Coronation Street: How can Tyrone and Alina kiss on screen during a global pandemic?
Video report by Caroline Whitmore.
How can Tyrone and Alina kiss on screen during a global pandemic?Coronation Street thrives on having strong characters in the soap and after 60 years they have certainly mastered the art of couples chemistry on screen.
The classics include Jack and Vera, Ken and Deidre and of course who could forget Hilda and Stan Ogden.
More recently fans of the show have likened Tyrone and Fizz to a younger version of Jack and Vera - especially as they live in, what was once, Jack and Vera's house.
So viewers are not going to take kindly to young Alina Pop catching the eye of the usually loyal and trustworthy Tyrone, while fiance Fizz plans their Greek wedding in secret.
In tonight's episode on ITV we saw Tyrone and Alina share a kiss behind Fizz's back after weeks of flirtation.
But how did the bosses at Coronation Street manage to film this with the actors having to work in bubbles and staying two metres apart?
Step forward real life couple Alex Mulvaney & his wife Hannah.
To avoid the actors making contact and to ensure the production sticks to the government guidelines TV bosses asked a 'kissing double' to do the honours!!
Alex has been an extra on Corrie for some years now and said: "My agent said that Coronation Street needed extras who were in a support bubble and because I used to be an extra three times a week and they knew half of my family had done extra work on the show it worked out perfectly. "
"My partner, Hannah, hadn’t done any extra work before, but my agent knew she had dark hair like Alina’s so I asked her if she wanted to do it. "
"It was a really enjoyable day and it was clear that all the cast and staff follow COVID rules strictly. The organisation and care taken is second to none.
"I wasn’t nervous because I have done a lot of television work in the past and this wasn’t my first on-screen kiss.
"I love Coronation Street, but I tend not to watch it when I know I am going to be on it. I usually cringe, but the rest of my family will be watching.
My dad has been a regular on the cobbles and in the Rovers for forty-two years and he is still going strong.
"He pops up in Roys Rolls on occasions, now with my mum, brother and sister all joining as extras. It’s quite the family affair!”
Weirdly actors Alan Halsall who plays Tyrone Dobbs and Ruxandra Porojnicu (Alina Pop) weren't even sitting on the same bench!
It was cleverly filmed so that in post production it could be edited together to make it seem like they were sitting next to each other.
So how did the characters manage to gaze longingly at each other I hear you ask? This is genius- the way they made sure the characters had the correct eyeline was by taping a pair of sunglasses to a radio aerial so they could have a focus.
As they both gazed at these sunglasses they had to pretend they were gazing into each other's eyes.
Ruxandra Porojnicu, who plays Alina, said: "Filming the kissing scene under the covid restrictions where we had to keep two metres apart was definitely a challenge, but one as an actress I really enjoyed.
"It was difficult not being able to look into each other's eyes for the emotion of the scene but Coronation Street came up with a clever way to cheat that with sunglasses on an aerial.
"Everything that's been said in the scene leads to the kiss which is very important for Alina because it is the first time that she has said out loud to Tyrone that she is falling for him."The magic of television indeed and the wonder of smoke and mirrors!!