I'm going to have a moan about the Soap Awards I'm afraid. I generally find award ceremonies incredibly dull and cannot bear watching overpaid, over-emotional thespians gush and preen, far removed from the real world. However I do think it is only fair our soap operas have their own ceremony. My problem with these awards is how poorly Coronation Street seems to perform given it is head and shoulders above the competition (even when it's at its worst!)
Looking at the statistics, since the awards started up in 1999, Corrie has won "Best Soap" only four times compared to that southern soap's ten gongs. Corrie has only taken the "Best Actor" prize twice compared to that London drama's nine awards and five Coronation Street ladies have taken home the "Best Actress" award compared to eight from down south. It just doesn't seem right to me!
So why does Corrie not perform so well? Do other soaps have a younger cross-section of viewers who are more likely to vote by text or online? Are we Corrie fans just shy when it comes to voting?
Who knows, but I'd like to hear your views both on the awards in general and why you think Corrie sometimes fails to come out on top.
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16 comments:
I so agree with you about Natalie Gumede should've been up for Best Actress award - she's been playing a blinder!
And yes, too many youngsters voting who probably don't watch Corrie. Trouble is, they wouldn't be able to judge good acting if it came up and punched them in the face.
To me, the wrong people have been short listed, especially for Best Actress. The top three for me are Alison King, Jane Danson, and Natalie Gumede.
Now, granted Alison King had a five month break and so it's perhaps understandable why she was omitted for the list, despite being the incumbent Best Actress! but Jane Danson has had big storylines the first half of 2012 and also at Christmas time with the wedding, so why she isn't up baffles me.
As for Natalie Gumede, I suppose Corrie see her chances as villain and they want to put forward their trusty vote winner Michelle Keegan as their number one. The problem with this is that keegan wins sexiest actress because she is gorgeous but I think corrie have assumed those votes will carry over to best actress and I don't think that's the case.
Furthermore, what about Paula Lane? She's a cracking actress and put in very strong performances an yet not even on the longlist. The last few months were undoubtedly huge for Kylie and yet weaker actresses such as McAlpine or Keegan have been submitted.
Corrie could have had a much stronger standing and then injustices might have had grounds. But those who decide have messed it right up this year into opinion.
So it would seem this is a listing of all of the available actors in each category with a remark at the end that there will then be a shortlist (don't know how many) that you would then vote on. Why Natalie isn't available to vote for for best actress is beyond me.
Anonymous (2) has also made me wonder why on earth Paula lane hasn't been nominated - a shocking state of affairs as she has been terrific this past year and is one of the best talents on Corrie at the moment.
I totally agree.
My favourite actress is Alison King, who won last year but then she was off screen for five months and so was Chris Gascoyne. So despite these two, in my opinion, being the best actors on the show, I can understand they wouldn't put them forward this year. But Natalie Gumede and Paula Lane deserved to be nominated! They've had big storylines and they're both wonderful actors. It's baffling!
I can't believe that Natalie Guemede and Paula Lane have been snubbed while Jimmi Harkishin is up for Best Actor- how?!?!?! For one thing, Dev has hardly figured in the show over the last 12 months. Bizarre.
The only acting award michelle keegan should be nominated for is worst actress...
I absolutely agree that it's diabolical Natalie Guemede and Paula Lane weren't nominated. I was only saying to my Dad on Friday that Kylie and Kirsty were the only two reasons I was still watching this show. They deserve nods.
Alan Halsall deserves the best actor award, he more than held his own against Guemede's character. More than.
A little surprised Jimmi Harkishin got a nomination. Yes he's a good actor but he doesn't really stand out for me.
And don't even get me started on Michelle Collins getting nominated for best actress.
I'm shocked and angered that Michelle Collins is up for best actress.
Couldn't put it better myself Flaming Nora - it's properly outrageous. We all seem to agree the nominations are verging on the bizarre this year, almost as if they don't want Corrie to win any awards.
Do we know who is responsible for the selection process?
Hang on a moment - Jimmi Harkishan got nommed for best actor - is this an absolute JOKE?
I agree with you Graeme N - It is like they don't want Corrie to win any awards. I would say that Michelle Keegan has a chance of winning because she's popular but Tina hasn't had much to do recently - other than drink tea with Fiz.
And it's not just Corrie that has made some odd choices this year - EastEnders and Hollyoaks have too.
These nominations seem to represent some backstage political process or payoff totally unrelated to any acting standards most of us are aware of.
Any award voted by the public has no meaning in terms of acting quality. You could be the Judi Dench of Hollyoaks but not win simply because that soap's ratings are dwarfed by the others. These are just some kind of indication of popularity and even then its a mish mash of the soap, character, actor and fan fanaticism, given how easy it is to vote multiple times.
Having said that the nominations for Coronation Street are just bizarre. There really should be an explanation of how these have been chosen. And some of the categories are at best stupid - sexiest male and female are demeaning and sound like something for teenagers. All in all the soap awards are sillier than the soaps themselves.
Good point made above, regarding the 'sexiest' category, demeaning in the extreme, nothing to do with acting talent, but how many times the actor has appeared almost naked in the papers and magazines recently.
A category that ought to be included is 'most poignant storyline', that would be more interesting and would tie in with the "if you've been affected" comment at the end of traumatic episodes.
And as for Jimmi H's nomination, surely they meant 'worst ever performance in a soap', that man hasn't one iota of any acting talent.
AmandaB
Perhaps it would do us all well to remember that all award shows are merely publicity stunts; they are bartered and decided by those behind the scenes in silent agreements and wink-wink-nod-nods. The public vote is little more than a placebo to give us the illusion that we as viewers have a say in our favourite shows. This explains the restrictions and often bizarre nominations, as well as the questionable wins in award shows where an "academy" or some such other wizard of oz rules. Just remind yourself time and again that these awards are not meant to represent the best and the brightest but the politics behind the curtains.
As an aside, the photo of Antony Cotton made me realize that Sean resembles Richard Simmons to a frightening degree that I'd never noticed before. However, to be fair to Richard Simmons, at least he actually cares about the well-being of others unlike Sean, who is the most childish and selfish being on TV!
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