Corrie is going to be shown in Finland and Glenda is curious to know how that will work out. Glenda's podcasts are always interesting so check it out! See if you agree with her or not.

Oh, I've just had the most fun on a website that I have had in days! Maybe even weeks! Thanks to Corrie Canuck who found this little tool from another blog called Working From Home Today. This is a little utility that you can use to create a Star Wars type screen crawl that makes it look like that opening intro in the movie. You've only got room for 650 characters in the main text block. I was inspired by the upcoming house swop on the Street to create this. You can embed it into a web page but it's a bit wide to do that here. You'll have to go to the link to see it but I've included the text of it behind the link below. Corrie Canuck is a great blog for Coronation Street in the Canadian timeline. They do episode reviews and other fun stuff. (*self promoting section*) I also do a blog for the Canadian timeline. I make comments and notes about the week's episodes and post them on Sundays. There are also occasional storyline and character features or other related Corrie essays.

Find a list of other fun website's we've discovered over here.

Fans of Flaming Nora, also known as Glenda Young (she of the weekly update summary fame), know that she contributes a podcast to The Soap Show. There hasn't been a one for a couple of months but there's a new one that's just gone live here. As a long time fan, Glenda always has insightful views which are consistently fun and interesting. This month, she's talks about the Liam/Carla/Maria triangle, the upcoming appearance of Jackie Dobbs and some new-coming and outgoing characters.

It's been a labour of love for Terry Martelle of Ottawa, Canada. He's been compiling a Coronation Street Book of Facts for a number of years and had it printed himself a few years ago. The book is now in a second printing and is available to purchase. This book is filled with profiles of Coronation Street characters over the years in order of appearance (though there's an alphabetical reference, too!) He keeps his version of the book mainly on the Canadian timeline so the profiles will be a little behind the UK current storylines. His prices are very reasonable and include all taxes and shipping costs, $29.00 Canadian or U.S. or £25 (because of the shipping costs). You'll have to send him a cheque or mail order as he doesn't do PayPal but he'll sign the book if you want and let you know when he's sent it off. A great reference book for all Corrie fans!

Edited: Just so you know, this book contains information that follows the U.K. timeline and includes characters and their storylines up to March 31, 2008. If you are not in the U.K. and don't follow spoilers, this may not be the book for you.

There were a couple of cute Corrie-themed items I spied over on Glenda Young's Coronation Street Updates blogspot recently. One item is a customized Coronation Street coffee mug with a few various slogans that you can get on them such as "Warning: Coronation Street Fan". I might even have that one if I get the chance. She also found a site that was flogging "Who's the Daddy" tshirts, just like Sean was wearing the day after baby Dylan was born! See links from those two posts to the companies that are selling these items online.

Today for your listening pleasure, we bring you a link to this month's Corrie "Word on the Street" podcast over at The Soap Show featuring Corrieblog's former editor, Glenda Young. She talks to the editor about recent events in Weatherfield and mentions a few upcoming spoilers and gives her take on it all. Who does she think would suit Jack Duckworth? Will she Yay or Nay Darryl Morton? How does she feel about the upcoming exit of Rob James-Collier? All this and more! Give it a listen, you'll be glad you did!

Of course you are (a soap opera fan, at least)! You wouldn't be reading this if you weren't! There's a group forming in the London area and they are planning a get together at a pub on January 19 to chat about your favourite soaps. They can only accomodate 20 people so join the group and get your rsvp in soon. They'll be talking about various soaps, not just the best one, Coronation Street but maybe you can make a few converts!

Every year, ITV puts out an official Coronation Street calendar and the new one for 2008 has hit the online sites. You can order it from your local Amazon where, if you order something else, it may qualify for free shipping. Delivery fees always add on to the price so pick from as close to your local area as possible (i.e. Amazon.ca if you're in Canada rather than ordering from the UK where the shipping rates to Canada will be a lot higher). Ebay will also list the calendar soon, though I haven't seen it there yet and that might be a viable option for you. There's another site, at calendars.com, that appears to have a different cover but that may only be just the website graphic. I think the photo here will be the actual one you get. I've owned several of these calendars in the past and they're quite nice. They make a nice Christmas gift for Corrie fans on your Santa list, too!

Some Coronation Street websites are in terribly bad taste, and this one takes the barm cake. While death seems to be a staple of the Street these days, some more morbid fans may be interested to know that a list has been compiled with information about the deaths of numerous ex-Corrie actors. Visit 'Find a Grave' to look up your favourites.

For more about ex-Coronation Street stars, alive or otherwise, click here.

In the unassuming village of Adinkerke in Belgium, lies a tobacco shop known to villagers and customers as 'Coronation Street'. Strange name for a shop, eh? As the village's version of the Kabin, the shop is run by an English family, boasts Belgian chocolates at £2.00 per box and is happy to welcome coach trips. I suppose that there is little point in pondering over the prominence of the sale of tobacco on those premises?

For more quirky and entertaining websites, have a browse through our Fun Websites category. Go on!

