Guest blog post by football blogger Football Explainers who is also at Twitter @footexplain
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One of the areas Coronation Street has tackled, somewhat subliminally, is social mobility and aspiration. Right from the first episode in 1960, characters have gone on a journey to better themselves (some even, the opposite) in the tiny Weatherfield bubble. It is a quality which goes overlooked but you wouldn't necessarily underpin it as the reason why you fell in love with the show in the first place.
If you, like myself, are glued to the classic episodes on ITV3 you may have begun to notice Sally's transformation from a wild child off the estate to an aspirational snob. It isn't exaggerated as it is now, but there are delicate signs which make her development as a character all the more believable. Today's Sally mirrors an Annie Walker-tribute act with added fresco wallpapers.
The 'rags to riches' formula has worked on countless others. It seems to be Corrie's tried and tested method for introducing a female character. Before Shona, there was Gemma who atoned for her wicked past. Before Gemma you had Kylie, Becky, Fiz, right the way down to the Battersby sisters who gave the street a much-needed shake up.
Leanne in particular has mellowed since her arrival, and is a prime example of someone who has managed to get by without a university degree or serious job prospects. Perhaps that is one of Corrie's greatest qualities: projecting the image you don't need to bundle yourself in debt in order to achieve your ambitions. There is a life to be lived.
Which leads me on to last week's Corrie. One of the subplots involved Sophie applying for a position as manager of a restaurant. She didn't get the job in the end having made it as far as the interview stage, which was a surprising twist to the usual soapland job process. Aidan and her sister Rosie, there for moral support, believed the successful candidate was appointed because of cronyism.
It may be presumptuous to think that. For a start, could it just be that the applicant was better suited for the role? She may have had years of experience in the restaurant industry. Sophie meanwhile has been a shopkeeper at Dev's, clipboard-hugging secretary for her father, window cleaner, and now we're led to believe she would fit in a swish restaurant like a glove? In today's competitive job market, her CV must have been impressive to even get a call back.
I'm not denouncing Sophie for being portrayed as ambitious (it's nice she went for a job OUTSIDE the street), but there has to be some logic. When Kylie worked at the bistro, she started out as a waitress and worked her way up to earn some managerial responsibility. She became fiercely independent, demonstrated a knack for learning things quickly, and for the first time in her life enjoyed what she was doing. That was until producer Stuart Blackburn decided to move her out and send her life spiralling down.
Liz, who had no experience of bar work when Bet offered her a job, enjoyed a similar rise. Her and the Rovers are inseparable and she's a natural with punters. The career trajectory hasn't exactly been consistent or well-thought out with others: Michelle, who joined as a singing barmaid quickly morphed into a businesswoman at t'factory without any training, or dubious backstory for viewers to swallow. Then she went back to the Rovers but had she continued to graft at Underworld the "transformation" might not have been so preposterous as it was then.
I suspect Aidan's involvement in Sophie's job hunt will lead to her working for him. If so, let's hope the bosses will let her grow as a character and commit to her career trajectory instead of looking for short-term gain.
Guest blog post by football blogger Football Explainers who is also at Twitter @footexplain
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Sophie and Alya to run Speedahl.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the comment about Sally being an Annie Walker tribute act. So true. When we talk about Sally having elements of Hyacinth Bucket, the point is that Hyacinth lived in a sit-com. There isn't a lot of subtlety in Corrie humour these days. Re: Sophie, where are we in her exit for Dancing on Ice? The show is over but I don't know where Brooke is in her filming schedule. I wondered if the inevitable rejection from the restaurant was a plot device, leading her to look for work elsewhere, to give her time off to do DoI. If Brooke is still yet to leave, then she might well go off with Aidan when Shayne Ward leaves. It's relatively easy to rise in bar work from no experience. You turn up, work long hours for minimum wage and stick it out for years. It's often a case of word of mouth to get your foot in the door in the first place. On that basis, recruitment at the Rovers is quite authentic. The other employers' HR policies are just silly. Any resident can get a job on the Street. Just as well because most of them have little ambition, the latest case being Jude. We don't know what his skills are and where he's previously worked but he seems destined for a job on the Street. So while the residents who came from nothing are clawing their way up the ladder, the ones with a more privileged start in life (Rosie, guessing Jude, Daniel) are chucking it away.
