A few months ago, we asked what you thought Phil Collinson's legacy would be when he left Coronation Street. I've not really weighed in for or against him in the past but overall, when I weigh out what I've enjoyed vs what I haven't, I have to say I think he's done OK.
No producer is going to give us stories and characters that absolutely all of us are going to love because everyone has different tastes. For the most part, when we've had new characters brought in, regardless of whether the storylines worked for me, the actors have generally been good at their job.
Some storylines have fallen flat. Some, for me, were dreadful. And some were very enjoyable, or if they weren't always, the fallout from a storyline and the knock on effect, gave us good stuff to watch.
I've written more about my own ups and downs with this producer's tenure and overall I give him a passing score.
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16 comments:
I respect your opinion Diane and you are my friend and I do like you and all that, BUT YOU'RE WRONG! ;-)
I'm afraid I have to agree with Flaming Nora - Although Coronation Street is much, much more than it's producer, I'm still glad he's gone before any more damage can be done!
I go by my gut feeling. I find myself not bothered if I miss an episode and that never used to be the case. It feels like that's only been the case for a couple of years. There have been far too many affairs and pregnancies, and the cast is too large with some people being relegated to the back row. There have been terrific storylines ruined by gratuitous affairs eg: Paul/Lesley/Eileen; Tyrone/Kirsty/Fiz; Peter/Leanne/Carla/Nick (again and again ...). I truly wonder what calibre of writers we've got at the moment. There have been some really silly twists in plots eg Tyrone's mobile down the sofa. Sitcom stuff. Who's in charge of quality control? The buck stops with PC and, for that reason, I don't think he's been brilliant at the nuts and bolts of soap production. Some characters have been ruined: Karl, Sunita, Eileen, Deirdre, and I used to love Peter. Couldn't care less about him now. Stella/MC was a mistake they seemed to get stuck with. Recently, I've felt that PC may not have had his finger on the pulse of the show with the result that Corrie is drifting, often in circles. Let's see what the new producer is like and then we'll have some perspective about PC.
Collinson took the Street on a rather meandering path in a lot of storylines.
There were just wayyyy too many moments of ... "what the hell?", "why did that person do that?", "wait just a second!" "but last month, didn't so-and-so do this or say that?" and on and on and on.
I feel there were so many inconsistencies and holes in stories and it was a bit insulting if he/they believed we were so stupid that we'd forget what happened a couple of months back. Storylines would suddenly take a sharp right turn for no plausible reason.
And again many characters were ruined ... Sunita, Eileen, Karl (who had great potential when he arrived!), etc. Lewis and Audrey were ruined. The Eileen/Paul/Lesley story could've been amazingly good, but it turned sleazy.
The Sophie/Jenna story is totally unbelievable ~ an educated professional would NOT be attracted to the shiftless do-nothing Sophie. What in hell do they have in common?
Lloyd and Mandy do NOT work as old loves from the distant past.
And of course - everyone's hateful character: Tracy should never have been brought back. Ever!!
I used to love Peter, but now he's become a rotten human being and he's more than welcome to duck-voice Carla.
I would've liked to have seen Leanne and Nick finally happy with each other after all the u-turns they've both taken - but that ain't gonna happen now with Kylie not knowing how the baby's father is.
Oh yeah, let's not forget Gail. I never liked her because she's wayyy too intrusive in her mother's and her sons' lives. But making her into an imbecile who mops floors during business hours? C'mon!!!
Collinson was so busy patting himself on the back for his "sensational" story lines that he didn't or wouldn't see that all he was doing was destroying the Street.
It was nothing more than introduce more and more characters that did nothing to keep the Street real and interesting.
How many babies can the Street support for the next 18 years?
You can't get rid of them so what are you going to do with them.
There were good storylines that he totally ruined with implausible outcomes, the Fiz/Tyrone affair for instance why would anyone risk losing contact with their child and being turned into a bloody pulp just to have a bit of sex on the side.
To have Fiz support him and help him to expose Kirsty as the bully she is is one thing but to throw that away for a cheap affair was irresponsible but hey it gave him his "sensational" storyline.
His disregard for the realities and legalities of every day life to further his storylines did nothing to the credibility of the Street especially when he kept claiming that the appropriate agencies were consulted to get the story right and then ignore much of what he was told just to drag a story line on infinitum.
