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Friday 27 November 2015

Corrie fans: The Next Generation

I know that you'll all agree, that us Coronation Street fans are an extremely loyal and dedicated group of people that show a great deal of passion and ambition for this humble, gritty television programme. We're all like a big family - spread across the world and of all ages.

I've always watched Corrie, ever since I can remember. Those classic 90s end credits are even playing in the TV in the background of one of my baby videos. This is the episode that aired on the day I was born, and watching it back, there's an awful lot of things that have changed. Notably, it's jam-packed with classic characters from the Duckworth's to Janice Battersby - and that made me think about how much heritage has been lost in the past sixteen years.

Vera and her big-kid Jack were a crucial part of Corrie 
If you've been on the Corrie Tour (book your tickets quick if you haven't!), you'll know that Jack and Vera Duckworth, Gary and Judy Mallett and Richard Hillman are all mentioned along the guided tour. When I was there earlier this year, I saw a group of school kids on their Summer trip, and it made me think about how many of those kids would actually remember or know of those legendary characters, and which of those kids (if any) knew how long Coronation Street had been on telly for.

The cobbles nowadays are very youth populated, and it's sad to see the attention focusing away from the vast history of the show. Nick and Carla are no Jack and Vera (I'm yet to even be convinced that they even show affection for eachother) and my biggest hatred at the moment is the use of their collective name Narla. It's used mainly by thirteen year olds on Instagram who think that the show began with Liam Connor's death - though I have seen the official Corrie accounts writing it now and again. Ack.

I love the fact that Coronation Street has a lot of young fans, but my biggest hope is that they begin to respect the brilliant past times the show has had. Believe it or not, there was life before that tram crash...I hope you'll agree.

You can follow me on Twitter if you so wish to: @MichaelAdamsUk. There's not a mention of Narla anywhere. 


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29 comments:

Unknown said...

Trust me, I love the days of Stan and Hilda and Elsie Tanner. Some of my favourite moments were in the 70's and 80's.

Unknown said...

It also annoys me that 10yr olds make role play accounts on instagram. I really love the days of Bet Lynch.

MichaelAdamsUk said...

Hello Joseph, brilliant to hear from you again! I'm glad you love the old episodes. Nice that you touched on the role play accounts...I was going to include them in this post but I have too much to write! I hate how they invent characters such as Kylie's long lost daughter, who loves Michelle and works part time in the Bistro. Give it a rest, for goodness sake. Haha.

Cobblestone said...

Oh dear. There's Corrie fan-fiction out there? This is not something I've come across. I thought it was all devoted to Harry Potter and the Hunger Games. Sounds utterly dire! And to think we moan about the current show writers! Ladies & gentlemen, I give you the future ...!

Anonymous said...

Firstly, let me just say that I am not a fan of Nick but I am a fan of Carla so I have communicated with some "Narla" fans on twitter.
Hope you don't mind me saying but I think it's a shame that you've singled them out in a pretty harsh way like this. They may well be young but so what? They are passionate, enthusiastic fans of the show and in my eyes, that's a really good thing. You or I don't have a right to judge them based on how much they support a new relationship on a soap.

I have watched Corrie for years - and I'm no spring chicken - but I like to think that I am entitled to enjoy new characters and new relationships as much as I want. Just because you have a different opinion doesn't mean you should criticise theirs. The show has to keep moving on but that doesn't mean anyone is disrespecting the past.

MichaelAdamsUk said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

It is really awful some of the role play. One account was just themed on Bethany, honestly it is just dreary.

MichaelAdamsUk said...



