Beth Abbit

Manchester

Reporter at Manchester Evening News

🖊️ Journalist @MENnewsdesk. 📧 Mancunian Way newsletter editor. Regional Press Awards Feature Writer of the Year 2023.

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Articles

The rise and fall of the Granada Studios Tour

1 month ago | manchestereveningnews.co.uk | Beth Abbit

“Order! Order!” shouted the Speaker in my direction as I walked into the House of Commons. She wasn’t speaking to me but rather the larger than life friend I was with, who had tripped and fallen into the lap of a frontbench MP. “Come and sit with me, you’re in the Cabinet now,” he said, shuffling up to make space for her next to the Deputy Prime Minister. Raucous laughter rang out. I was just six-years-old and probably the youngest person to walk into the chamber that day.
The day Alfred Hitchcock popped into the Rovers Return

1 month ago | manchestereveningnews.co.uk | Beth Abbit

The famous director was visiting a friend at the old Granada Studios when he stepped onto the cobbles and popped his head around the door of the famous boozer. As the beating heart of Coronation Street, the Rovers Return has been the setting for secret trysts and clandestine discussions. From Bet Lynch yelling: “You’re poison, Tanya” to Elsie Tanner telling Ivy Tilsley she’s a ‘nasty, narrow-minded old bag’, it’s also been the scene for some almighty showdowns.
The Mancunian Way: Fumes choking our children

1 month ago | manchestereveningnews.co.uk | Beth Abbit

Hundreds of babies and toddlers with serious breathing problems PLUS Oasis fans lose £2m in ticket fraudsThere’s an epidemic of serious lung problems in Greater Manchester - and our children are the worst affected. That’s according to a group of mums who are trying to get local politicians like Andy Burnham to take urgent action to get air pollution under legal levels.
The Mancunian Way: ‘Giving bare dirtys’

1 month ago | manchestereveningnews.co.uk | Beth Abbit

How times have changed PLUS Airport delays average 20 mins AND A fallow year“This woman is giving bare dirtys saying s**t to me."That’s the message a teenager sent to her dad when an ‘old woman’ asked her to take her feet off the seat in front of her on the 610 bus from Leigh to Golborne. But far from siding with her, the youngster’s dad decided to shame his girl's behaviour on social media, as Emma Gill reports. You can read her message above.
The Mancunian Way: The Pope’s United joke

1 month ago | manchestereveningnews.co.uk | Beth Abbit

PLUS Glory for Bury FC AND The eighth wonder of the world? As Catholics across the world mourn the death of Pope Francis, one Mancunian theoligan has shed some light on what he was like behind closed doors. Anna Rowlands spent two years seconded to the Vatican during his papacy and has praised him for having a ‘common touch’ that heralded a new era for the church. She said the religious leader had roared with laughter when she told him she was a Manchester United fan.
The secret code that alerts midwives to very special ‘rainbow babies’

1 month ago | manchestereveningnews.co.uk | Beth Abbit

“The hand-made hat will definitely be a keepsake for the memory boxes.”It was a compliment that sparked a creative outburst and a message of hope. Raisa Scott-Wilson and Daniel Wilson suffered a heartbreaking loss last Spring when their first child, a little girl called Samara, was stillborn. They were referred to the maternity bereavement team at the Royal Albert Edward Infirmary.
Why do Americans keep doing rubbish impressions of Mancunians on Saturday Night Live?

1 month ago | manchestereveningnews.co.uk | Beth Abbit

“Legend! LEDGE-END!” shout Sarah Sherman and James Austin Johnson in unison during a Saturday Night Live sketch lampooning the Gallagher brothers. I rub my temples and feel a headache coming on. “How long is this skit?” I think, wearily. Over the next three minutes and 16 seconds, the two comedians push each other, stick out their tongues and fluff up what are, admittedly, quite accurate wigs. There’s a joke about the Spice Girls. One about Bend It Like Beckham. Then, mercifully, it ends.
The neighbourhood where two thirds of kids live in poverty

1 month ago | manchestereveningnews.co.uk | Beth Abbit

As many as two thirds of children are living in poverty in Greater Manchester’s most deprived neighbourhood. In the Oldham area of Coldhurst, two out of every three children (66 per cent) were living in poverty, in the year ending March 2024. That’s a total of 2,676 children. Just 13 other areas in the entire UK had a higher proportion of children living in poverty.
Sculptor hopes to create world’s biggest cricket wickets from giant firs

1 month ago | manchestereveningnews.co.uk | Beth Abbit

Andy Burgess is using vast Douglas Firs for his world record attempt. Standing at a record-breaking 8.5-metres, this towering creation is Andy Burgess’ most ambitious project yet. The sculptor is attempting to carve the world’s biggest wicket from colossal four-tonne Douglas Fir logs. And when he’s finished, they’ll be burnt to create the world’s biggest ashes in a playful tribute to cricket’s greatest rivalry.
More Manchester children are gaining first choice primary school places than their London peers

1 month ago | manchestereveningnews.co.uk | Beth Abbit

In some of England’s biggest cities more children got their first choice school this year than in 2024, according to a PA survey. Most children in Manchester gained a place at their preferred primary school this year - while fewer youngsters in London got their first choice, a survey has suggested. More than 97 in 100 children in Manchester secured a place at their top pick primary school. That’s according to findings from a Press Association news agency survey of local authorities in England.