(upbeat music) - Hello everybody and welcome to this week's bonus podcast. I'm Michael. - I'm Gemma. - What? - Shout out in all. - Shout out. - It's so exciting. - And it's the conversation straight awards. 2024, are you, what are you, ah, really exciting. A 13th annual look at what went really, really well. - Looking around. - The coronations straight at this. Look at which we've looked really hard, we've found some good stuff. And you, the listeners have helped us to decide what has been the cream of the crop and that is who we were gonna be awarding with our lovely virtual awards today. - That's right. This is the only awards for Coronation Street fans to vote for their favorite Coronation Street things. - It is, definitely. - There are lots of soap awards, but this is the Coronation Street Awards. - And if there's any other ones I don't wanna know. - Well, also, we get some of the votes. You guys get the votes. We don't look at each other's votes. That way we don't cheat. And it's all just everyone's opinion mixed up, blended up, and then poured into a nice big award smoothie. - Yeah, exactly. That's what we're just speaking of which. We've got our awards drinks today, Gemma. I wish that you could see this, everybody at home. We do have our Bistro champagne glasses here. - Yeah, exactly the same ones. Gemma's actually looks like it's got champagne in it, but her little clink there. Gemma's got some lovely cider in her champagne glass today. - What have you got? - I've got some, I've got a special J2O mocktail, which I didn't even know existed before you brought them the other day. This is a, what is it? Black blueberry and blackberry mojito, or something like that? - Something like that. - Something like that. - It's not fizzy. - It's not fizzy, it's kind of okay is what I'm saying with this. I'm thinking, my mind's not have this again. But I still do feel very swanky, drinking it for our awards ceremony. - Well, we will, of course, be doing our usual rundown of reflections on the year at a later day, quite possibly next week. But this is where we're just looking at the creme de la crop, at least according to our listeners. And us, like Gemma said, we had a proportionate. We had one sick for the voter ourselves, but we don't have a look at how everyone else's voted before we cast ours. We just maybe tip the balance. - We're like the judging panels. There's quite a lot of the soapworts. We'll do have a judging panel, won't they? - They do. I think I'm glad there's pretty fair, to be honest. - I think ours is the best. - I think ours is definitely the best. - Absolutely. - And for me, you guys listing will agree with all of our awards that we're giving out today as well. - Feel about whether you think it's the best, will probably be affected by who wins, which award. - Well, I mean, I don't know about you, but I think that going into this, before we even had a look at the results, there was one particular category where we thought, "Think I know who the winner of that one's going to be." - I think this one might be our answer. - I've actually put that one fairly close up to the top, just so people aren't catching 10 to hooks for too long. But yeah, there's a few surprises in here, and some that I'm really, really happy about. And as always, with the conversation straight award, we've got a couple of special guest appearances from some of our winners as well. - That's very. - And these characters who play them, to say thank you very much for all you guys for voting for. - But just like with the Oscars, it is a privilege to be nominated. - It's just a privilege to be nominated. - But a privilege to be nominated. - Yeah, that's right, because it's Coronation Street has had a good year, not a vintage year as Michael keeps trying to say, but we're here to talk about only the positive things. And I really think that there have been some great things that I've had in this year and some great nominees here. And some of the people and things and storylines that didn't win still, I think were really amazing. And I just went round of applause to everybody who's been nominated. - Absolutely, absolutely. Definitely not everybody that I voted for ended up winning, but I'm very happy with the results that we've got. - Quite often I'll forget who I voted for. - It's just fair at the moment, though. - Well, because also, like I said, some of these categories are really difficult to pick a winner because they're great. - Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. There is also gonna be, and I did leave a little bit of a pause there so I can take this out if I need to, hopefully gonna be a YouTube version of this award as well. You might remember last year we put up a little fancy, a bridged version of the award show with all kinds of bells and whistles and fancy this isn't that. And the plan is to maybe do one of those this year as well. Hopefully it might be getting up at the same time as this, I don't know. But if you are interested in that last year, if you never saw it or anything, or what's he going on about now, head over to our YouTube channel and go and check it out and you might be able to see some of our lovely winners giving their thanks rather than just imagining it after listening it to it with your ears. So that's our little preamble out of the way. People aren't really interested in this. We're gonna get on with our first category. Are you ready to start the awards? - Yeah. - Let's go cracking with it then. (upbeat music) So our first category of the evening, as always, is the AOP award for Best Newcomer. And we had a couple of new faces on the street this year. We all had, you know, a few main characters, like Kirt and Bobby, a couple of side ones who have already had to say goodbye to, but a really decent crop of nominees this year. So the nominees for the awards were Bobby, Kitt, Betsy, Rowan and Logan. So the winner of the 2024 Conversations Street AOP award for Best Newcomer is, Betsy Swae. - Betsy. - Congrats, Betsy. 46% of the vote went to Betsy. So obviously a lot of popularity for this young newcomer here. Second place we had Kitt and third was Rowan. So Betsy's been in the show for a good. I've got a six months or so now, hasn't she? And that obviously made an impression on the coronation street listeners. Of course, I mean, she was first named quite exclusively as I'll never stop revealing on this very podcast. - That's right, yeah, we did an interview. - We didn't give her the name. We chatted to lovely Vicky Myers earlier this year. This all kind of came about when Vicky was made, well, when Swane was made a regular character and we got in the press related to that and Vicky did reveal that she would be, I think beforehand we knew that there was going to be a daughter going into it, but it was on the podcast where Betsy was christened. So, and it was maybe a couple of months after that that we first saw her appear on the street. Although actually our first couple of appearances, she didn't even have a name. She was called Sabrina's mate 'cause there was a little bit of a... - Oh yeah, we didn't know it was her, did we? - No, I bet that's, I bet that's, I bet, Sue there. - Yeah, well, it's exactly. They kept us on in suspense a little bit about who this random blonde friend of Sabrina's was. She was just, as I was Sabrina was coming out of the police station 'cause Gav had a parent, I don't even remember what Gav had been arrested for, but some sort of... - Been cheeky. - Some sort of window cleaning related Tom Foolery 'cause we're not seeing him on the show since, sadly. - But that's like really serious. - 'Cause he's been banged up. - Well, I think it was revealed, I can't remember whether it was the same time as it was revealed to the audience, that it was also revealed to Joel, that his young black male was indeed the daughter of D.S. Swain, yeah. - Yeah, her third episode, we were told that she was D.S. Swain's daughter. - Yeah, she'd been, well, she'd seen Sabrina being a group, yeah, attempted grooming from Joel in the precinct, and she was like, "I'm not having any of this." I think he tried to then groom her, and she was like, "I'm gonna take advantage of this and blackmail him." And then it was at the end of that third episode, like he said that we saw her getting into the car with her mum, and he's like, "Ah, that is definitely D.S. Swain's daughter." And does the apple fall far from the tree? - What do you mean? - I don't know, is she her mother's daughter? Is she the kind of person that you'd imagine would gel well with her hardened police cop? - Well, she's definitely a soap, you know, she's pretty much the opposite, isn't she, of Lisa? But she's also a very rebellious teenager, isn't she? And she's up to mischief quite a lot of the time. - I like the idea that Swain's got a daughter, and it kind of makes sense, I suppose, narratively, and to cause maximum drama, that the spawn of a law holding... - You were biting. - Law enforcing character is quite so naughty as she is. - Yes, very chaotic. - Yeah, I still think that we've, you know, we've still got a way to go to have many domestic scenes between the two of them. - We haven't seen, we've seen the bathroom of their home, but we haven't seen any of the other rooms. I think quite a lot of people would be quite happy to see maybe the front room, or just having them just to talk into each other. - I think she's just making up that the pipes burst over New Year, to be honest. - It's really embarrassing that you've probably had this way and never moved out of the condos, actually. - Yeah. - With just a bathroom in there. - So what kind of naughtiness has she been up to this year? - Mostly blackmailing. - It's mostly blackmailing. That's the scene to be her favourite. - That's what she wants to do, isn't it? She blackmailed Joel, she blackmailed Carla, and now I think she blackmailed Beth, and now I think that Carla's kind of blackmailing her back a little bit because she knows that she was responsible for the water brothers breaking into the factory. - Oh yes, Carla is holding that over her still, isn't she? And she got a clunk on her head, you're right. But yeah, so she was partly there responsible for Beth leaving Coronation Street, and yeah, her secret that she knew was that Carla had car-dored this teeny, well, not poor teenager, he'd been... - He was a little scroat. - Yeah, he was, he was bad man than our Roy, and you know, he just said that would come and beat us up. - Oh yeah. - So much drama, she's been involved in so much drama in the six months that she's been involved. 