Thursday 29 July 2010

Is Coronation Street getting miserable?


Yesterday on Facebook, the Coronation Street group was publicising the previews for next week and asked contributors to spot the connection between the pictures. You may like to have a go yourself. The only connection that I could find was that none of the pictures showed anybody smiling. Indeed, the only picture with any joy in it was of Lloyd and Cheryl kissing, though even that is tinged with sadness as it precedes a confrontation between Lloyd and Cheryl's husband, Chris.
Now I don't mind a bit of misery on Corrie as I think they do the drama that goes with it very well but whenever there's some sadness on the Street it's usually balanced by some humour elsewhere on the cobbles. Is this just a case of using the misery as a publicity vehicle and ignoring the comedy and joy or is the sign of something more sinister?
We have a new producer and it concerns me that he sees the success of the BBC's ultra-miserable rival and wants to emulate it in the chase for ratings and awards. Please don't drag Corrie down to the levels of that other soap. Yes, I want drama but I also want humour, happiness and joy with it as well.

10 comments:

  1. I think it has been miserable, but it's getting better, obviously all the scenes of that week wont be in the pictures, so there will still be the usual funny scenes going on alongside it all

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  2. What Corrie has that other soaps envy is the balance of humour and drama - since the early days. It makes the episodes more interesting. I see Australian soap 'Neighbours' as a close replica of Corrie.

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  3. I agree about that, I stopped watching earlier this year as it became EE in all but name, what with Joe constantly looking constipated, it was painful to watch

    btw, if anyone is wondering what the link between the pics was, all the titles for them were song titles from Depeche Mode lol

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  4. David and Nick winding up Audrey about Lewis was certainly fun the other day.

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  5. on a different note, what year was the photo taken from? I think it was around 1972, right? I remember reading in Julie Goodyear's autobiography that the Corrie costume department decided to give Bet the most outragous outfit of all the eight however Julie said that since she had given birth in 1960, that she had stretch marks and the costume department had to altar her outfit to hide them!

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  6. I know it's only the publicity photos but someone has to decide what stories, what scenes and what shots to include in the press pack and this week, that someone has decided to portray the program as miserable.

    I think that's a shame and does the program a disservice. Maybe it's just a case of bad news sells better than good news.

    Good spot on the Mode songs Chewy.

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  7. Depeche mode? right, that's it, I'm off! (have to agree re. the misery stuff - like I've said before, personally I think it's great to have "real life issues" in Corrie, but the balancing humour is crucial - after all, "real life" is full of humour as well, else we'd all be doo flaming lally - and you're dead right, we can't let them go the way of "the other one")

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  8. The photo is taken from 1974, and includes:

    Betty (1969-)
    Annie (1960-1983)
    Hilda (1964-1987)
    Bet (1966, 1970-1995, 2002, 2003)
    Emily (1961-)
    Deirdre (1972, 1973-)
    Mavis (1971-1997)
    Rita (1964, 1972-)

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  9. I love that picture and would love to see another holiday on Corrie, a girls weekend away or a boys trip to the Lakes or something.

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  10. I love that picture and would love to see another holiday on Corrie, a girls weekend away or a boys trip to the Lakes or something.

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