at least she's nice to look at,unlike a certain orang-utan on the bill.....

Well having seen Wendi Peters being interviewed & also playing Podger Pam in Bad Girls I think that I can make a fair assessment of her abilities. Even if you don't agree about Wendi's acting you have to agree that she hasn't been shoved down the audience's throats with storyline after storyline.

This is in complete contrast to Kate Ford, who comes over exactly the same in interviews as she does on the screen. She's been handed episode after episode, usually with some sort of emotional dimension to it & she has failed to come upto scratch. Members of the production team have gone on record saying how fantastic she is & on a Granada affiliated board all criticism of Kate Ford is banned.

That all sounds a little bit suspicious to me, especially when crew members haven't risen up in defence of other people who have been criticised in the past. The sooner a certain writer admits he's picked a dud with Kate Ford & kills off Tracy or sends her back to London the better.

They probably both went to the same acting school

Kill off Tracy Barlow? If it wasn't for Tracy Barlow the whole Barlow family would be redundant. Every good storyline they've had recently has revolved around her somehow or been escalated by her influence. After all, her presence made the whole Peter the wife-collector scenario more interesting because she knew what was going on. I just don't have any major problems with her acting. I think there are a lot worse out there and she doesn't deserve such a hard time. The fact is though that Kate Ford must be doing something right because the big storylines she deals with always boost ratings significantly and up until now I haven't heard any complaints regarding her elsewhere.

The Barlow family have had great stories before TraceyLuv came along back from London or wherever it was she was supposed to have been.

The big storylines she is involved with generally include other actors ie ROY/HAYLEY PETER/SHELLY/FLORIST STEVE/KAREN so it cannot be said that she boosts the ratings

You must be wearing rose tinted spectacles if you havent read any other complaints about her complete lack of acting ability

Read some of the old posts on here because the official ITC boards are censored
Last edited by alan45 : 14-04-2004 at 15:20

How would spectacles affect my hearing??? Not that I wear glasses.. just curious.

Look, I just don't have a problem with her acting, I feel that she's a good character and what I meant to say was that Tracy-related plots boost the ratings, not her herself.

This debate is robbing Blanche of some much deserved praise, so either everyone agrees to disagree (with me seemingly, lol..) or a new thread is started so that this one can get back on topic. : )

1) The fact that Kate Ford has had storylines has nothing to do with her ability (or lack thereof) as an actress. Can you name any other actor or actress who has come into Corrie & been given such high profile storylines or so many episodes in their first year?
It doesn't happen:- Eileen, Todd, Jason, Candice, Maria, Tyrone, Dev, etc... none of them got anything like the number of episodes or the big storylines that Kate Ford has during their first year. For some reason the writing team seem to be obsessed with turning Corrie in the Tracy Show (or at least they were when Kieran Roberts was in charge) & they handed her episodes & storylines on a plate.

2) English viewers have been complaining about her for over a year on various messageboards (particularly CSVU.net). Once the Canadian viewers (who are behind us) saw her as well they started complaining. All mentioned of Kate Ford has now been banned from the site (which is affiliated to Granada). There is even an annoucement in red to that effect on the site. Odd that criticism of other actors & actresses are allowed but not Kate Ford eh? Wonder why? Could it be anything to do with the fact that the people who run the site are friends of the writer who selected Kate Ford for the part? The same writer who has posted on that site slagging off members of the public for daring to have a bad opinion of his protege's acting abilities?

3) The Barlow family had storylines before Tracy came back & will have storylines again when she is hopefully axed.

4) There is no evidence that the viewing figures are increasingly better when Kate Ford is on screen. In fact some of her episodes have achieved low viewing figures. If you look at the Monday doubles for example they generally lose between 1.3 & 2 million viewers between the 7:30 & 8:30 episode. This is true even when Kate Ford is on screen.
This weeks episode, which featured the Todd & Karl kiss, but not Kate Ford was the first Monday double since Richard Hillman was in the show to lose less than 1 million viewers between the 7:30 & 8:30 showings.

Lol, ok then, it looks like this isn't going to be dropped anytime soon. First of all I wouldn't have a clue how irate the British public are as I'm on the other side of the pond.. Secondly I would never call Kate Ford a protege, I was just saying that I don't really have such a major problem with her as an actress as others clearly do. Furthermore I don't see why she should be axed as her storylines regardless of how she got them make for gripping viewing. The only complaints I have heard are about her character, as she's a spiteful piece of work, not the actress, but evidently others do object, and I accept that, it just so happens that I don't agree. I feel that everyone has a right to their own opinion and therefore it's highly unjust that posts made criticising Kate Ford should be outlawed anywhere, even if I'm someone who wouldn't be posting them. : )

On the subject of Blanche, Maggie Jones is fabulous & usually gets the best lines in any episode that she is in. It's a pity that they killed off Edna Miller (Rovers cleaner when Duggie had the pub who was always moaning) as her & Blanche would have made a great double act [/quote]


I didn't see the episode but wasn't the sister of Edna Miller who came to the funeral played by the same actress ?? If so, she could come back and her and Blache then they could have the double act !!

Alf

I have to admit there are some people on Corrie as dull as the perverbial 'dishwater' whereas others shine and make the episode worth watching. The only trouble with the Tracy story is that unless she leaves the street completely she has to be a prominent character because of all the storylines attached to her...Baby/Steve/Karen/Single/RoyHayley/Blanche/ living in house on the street etc etc
On the other hand, Fred Elliot's pork pies fade into significance and are only brought out once or twice a year depending on food poisoning epidemics.....

Alf

Yes she was. Both played by Joan Kempson. I seem to remember Iris (Edna's sister) ask for Edna's old job at the Rover's but Duggie could see she was just as much as a misery-guts as Edna had been and said they didn't need anybody.

I know I shouldn't..... heh, this is supposed to be dropped I know.... but......

Lmao! Kate Ford is among the nominees for the 2004 British Soap Awards Best Actress Award.. hahahahaha!

But so is Letitia Dean so my laughing stops here...

Since they scrapped the provocative jelly mould in Ken & Deidre's kitchen, Blanche has been one of the few (comedy) reasons to watch any scenes with that family lately.

As I understand it the nominees are put forward by the Production Team. I acn only think she was put forward due to her prominence in the storylines over the past year - it certainly wasn't for her "acting ability"

1 If Kate Ford was selected by a writer for the part, a writer who then comes onto message boards & defends her against criticism from the public (despite the fact that he has never raised a voice in protest at criticism of anyone else). I think that qualifies as a protege. She's definitely been taken under his wing. When the criticism first started he came onto messageboards & begged viewers to given her a chance. I notice he hasn't done the same with the criticism that Wendi Peters (Cilla) has got. Odd that!

I don't have any problems with her acting either!

All your points are valid Rita's Kabin, maybe there was no defence offered to Wendi Peters as she wasn't as heavily criticised? I wouldn't know.. I haven't heard criticism directed at any actors apart from Adam Rickitt... Apart from here obviously. Maybe it's also because Wendi Peters is already recognised as a somewhat familiar face as I've been informed she has acted in other shows, while I suppose Kate Ford would be more in need of a chance to prove herself as a newbie..

Anyway, sorry I dragged the whole thread off topic again.. it won't happen again.... (well, maybe if she wins! which is doubtful enough..)