'Cause she's also the one who ordered the drugs that induced Lauren's only labour. - Oh yeah, she was, wasn't she? - And obviously a bit of guilt there. - She's been wrong, multi-madge. - And she's still grieving her mum, Becky, and not really happy about the fact that Carla is kind of muffling in. - A little bit like one of her co-nominees in this category, Kit. It's kind of a bit blurry about, you know, are we supposed to be supporting her? Is she a goodie? Is she a baddie? - Well, she's a cheeky mess, isn't she? - She is, and I kind of enjoyed her, especially a couple of weeks ago, where she got sloshed, and she was all talking to Sally who was from lounge, that was kind of nearing over Mason. - I've got quite enjoyed the relationship that's going there with her and Mason, although it's still a little bizarre to me that this boy who was threatening Liam with a knife earlier is now been supposedly resumed. But yeah, I suppose this is the new breed of coronation street teenagers, now that Asha are in their summer, and Ardi in that lot have moved up. - They're all grain after, they're all sensitive. - Yeah. - They've got mortgages. - These are the precinct teenagers. This is Generation precinct, I'm gonna say. - And Becky sees the newest one, and she's an award winner, so congratulations to Betsy. - Yeah, congratulations, Betsy. I'm looking forward to seeing what the show has in store for you, and hopefully, I just kind of want there to be a little bit more getting to know you as a person, and maybe seeing a little bit more of Betsy's vulnerabilities in 2025, so she's not just a stirrer. As fun as that can be. Now, we're very lucky that we were able to get a nice acceptance speech from the actress behind Betsy Swain, lovely Sydney Martin. So just to kick this show off of the bang, we'll pass over to Sydney. - Hello, conversation street podcast viewers. I just found out I've been voted a up best newcomer for 2024, so I just wanted to pop on and say thank you so much. I know we have to be patient with Betsy sometimes, and I know she can do some controversial things, but I've had so much fun playing her, and I feel privileged that the people watching love her being there, and I love being there, so yeah, hopefully there's some good stuff going up in the new year that shows she's not just a cheeky little madam, she does have a big heart, but yeah, sending so much love, and thank you so much. Muah. (upbeat music) - What's that noise I can hear? It's like a sort of sparkly noise and cupid drawing his bow. - I thought it was the sound of inevitability. - Oh, I don't know, it was the same thing maybe. - Hello love, it's time for our next award. Jeff, what's this one all about? - This is the award for the best new couple on the street, and we had five nominees in this category, and they are Nick and Toya, Carla and Lisa, Lauren and Max, Gail and Jessie, and Tracy and Tommy. - Don't keep me in the suspense any longer, Gemma. Who's the winner? - The winner of the 2024 conversation street award for the best new couple, and I love Ghost 2, Carla and Lisa. - Oh my gosh, I can't believe that. Congratulations, Carla and Lisa. - The landslide winner, they got over 85% of the vote. The next couple were Lauren and Max, which were actually a controversial entry because we were sort of challenged on whether to include them as they kind of were on and off again before, but they haven't been together for a-- - Not properly, I say they were kind of pushed together in their original year, and then we had done-- - And coming in third places, Nick and Toya, yes. Sorry guys, there was no competition here, I think. - Yeah, almost everybody here voting for Carla and Lisa, when we had more votes for this year's conversation street awards than we ever have done in the past. So they got an awful lot of clicks over the last couple of weeks that voting has been open. This is something that's been a long time coming, really. We knew that there would be something brewing on the romantic side for Lisa, right back from the beginning of the year. I think it was March time. It was announced that Becky Myers would be, as we said in the last award, would be becoming a main character. And in her, hello, I'm a regular interview. Becky Myers said, I'm not sure everybody knows this, but Swain is gay. I think she perhaps has seen someone that's caught her eye, but at the moment, she's far too busy with focusing on this investigation. So we knew right back from then that there was somebody, an existing character that she would be making the moves on, yet there wasn't really anybody that necessarily fitted the bill, people thought at the time. - No, first, we knew that she was gay, so we knew it would be a woman. And the only person that she really had a lot of contact with in a way that looked like it could turn romantic was Carla. Carla, from the very beginning of Lisa becoming a regular, started having a lot more intimate chats with her than you perhaps might do if you weren't told that you were gonna end up in a relationship. - Well, it kind of started when we first learned about Lisa's troubled home life and what was going on with Betsy and still grooming with Rebecca, if you remember, there was a scene in Britain's Got Talent Week where Swain was in her car and looking up set and Carla goes and sits back there. - Yeah, that was the scene I was really thinking of. - That was when you were-- - That's when things first sparked between it, but I guess, in the months before then, Swain led to believe that Swain did have her eye on Carla a little bit, but yeah, so basically, Swain goes through a lot of bother there. I mean, so just, it's one of the things that's difficult with Swain is that she was kind of quite responsible for Roy being sent to Brisbane. I think Vicki Myers has even said since she wishes that it could be a scene where Swain apologized to Roy for banging him up. - Yeah, because he's really like-- - You know, one of Carla's best mates. - To make the anger it and how it's not, like he was helping them. - He's a forgettable soul. - He was helping them set up a Samoan Koot in the cafe today. Doesn't hold a grudge, does Roy, does he? - No, no. - And I think Lisa's like, look, it was just my job, okay? I'm a professional police lady and sometimes I arrest the wrong person. - Well, Carla takes pity on Swain and invites Betsy to come and work with her at the factory for a little bit, doesn't she? So, we get to see some scenes of Lisa going in there, you know, bobbing in on the way from work, just having a chat and eventually it comes out that Betsy is the daughter of this police officer. There's also the scene where Joel accuses Carla of slander when she kind of stands up in Chariot Square and announces that he's a wronger and Lisa's comforting her with that. The bond really happens though, I would say, the week. Well, you know, when there's around the who killed Joel's story, particularly when Lisa's hit by a car that are kind of bonding over the fact that she's saying, oh, I didn't know whether to tell Betsy because this is what happened to her mum, Becky, and by this time, Carla's realizing that there's something sparking there, isn't there? I've been feeling there that she had never had before. Yes. And also, you know, Lisa's telling her that she's lonely. Yeah, that was really nice scene, wasn't there? I remember when she opened up about her feelings of isolation. More than any other relationship, I mean, maybe you could argue this for Toya and Nick 'cause they had the had a long build up, but, you know, Carla and Lisa have not jumped into things. They've really taken their time making this a very believable relationship because, you know, inevitably there are people who don't buy it because of Carla's sexuality before this relationship. And so they knew that they had a hurdle to overcome to try to convince some people. Obviously, there are still some holdouts, but on the whole thing, judging from the votes that we've had, they've done a really great job of setting up a really lovely and believable relationship between these two women. Yeah, absolutely, I think it totally is. And, you know, going back 12 months, it's certainly not something that I would have thought. I mean, Carla said herself in this New Year's episode. I would never thought that I'd be falling in love with the local copper 12 months from now. And I certainly, you know, when she was kicking Peter out off to see the year ago, we wouldn't expect in this for her character. But I do think they're doing a really good job of making it believable. They've had some lovely tenders scenes together, the arena started really with the hair touched, didn't it? Was that just after, was that when she was in hospital? I can't remember, I think it-- There've been a lot of things happen in a very short amount of time. Yeah, oh no, it was after, that's right. Carla was attacked by the father of the boy that she car-dored, wasn't she? Yeah, that's right. And also, I kind of liked how Lisa was a bit kind of stern with Carla about it, like, you know, you should have just car-dored people. Like, she doesn't, she doesn't make excuses for Carla's bad behavior, does she? She's like, she can be very, she's a copper. She's got to be a bit judgy, hasn't she? Yeah, I like Carla-- She's no kid, she, you know, she takes her job seriously. But I like how there's tension in this couple and Coronation Street builds kind of believable conflicts between them. They're never really huge, you know, deal-breakers, but they're navigating a relationship together in a really human, mature, sensible, interesting, and engaging way, which is why I think they've won. Yeah, and I think it sometimes takes a few surprise turns as well. I don't think people were necessarily expecting them to end up in bed together quite as soon as they did. I think that was quite a nice surprise with the sign of fans out there. But they've taken their time, they've had that, they've still had the hurdles with, you know, when's Carla gonna go public with it? Now she said, I love you and Swain is still being, well, I don't know whether I'm ready to say that. But I think that, you know, 2025 is gonna be an awful lot of Carla and Lisa on the show. Yeah, and I like how guarded also Lisa can be and she takes Carla by surprise sometimes about the boundaries too. 'Cause I think Carla's like, yeah, whatever, let's go, let's do it. And then Lisa's like, no, I need more time, I need to, but it was Carla who was like that at the very beginning. She's like, I need more time. So they're really, it's a really interesting. Well, Lisa's very concerned with her daughter as well and knowing that her relationship with her has been on the rocky side over the last few years. So she's gotta keep her in mind as well. So yeah, I'm definitely looking forward to seeing where they're gonna take this. And I hope it's not gonna be just a case if as Cori often does with relationships, getting a couple together and then forgetting about them, let's get them, let's cope with a story together that isn't just related to them getting together. 