@Anon. Hello, lovely to hear from you. I always appreciate feedback, whether it be positive or negative. I always knew that this would be a very controversial subject to cover and that sparks would fly. Hence why I mulled over posting it weeks back and eventually changed the entire article to something else. Regardless, I always respect others opinions and I am sad to think that you thought I was being disrespectful in anyway. I find the best way to understand this new found fandom is to challenge it, and that way I can grasp it all a bit better. If everyone agreed on everything, things would be a lot different. As for targeting 'young' fans, as you may or may not have understood from that article, but I myself am part of that demographic and therefore when I speak on my behalf, I may seem hypocritical. I am not in any way saying that they should dislike Nick and Carla in the slightest. Nick is very much part of the history of the show as much as Carla. Likewise with Caz, who only just joined last week. I think that you have completely misunderstood the point of this article, though when writing it I knew that it would be interpreted that way. Someone pointed out on Twitter that I had spoke of the stereotypical young Corrie fan - indeed, because if I was to write of everyone, I'd need a blog to myself and I simply do not have the time. Let me reiterate the last part of my initial post - "I love the fact that Coronation Street has a lot of young fans". At the end of the day, I hope you enjoyed my article. And if you didn't, I appreciate the criticism, and I'll build upon it.

MichaelAdamsUk said...

Bethany Platt has to be one of the dreariest characters on there! I wish she'd have more age appropriate storylines, she has so much potential and I think the actress is great but her storylines have been dire!

MichaelAdamsUk said...

Hi Cobblestone... This is hardly fan fiction...anything but! Fans are actually now pretending they are the characters, and devising characters that aren't logical and only work outside of the show's cannon. Let's hope they never actually become writers...they'd need some serious archiving work done!

Anonymous said...

Michael, I always enjoy your blogs! I've saved the episode you referred to and will watch it later. I'm off now to watch Corrie (here in Canada).
I must say that I am happy we have young fans of Corrie yourself and of course Joseph. Sadly I could never get my son or husband to watch.

MichaelAdamsUk said...

Thankyou Anon! It's lovely to get good feedback. Ooh do enjoy my 'birthday' episode! It's not the best episode ever but it's special as it was the first one that aired within my existence! I've always been a Corrie fan and always will. Joseph is a credit to the Corrie community! Always stays in touch with the blog and is so well aware of the show's heritage. Keep it up, I say! You need to work harder on your husband and son. They'll must need a bit of persuading ;) Sending love to Canada and enjoy the episode!

Canuktuk said...

Thinking back over my lifetime, I feel it is easy to see the world in generalizations when you are young. Then again the same seems to apply when you are old. However, I get your frustration with fans who seem to be wanna-bes rather than actual fans and the anonymity of the Internet certainly seems to provide many opportunities to take fantasy to ridiculous proportions. At the same time, I have to hope there are many younger people familiar with some of the older characters and storylines.

I also wish there was more emphasis on some of the older characters and the history of the Street mixed in with the newer cast and current story lines. I get that stories need to be relevant to the audience watching them but that doesn't mean the past can't be referred to more or that the characters can't return to their more "everyman" roots. There is a gloss on the cobbles now that does not ring true anymore and that is truly unfortunate.

Cobblestone said...

Oh my goodness. My interest was piqued to take a look but I think you've just convinced me life's too short for that. Yet another curious unforeseen development of the virtual age!

MichaelAdamsUk said...

Oh dear. Life certainly is too short. It makes me cringe so much.

Louby said...

I do agree that a good balance of older and younger characters is needed. As for the Narla thing, I find that quite amusing that young viewers are entertained by their relationship, as both Nick and Carla are probably old enough to be the kids parents! (and Ben Price must be a good 10 years older than Nick's supposed to be anyway).

Glenda Young said...

Great blog post. I'm old so I don't understand NARLA but then again, I don't think I'm supposed to. It's great that Corrie fans can express themselves in many ways - instagram, role play, fan fiction, blogging here, podcasting, and any fan interaction is to be lauded, even if we don't all like what other fans like. It's a brave blog post for our youngest blogger Michael to have written as he stands against a tide of Narlaism. He doesn't like it but plenty do and I'd welcome a blog post from anyone reading this who would like to put their view across - just email in, I'd love to hear from you.

Anonymous said...

What I object to, as a lifelong Corrie fan however, is official Corrie sources as Michael mentions (@itvcorrie I'm looking at you) who have over a million twitter followers yet seem to be aiming their tweets at the 12 year Narla fans. It's patronising to the rest of us and this blog provides the well-rounded fan experience that I love.

