Accidents will happen. And if you're a Coronation Street character visiting Cumbria, there's a very good chance that they'll happen right here.

'Corrie' has been filming in Whitehaven this week. Granada TV crews arrived on Monday and filming began on Tuesday.

Two of the show's biggest stars, Pat Phelan, played by Connor McIntyre, and his wife Eileen Grimshaw, portrayed by Sue Cleaver, have been filming on a boat owned by local man Will Tillotson and elsewhere in the harbour area.

Speculation is rife that these scenes could mean the end for murderer Phelan, who was voted Villain of the Year at the 2016 British Soap Awards.

The characters are believed to be on a mini-break when the terrible truth about Phelan is revealed. These episodes are expected to be shown at the end of March.

This is far from the first time that Cumbria has been a dramatic backdrop for the nation's favourite soap. Several Coronation Street stars have featured in climactic scenes here over the years.

In 2009 the show used Windermere as the location for debt-ridden Joe McIntyre faking his own death by drowning for the insurance money.

Joe was married to Gail McIntrye. His scam went wrong when he was knocked unconscious by a sail pole and died.

The stars stayed at Ambleside’s Regent Hotel.

In 2008 Liam Connor, played by Rob James-Collier, fell from a cliff at Honister and was airlifted to safety.

The storyline saw Liam having a romantic break with his girlfriend Maria Sutherland.

A stunt double filled in for Liam in the most dangerous scenes during five days of filming.

The double was Sellafield worker Alan Prescott; one of 14 members of Keswick Mountain Rescue Team who took part in filming.

Alan said: "We were called on to find Liam and recover him. I managed to get myself a starring role in the episode after it was decided a double was needed for Liam in the scene where they find him and he gets airlifted into the helicopter.

"I didn’t volunteer as such, it was more a case of who had the most hair and looked most like Liam."

At one stage cast and crew were joined at Honister Slate Mine by the Hairy Bikers and ex-England footballer Jack Charlton, who all rolled up at the same time.

Honister spokesman Barry Surtees said: "It was amazing. We didn’t know the Hairy Bikers were coming until they turned up to do some filming for their Christmas special – and then along came Jack Charlton with the chairman of the county council, having a day out touring the Lakes. There they all were chatting away."

The Coronation Street team stayed at Lodore Falls Hotel near Keswick, and the stars switched on the hotel’s Christmas lights.

Coronation Street gave Cumbria a boost during the 2001 foot and mouth outbreak.

Alma Halliwell, played by Amanda Barrie, was dying of cervical cancer. Some of her final scenes showed Alma and her former screen husband Mike Baldwin (Johnny Briggs) at Armathwaite Hall Hotel on the shores of Bassenthwaite Lake.

Granada TV spent three days filming at the hotel and in neighbouring locations.

Some scenes were shot on a boat on Ullswater, where Alma's ashes were supposedly scattered.
Alma and Mike in the Lakes

In the months after these scenes were shown, fans made pilgrimages to the area.

Chris Grammer of Ullswater Steamers said: "Some of my passengers have requested to travel on The Lady of the Lake steamer, which Mike Baldwin used. There has also been special interest in Norfolk Island, where the ashes were left in the storyline.

"With a lack of traditional customers, including fell walkers, this year because of foot and mouth, this new interest in the area is very welcome."

Nick Tilsley and Leanne Battersby married as teenagers in 1998 when they fled to Gretna Green. The marriage ended in divorce, before the couple remarried in 2013.

My part in turfing Jack and Vera out of The Rovers

Tim Barker had a small but vital role in Coronation Street . The veteran actor from Silloth, who now runs the Soldiers in Silloth toy soldier museum, appeared in just one episode of Corrie. But it had major implications.

Tim's day on set was in 1997, when Jack and Vera Duckworth were running the Rovers Return pub.
Tim Barker

Tim recalls: "I played a VAT inspector who turned up at the Rovers. My character was a lovely little gentleman, very sweet.

"Jack and Vera gave me cups of tea and were really nice to me. And at the end of it, it turned out that they owed thousands of pounds. They ended up being turfed out of the Rovers because of that. So it was quite a significant part.

"All the regulars made me very welcome. Particularly Bill Tarmey, who played Jack Duckworth.

"One of the things that some of the newer regular cast members said was, they found that they were suddenly famous. They were suddenly being asked to go and open people's fetes and what have you."

Tim's filming took place on the Rovers' set in Granada TV's Manchester studio.

"Here was the Rovers Return in its three-dimensional glory. I wasn't a regular viewer. But it's a special series. I was very proud to be in it.

"I watched it and I wasn't too pained. In one way it was just another job. But it was a bit of a thrill.


Jack and Vera

"A couple of people I knew were in it. David Neilson, who plays Roy Cropper, we'd worked together on stage in Bristol, in Shakespeare's Timon of Athens .

"A couple of years later I worked with Sarah Lancashire [who played Raquel Wolstenhulme] in a TV drama, Seeing Red .

"I've had parts in a lot of TV programmes over the years, including Inspector Morse and Doctor Who .

" Doctor Who and Coronation Street are very special. They go back to when I was a child."

  • On Saturday March 10 at 7pm, Tim is giving a one-man performance of stories from the Gospel of John at Holm Cultram Abbey in Abbeytown.

Mavis' move from The Kabin to Cumbria

Is Mavis Wilton still running a guest house in Cartmel? This is the last viewers heard of Mavis when, following the death of her husband Derek, she left Coronation Street in 1997 after 26 years.

Sally Dynevor, who plays Sally Webster, has had a second home in the Lake District. She was also the celebrity who championed Wastwater to victory in ITV’s Britain’s Favourite View in 2007.

Kate Ford, who plays Tracy Barlow, attended Queen Elizabeth School in Kirkby Lonsdale.
Coronation Street stars Simon Gregson and Peter Armitage at Bowness for a charity event

Simon Gregson, who plays Steve McDonald, has been a regular visitor to Windermere.