2025 looks like there's gonna be some definite developments in the story, not necessarily in their relationship because we know that Lisa's on the case investigating who murdered her dead wife. Oh, yes. And we also know that there might be some kind of issue that Carla's gonna have to deal with with why she was feeling a bit swooning. I'm sure that that was not just the beat. She wasn't just swooning for Swain. She's a swooning Swainer. Right, congratulations, Swaller. And I'm sure that there's a lot of fans out there that are gonna be very chuffed that they've picked up this hour love award. They can't win the next year because it was only for new couples. - New couple. - That's all winning in 2024. Let's move on to our next award. (upbeat music) Okay, on to our next award. I've just been being schooled in the break by a general about how to hold a champagne flute properly. I'm not used to all this fancy pants livers. - Get used to that. - Do you hold it by the, by the main bit of it? Or do you hold it by the stick? - You hold it by, you don't hold it by the stem. - The stem, sorry. And it was some, I didn't think of a botanical. - You hold it but from the stem, you get to top heavy and you start spinning everywhere. - Okay, well, we are moving on to the terra award next where we have to celebrate who gave the best goodbye as they parted where the field for pastures knew this year. And as always, we had five nominees. They were Peter, Joel, Beth, Paul and Simon. And the winner of this year's 2024 conversation street terra award for best exit goes to Paul Foreman. - Yay. - All right, congrats. - Another answer. - Yeah, it really, really was. 70% of people voted for Paul to win this one. And I'm not surprised. Second place, we had Joel and he had a pretty major exit as well, didn't he? - Yeah, we had a special episode. - He had a special episode. He had a volume wall. He had washing and waters. And then in third place, we had Peter with his, not quite 2024, but we put it in anyway exit in a tram last year. But yeah, Paul is the guy at the moment and I absolutely adored this exit. It was one of my favorite moments of the year for absolute short. It was utterly, utterly heart wrenching, wasn't it? And I suppose it goes to show that you can throw in all the special effects and explosions and whatever that you like, but sometimes a good old dramatic cry is all you need to make an impression on the viewers. - Well, this was the culmination of a really important and well done MND storyline for Coronation Street, which I think I could not believe how well they did with this. I was very trepidatious when I heard that they were gonna do a storyline like this because I don't like medical storylines anyway. And I was not really ready to be sad all the time, but Coronation Street did such a brilliant job of making the human side of it. And also Paul's sense of humour, an important part of his coping skills, but there was nothing funny about Paul's exit. - There was not a dry eye in that house. - And we did have that quite funny scene with Billy and David early on in the episode when they were sitting outside the fresher goes. But yeah, they played it completely straight for this final scene. And the script by Emily Gascon was absolutely magnificent just having all the main players, apart from Billy, I suppose, around the bed there, Gemma, Summer, Burnie, and each of them having their own little moment. It was a little bit like Gail going around last week telling everyone who their favourite was. And they all took it in turns to say their goodbyes. Harriet, I mean, I'm not the world's biggest Summer fan, but she was absolutely lovely. Harriet, Bibi, yeah. So it's sort of saying this isn't goodbye. See you later and kind of joking about him coming back to haunt her and make Paul faces at Billy when he's given her a lecture. Gemma was absolutely wonderful and she so often gets kind of silly things to do. She's either stuffing her face with food or moaning about not having any money. And I know that Dolly Rose Campbell is capable of so much more than this. And that exit scene, 100% showed it. It was a real lovely merging of script and performance there when she's talking about wanting Paul to come back to her as a parrot, saying that I'm like an odd sock without you, which is a really, really lovely image. And I think the line that got me the most was when she says, well, when my time has come, come and find me as if to say, you know, we came into this world together. - I wanna go off with you when my time has come. It was, she was absolutely superb with this. And then you had Bernie coming on planting a kiss on his head and setting time to reach for the stars. And through all of this, poor Peter Ash had to lie there, just kind of breathing quite heavily and raspily every now and then. But I mean, that's probably a pretty tricky thing to do, especially with, I don't know, you know, when you've got all of this going on around you. - Incredibly physical, what he was doing is incredibly physical and challenging. I'm sure I haven't heard him speak about it, but I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't take a toll on him doing all of this. - Oh, absolutely. I think he might have spoken to me on the interview that we did earlier this year about just that. But yeah, he gives this kind of last long rasping crow, doesn't he, before he passes away? And that's when the music kicks in. Of course, while all this is going on, Billy's on the phone, not been able to make it to the hospital on time. And some people didn't like the fact that Billy wasn't there and saying it was adding drama for drama's sake. And I certainly wasn't a huge fan of Bernie then using it against him a few weeks later, when she said, "Oh, he didn't actually hear you on the phone." But, you know, for the moment, I was really, I just left the episode really satisfied that they handled his departure in a really sensible and respectful way. And yeah, having Billy kind of pouring his heart out to him over the phone when in the hospital room, you got Harriet, also, somewhere there with her hands over her mouth 'cause she just wants to burst into loud, noisy tears, no doubt, Bernie's having to hold it together, which she's had to do so brilliantly. - Really tired time. - You know, through the whole of the story, and Gemma just, they're gobsmacked, because she knows that holding this phone to Paul, and he's, can't actually hear Billy 'cause he's gone, is gonna be a secret that it was time. She thought that they'd have to keep forever, but yeah, a really, really touching. And yeah, very moving death. And it's no surprise to me that this is one, the Tarar Award. It is definitely something quite special and memorable. - Yeah, and I think that they all knew when they were doing this storyline, how important it was to pay tribute to the experiences of people who have an MD. And so they were doing it for them, really. And it was a fitting tribute because Paul's story and his exit was incredible. - Yeah, yeah. We may well be hearing from Peter. I shall later on in the show. You'll have to wait and find out what for. But for now, let's move on to our next award. - On to the next category. This is the award for the best male character. We call it Top Lad. - We do. - Our nominees for this award are Paul, Roy, Nick, Billy and David. Would you like to know his one? - Yeah, I'd love, I know already. I don't know about this. The winner of the 2024 conversation spirit award for the Top Lad, Dave's two, Paul. - Paul's four-month two in a row. - Well done. - Nice one. 51% of the votes over half of the votes this year went to Paul with Roy in second place and David in third. I am absolutely thrilled that Paul's our winner for this. Well, no, I don't think it could be anyone else. So I'm really, really chuffed that. Despite the fact that his story kind of ended a few months ago, now we reach the end of the year, he's still being recognised for the, the great contribution that he put towards making coronation street as great as it was in 2024. - Yeah, I mean, 2023, we saw more of the light-hearted, human coping skills, him developing those as he coped with his diagnosis. - Yeah, exactly. - And then this year. - It was coming to terms with the fact that he had MND last year, wasn't it? - This year was the physical decline that was depicted as he succumbed to the disease. - Yes. - And that, you know, we had camper van trippers with Bernie and Gemma and Paul. - Yeah, that was all tying into the, is he gonna take his own life element, wasn't it? Because the story, the beginning of the year, within the first few weeks of the year, we had that brilliant scene where Billy promised that he would help him if he were to go down that route. And the camping trip was burning in Gemma accidentally finding out about it. But yeah, it was kind of, you're right, it was from that point onwards that the physical decline is what we were moving towards, seeing and I remember going into the year thinking or wondering how well, how far are they gonna push it? How well are they gonna be able to portray this? And I was just, I was just amazed 'cause they did go down the, you know, he can't move his hands now. He can't eat solid food now. He has to have a feeding tube. He can't speak now. And it was so, so sad. And, you know, this award is for Paul Foreman rather than Peter Ash, but I don't think that the character of Paul would have been half as, you know, what he turned out to be without a really fantastic performance by Peter. - Peter Ash, yeah, he did a fantastic job. We also had some new family turn up, didn't we? We saw Denny, his dad turned up after he asked for funding on the radio. - Oh, yeah, did you ever see when he was on the radio with Amy and he swore on the radio? Well, I'll have to swear. - You would never do such a thing, would you, Gemma? - Yeah, I think that's what I want to be swearing because I got it wrong already. - Gemma's had three F bombs already in these awards that we've had to get. - I had to cut them out. - 'Cause I only 'cause I did it said the wrong thing. Right, and so... - Yeah, we've had... - Kit, his new brother. - Yeah, an interesting addition. And I'm still not completely convinced that having him being a member of the Winter Clan was necessarily needed for everything that Kit's been getting up to. And it also detracted a little bit with having him turning Gemma and Paul away from Bernie. But it doesn't stop me from absolutely loving what the character turned out to be this year. It showed such strength of character and such a positivity and something to aspire to the way that he dealt with his impending doom because like you said earlier, what could have been an absolutely miserable story did turn out to be a story about hope and love and family and faith and everything. And it was just a lot of joy to watch, wasn't it? - Yeah. - And there were comedy pits in there as well. Do you remember when Summer's boyfriend Felix came in? - He's got Felix when he's giant water bottle. - He's giant water bottle and Paul kind of accidentally on his I-Gaze machine in Sultan, didn't he? - Yeah, all that kind of stuff was absolutely brilliant. But yeah, obviously we've already talked a lot about his death. There was the fantastic episode that was from his perspective. He really was the character that I felt was most developed as a character this year. Out of, you know, absolute props go to everyone else involved in this, if we're talking about other top lads, Dan Brockabank has absolutely got to get a shout out here, but I think very deservedly, this top lad award should go to Peter Ash this year. Who, you know, even the end wasn't complete goodbye for him, was it? 