This familiar pattern hasn't been happening lately and it's making me question my long-held Coronation Street loyalty. Yes I still watch regularly. I still know all the characters and what's happening to them. I still look out for Corrie news stories in the press and I'm a fearless defender of the cult of Corrie when I come up against non-believers. It's just, well, at the moment something is missing.
It might just be me going through an uncreative patch. Or it might be a sign that my love of all things Corrie is gradually on the wane. I don't know. I didn't see Corrie for two weeks while I was away on holiday and I noticed two things in relation to this. First of all, I didn't miss it and secondly, it was quickly apparent on my return that I hadn't really missed all that much. I could carry on after an absence of ten episodes like I'd never been gone. In an era that sees Corrie churned out and things happen at a pace that feels weird and out of kilter.
Amanda Barrie wrote at great length in her wonderful autobiography about her reasons for leaving Coronation Street back in 2001. At the time Corrie was somewhat in the doldrums from what I can remember. It had gone into an issue led phase in order to battle EastEnders for the ratings crown. It had lost a lot of its heart. Amanda worried that the increase in episodes and the change in direction was threatening the traditional, cherished strengths of the show and I can't help but see parallels thirteen years on. Things picked up again for Corrie mid-way through that decade and it once again had a fruitful, successful period. I'm confident that will happen again.
I know former Corrie stars frequently "speak out" to the press about the show not being what it was in their day and for the most part I take these comments with a pinch of salt. Maybe it's me going through the Corrie doldrums and not the programme itself, I don't know. I'll try and find my blog writing mojo again and in the meantime I'll keep watching, looking for the green shoots of growth. Corrie will never be the programme it was in the days of Doris Speed and Violet Carson and nor should it be. It has to adapt to changing times. That doesn't mean the essence of what made Corrie great fifty odd years ago can't still be found in the scripts, storylines and performances in 2014.
I don't know where I'm going with this blog but I hope it shows that even though I'm experiencing a bout of Corrie turbulence, I still care an awful lot about my favourite television drama.
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