Melanie Hill: flirting on the Fulwell, flirting on Coronation Street


From the YouTube account of Tt Mm Zz

With hours to kill before we either stop up to catch coverage of Toronto vs SAFC, or just go to bed, here’s another bout of Summer Madness. Long ago, Salut! Sunderland ran a series of celebrity supporter interviews. Even longer ago, most of these had appeared in 5573, later – and still – Wear Down South, the magazine of the London & SE branch of the SAFC Supporters’ Association. Monsieur Salut was the interviewer, Joan Dawson – sister of our esteemed deputy editor, Malcolm – the instigator, from when she was the magazine’s “co-ordinator”, which meant she did the lion’s share of the work.

One of the best articles to result was based on the story of avid Sunderland supporter Melanie Hill, a terrific actress who played the wife of Coco the Scab in Brassed Off and also had starring roles in Bread, When Saturday Comes and much more besides.

Now Melanie is the new love – if it’s reached that stage yet – of strange old Roy Cropper in Coronation Street. I do watch when in England despite finding many of the storylines preposterous – has any street in the land ever had so many murders, kidnappings, adulterers, disasters and road accidents? – and from what little I have read, this one is nearly as implausible. But I bet Melanie is playing “Cathy” superbly and, in honour of her success in obtaining a role I know she really wanted, here is a re-run of her Celeb interview which – as the names and events suggest – first appeared a long time ago. Apologies to anyone who has seen it before; it’s worth a read if you haven’t …

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Melanie Hill, flirt of the Fulwell, catches the eye

Don’t tell our regular contributor Bill Taylor, since he thought the film was sentimental, cliche-ridden rubbish, but Salut! Sunderland has a lot of time for Brassed Off and all who sailed in it. And especially for Melanie Hill, who played Mrs Coco the Scab and is generally a terrific actress AND a lifelong supporter of Sunderland …

Tonight, for readers in the North East or able to see BBC regional programmes online, there is a chance to see Melanie telling the story of the seven venues on Wearside where the Lads played before the move to the Stadium of Light in 1997. BBC 1 at 7.30pm are the place and time.

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