ENTION a Bishop when it comes to Coronation Street and you usually think of Emily …

But a passion for the characters and events in Weatherfield has led to a South Tyneside cleric being invited to become the first clergy guest VIP blogger for the show.

The Bishop of Jarrow, the Right Reverend Mark Bryant, is a long-time fan of the soap, and often uses storylines from the programme to make points about life in his own blogs.

Now, his tweeting after a recent visit to the set of the long-running ITV show led to Corrie bosses asking him to expand his thoughts in blog form, in return for a donation to his chosen charity DePaul, which works with homeless young people in the region.

The Bishop said: “I cannot remember when I first started following Corrie, but I think I have been following it for well over 20 years. Corrie is definitely my ‘cup of tea’.

“I like it because many of the themes in the show reflect what is happening in real life, and drawing on them in my teaching of Christian faith allows me to reach people 
who might not normally listen to a priest.”

Over years of watching Corrie, the Bishop listed his most memorable episodes, including Hilda Ogden leaving on Christmas Day 1987 to the tune of Wish Me Luck As You Wave Me Good-bye”.

He added: “A couple of weeks later I left a church in Wiltshire to move to the West Midlands and I made sure the organist played Wish Me Luck at my final service as a homage to Hilda.”

Other favourite stories included the Duckworths taking over the Rovers Return pub in 1995, with the Bishop adding: “I remember Vera, who of course did not have a clue how to cook, cutting a tomato in a fancy way and telling us she had learnt it from Delia “on the telly”.

“The Duckworths are the patron saints of those who never quite make it and always feel a bit left out.

“I preached about them getting the pub at Midnight Mass at Christmas 1995.

“The congregation was full of different people – some were always there, some were there just because it was Christmas – and I just had that sense that talking about the Duckworths just brought everyone together that Christmas night.”

More recent plots that have provided inspiration to the Bishop include how Roy and Hayley Cropper dealt with her illness and an emotional trip to Blackpool.

He said: “What was so moving was not Hayley dying – though that was so – but the way Roy changed and became so loving and gentle.

“Soaps can unite a nation and that is what Hayley and Roy did in those final episodes. It made me wonder how I could cope if I was in Roy’s shoes.

“I used to go round talking to clergy about just that: Soaps, at their best, make us think about the things in life that really matter.”

Another was the story of Anna Windass going to a food bank, with the Bishop adding: “This was a brilliant portrayal of the courage and desperation that drives people to food banks.

“In the part of the North East where I work, this is a daily occurrence.

“I was so glad Owen was all right about her going and the tender scene that followed was Corrie at its very best – portraying the everyday lives, mistakes and lives of ordinary people.”

The Bishop’s Coronation Street blog can be read at: www.coronationstreetupdates.blogspot.co.uk

Twitter: @shieldsgazchris