'Cause he did turn up just a few weeks ago. - No, he came back with a ghost. - Ghost dream apparition, who not? So maybe this isn't the last we've seen him out. I'm kind of feeling it, we'll be there. - I don't think he's gonna win top lad next year, even if he does appear as good. - I think that's true, I think that's true. Congratulations, Paul, very, very well deserved. - And we will be hearing from Peter Ash later. (laughing) That's right, that's another thing. He'll be back tomorrow, ain't it, maybe. On with the next award though. (upbeat music) It's time to bring on the girls with a top lass award now where we celebrate who you voted as the very best weather field woman of 2024. Now, our nominations this year are Dee Dee, Lauren, Carla, Leanne, and Bernie, but there can only be one winner. Find it out between your girls, but the winner of the 2024 Conversation Street top lass award for the best female character goes to Carla Conner. - Yeah. - Congratulations, Carla. You're second awarder, the evening you're doing well. It's gonna, it's Carla versus Paul. Taylor, I'm gonna fight. You can get the most of the world first, yeah. - Oh, well, she did knock him over. (laughing) - She did, she did, she did. - She's the one that started all those, Carla, before. (laughing) Yeah, big, big year for Carla. And I think you've spoken on the podcast before, haven't you, about how 2024 has been a year where Carla has gone back up in your estimations after having a few, a bit of a quieter period. - Wow, yeah. I mean, Carla had been off the boil. I don't think there's any denying that. But when she got rid of that man, she got rid of a burden, maybe, he could argue. - You lease a life in 2024. - You lease a life? - Ah, it wasn't you lease a life, wasn't it? (laughing) - But it's made a new woman out there. But before then, you know, she really was becoming more of the factory boss that we all know and love her to be. - Yes, absolutely, yeah. - I like her, I like her dishing out a bit of verbal aggression on the factory, like putting them in their place. - She has been, she has been, yes. And she's also-- - Also putting Sarah Louise in her place as well, just 'cause she can hold a clipboard. I mean, she know what she's doing. - Absolutely. We've also seen a little bit more of our home side as well. I mean, there was an awful lot about last year with the asset attack story and her relationship with Ryan. But this year, it was a bobby appearing on the scene. The hit the two unknown nephews. - The dearest relative. - Even she didn't know that he existed when he rocked up at the beginning of 2024. And although he hasn't had a whole lot to do this year on the show, it's been something else for Carter to contend with. Of course, she's also, you mentioned about her being the new factory boss. She's also the rovers boss in 2024, apparently. - We're just gonna forget that. - Remember, that's everybody. She's apparently the owner. That has been a little bit of a moment for the year. - Well, yeah, no, I don't think anyone, I think everyone's forgotten. Hopefully, we'll just forget that happened. - I don't know. - Her biggest challenge was Roy being accused of murder. - Oh yeah, of course. Yeah, good friend, Roy, band up by her future lover, Lisa. - And also, she gets in trouble with Bobby because Bobby lies and says that he saw somebody to give a alibi. - Oh yes, yes. - And then Roy doesn't want to be her friend anymore because she backed him up. - She's always balling in and out of friendship with Roy. Yeah, she's... - She's been attacked. - She's been... - Twice at the factory. She's door to kid. - Yeah, oh my gosh, she did, didn't she? Open a car door on a kid's face. She's all, I quite like, you talked about her kind of laying down the law in the factory. I particularly like that when we had Betsy and Beth and Izzy doing their fake t-shirt, counterfeit, labeling up him and Carla gets them all into the office and gives them a good old classic, curry, factory, boss style dressing down. That was good. - She also gets himself in trouble with Joel when she tells a client of his, to his face, that Joel's a big sleaze bag and... - Yeah, yeah. - He's a double-slide. - This is brilliant, Carla, isn't it? - Yeah. - Absolutely. Yeah, just, you know, not caring what people think about her and I think that's what we've also seen in terms of, you know, now that she's out in the open about her relationship with Lisa and I think that's why that does feel true to character. She's never cared before about what people think about her in terms of business or other personal actors. So why should she care about this? Yeah. We also, almost also this year, if you remember, had her as a resident of the street itself, didn't we? Because she was buying number eight at one point. That's obviously gone back to David's now. I still, I'm kind of glad as much as I love Carla. - She's not a house person. - She's not. She is definitely an apartment girl, isn't she? I don't think she really. She's not much of a cleaner, is she? - No, I don't think she's much of a gardener. - No, I don't think Lisa is either. - Yeah, I'm not sure number eight would have been right for her. She would have just made that. - That's just a day. - She didn't kill even worse, wasn't she? - Maybe. - She also was involved in there who killed Joel's story. She was a minor suspect, wasn't she? - Yeah, well she was in the photo. - She was in the photo, which meant that we were supposed, certainly not supposed to suspect her, but it was just kind of based on the fact that she went outside one night and she saw something which turned out to be just Max and Lauren, and yeah, a lot you've mentioned earlier, she's had brain surgery this. Yeah, she came bouncing back from that, didn't she? - Such a lot. - Tough old cookie Carla. - Yeah, Carla's back on top and I couldn't be happier. - Yeah, absolutely, she's been on the show for nearly 20 years now, and she's always, in this time, been one of the feistiest, most class-- - Strong female characters in the tradition of a coronation street days of old, where the main characters and the ones with the biggest males were all women, and this is what we want from Cori, one strong women, getting up to all kinds of things, challenges to overcome, and I'm pretty sure that there's gonna be plenty of that for Carla in the new year. - Yeah, she has definitely got her bike back and I'm looking forward to seeing what she's gonna be sinking her teeth into 2025. - Well, it was Leanna earlier, so maybe by the end of the year, Carla would have taken a chump out of Craig as well. - Oh, maybe, maybe. Right, let's move on to our next category. - On to the next category, and that is our kid award for the best young person on the street. Our nominees are Hope, Sam, Dylan, Liam, and Joseph. And the winner of the 2024 Conversation Street Award for our kid, the best young character, is two, Liam. - Liam, Connor, Connor, congratulations to you. Well done, 39% of the vote. You came just ahead of Hope and Sam, who was in third place. But yeah, Liam, it was all about Liam this year, wasn't it? He made quite a splash on social media. He was all over TikTok, apparently. - Oh, yes. - I don't understand about these things. But the bullying storyline really resonated with a group of viewers who maybe don't necessarily always watch Coronation Street or engage in Coronation Street content. But Charlie Wrenshaw has certainly caught the attention of a whole host of Cori fans and really impressed us with his portrayal of bullying victim. - Yeah, that's right. He had a really tough year, and it definitely resonated with a lot of younger viewers, and also people that had experienced it at school, because bullying is a massive problem. - Yeah, I mean, it's sadly a universal issue that many of us have either seen or experienced. So we were able to put ourselves in Charlie's shoes, and it was quite-- - Yeah, he played it so sympathetically as well, didn't he? - Yeah. - He just wanted to skip him up and protect him, because he had been trunting 'cause he was scared of Mason, and then he gets in trouble, 'cause Mason sort of provokes him and a Dylan, and he have a fight, don't they? - Yes, yeah, he has to apologise to Dylan later. - Dylan was another great character this year, and he was kind of trying to side on Mason to be cool, but Liam was still his mate. - He was a complicated character, wasn't he? 'Cause he was stuck in the middle of trying to be, trying to ingratiate himself with the bully. - And then you had Liam getting, he was stuck at home, wasn't he? And we got to see all those scenes of him in his bedroom, getting all the messages to on his computer and his phone, and he was just a non-stop-terraid of-- - When we were little, if you were bullied at school, you could go home. And as long as the bullies didn't live near you or come to your house, you'd be safe, but he was never safe. It was so sad to watch him looking on his social media and being abused online as well. - And the fact that some of it came from Dylan as well, and that Dylan was posting the homophobic abuse as well, I wasn't either directed at Liam, which led to that amazing scene where Sean tore strips off of his son for that. - But yeah, so we had that, we had-- - Well, he guessed that's correct, doesn't he? Because he starts to research how to end his life online, and Maria finds this out and sort of becomes very protective. Homeschools him and kind of follows everything he's doing. - Yeah, luckily the therapy does the trick, and even at the end of the year, he's not quite there as being best buds with Mason, but it seems that a truce has been called between them, not partly because of the fact that Mason was handily there when Chesney nearly ran to Liam over a couple of months ago as well. - That's right. - So I think there's still more to come there. The fact that Mason is still hanging around on the street when any normal or usual coronation street baddie, especially the teen variety might be gone by this point, so there's clearly more still to come. And we haven't seen a whole lot of Liam in the past few months, but I think going into 2025, especially given the many plaudits that Charlie received this year. Yeah, I think we're gonna be seeing a heck of a lot of them, and Charlie Wenschel is turning 16 this year as well, which is probably going to mean that we'll be able to see a bit more of on the show as well. So Liam Conner fans, you got plenty to look forward to. - And we've got some words from the man himself. - We do. - The kid, our kid. - Charlie Wenschel. - That's right, and here's his message. - Hi, everyone. I just want to say thank you so much. Everybody's voted for me for the 2024 conversation street awards, and allow me to win Best Young Character. - All right, thank you, Charlie. Now, the next category today is the Geraway Award, where we are celebrating our very favorite location shoot of our favorite location shoot, of course it is. - Everyone's. - Everyone's favorite location shoot. And although, you know, we introduced this last year because we're not feeling like we're getting a whole lot of time away from Media City at the moment, and this is our way of saying to the Corry bosses, "Come on, get up, what?" - Coronation Street, definitely-- - Find that money tree that everyone else on Coronation Street seems to find. Give it a shake and spend it on getting away from the main studios, 'cause we do love a good location shoot. - Well, Coronation Street really obviously cares quite deeply about who wins this award, and I know that Kate Brooks will be listening intently, and just coming up with some new ideas to titillate us in 2025, and take us to the location shoot. - I hope so, I hope so. Well, we've got five nominations, and from heaven and earth, this includes Cassie's puppy rescue. - That's from heaven to hell. - Where's that? - Well, the puppy rescue place was pretty hellish. - It probably was, wasn't it? So we've got Cassie's puppy rescue. We have got Roy's trial. We got the scene out in the country where Swain and Kit discovered Joel's car after he went missing a couple of months ago, Paul's Space Launch, and finally the scene where Toya and Leanne headed out into North Cross Park to mourn Paul Little Baby Rose earlier in the spring. And the winner of the 2024 Garrow Whale Walk the best location shoot was the discovery of