Thursday 5 July 2012

Why we love Carla Connor and heart Alison King

(This post was originally posted by Flaming Nora on the Coronation Street Blog April 2012, reposted to this blog with permission.)

Now then, I'm a lady of a certain age and have been watching Coronation Street since I was a girl.  I've also been involved in th'internet side of my favourite soap since 1993. In fact, the first two words I ever typed into what passed back then for a search engine (anyone remember Lynx? Mosaic?) were "Coronation Street".  And I've seen, and been part of, Corrie phases and fads online that come and go. My first ever Corrie web-page was "Spider's Web" (ahem!) so I know what it's like to be a huge Corrie fan, wanting to express that online, joining online communities with other fans and sharing the fun.

Anyway, one prominent phase over the last few years has been the online love for Brooke Vincent and Sacha Parkinson who played Corrie's first lesbians, Sophie and Sian.  Hundreds of fan sites, twitter feeds, tumblrs and facebook groups were set up to express in varying degrees - desire, love, lust, gratitude - at giving young girls a voice, young lesbians a voice.

And now, again, the twitter feeds are lighting up again with young girls hearting Carla Connor and loving Alison King. - it's the turn of the Aliettes.  Determined to find out just what it was that made Carla/Alison so special to so many young girls, I put a call out on twitter for Aliettes to have their opinions heard, and a few answered the call, below.  And so, it's over to the Aliettes, with my heartfelt thanks to the ones who responded and emailed in.

"Being an Aliette means so much to me as we're all like one big family, we are able to talk about the same things and some of us even meet one another through being an Aliette. From personal experience Alison is such a down to earth person and she's so loyal, always finds time to stop and speak to fans and tell them how much she appreciates all the support us Aliettes give her, She is always very happy to pose for photos with fans, I have met Alison 3 times and I have to say she is the most nicest and decent person you could ever meet, she's nothing like her character Carla. Back in February I gave Ali her birthday card and present for March and she thanked me and gave me a kiss on the cheek, She really appreciated it. I love her character Carla Connor she brings something exciting to the show, I don't think the show would be the same without Carla or Ali." 

I've watched Coronation Street all my life, but have never enjoyed it as much as I have since Alison King joined, playing Carla Connor in 2006. I am a huge fan of Ali, I think she is a really versatile actress, and has excelled in portraying Carla in the past 5 years. Whether you love or hate the character she plays, I think we can all appreciate the work she puts in, and how much it pays off. To me the brilliant thing about Ali, is her ability to act both serious, sensitive scenes and light hearted and comedic scenes. Along with that, she has this brilliant attention to detail, and can be incredible subtle at times, making her, in my opinion one of, if not, Corrie's best actresses. 
Being an Aliette (the name given to Ali's fans!) is wonderful, I've made friends with a load of other lovely fans, and it's wonderful to be able to share and appreciate the work she has done together, as well as give her all the support she deserves. Although I've never met Ali (I'd love to one day!) I get the impression she is a really lovely, modest and not fame hungry at all, which is one of the reasons I think so many people love her, she seems really down to earth and I doubt she is aware of how brilliant she really is!
I'm really proud and happy that Ali has been nominated for four awards at the BSAs, I really hope she wins them because I think it's high time she got some recognition for the amount of work she has put in over the past five years on Corrie.  I hope Ali stays on our screens for years to come, as with Carla, you can never get bored! 

It started off a few years back after when Ali first appeared on Coronation Street. But I only just set up my twitter last year. Us fans call ourselves many names, one used to be @alisarmy and then a few months back I tweeted shall we call our self Aliettes and I didn't think people would like the idea but they did! All the fan bases love it and it is used a lot and Ali's co-stars call us Aliettes!

It's amazing being an Aliette as all us fans on twitter stick together and support Ali! The reason I am an Aliette is because Alison King is the most amazing and beautiful down to earth person ever! And she is a brilliant actress and has pulled her recent storylines off BRILL and she deserves to win at the BSAS 2012.
I have met Ali 6 times - I know a lot, haha! When stood at the Corrie gates she comes out in her car and sees the fans and stops and takes time to chat and pose for photos with fans which is really nice. One of my recent visits to the gates was back in February on Valentines day and it was the only time I could get down there before her birthday and I gave her a card! She knew I was waiting outside so she came out just for me and my friends she couldn't stop saying thank you for the card and kept on hugging us because we were so cold and she kissed me on the cheeks and she told me to thank everyone on twitter for their amazing support, it means a lot to her and I couldn't get over what she said and the fact she hugged me! It makes me feel like I want to meet her everyday. So being an Aliette means a lot and without everyone I'd be lost. Thanks for reading.


@alison_king_fan

I'd always been a fan of Alison King/Carla Connor since she joined Corrie, But it was only in September 2011 that I finally decided It was time to show my support to her properly and start up a Twitter page for her. Even though I'd always loved her work, It was her portrayal of the rape and the love triangle between Carla, Peter and Leanne that finally gave me the push into starting up a page for her and becoming an official Aliette. Alison is truly amazing and inspirational in all of the work that she does, Even when playing drama to its full extent, she adds in her fantastic comedy too. I know the witty one liners that Carla delivers are down to the writers, but they would never even be half as comedic if it wasn't for the way that Alison delivered them with such perfection. She is so versatile as an actress and has the amazing balance between both comedy and drama, I'm always in tears at her performances whether it's her dramatic portrayals or her comedic facial expressions, I'm either crying with emotion or crying with laughter. Another amazing thing about Alison is the fact that she doesn't seek fame, Even if it's not something us Aliettes always like! It just proves how devoted she is to her job, You will rarely see her doing interviews or posing for photographs, let alone appearing on TV in anything other than Corrie, purely because she is 100% about her job and doing the best she can to put effort into her performances instead of trying to boost her fame. Even though a lot of Aliettes would of course love to see more of her, we completely appreciate why we don't and completely respect her for those reasons.

Apart from being an amazing actress, Alison's main devotion is being an incredible mum to her beautiful daughter Daisy-Mae. From the interviews that Alison has done you can clearly tell how much love and devotion that she holds for her daughter and there is no doubt on this earth about how amazing a mother she is. Just from looking at photos they have together you can see the love she holds for her.

Alison has had such a dramatic year playing Carla and she couldn't have done a better job. She does fantastic at splitting her time between work and spending time with Daisy and yet she still continues to do an amazing job at both. Alison is the complete opposite to Carla which just proves her amazing acting ability and It makes Aliettes even more proud to be a supporter of her.


One of the other great perks of being an Aliette is the amazing '#alisarmy' (Ali's fan base on twitter). Everyone gets along and we all love Alison just as much as each other, Being an Aliette wouldn't be half as fun without them. Whether you hate Carla Connor, or you love her, there is no doubt that she is one of the most talked about soap characters there is and that's all down to Alison King's amazing and realistic portrayal of her. She always delivers to her full extent and her performances never let you down, She works so hard and never fails to put every amount of effort possible into delivering her performances with perfection. She has appeared in almost every episode throughout this last year and that fact alone just shows how hardworking and amazing she is. Alison has affected mine and every other Aliettes live's so much, She's a true inspiration and every single Aliette will continue to love and support her throughout whatever she does. She truly is one of the best idols you could possibly ask for and even though I've never met her, it's clear just how appreciative and loyal she is to her fans. She never lets us down and continuously thanks us for our support. The fact that she has had such a massive impact on my life, and I've never even met her both shows and proves just how inspirational she is.


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