Now then, I'm no fan of Wikipedia as you never know for sure if the information on the page is correct or not. So it was with some suspicion that I read on the Wikipedia page for Maggie Jones, who plays Coronation Street's Blanche Hunt, that she starred in a video of Mike and The Mechanics' tear-jerker song In The Living Years. Donning my detective hat and cape, I found the video online and yes, there is someone in the choir towards the end of the video that could indeed by Maggie. Does anyone know for sure if it is her or not? You can watch the video in full right here.

I've never been a fan of jigsaws, only the ones with the big pieces that are easy to do, but I would love to test my skills with this brilliant one that I've found. Part of the jigsaws range on a website called 'Secret Games Shop' includes a 1000 piece jigsaw featuring caricatures of some Corrie favourites, including Audrey, Ken, Rita and Norris, as well as Gail who has Richard Hillman's be-gloved hand on her shoulder. Betty is there too with her infamous hotpot, and Deirdre Barlow clutches a photograph of her ex-lover Mike Baldwin. It'll only set you back £10.99 too. [Ben]

Arty Corrieblog readers may fancy making their own jigsaw. Why not have a browse through Crafty Crafty for a snippet about all things homemade?

A great boredom filler for a Corrie fan like me is to type those two magic words - 'Coronation' 'Street' - into Google, eBayGum or, like I did this weekend, into Streetmap to find out if there's a street or road named Coronation Street near to where I live. My little search returned over seventy different Coronation Streets in the UK alone, with my nearest in Middlesbrough. Flaming Nora's search on flickr suggests that there are Coronation Streets throughout the world!

Which Coronation Streets are local to Corrieblog readers? Click here to see a great map of Weatherfield. [Ben]

If you’ve ever wondered whether it’s worth spending ten minutes of your life having a look at a photo sharing website to see what you can find that’s Corrie-related, well, let me tell you, it is. With nothing better to do the other day, I had a good look at the Coronation Street tagged photos on flickr.com. There’s some little gems on there, from Corrie actors caught by fans on camera phones to Coronation Street place names, like this one in Florida, from all over the world. Go on, have a look, you know you want to.

Coronation Street books are a great investment for any Street fan, and most titles can be picked up on eBay Gum. Today I thought I'd do a brief review of one of my favourite books, which is all about Madame Tanner from No.11. The book is written by Daran Little and was first published by Boxtree in 1992 and is the bible for all Elsie fans. Divided into six brilliant section, the book explores Elsie's lovers, her family, jobs, lodgers, enemies and other memorable moments from 1960 until 1984. It was indispensable when writing about Elsie's men! As we can expect from Little, no Tanner stone is left unturned and even the tiniest tidbits from Elsie's life are unearthed.

There are many excellent photographs too, but my only criticism is that none of them are in colour - I like to see Elsie's red hair in glorious technicolour!

For more reviews, news and everything to do with books, why not visit Trashionista?

See this mug? I own it! CBC Canada's website now has a lot of new Coronation Street merchandise for sale and I ordered this mug and a travel mug as well. They arrived yesterday and I'm so excited! I already own Corrie "gear" including a smaller mug that I won on eBay. This is a nice, large mug and the travel mug is a good size too. Perfect for striking up Coronation Street conversations with random fans! The prices on the site are a little high but "named" merchandise usually is. Check out all their merchandise using the links at the left of that page.

Adam McQueen is a journalist who writes for Private Eye magazine, and it’s not the first time that tome has been name checked by us. He was also deputy editor of The Big Issue once too and now he’s blogging online here. There’s a wonderful article on Adam’s blog about a visit he made to the Coronation Street set in August 1999 when he cheerfully admits he didn’t know his Ena from his Elsie. It starts like this:

“I'm standing with a man wearing a three-foot-tall plastic head which makes him look a bit like a fictional character, on the set of a TV set of a fictional street, which is supposedly in a town called Weatherfield which is really Manchester - in Manchester. And just behind a barrier at the end of the street is a large warehouse where the actor who plays that fictional character is currently acting out scenes which are supposedly taking place inside the houses on this fictional street. My brain hurts”. And you can read the rest of the wonderful article on Adam’s blog here.

The latest monthly Coronation Street podcast has gone live over at The Soap Show. It’s called Word on the Street, involves a chat about the latest storylines, reveals some upcoming spoilers and this month features a chat all about Sally Webster. You can have a listen to it here.

If you've ever wondered if there was anything spooky going on behind the scenes at Coronation Street, you might be right. First, there were strange noises and things that went bump in the snug on Most Haunted and now, there's a website all about psychic experiences on the cobbles.

Even Corrie creator Tony Warren reckons the set is haunted by the ghost of Pat Phoenix! The website's called Spooked and you can read all about the strange and unusual Corrie goings on right here.

While perusing a few blogs that I had bookmarked for one reason or another, I came across this cartoon in the Spacehopper blog that has a Coronation Street reference. It's from 1963 and features Andy Capp and the Missus and the caption reads "For Pete's sake, Andy - not in front of Miss Nugent!". Of course "Miss Nugent" was an unmarried woman in those days. Also on that blog is a short post about a 1960's era Coronation Street jigsaw puzzle. One of the points the blogger makes is about Archie Street, the original inspiration for the terraced houses.

Find some other oddities and fun here.

The latest monthly Coronation Street podcast has gone live over at The Soap Show. It’s called Word on the Street, involves a chat about the latest storylines and reveals some upcoming spoilers. You can have a listen to it here.