Jack Duckworth and Me by Bill Tarmey

Author:Bill Tarmey [Tarmey, Bill]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780857202413
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

CHAPTER 17

Married to Royalty

In 1991 Mervyn Watson left to work for the BBC. He was replaced by Carolyn Reynolds, Corrie ’s first female producer for twenty years. Newcomer Sarah Lancashire arrived in the show in January to play a dizzy blonde character called Raquel Wolstenholme for a month. Raquel was so popular with the viewers that the new producer had the sense to bring her back at the end of the year and sign her on a long-term contract.

Sarah’s father, Geoffrey Lancashire, had been one of the early writers of the show. She also had her comic timing off to a fine art, just like Roy Barraclough and Ken Morley.

Sarah had been a vocalist as well as an actress, singing in a band called Titanic, which she claimed cheerfully had sunk without trace. I’d sung in a band called Take Ten with her husband, Gary, who played flute, clarinet and sax, so we had plenty to talk about.

One day I took my little granddaughter, Naomi, Sara’s daughter, to the studios to meet the cast when she was five. She was fine with all of them until I introduced her to Raquel, then she burst into tears. The same thing had happened to my son Carl when I’d introduced him many years before to a drummer called George Walker. Carl looked up to George so much that he was overcome with emotion and howled his head off. Likewise, Raquel was Naomi’s idol, so meeting Sarah was too much for her. But Sarah knew what to do. She went to her dressing room and came back with a bag full of Raquel’s costume jewellery. She showed Naomi these little pieces and won her round. They quickly became firm friends after an embarrassing start.

Jack and Vera were soon involved in a comical storyline that started with the death of Vera’s mother, Amy Burton. For all Amy’s faults, and there were many of them, Vera was saddened by her loss. It would be fair to say Jack got over the tragic news quite quickly. ‘Oh dear, what a pity, never mind’ would sum up Jack’s attitude.

At the subsequent funeral, Vera saw Joss Shackleton, whom she knew as Uncle Joss. But Joss, played by Harold Goodwin, explained that he was Vera’s real father. Just before she died, Amy had asked Vera to look after Joss, so that was a possible explanation.

Jack thought Joss was just a chancer on the make, but Vera insisted on moving him into the back bedroom at Number 9. Once he’d got his feet under the table, Joss, a retired barber, let Vera into the family secret. (If you’re reading this, Your Majesty, I can only apologise and say I’m not responsible for writing the storylines.) According to Joss, he was the illegitimate grandson of King Edward VII, making our Vera a cousin of the Queen.

Jack thought this was an hilarious piece of nonsense and decided to play an April Fool’s joke on Vera. With the help of Joss, who had copperplate writing skills, they sent her a card pretending it had been written by the Queen.

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