Joel's car. This was 30th of September. This isn't a scene directed by Duncan Foster, and it really kind of made me prick my ears up and listen. Prick my eyes up, I'm sorry, I suppose it was. - Prick your eyes out. - Yeah, no, 'cause it's kind of started with this beautiful drone shot and said, "Oh, the countryside, we weren't expecting this." This whole who'd done it for Joel's death, we didn't really see coming. The previous episode had ended with him leaving this kind of mysterious message on Jotana and Dee Dee's answerphone hadn't it? But we didn't know that that was the last time we were gonna see him. But it was this, from this moment on, you thought, oh, they're doing something special here. Going up to what we later found out was Martha and Viaduct to do a really kind of beautifully short scene, and I'm really pleased at this one one, actually. - Yeah, I mean, the way, I know a lot of people are criticizing coronations during the same, it's more like a police procedural. And this scene definitely contributed to that, didn't it? - This could have been in a police drama. - But what a beautiful way to do it, if you're gonna, I'd much rather have gorgeous drone shots and location shoots and, you know, mysterious cars and viaducts. If you're gonna do a policey thing, much rather have that than lots of scenes of interview rooms. - Or better, and better this than his car just being turned up at the precinct, which is probably where they could have done it. - And we also went to three of the locations on this list this year. We did go to where Joel's car was discovered, which was cool. It was a really nice place to visit. We did go to the morning park, didn't we? - Oh, we did, yes. - And we also went to space very briefly, which blew the picture of the budget a little bit. - No, we did, we did, we did. We did, yeah, we went and visited Martha and Viaducts, and thank you very much to our friends at CoriPedia for helping us define that when the episode was done. But it's a really lovely place. It's very picturesque. If you have a look at the video that we put on early November on our three days on Weatherfield, you can find out more about that. I kind of wish we'd climbed up the top to go and have a look at that. - We didn't know that there was gonna be another scene there later when Joel was, it was finally brought to justice with a couple of swift bops of the head. But also that same place, not exactly in the place it's depicted on the show, but further up the road a little bit is where DeeDee discovered the field. - Oh yes, with Joel's other car, right? - Yeah, that was a really, that's a private piece of land you can't go on there, but they look pretty spooky with an abandoned shed. - I loved everything about this scene, but especially with the fact that we had these shots of the Viaducts towering over us, there are some right from on the top of it, and you can actually tell that it doesn't have a railway track on if you put a particular moment, but nevermind that. Yeah, it was lovely. You don't see a whole lot of green in Coronation Street, do you? - Yeah! - Apart from Kit Green, who's all over the place, yeah. - But it's also really lovely. - And does it major in a nice change of pace? - To go into the wider countryside around Manchester, because there's some beautiful country around there, and you don't get to see it very much on quarry, so lovely to see it crop up. - Absolutely, more of this please, Coronation Street. - Yeah, just why don't we just film it in Amadell? - Yeah, why not? All we need, but shall we move on to our next reward? - Yeah. (upbeat music) - Here we go, this is an exciting award. We've got the Best Fight Award. We call it "Ecky Thump". - Well, it's Best Scuffle More Than Fight, isn't it? It's changed its name a few times over the year. I mean, we've just had an amazing fight between Leanne and Toa, which is sadly too late to be nominated for this, - That's pretty much it. - But lastly and then X. Yeah, absolutely. Who did get a nomination for this one? - Five nominees this year. We've got Damon versus Harvey. - In the sales, yeah, we're now in a bit of a, I'm gonna scrap in there. - A scrub of our brother's scrap. - Yes. - Max versus Joel. - Up on the top of the viaduct. - Mm, yeah. - Just before he's had a brick to the head. - Nick versus Rowan, where Nick gives him a swift punch of the chops in the hotel. Leanne versus Toa, now this was the scrap, not the fight. - Not the fight. - And then we had Griff versus Roy in the sales. And the winner of the 2024 Conversation Street Award, Ecky Thump, the Best Fight, goes to Riff versus Roy. - Oh, congratulations. - Yeah, Ecky. - This was so sinister, this scrap, because it took place in the prison, and it was kind of like a hostage situation, because you thought that Griff was really gonna try and bump him off. - Yeah, we'd only seen a few episodes before that Griff was even back. He was a bit of a surprise return for Britain's Got Talent Week, hadn't, wasn't he? He was lurking ominously, and we thought, well, is Roy gonna be in trouble here? 'Cause obviously, Griff was good mates with Reese, who was Lauren's dad. So, Griff's kind of mission, I suppose, was to get Roy to fess up about what he's done to Lauren's body, where at the time, we were supposed to believe that she was dead. And so-- - And funnily enough, we actually met up with Mikey Condrin, like the week before he filmed this, and we were chatting to him, and he was saying-- - He didn't hear what I hated it. - Or if they asked me, I'd definitely go back, and he was saying, oh, yeah, I'm gonna fly to Manchester next week, and we really did not put it together. He got such a great poker face, 'cause he's a good actor. - Yeah, it was a really sinister scene, 'cause Roy's there, he's first off trying to make out that he's trying to make Roy kill himself, isn't he? He's kind of sorting out. - He's trying to stage a suicide. - Sorry, yeah, he's trying to stage a suicide, that's what I mean, yeah, he's getting the bedsheets, like Roy's gonna-- - And, hang himself. - Yeah, hang himself, and Roy's kind of there saying, well, I'm not gonna tell you, there's nothing to tell you about Lauren, then you're gonna kill me one way or another. - Yeah, Griff genuinely believed that this man had killed his sort of friend's daughter, who he'd probably seen grow, he'd probably seen us since she was a baby. So he was full of vengeance, and he really wanted justice for what he, and he thought this was the only way to go about it. - Yeah, exactly. - Not that he's a sympathetic character, but he was totally full of like, he wanted revenge. - Yeah, it would make sense why he wanted to go after Roy. Roy tries to do a bit of a runner, doesn't he? He goes up to the cell door, starts banging, and this is when Griff comes up to him, grabs him round the back, and then has this shard a knife up to his throat. - Glass, yeah. - Yeah, shard a glass, sorry, up to his throat, and he's shouting out, don't come in, don't come in, he's got a knife, so he's again making out to the guards outside that Roy's gonna attack him, but it was a really kind of physical tussle. - Yes, dark as well. - Yeah, it really, really was. - And he's in the knife and the setting. - Yeah, yeah, and again, fair play to David Wilson, one of the more senior members of the Coronation Street cars, being able to do these physical scenes as well, and everybody loves Roy. I don't think anybody seriously thought that Roy was in danger of being bumped off at this point, but it was still kind of very heart in your mouth moment, nevertheless, and thinking, how on earth are they gonna get away, and how's Roy gonna escape this? - The voting for this was very tight, actually. The other, the second one was Nick and Rowan, and then the next two had similar amounts. Max versus Joel and Nyan versus Toya, but this really deserves the award because it was the highest stakes fight that we had. You know, Roy could have been killed quite easily in this. - I'm gonna say that Max versus Joel on the viaduct was pretty high stakes as well. - I know, but it was a villain. - Yeah, that's true, that's true. Roy's life was on the line here. - We knew it. - So it's not a surprise that a lot of people wanted to vote for this scene. - That we knew that Joel was gonna die, right? 'Cause he'd already turned up dead. - Yes. - The stakes were high here because we didn't know how this was gonna end. - Yeah, that's very, very true. - Even though we kind of, we kind of did, right? - We kind of aren't a good guest, didn't we? - But really, really good. - It could have been Roy turning the knife, I saw it turning the glass back on Griff. - It could have killed Griff, yeah. That would have been a really interesting twist, actually. But as it was, we had a fun time watching this drama, and we also have an acceptance speech from Mikey Kondren, who played Griff. - Hi, my name is Michael Kondren, and I play Griff Reynolds in Coronation Street. I would like to say thanks very much to everybody who took the time to vote for the scuffle, that Griff and Roy got into this year. It was very enjoyable to film at a great time, working with David on those scenes. I think Roy gave as good as he got. So this is the second time I won an award, and I think for both times they've been fighting. So, yeah, it's an ongoing thing with Griff, I guess. But again, I just want to thank Conversation Street for everybody who took the time to vote. I hope everybody has a great new year, and enjoys what happens in the show in the near future. Take care, have a new year. - Bi-Eck, it's time for our next award, the Bi-Eck award for most shocking moment on Coronation Street. Now, this, for anyone that's not been paying attention, is the award where we recognize the moments in the show that were not publicized before broadcast. There's plenty of shocks everywhere in Coronation Street every week, but some of them, if you read the spoilers, you can't go into the show knowing that it's gonna happen. But unless you've read leaks, which in this case, some of them were, this is what Coronation Street had hoped to keep secret until broadcast. And if you believe Kate Brooks, a new producer, who we were lucky enough to speak to a couple of months ago, we may be getting a few more scenes a little bit like this in 2025. Fingers both definitely crossed that. Our nominations in the Bi-Eck category are the discovery that Joel was a massive ronger and had clobbered Lauren around the bumps at the end of Britain's Got Talent Week. Another Lauren-related nomination up next, the discovery that she was alive and pregnant when she came back a few months later. A recent nomination that Shona had slept with Kit, just a month or so ago, when we found that out, Lauren killing Joel, the culmination of the Who Killed Joel mystery. And finally, the ghostly return of Paul Foreman in Billy Mayhew's Dream. The winner of the 2024 Conversation Street Bi-Eck award for Best Surprised Twist goes to Joel Bludgeoned Lauren. - Yay! - Congrats! - Well done, bludgeoning, well. - Yes, this was a great moment. We've spoken just recently about important moments of the year and standout moments of the year, and for both of us, this was definitely up there, wasn't it? But even more so for you, I think, this is one of your top, top moments of the year. - This just made me happy, I'm sorry for just did. And we did talk about this more in depth if you are interested in our Patreon