Our blogger Llifon has done a fantastic job over the last few months in researching and presenting the 12 most used characters on Coronation Street, year by year, from 1960 to date.
You can read all about them here.
In each of the years profiled by Llifon, he worked out the average age of the top 12 most used characters each year.
In the graph above, we've plotted those average ages, year by year, so you can see how this has changed over the years and decades.
The years are across the bottom of the graph and the ages are up the left hand side.
Yes, it's real Corrie anorak fan stuff - and I love it! I can't thank Llifon enough for all his work.
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I wondered why 2003 had such a deep dip into the 20s age range, some of the top characters... Sarah Lou, Todd, Fiz, Katy Harris, all teens or barely 20, Shelley, Tracy, Steve and Karen also in their mid to late 20s. Even the oldest character on the list, probably Roy, would have been about 50.
ReplyDeleteI've said since this comparison started that the ages were getting younger! How do these stats fit with (1): changing of executive producers, and (2):addition of more episodes per week? I guess I'm trying to figure out what the ITV bosses were thinking. Were they trying to increase ad revenue by demonstrating to their advertisers that they were appealing to the desirable younger demographic among the loyal viewers, since that is who spends most?
ReplyDeleteIt all makes me feel manipulated.
Is there a correlation between the year in which a character appears most often and the year they leave the show?
ReplyDeleteThe average age in the UK is 40.3, so I would expect Coronation Street's average age to reflect that.
ReplyDeleteWould be interesting to see a graph of proportion of men and women.
ReplyDeleteSmiley, I've got the data for that and will be putting a graph up this weekend.
ReplyDeleteThis is interesting, thanks for sharing what must have taken quite a while to work out.
ReplyDeleteI think it's good to see the demographics of this well-established street, see the changes over the years.
It exposes the what many viewers already know; that the programme has been gearing more towards youth and stories designed to catch their attention, and steering away from older character's story lines which some feel provides the heart of the show.
Great graph Glenda! It was a pleasure! :)
ReplyDeleteSo this destroys the myth that soaps are entirely aimed at teenagers now.
ReplyDeleteGreat graph, thanks! With all the talk of two new impending babies (Carla/Tina), I was also wondering if our belief that there have been more babies on the Street in the last few years is true versus years gone by. Just seems every few months someone else has a bun in the oven and its getting old, fast.
ReplyDelete