It was a real treat to be invited to South Africa to cover the filming of the Coronation Street DVD special, Out Of Africa (available from 10 November in a shop near you, Street fans!). Normally on Inside Soap, we get no further than Leeds on a rainy Tuesday (not that there’s anything wrong with Leeds, of course. Or rainy Tuesdays, come to that).
So, spending four nights in the lovely Bakubung Game Lodge in the stunning Pilanesberg National Park, watching filming, interviewing the cast and hanging by the pool in the sunshine (just a little bit!) seemed too good to believe. After the 11-hour flight (believe me, that’s a long time to be sat on a plane!), I arrived at the lodge, where all the cast and crew were staying. Some of the cast I know already – Wendi Peters (Cilla) and I have bumped into each other loads of times over the past couple of years – but others, such as Sam Aston (Chesney), I’d never actually met before (and wwhat a good-mannered, down-to-earth little chap he is. His mum, Janet, was telling me that he’s one of nine children, and she’s equally proud of each and every one of them and their achievements – Sam’s treated no differently just because he’s on the telly).
Once I’d settled in, I headed out to Sun City, the entertainment and hotel complex where most of the filming was taking place. Now, let me tell you a little showbiz secret – watching filming is fascinating… for about 20 minutes. The next hour and a half where they then redo the same scene from four different angles is not so thrilling! However, most of my experience of watching filming has been in a wet, cold November in some industrial estate or other on the outskirts of London – so being in the sunshine at a five-star resort did make it quite a bit more bearable! As well as chatting to the crew and cast, I was even offered the chance to appear as a background artist in one of the shots, so when you watch the DVD, look out for me wandering through the hotel reception as Cilla and co check in.
After a hard day’s filming, the cast all got the chance to relax back at the hotel, where we ate dinner together from the most enormous buffet in the world, before relaxing with a few drinks. And a few more, on occasions! Jennie McAlpine (Fiz) was only there for the first week, so was leaving the day after I arrived, but we still found time for a quick catch-up, and she warned me that the rooms in the hotel were rather prone to power cuts, leaving you in darkness as you’d just stepped out of the shower or whatever!
The highlight of the trip was a fantastic game drive, where we got to see all sorts of big, scary animals, followed by a trip to a lion park, where we got to cuddle little baby lions, possibly the cutest thing ever in the world (check it out in the issue of Inside Soap on sale now).
And after four days and nights, it was all over. I’d beat Chesney and Kirk at tennis (well, one game – they beat me about five times after that!), interviewed all the cast, read the top-secret script (I can’t give away any secrets – you’ll have to watch the DVD) and hung out in a hotel suite they’d hired for the filming which is apparently where Michael Jackson stays when he visits (it went on for ever; I’d say it was 20 times bigger than my entire house). After some goodbyes to the cast, I was off home
– another 11-hour flight, then straight into work from the airport. But I’m not complaining. Thanks, Corrie, for a great trip – I’m waiting with baited breath to see where EastEnders is going to fly me off to now…