episode that came out a few days ago. But yeah, this was a week that had been told from different perspectives with the same scene playing out with a different focus every time. And this was when Roy had been freed, so we knew he didn't do it, even though, of course, we knew that he hadn't done it. And we'd seen flashbacks of the scene where Lauren had been beaten, but we didn't know who it was. We were kind of led to believe that it was Nathan who had done it. - Yeah, there was an interview scene earlier on in the episode where Nathan had been brought in and then we'd seen a flashback and we'd been kind of led to believe that it was Nathan having the flashback of clobbering Lauren. But the twist at the end of the episode came when it turned out that it was actually Joel and we were kind of waiting to see. I think we'd been, we'd been the spec, everyone had been speculating for months beforehand about what had happened to Lauren and we had our suspects list, didn't we? - Oh yeah, we had fun doing that. - Well, Tommy Allpington even, but Callum Nils character Joel was definitely definitely up there as a quite high suspect. And then when at the end of the episode, you can't do everything's looking quite happily, everyone was celebrating Roy's freedom from prison. Then you get a scene of Joel on his own walking towards his car. That was the moment when it was like, oh, we knew it, it is him. He is an evil so-and-so after all. And that was a really fantastic moment. - Yeah, the vicious attack really was quite horrific. - Yeah, it wasn't, you're right. It wasn't just the reveal. It was the way that they presented it to us. - Yeah, and it's kind of blurry and the colours are desaturated and you see his reflection in the mirror as he sort of stands up from, you know, what he thinks is killing Lauren and slicks his hair back and just so scary. - When I think of images that encapsulate 2024 Coronation Street for me, that one of him in the mirror is right other. That's what I'm always automatically going to go to because even though we were kind of half expecting it, that confirmation that we were right all along was very satisfying. And yeah, it made Joel go from the, yeah, rather bland and kind of loved up boyfriend to Dee Dee into the dark, dark character that he then stayed as over the next few months. You do write the slick, greasy hair back, the panicking, everything about it. It was a really great, great reveal. - We also had the clue in the form of the necklace which I hope you'd found in the before, which kind of kicked off the flashback. - Yeah, the very, very beginning of the week, we'd noticed that Hope and Ruby had maybe discovered something in a car. And we didn't even know it was Joel's car then, did we? But we were all kind of theorising as I think Corrie wanted us to do. And we kind of, as the week we're going on, so they're saying, oh, that must be Lauren's necklace that's gone missing. That must be Joel's car. And yeah, like I was saying earlier, when he came out at the cafe and we saw Hope was there standing next to the car again, that was like, yeah, you've bang on the money there. And just the look of him as he kind of dangles the necklace from his hands and then has the flashback and then like whips it back into his hand again. It was really well framed and very menacing shot from Callum Mille, though, it was a fun moment. And yeah, definitely a memorable moment for the year. One of the most memorable moments of the year for me. It was just that video too of him watching it with his nan. And she realised that he had been the villain all along and the look she gave him was just fantastic. Callum Mille's nan. I didn't think she was expecting to become a social media sensation, which she was overnight when he uploaded that, the look on her face. I just can't believe that he was able to keep their secret from his family, that he was a baddie guy all along. And it's just the glee on his face as he was sitting there next to his nan, watching the scenes and she's like, "Oh my gosh, what was going on?" Great stuff, really brilliant, well done. Really, really great moment. Yeah, I hope we're going to be happy that he's out on that one. Let's move on to the next award. Next is on to a category I love. Speaking of wrongens. It's the wrong one award. As he made it two award wins in a row, Joel is a nominee here, isn't it? Now, you need conflict for soap to work, don't you? And you don't always need baddies, but they definitely make the conflict a bit more delicious. Well, we were kind of wondering as we went into this year who would be receiving the torch from Steven, who bowed out in the Super So Week in 2023. It doesn't need to have a big villain all the time and I wasn't necessarily expecting... I wasn't expecting that to be loads of villains like we got, but we definitely had enough to fill the category. Absolutely, absolutely. So the nominees for the wronging award for this year are Joel, Rowan, Logan, Kit and Stefan. And the winner of the 2024 Conversations Street Award for the best, wronging is Joel. How's he's made it two and a lot? He did it. Of course, of course it was him. I mean, I loved a lot of the other villains on this list. Rowan, I thought was fantastic, better. Yeah, the villain of the year was 100% Joel this year. It was all about Joel. Top three, we had Joel, Rowan and Kit. Yes. We definitely think we're going to be seeing a bit more of Kit's villainy in 2025, but it's all about Joel this year, wasn't it? Because he was a pretty nasty chap. Well, we managed to go a good five months without having that confirmed to us, even though we suspected, didn't we? I really wanted to get it. We kind of thought, is there something more than him to that? And I think that Callum Will and everyone involved in that story did a really good job of trying to throw us off the scent and making him seem as a bland as you like. I think Callum has said as much. Yeah. Like, he's supposed to have gone under the radar a little bit, so it was a surprise. He's, you know, definitely surprised to Callum's nan who he said. And hopefully it was to a lot of other viewers as well, when it was revealed that he really was this psychopath, which we saw a lot more of over the summer months. And the joy of it really was watching DeeDee try to put all these clues together and try to ignore the sort of the warning sirens that she could hear in the distant part of her brain, telling her maybe this is a bit too good to be true, because there was lots and lots of clues that there was something dodgy wasn't there about him, that we saw probably better than anyone else did. Like, the receipt from the jewelers that he said was cufflinks, then he said it was a charm bracelet for his daughter. Yeah, there was also, there was the mystery around Emily and is she all that she seems? Emily to me is still a weird character, because she was so keen to offload this guy, that she didn't really have anything to do with on to DeeDee. If I was DeeDee, I think I'd be pursuing her in civil court for this. It was great pairing Joel up with DeeDee, because she was a popular character before the year even started and putting her right into the spotlight in front and centre for the most of the year, and that we were gonna have the maximum sympathy for her when the rug was pulled out from underneath her, and she discovered that he was a massive ronger. In that episode, I think it was in August that came, and it arrived a lot earlier than we thought it would when she discovered that he had been, he was the father of Lauren's baby, was brilliant, because we were led to believe that this wedding was going on September, weren't we? Yeah, we thought there would be a wedding, and we would get to see her in her dress, and maybe she'd ditch him at the altar, but it didn't even get that far, did it? No, so Joel, he, what were his crimes? The fact that he was, it just feels really icky knowing what went on, and there was that other episode in June, I'm gonna say maybe when Lauren turns back, there was turns up, there was a whole double two-hander, wasn't there pretty much in the hospital, where he takes Lauren and then we get the flashbacks about just how cruelly he'd been treating her, because we'd heard earlier in the year that Lauren had had a mystery man, and this is who it turned out to be, but he wasn't just a secret boyfriend, he was really abusing her, and you know, where he kept going on about the fact that she likes it rough, and he's been kind of, he was goading Max about that as well, wasn't he, but he was massively controlling, yeah. Mentally and physically. He'd taken advantage of her, considering her age as well. Buying her gifts and then, you know, hitting her, he was the one that caused all the bruising all over her, which is very, very violent, and then he'd also been controlling Ellie, another girl that he'd sort of vanished away. It was so, so weird, because he had this double life where he had women in his life, like Ellie and Dee Dee, who he treated very well, and then these women that he would sort of sequester and abuse on the side, he also was sort of seeming to want to get Sabrina at one point, he gets himself blackmailed by Betsy, I think, and the real war with her. Betsy's very street-wise, isn't she? And I think, you know, had she not been quite so switched on? I mean, not that Lauren wasn't, but maybe she could have been in another life when there was victims as well. Although, equally, I was hoping I forgot to mention earlier, is that Sydney has said that she auditioned for a few minor parts in Coronation Street, right, at the beginning of this year, and it made me wonder whether she also auditioned for the role of Ellie, possibly. - I'd love to know. - I can't remember. I can't remember. Maybe she has revealed to it a lot, I don't know, I haven't heard. But anyway, yeah, he was just vital to an awful lot of people, and I remember the scene where Bethany goes to visit Ellie, and then she's like saying, "Oh, yeah, it was Nathan that did this to me." And then Joel comes out of the shadows behind it, doesn't he? He's so lurky, he's very good at lurking, yeah. He makes Lauren go to a flat and hide with her pregnancy. - Oh, yeah, and that's when he tries to get rid of the baby. - Kill the baby, he's tried to kill Lauren. He's not a very good villain, 'cause he failed to kill anybody in the end. - Well, you don't have to be a killer to be a murderer. (laughing) - To be a coronation's dream. - No, I think it's better if we keep, you know, maybe every other year, we just have a murderer. Maybe not every year. - So as you kind of go into August, September time, he is building up this list of people who want to done it. You know, you had like the Bailey brothers, didn't you? He roughed them up in the precinct at one time. - Yeah, that's right, it was great, because it, yeah, it became a hoo done it. Which I also really like in Coriander. I really like these characters who get themselves in a situation where anyone could have done it, 'cause they're so horrible. - It was fun seeing the flashbacks as well of Joel after his death. And it was a, yeah, an unusual and different and innovative for Cori, at least, way of showing this who done it mystery, the type of which we have seen a few times before. It was just a lot of fun. And you could tell that Callum Lille was having the time of his life playing this character as well. And you could see that he