This blog stems from a conversation I had with the actress Rita May a few weeks back. I interviewed Rita about her time playing Connie Rathbone in Coronation Street a few years ago as well as finding out more about her first novel. You can read that interview here.
Anyway, Rita is a fine actress with many impressive credits to her name. After we spoke she was rushing off for filming on a new Channel 4 series, so she's still in demand as she reaches her mid-70s. And why should she not be, with all her talent and natural gift for screen acting. Rita wasn't bitter about not being kept on in Corrie once Bill Tarmey's character Jack Duckworth had been written out, she just saw it as a missed opportunity. Rita enjoyed working on Coronation Street, liked the company of the cast and crew and would happily have stayed on in the role. Unlike many of the other former Corrie actors I've spoken to recently, Rita would still consider reviving her role as Connie as she believed there were many stories still untold.
This brought up the bigger issue of whether Coronation Street truly represents a community or the audience it hopes to attract. Rita May agreed with me that it was hard for a show like Corrie to remain relevant and chase the ratings in this multi-channel world. However we both also agreed that it's a shame Corrie has moved so far away from its roots. There was a time in the late 1990s when Coronation Street made a noticeable body swerve. It's true that by 1996 things were looking rather stale with slow-moving stories and a fair few characters which were to the beige side of interesting. The arrival of Brian Park in 1997 saw many changes, some quite obviously for the better. The Street became a much more youthful place with a range of more modern, younger characters taking up residence to spice things up.
I don't remember having a problem with that at the time as Corrie desperately needed pulling into the 21st Century if it was to survive. There are many younger actors in Corrie that I admire. Jack P Shepherd can do no wrong and as David Platt, he's grown and matured on screen, both as an actor and a character. Lucy Fallon has also been consistently impressive as the new, grown up Bethany, handling some challenging scenes of late. I love Mikey North as Gary, Qasim Akhtar as Zeedan, Elle Mulvaney as Amy and Rob Mallard as Daniel. They are all vital components of my current Corrie viewing.
The issue of diversity has long dogged Coronation Street. It's still a problem in 2017. We didn't have a regular gay character until 2003/04 and it was more recently than that that we got a lesbian character in Sophie Webster. It's true Corrie led the way with Julie Hesmondhalgh's wonderful portrayal of Hayley Cropper but the soap still struggles to realistically portray ethnic groups. Weatherfield is still too white. However another area of diversity which Corrie struggles with these days is representing what it used to excel at - older people. Even when Brian Park started to introduce younger characters in the late 1990s we still had a balanced core cast of characters which included many of the older generation. Sadly by the new century we started to lose some of the actors who'd been so loyal to the Street for many years with the deaths of Betty Driver, Maggie Jones and Bill Tarmey as well as exits for Liz Dawn, Amanda Barrie and Johnny Briggs.These departures cannot be helped but what the show has failed to do is rebuild a community of realistic older characters.
I know we still have Bill Roache heading up the show as elder statesman Ken Barlow. However with Anne Kirkbride so sadly no longer with us and Eileen Derbyshire showing no signs of a return, his presence is looking somewhat isolated these days. Barbara Knox and Sue Nicholls still appear but not as regularly or in substantial storylines of their own. We still have Malcolm Hebden's gloriously bitchy Norris Cole and i'm glad of that. I was pleased when Derek Griffiths joined as Freddie Smith but his Coronation Street journey is nearly at an end already. And sadly that's about it.
The Street needs older characters to broaden the storytelling out, add different dimensions and perspectives and appeal to more than just a younger audience who mostly don't watch television in the traditional way these days anyway. Coronation Street has a large and loyal audience, many of whom still remember the early days of black and white, of Ena, Minnie and Martha in the snug, of Annie Walker, imperious behind the bar and Elsie Tanner picking up the milk from the front step in something deliciously unsuitable.
I'm not saying we should return to the days when the cast had an average age of 72. I just think in times which see a growing, vibrant older population in this country, people who still live, love and have problems only they can explain, Coronation Street needs to represent them. If they do it will add a depth to the Weatherfield story that sometimes nowadays we are sadly missing.
