Sunday, 10 February 2013

Homophobia behind the scenes at Coronation Street


Oh dear. I was reading this item of Coronation Street news in today's Mirror and hoping it wasn't true. I scanned down the page and sure enough, there was Mr Curry Sauce chipping in with his penn'orth so there was still a chance it wasn't true.

But there at the end was the confirmation it was. A statement from an ITV spokeswoman, it's usually the publicity manager, confirming indeed that homophobia exists behind the scenes on our favourite soap.

The story is that a memo has gone up on the inside of the studio walls, signed by Kieran Roberts, Corrie's Executive Producer, Stuart Blackburn, the new Corrie producer and Robbie Sandison, production manager, ordering cast and crew that homophobic slurs will not be tolerated.

The memo says:

“We have just been made aware of ­several recent instances of homophobic remarks being made on the studio floor. We are sure the vast majority of people working on Coronation Street find such behaviour unacceptable. But we’d like to make it absolutely clear that this is completely unacceptable. ITV has a bullying and harassment policy which clearly states that such behaviour may lead to disciplinary proceedings.”

And the Mirror quotes a Coronation Street spokeswoman who said: “ITV takes the feelings of all employees extremely seriously. It was felt that this message should be put up as a reminder to everybody.”

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3 comments:

  1. If this indeed did happen you have to wonder what caused it to happen.
    It seems there has never been a problem on the set before so it seems likely that something happened that caused those remarks to be made.
    Unfortunately all the facts will probably never come out to explain what happened.

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  2. What? Coronation Street is supposed to be immune from anti-gay remarks? It goes on all the time, everywhere. So do remarks against women and men in general...get thicker skin. Somebody went crying to management I guess. Bullying is a sad reality and not just in school.I myself have reported one employee for using racial slurs in the office on more than one occasion. What was done? Nothing.

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  3. So much for those who seem to think that the world of television is some kind of homosexual land of milk and honey. Homophobia exists everywhere and it would be nice if bishops and tory MPs spent more time getting upset about bullying and hate crime than declarations of love.

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