Simon's parentage was another gripe of mine it always seemed to me that it came across as Leanne being Simon's parent and not Peter.
Every time he wanted to do something with his son she immediately vetoed it and then we had Nick acting as though he had already adopted Simon even though he was not married to Leanne who as far as I can see had no legal claim on Simon at all.
End of rant!!
Thank you for being positive and I believe Mr. Collinson is a great producer and will be dearly missed. Look at the numerous awards he won. I don't give anything about whether it is realistic or not. I just want to be able to sit down and escape from reality. He DID THIS VERY WELL.
I personally am very disappointed in the way the show has gone since Phil Collinson took over. I expected great things, based on his four years producing the revival of Doctor Who, but apart from the Tram Crash episodes, which were brilliantly realised, too much of his tenure has been one huge disappointment. We desperately need to get back to character driven plots, and at every single storyline meeting, the writers need to be asked "would this character really behave in this way". At the moment characters are forever doing tihngs that may suite the latest plot, but which is completely unbelievable to any regular viewer. And please, please, please give the soap clichés such as every one night stand resulting in an unwanted pregnancy a rest for a couple of years. There's no drama in it, as it happens every time... and the street is positively overrun with kids these days.
Oh Anonymous, are you related to PC by chance?
The straw that broke the camel's back for me with PC was the death of Betty and the storyline fiasco that followed, her being bequeathed the Rovers and also the insinuation she had stolen from the Rovers...and topping it all off with the bloody St. Ella going through her personal belongings as if she had been a lifelong friend! Unforgivable.
I agree, the aftermath of Betty's death was just ridiculous. Also far too many kids and babies. Craig has some potential. Faye, now that she's settled in, seems to be in the same position that Tracy Barlow was in as a teenager: constantly being sent upstairs and told to put her jimjams on (I swear Faye gets told to do that at supper time -- she's too old to be sent to bed that early!) They need to dial back on the pregnancies and affairs. Have Tracy kill Rob and get put away for good this time; the Tracy character has nowhere to go at this point, and she has no interactions with the rest of the street except to interfere with Steve and whoever Steve is with. I still feel that getting rid of Graeme and Eddie was a huge mistake! Both of those had the potential to be classic Corrie characters but they were wasted and thrown away.
On a more philosophical note, all renovations begin with destruction. He has done a fantastic job of the demolition, and now we await the new boss to fashion something more current and comfortable. Awards are bought and sold. They are publicity tools. The soaps take turns. They do not vindicate his delusion.
I was very pleased the day that Phil C left. I was very concerned about how our much treasured Corrie was being brought down with crap storylines that forced character change . I wondered how the actors felt when the character they had nurtured and we loved was required to
Act in unbelievable ways. Sunita (Shobna G) being one of them. Also too many scenes were given to Michelle Keegan & although I do like her I got sick of her being in practically every scene even when she wasn't at the forefront. I have high hopes for the new producer . It will be interesting to see how he deals with all the babies that Phil C has left as his legacy .
Anonymous @
"...the Sophie/Jenna story is totally unbelievable ~ an educated professional would NOT be attracted to the shiftless do-nothing Sophie."
Oh shiFtless!
Tsk! Tsk! Memo to self:
Must restrain my speed reading in future. Shiftless!!!
Chiagwen... No, I'm not related to him. Heck, I'm not in England. I am more fed up with negativity moaning minnies we have here. Coronation Street is a soap, soap should have the liberty to be creative, to alter to accommodate storyline. Yes sometimes, I'd love to watch mundane scenes but the problem is, they need money to keep producing the show or no more Coronation Street.
I do agree the Sophie and Jenna storyline is stupid. And ok, most of you don't agree with me but that's ok. He's done some storylines i could have done without but he's done some stuff I really enjoyed, too. I'm looking forward to seeing what the new kid on the block does.
All I can say is that I began watching Coronation Street in 1975, it was my favourite TV prgramme ever and I stopped watching it for good about a year ago.
I agree completely with ChiaGwen. I remember when Betty quit her job and threatened to sue Annie Walker over the merest hint of an accusations of stealing. Honesty was Betty's thing. She'd tell anyone what she thought, without a hint of fear. And Collinson stomped all over that just to jazz up a story that was already huge.
Collinson was a disaster for any fan who has a better memory than a goldfish.
Lots of nasty comments deleted and comments now closed on this blog post. Go and fight somewhere else.
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