MichaelAdamsUk said...

Hello Canuktuk28, what a good point made about the 'wannabes' rather than fans. I think a lot of these fans aspire to be Carla, rather than actually enjoy the show's vast amounts of characters and brilliant storylines. I hope that there was a few teenagers out there rooting for 'Rennis' (Rita and Dennis) ;) haha. I feel a lot of the older characters are pushed to the back which is such a shame. I hope Emily Bishop gets a good exit.

MichaelAdamsUk said...

You're right about Nick's age! The character is 35 whilst Ben Price is 43 and in my opinion looks waaaaaay older! Hopefully when Kate Oates takes over the older characters will be given more of a prominent role.

MichaelAdamsUk said...

Sometimes I think I'm too old to understand it Glenda! Like I said, I love that there is this new army of young Corrie fans, I just wish they understood the show a bit better! Haha. I've loved all the comments I've gotten from this - some good attempts at trying to make me like them ;)

MichaelAdamsUk said...

Very true! I hate that Corrie official accounts assume that everyone on social media is in their teen years and loves all these collective names and odd relationships. Take Colson Smith's live diary, why couldn't David Neilson or Barbara Knox do a diary???

Anonymous said...

With all due respect I think some are taking these fans too seriously. I assume that 'NARLA' is just a pet name for them and it's only a bit of fun.
Fans of other soap couples do it too and I know that Catherine Tyldesley calls Jason and Eva "Jeva" so I guess that's the same thing.

Personally, I think it's great if @itvcorrie is encouraging younger fans. There are enough negatives on the show without finding faults in the way fans choose to express themselves.
I won't be calling anyone Narla or Jeva but it makes no difference to me if others are. If that's what floats your boat then go for it.

MichaelAdamsUk said...

I have no problem in the fact Carla and Nick are referred to as 'Narla', nor the fact that @itvcorrie are branching out to younger fans, because I find the fact that younger fans watch the show incredible. Just because I don't like the way they express their love doesn't necessarily mean I dislike the fact they're fans or that I disrespect their opinion - because I don't.

Anonymous said...

I think the point you're missing is that how you may view characters ie Jack and Vera is how others may view different characters.

You're not really taking into account that people will start watching the show at different times so the past for them is differing from the past you remember. For example a lot of these fans won't have been old enough to remember Jack and Vera and their legacy so why should they be expected to take them into consideration.

Also, I think the thing is, regardless of how flawed the relationships are, people view Carla as an incredibly popular character and they warm to her. So if she is in a storyline, they warm to those relating to her therefore leading to Narla.

I think it's just a credit to Alison King how adored her and her character are - I've never seen such passion relating to a soap character. It's a positive :)

Tvor said...

Role playing has been around a long time as has fan fiction which really came into its own with the internet. I don't participate in either but just because it's not my thing, doesn't mean it's valid for the fans that enjoy it, young or old and I think that's what Michael's saying, too. Itv isn't above that either, having given Norris a voice on twitter a couple of years ago (and is still ongoing, i believe). While i do follow ITV Corrie on Twitter, I'm not on twitter on a regular daily basis so I haven't really noticed that they are targeting younger viewers but then it doesn't surprise me either. While people of all generations are on social media, younger people have made it a part of their everyday life. Getting younger viewers in helps to ensure the life of the show. Corrie changes over time and the viewer demographic does as well.

While Corrie can be a lot more sensational than it used to be when I first started watching, and overall probably the storylines suffer for having so many episodes and such a huge cast, I'm glad it's still on the air and I still love and enjoy it.

MichaelAdamsUk said...

Thankyou for all your lovely (and not so lovely) comments. I've appreciated them all, regardless of how nice they are, because they all help me build on my opinion of the show and my article styles. Dare I mess with Narla fans again? Perhaps not for a while yet, I think I need a lie down.

MichaelAdamsUk said...

Joseph are you on Twitter? I'd love you to join the debate! Give me a follow!

Unknown said...

Yes Michael @Joseph187502

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