and Shanique Sterling Brown had great chemistry as well. There's so many social media of them, posts of them just having a good time together. - Yeah, it's a shame he had to die really. I wish that we had kept him because much like it, I think, and Rowan too, there's quite a lot, these characters on this list. You've got Joel, you've got Rowan, you've got Kit. Those characters have potential either way, didn't they? They just kind of got pushed into villainy, but they're instigators and they are, you know, antagonists. And that's what we want from Corry, don't we? We want people staring the pot a bit. - Yeah. - And yeah, I love everyone in this category, but I'm really glad that Joel won because he was so evil. - He got his own. He gets out in special ITVX who killed Joel laughter show as well. - He did, yeah. - They didn't show down much. They were a time they were willing to give him. - I do, I'm sorry, but I loved it. And I really want to take my hat off to you to Kamil for playing this character so well. And being so boring for so long, but he had the potential to be really quite enthralling and very charismatic as a sort of slick, suave guy, evil man. - Yeah, yeah, evil man. - And we do have a message from the man himself, Callum Lil, who's emailed us in with a thank you message for everyone who's voted him the winner of the last two categories. So over to you, Callum. - Hello, lovely listeners of the Conversation Street podcast. I just wanted to say a little thank you. It's Callum Lil who played Joel. And thank you so much for nominating me for Best Rongen and the Bi-Eck Award. I had the best 18 months at Coronation Street and it means the world to me that you have recognised that work and that time with these awards. So thank you so much all of you. - And in amongst all the moments of darkness that villainy brings, we've got to have a better humour as well. Coronation Street might seem all doom and gloom, but there are a few rays of sunshine in there that light up the screen and that is what the next award is all about. This is the right laugh award for the funniest Coronation Street character of 2024. We've got five nominees and they are Dev, Debbie, Sally, Evelyn and David. And the winner of the right laugh award in 2024 is Sally Metcalf. - Oh, well done, yay! - I know this is the first time that Sally's won this. It's usually like a shoo-in from Evelyn. Who else done well this year? But yeah, it was the former mayor of Weatherfield herself that takes home this prize. I'm absolutely thrilled that she's been recognised for this all because I think, I think for me she does make me smile and laugh a lot more than anybody else on Coronation Street at the moment. She's just hilarious, isn't she? - I think all these nominees are really great fun to watch when you see them in a scene you know that you're in for a bit of a treat. But with Sally this year, I think more so than another year she's been mostly used for comedic purposes. - Yeah, I don't think she's not had loads and loads of appearances, but you're right. When she has showed up on screen, it's been the opportunity for the script writers to write something absolutely amazing. I mean, do you have any particular Sally highlights this year? - Love the dinner party scene when she's trying to impress Sally. - I think that's why I was over. Because she finds out she's in a stage and working in Hale Barnes, which is where Sally's always wanted to live. - Yeah, this was a great little moment with Steve and Tim and Sally in depth. I'm so, I'm just gutted that Demi wasn't fleshed out into more of a long-term character. I know they're kind of very slowly making their way towards Steve and Cassie as being a couple, but Steve and Demi were fab weren't they? But yeah, Sally is always at her best when she's-- - Being a snob. - Being a snob. Alongside somebody who she wants to-- - Impress. - Thank you for finishing all my sentences. - You're welcome. She tells Demi, I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but we live over the other side of the street. - Yeah, she does. She's talking about, oh, I feel so lucky you. No, she says, sometimes I feel that the people on this side of the street are the lucky ones, 'cause they get to wake up in the morning and say, our house is-- - And she says, we live in a semi, Demi. - She says, we live in a semi, Demi. She, Demi, I think it is also, it's not just Sally Dinova's acting, it's how everybody kind of reacts to her as well. And the actress who played Demi was just great at giving like a knowing glance to Steve as Sally. She knew that Sally was just trying to show off in these scenes. You also had, what are some other good ones? I've just recently, when she discovers that Carla and Lisa are having a relationship, that door-- - When she's standing, and she's just like, and she's gasping, and I think the fun thing about it is that if you're a long-standing coronation street fan, you definitely saw that differently to somebody who might have only been watching it for a few months, because a sort of casual viewer might be like, oh gosh, she's scandalised by these two women. But actually, you knew, as a Sally in Aficionado, that she was absolutely utterly thrilled to be able to break out that she was the mother of a daughter in the LGBTQA+ community, which she definitely made sure to tell everybody about. - When she said, I know what I saw, because I'm a mother of a daughter in the LGBTQA. - But she said, I have to say that I authentically saw what I saw. I just love how much this, like, she really just collects like accolades for herself, doesn't she, like, she lives on the nice side of the street. She's got a duck egg blue door. She used to be the mayor. She's got a daughter who's a lesbian. - Since we haven't had, you know, Norris on the street, we've been missing that kind of gossip spreader that has always been a favourite of a kind of character on Coronation Street. And even like early on in the year, she gets, and there's just some bits of news that you want Sally to find out. And when she discovered that Tracy had been having it off with somebody in the bedroom, I think she thought it was Steve at the time, but there was a great little scene where she's standing in the street with Steve. And he's talking about going on a really tough taxi run, and you sometimes we didn't think we'd make it, and sometimes you got a plan ahead and make sure you got enough snacks and Sally thinks that they're talking about this romp that she thought that he'd been having with. - Yeah, come by with it. - With it, Tracy, yeah. And the looks on Sally's face, like, you know. - Oh, she's so funny. - She's so, so good. She is an absolutely superb comic actress, but you don't necessarily think of Sally as being a comedy character. And I think that's why it works so well. It's because there are, I think this year, I think, was tough for finding funny quotes. And I don't think that any of the nominees that we had this year are particularly strong in just coming out of one liners. It's all contextual or in the delivery or their reactions to other people, which is completely kind of, it's a lot more subtle and it's sort of difficult to make a meme out of it or like a quote that you can just spread on Twitter. But Sally definitely has that kind of element of, she's a funny person rather than saying funny things. - Yeah, she really is. I love her as well. - But she still had those lines in the dinner party, particularly. That was just like a treasure trove of hilarious lines. - She was great as well in the, do you remember the bust unveiling scene where the field of football club, and she's there talking about her new friend Angela with a hard G that she's just made. And then when the bust does get unveiled, but it's actually, 'cause it's been swiped and it is a football with Tommy's face drawn on it. And she's like, "Oh, it's just modern art." - I love her so much. - She's absolutely fab. In some ways, I kind of hope that she gets a big story of her own next year. But then I think that when she's used sparingly, it makes it all the more special when they do break out one of these almost sitcom-esque scenes. - These comedic characters are played by incredibly talented actors who can definitely put their hands to a dramatic performance that would have you, whatever emotion they wanted to bring out of you, they could do it. Dev, Debbie, Sally, Evelyn, David, all of those characters can turn in dramatic performance. But the trouble is when they do that, they become, they're not funny anymore. You can't really have a long-term funny story on Coronation Street anymore. So I'd rather they just kept them all as people that cropped up every now and then to take us off. - David's certainly going through a bit of a dark period at the moment, isn't he? Not being too funny at the moment, but we've still got Sally. So congratulations, Sally. You picked up possibly your first conversation street award at least the first one in a long time. Let's move on to our next award. - It's the Penultimate Award and it's a big one. - This is the big one, isn't it? - Yeah, this is champion. - The award for the best storyline of the year. And we, it's hard to kind of pin down where one story ends in another begins, but I think we've done a pretty good job of breaking these down. So the nominees are the Institute storyline. - Also including the Batter's Be Love triangle. - Yep, Lauren and Joel. So that's everything to do with him. Bonson are on the end to disappearing. - William Prezend. - Mystery. - Who killed Joel all that. - Paul's M&D storyline. - Speaks through itself like that one. - David and Shona's drama with the-- - The sequels and lives going on at the moment. - And Liam's bullying. But the winner of this year's that's champion award for the best storyline of 2024 goes to Paul's M&D storyline. - Hey, Paul's M&D. - I mean, I think that was the winner last year as well, actually. - What can we say? - I know it wasn't a Steven story one last year. So I'm really glad that this one did. - This was a great, I mean, I don't know what we can say any more than we've already said about how great-- - This was 100% my story of the year as well. And in a year that's got a really-- - These were all really massive-- - Villana Sky. - Big, strong stories. Gulkin around in the darkness. The fact that a medical story can jump out there. The sort that I'm not usually a big fan of and very comfortably take the top spot for me and a good proportion of viewers as well just goes to show how much coronation street got it right. - Yeah, that's right. And we know we've praised Peter Ash for this, but Daniel Brokelbank has done a fantastic job as Billy playing the storyline. He is a patron of the M&D Society and his grandfather had M&D. So it's very close to his heart, this storyline. And it must have been incredibly emotionally difficult for him to portray this. But I think it, hopefully it was a part of giving back to help people with M&D. Because when you see yourself on screen and your experiences reflected on screen, it makes you feel less alone. And this was a really, truly uplifting, tragic and beautiful story. - Well, it was a love story as well, wasn't it? And that was seen in so many scenes during this year, you know, you had the Valentine's Day scene, which is when Paul got his motorbike ride and then you had the scene at the Bistro with the barbershot quartet. And Paul Billy gets a little bit annoyed with the guy that's messed around with Paul and punches his lights out. But there was definitely some romance in there. - Well, it was a love story that ended that sort of persisted beyond death, didn't it? Because Paul came back when Billy needed him and sort of helped him not die. Although, to be honest, if I was a ghost, I'd kind of want you to be a ghost too. So, watch out for that if I die first. - I think, I don't think we really touched on it too much earlier, but that special episode that they had midway through the year, which is the one where people thought he was going to possibly die. That was by far my best, most memorable coronation street episode of the year. They do the whole Paul's perspective thing. It was such a clever idea, wasn't it? 