Street Life

WELCOME to YorkGate, York's most eventful street. Never heard of it? Well you should have. Because if you thought EastEnders was the raciest, meanest soap around, think again. For the past 25 weeks, York's very own soap - published twice weekly on the Evening Press website www.thisisyork.co.uk - has been charting the lives and tangled loves of the colourful cast of characters who live there.

Characters such as dodgy council leader Frank Rose, sexy caf manager Gemma Moorland, busty barmaid Yvonne Wass and sad Terry Martin, who's fallen in love over the Internet with a sizzling American beauty named Sherie Simpatico. At least she was a beauty in the photo she sent Terry. Now she's turned up out of the blue ...

Providing a wry commentary on the antics of all these colourful characters is The Woman Who Knows - the local gossip who somehow seems to see or overhear everything that's going on and is always ready with a pithy comment. And to add an extra touch of spice, the street even has its own resident private eye - the sleazy Derek Rain, stubbled and great-coated and forever prying furtively into other people's business. Derek's been a bit off colour lately, ever since a sand-bag was accidentally dropped on him by an Army helicopter during the floods.

The fictional YorkGate is a street like any other in York. Walk down it and you'd feel at home straight away. It used to be called Beowulf Crescent but the name was changed years ago, in common with many other streets in York.

The street has a pub, a hotel, a grocer's shop, a gift shop for the tourists, a baker, a flower shop and two coffee shops. There are flats above the shops - some pretty nice, others less so - and York Minster can be glimpsed in the distance.

But it's the antics of the residents that make it such fun. The soap began with a mugging 50 episodes ago, when Terry's mum Martha was hit over the back of the head and had to be rushed to hospital.

Since then, we've had 'Chockygate', in which reporter 'Garth Bartle' uncovered Frank Rose's plans to have York's historic walls sponsored by a chocolate firm (gates in the shape of popular chocolate); floods; a disastrous Christmas Party on the Ouse which came to grief when the chartered boat was hijacked by a visiting Australian and sank; problems with buskers - and any amount of affairs, betrayals and romances. Plenty to keep Derek Rain busy.

In today's 50th episode, hotel owner Richard Murton pops out of the Yorkgate Hotel for a spot of 'extra-curricular activity' with Gemma Moorland, unaware that a shadowy figure is following him - and Frank Rose and his ex, florist Fiona Markham, have a reunion at which some hard family truths are brought out into the open.

YorkGate appears every Saturday and Tuesday. It is written by the Evening Press's Julian Cole - with a little help in the form of plot ideas from the e-soap's Internet fans (the sandbag that felled Derek Rain was dispatched by a reader). But now Julian wants to give aspiring writers in York the chance to have a go - under his guiding hand. So if you have ever fancied trying your hand as a writer, here is your chance.

Don't worry if you've missed the story so far. Every episode is archived on our website - simply click on the YorkGate button on the home page - so you'll be able to catch up on plotlines and characters.

And to help you even more, we include on this page a quick pen-portrait of some of the street's main characters.

So if you'd like to see your name in print - all contributed episodes will be credited and the author will receive free books worth £20. Each episode should be about 800 words long, written in several short scenes - and as long as its legal and decent, the plot twists are up to you. Julian reserves the right to edit submitted episodes as necessary.

To find out more, or to let us know you are interested in becoming a YorkGate author, email us at features@ycp.co.uk or write to: Julian Cole, YorkGate, Features, 76-86 Walmgate, York, YO1 9YN.

Updated: 12:52 Saturday, January 20, 2001