ReplyDeleteI have longed been irked by the lack of ambition (and further education) of the vast majority of street residents. They supposedly live in Greater Manchester where there are numerous and varied places to work, colleges and universities. So why do they mostly end up in a low skill, dead end jobs in the same or a few streets away? And another thing how come some of them just manage to set up and run various businesses without seeming to have much experience?
ReplyDeleteRant over!
I have grown quite fond of Sophie and really hope that she goes back to school or gets a job where she can work her way up.
ReplyDeleteI quite like the idea of Sophie working at Underworld in a managerial capacity but for gods sake they need to do something compelling with the character.
ReplyDeleteIt would be quite unrealistic to have Sophie in the office while Sally, who has proven her managerial abilities over and over, is still stitching knickers.
ReplyDeleteSophie at the factory as anything but a packer or apprentice seamstress is crazy. Dislike her tho we may, Alya has an appropriate degree and relevant work experience, also lives on the street and has a partnership of some kind with Aidan. She has earned any jr mgr spot regardless of what the other Connor’s think. If such a position went to unqualified Sophie instead of Alya, the Faktry might be up for some type of legal action.
ReplyDeleteI don’t know what educational opportunities are available for Sophie but without some type of qualification, she will become a smart, frustrated waste of space. Getting ahead without some type of training these days is a pipe dream.
I've thought the same for years. The message seems to be that anyone who goes to university will either come back a worse person, or will get a job they are way over-qualified for in the faktri, café or corner shop.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry but I have to disagree football blogger, one of Corrie's greatest weaknesses has been to not have characters seek out formal education and training. It leads to dead end stories and an inability for the show to get rid of workplaces that just aren't realistic anymore like the Factory. It makes no sense that someone like Sally would put her daughters in private school and then not push either of them to go to university. Same with David and Sarah, in real life a mother like Gail would have sent them both to uni even if David did want to be a hair stylist. They'd probably be attending Manchester University and saving by living at home so why would debt to have an education you can use your whole life be bad while owing money on a car or home in a backstreet be bad?
ReplyDeleteCorrie needs to move with the times on that, it shouldn't just be new characters that come ready made with a degree like Alya. The young people who grew up before our eyes should have that opportunity too.
I believe Coronation Street is situated on a desert island in the middle of a huge ocean, and with no means of interacting with anyone off the island. Although there are very occasional trips 'into town' I think they are only imaginary trips, and actually those concerned just walk over to the beach on the other side of the island making up stories to tell the others when they get back.
ReplyDeleteThe must be the case because why would intelligent adults settle for such a confined, limited, existance if there was an alternative?
Rossie @ 22:00 - that was funny! I often feel that way about Corrie. :)
ReplyDeleteAs for the topic, it's one often complained about here on the blog. Here's a thought - since the current show runner is so keen on addressing "issue" storylines, how about tackling the one about soap characters playing musical jobs, and with no one Ever getting extra training.
We live in a time where people generally don't have jobs for life any more. Education is lifelong. Instead of building a new set for a police station, if they had built a small community college of some sort I think the future on The Street would not be so dire and full of mur-r-r-r-der with firearms for props!
It's a very politically unprogressive viewpoint to build prisons instead of better schools.
Hi maggie muggins - thanks for your comment. I agree that education is the way to go, not more prisons. We never hear anything about the community centre nowadays. Yasmeen needs more to do.......Perhaps she could organise some parentcraft classes for Fizz and Tyrone to help them control their girls. And also a youth club for Simon, Aadi and Asha, Summer and Amy. It is a very underused resource I think.
ReplyDelete