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11 comments:
I've watched Corrie over the years...one of the things I liked best was that I "knew" people just like the people on the show. We have our own Norris and Rita in our community. It was the ability to identify with the characters...they were believeable. Not so much anymore. The appeal of a regular street is gone. I'd even go so far to say that Coronation Street is one of the most dangerous in the North of England, your chances of getting bumped off are pretty good. As for the disappearance of the older characters....shameful...the street could use another Blanche, hell I'd settle for Sineads lightfingered gramma! Realism...where is the realism gone..where do they get their endless piles of money to pay for their meals at the Bistro and nights at the pub. Is no one skint for longer than a month? I can remember Sally feeding the kids baked beans on toast and asking Dev for credit.
You know something though...I still watch it faithfully...still hoping that my favourite..unique, wonderful staple doesn't go the way of the American Soaps or *shudder* the dust bin.
A growing issue is care for the elderly. An interesting storyline might be a new housing development for older people. It would have been ideal for Emily to move into, realistic and emotional. However, Emily's gone (let's face it) and Rita will stay in her flat to the end. But new characters living in the development would be close enough to the Street to use the pub, shops and café. Their own complicated lives, together with Blanche-like comments about the young'uns, could be very entertaining.
Nice post, Graeme. I do hope Corrie casting reads it because, as much as I love Corrie, I miss the older characters who would bring some balance to the pregnancy/ prison roundabout we now have. Just by the nature of time, we're losing older cast members. I bet there's plenty of older talent that could grace our screens.They just need to be asked! And they don't have to all be of the battle-axe or grumpy old man variety. Older folk are as varied & interesting as the young whipper-snappers.
Just like Donna Harris, I have often wondered where the residents of Corrie get their money to pay for eating out frequently. And how do they get the money for their businesses? Seems like every other person owns their own business: there's Tracy's flower shop, Dev's store, Norris' store, Streetcars, Rover's Return, Kevin and whats-his-name's auto shop (drawing a blank on Fiz's husband's name), and the owners of Underworld.
Where was the first photo taken? It looks like a scene from Holmfirth but I know it isn't.
Despite Park's axe, many older characters were saved - the interesting ones at least. Until 2007 we had a strong oldies group - but then naturally old age came into the fore. So I do agree there needs to be more oldies. We can't depend on Rita, Ken and Audrey forever, sadly. What about someone at the community centre, a Sam Tindall type at the café? The possibilites are endless...
I love Audrey and Rita, but I honestly do not miss Emily. I love Ken and miss Freddie already....they really should have kept him for Audrey. Norris is irreplaceable.
Forget a new prison or courthouse or whatever...I want more scenes in the salon.
:-)
At its best, Coronation Street functions like a baseball franchise that draws players from its own farm team.
Because of sheer longevity, we get to see many characters age in tandem with the actors who play them. Many of the current set of young adults were also kids on the show. In some cases, we even watched them get born. (David Platt, Sophie Webster, etc.)
I personally like that feature of Corrie. Therefore, I despair less about the current dearth of pensioners on the Street. Characters who are currently late middle-age - Gail at 65-66? Roy at 63, Liz at 60 - will be those oldsters soon enough:/ After all, Percy Sugden was only in his mid 60s when he retired from his job at the Community Centre.
While on the subject, does anyone know how old Yasmeen is? Dev? Erica?
Erica and Dev are both 50. I don't know how old Yasmeen is.
Thanks Newfy Pearl:) Because Erica is Liz's close friend, I assumed she was older. Now I remember her pregnancy storyline with Nick. Maybe one of the reasons we miss the old guard so much is that age lines are getting blurred. Imagine if Phyllis Pierce had a freak pregnancy, followed by miscarriage, then on to chasing Percy Sugden... Things are skewing closer when it comes to age.
I wish there were more older characters and believe the show is mistaken if it thinks only young characters attract young viewers. Interesting stories for all characters is what keeps people attracted to any show. As a teen I remember watching mostly for what I now realize were middle aged or even older characters like Ken and Rita and the Duckworths.
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