'Cause one of the things that they've wanted to try and get across about MND is that it affects your body, but your mind is still the same inside. That's a big able to. - That's huge. - Yeah, and we really got the sense of being trapped inside Paul's head from the dream sequence in the clubbing to the narration over all the scenes, his frustration at people not being able to understand him. - And one thing too, you know, coronation street always works with these charities and we as viewers can support them and see that it's important that these charities get funding. But with the Paul's MND storyline, it didn't feel like an issues preachy story, but we learn so much about what they use the funding for, like the book that you can read. - Oh yeah, to replicate your voice. - The eye gaze, the stair lift, the wheelchair, all of the things that the money goes towards. We actually learned about why they're so important and why it's difficult to be able to get hold of these things because, you know, the diagnosis moves so fast that one minute you can be walking and the next minute you desperately need a stair lift and the waiting list is so long. - Yeah. - It was just really well done story about something that's incredibly horrific and tragic, but it never felt like it bogged down an episode that it was in with, just unrelenting misery. It was hopeful, like you said, and beautiful and human and it is really special that it was a story about two gay men who had got married and found love and cared for one another and seeing that too on screen, I think was really important. - Jane Hayser Grove was absolutely spectacular in this. I think this story kind of made me fans of characters that I got a bit off the boil with in the years beforehand, like Bernie, Paul, even Billy, I wasn't feeling like they're among my favourite characters, you know, beginning of 2023, but over the last two years, that's completely changed. Bernie's kind of taking on this maternal figure because she had, you know, she was still scamming as the story went on and the laptop thing was in 2023, but the love that she felt for Paul and the sacrifices that she had to make throughout the storyline and how she had to stay strong on that moment when he was dying, like we were talking about earlier, then you were, you know, Gemma, Summer, it just did such a good job with all the characters that were involved in there. I just, I hope Coronation Street, the message that it takes from us isn't, we want to have more tragic stories about beloved characters dying. - We don't want that. - No, I mean-- - You don't need it. - You joke about how many scenes there are that set in the hospital, it is, you know, I suppose it's more the police station this year, but the hospital has featured pretty frequently as well. We don't need all of that, but this was an example of them getting it 100% right. And I'm just, yeah, absolutely thrilled that they kept it right until the end as well. They didn't flood the ending of it. The death was beautiful. We talked about it earlier. Well done Coronation Street, and to this of everybody involved in this, great, great storyline. - Yeah, including Rob Burrow who was a consultant who had MND, who died at the beginning of June. - Yes, the rugby league player, yeah, that episode was dedicated to him, I think, wasn't it, the special episode at the end of June? - And it just goes to show you how important I'm sure that it was to everybody because they'd talked, you know, spoken to this man and seen how he was dealing with it and his experiences and showing that on screen, I'm sure became so important to them as it were not. And it's just a really emotionally draining. It must have been for them all. And so I think hats off to everyone involved in that storyline, writers, directors, the actors, the performers, producers, everybody. It worked really hard and it must have been, yeah, an emotional experience. - Yeah, and he appeared on the podcast earlier this year in an interview, but we had been teasing it earlier. Perhaps you were able to work out that this storyline had one, that that sampling award because he hadn't made an appearance on this episode of the show yet. But finally, we do have a little message from the man himself, Peter Ash, to thank everybody who voted for him in this category and all the other ones this year. So over to you, Peter. - Hello everybody, this is Peter Ash here. I just wanted to say a massive thank you to everyone who voted all things Paul Foreman in the Conversation Street Awards. I'm really made up, so thank you, for the Best Male Character Award. The best storyline for the M&D story, which of course is a team effort, so my thanks also goes out to everyone who worked on that storyline. And also best exit, so I'm really made up with that. And I thank you very much, and I wish you all the best. (upbeat music) - And there we have it. That is all of our listener voted for awards this year. Congratulations to everybody who won this year and I hope that at least some of the people that you voted for, some of the characters that you voted for have walked away with our arms laden with virtual weightless awards this year. But we do have one left to go, don't we? - Everybody who was involved in Coronation Street this year, actors, directors, performers. - Can't award you awards. - Just wonderful, great year. I mean, there were some brilliant, we just talked about so many brilliant moments and characters and I'm just really glad that we have got a new year ahead of us with some new surprises. And I cannot wait to see what it's going to be in the awards next year. - Yeah, congratulations to all the winners. - Yes, but we've got one. - We've got one, we've got one. - This is the Mad for It award where we pick ourselves a winner of Listener of the Year. This is the Diane Williams Mad for Award named after one of our listeners who passed away all good few years ago now, but she was always a big, big supporter of the show. So every year since then, we have picked our listener and it's always really, really difficult to pick one. - We've got so many lovely listeners who wanted to honor Divor as she, as her username was, as much as we could. So this award is always for her, but also for everybody who also who listens and will take part and make the community of our conversation street listeners a really fun place. And so we want to celebrate you guys by picking one. It's really, it's like Michael said, it's so hard every year to pick one person because you guys are all fantastic. - Yes. - But we've done it again. - Can I say who it is? - Go on then. - Right, the winner of the 2024 Mad for It award for Listener of the Year goes to Rebecca Fielkowski. - Yay! - Congratulations Rebecca. - Thank you Rebecca, she's so positive on our, join our Facebook group, our conversation street group. It is a private group where you can interact with other members. It's always really positive in there. There's a lot of people who like to share their thoughts on the show, but Rebecca also talks a lot about what she likes about the podcast, which obviously, you know, a lot of work goes into this. And it's nice to be appreciated. - Sorry goes. - I don't do as much, half as a quarter of much work as Michael does. And so I like to see him be, I like to see him be praised for thought he, I mean Rebecca. - Rebecca's comments always lovely to read when they're about the podcast on the show. She brings so much positivity to the group. - She definitely liked the cobblestone chillers. She had a comment about that. And she also will like chime in and sort of give her thoughts about how the story, like her personal experiences with some of the storylines and what she thinks about it. - Yeah, she's a big, big supporter of the show and big proponent of it. And I know she likes to spread the word about coronations, a conversation street around everywhere, which is just kind of what we want. We want to get the word out there and get more people listening. - Yes, thank you so much Rebecca. Thank you everybody also on the conversation street, Facebook group, and also everyone who interacts with us on Twitter and threads and police content. - This guy now. - And Instagram, it's really. - And YouTube of course, all the comments that we get there. - And YouTube, yeah, it's look, social media seems to get more negative every year. And so if we can just be positive and uplift one another, that's the best thing that you can do for your own mental health and for everybody else's. And I think maybe my new year's resolution is to not interact with negativity. - Well, something about a Facebook group that I've always appreciated is that it hasn't kind of turned into a place where people are just airing their grievances about coronation street, left, right and center, which some of the other boards online have done. It's still generally a positive place, which, you know, we're not always 100% positive about coronation street, but we still love it. Still want to be happy with it. - Criticism is always welcome, as long as it's, you know, constructive or never want to stifle anybody's opinion about it, but it can be dispiriting if everything is negative. And I think our viewers, our listeners, our generally positive people. And thank you, Rebecca, and thank you to everybody who has made this another really great year for Compensation Street. And thank you to all of our winners and all the nominees in this category and everybody. I've enjoyed this year of coronation street. Probably give it a three and a half out of five. - Well, we will talk more about it in probably next week's discussion for bonus podcasts where we've put some of our feelings at the year. We'll talk about more of the stories that maybe didn't get a shout out in these awards. - If you think we're going soft on you, just remember the Bobbins Awards coming up. - We have got the Bobbins Awards coming up in the next couple of weeks as well. - We're not just great of sunshine ourselves. We just know that there's a time and a place for moaning. And if we can all do maybe a bit less of it and just keep it to one big episode a year of moaning, maybe everyone would be happy, I don't know. - I don't know. - But, you know, this is a celebration and we're so glad that you could've joined us for it and we hope that there's plenty to celebrate next year. - Yeah, so until we come back at the end of the week with our thoughts on the final week of Coronation Street in 2024, we will say our goodbyes. Happy new year, everybody. - Bye! - After our final, bye! The music for this episode came from podcasthemes.com. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)
