CORRIE & EUROPE

There's a lot of talk at the moment in the UK about British identity. After the decision was taken to leave the EU the country has been having a bit of a nervous breakdown. Today we’re leaving so a bit of national soul-searching will kick in as we find our way in the world post-Brexit.

For me, there's nothing more British than sitting at home on my Swedish sofa, eating Chinese food, sipping a Belgian beer or an American bourbon and watching Britain's best telly programme, Coronation Street. Whilst it might not be a completely accurate representation of British society, Corrie covers a lot. 

We Brits are workers, shirkers, lovers, fighters, barmaids, politicians, travellers, homebirds, passionate, nerdy, weird, and funny. We’re black, white, brown, pink, straight, bisexual, pansexual, gay, very gay and painfully gay. We're a nation of Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, sinners and all the rest. We’re men, women, trans, non-gender and everything in between. And over the years the characters in our longest running soap have reflected a lot of this. The Street itself is somewhat stuck in the past, which may be why it appeals to so many. That cobbled road and industrial red brick so synonymous with the North of England. The ever-popular boozer on the corner and everybody knowing everybody’s business. Life’s not really like that any more.

Many of the most passionate pro-Brexit Brits seem to want to take us back to a simpler time when you could leave your front door unlocked and you knew all your neighbours, and social media wasn’t driving us all crazy. I think we idealise the past sometimes and ignore all the amazing progress we’ve made over the past forty years in the EU. But I can understand why some think the pace of change is a bit overwhelming.

I just hope that after today the people of Britain embrace what is genuinely good about this country rather than descending into flag worship and endless renditions of the God Save the Queen. When you really think about it, all that stuff is just a bit weird. We are better than that. Not that a bit of light-hearted nationalism does too much harm in small doses. Corrie has offered a nod to ‘Britainnia’ and royalty from time to time:

BET LYNCH AS 'BRITAINNIA' FOR THE SILVER JUBILEE

But Coronation Street has also embraced Europe. We often forget how many times our favourite characters have crossed the channel for adventures on the continent.

Here a gaggle of absolute icons visit Majorca in 1972, just before Britain joined the EEC:

Becky, Roy and Hayley went on a Romanian adventure back in 2009 to attend Frankie's wedding and house sit while she was on honeymoon: 

We were taken to Amsterdam after Hayley finished her transition and Roy sought to bring the love of his life home:

Freedom of movement has allowed many European characters to come and go. Irish hunk Ciaran for example benefited from being able to live and work and seduce women freely in the UK. More recently however, that benefit was abused by people traffickers who brought Alina and others to the UK to be sex slaves:

Anyway we're not leaving Europe, we're just leaving the EU. Holidays might be a bit more stressful and expensive but we will make the best of it. Perhaps our Corrie favourites will visit somewhere further afield next time bosses get the travel bug. I'd quite like to see Sally and Tim wandering round Moscow on the hunt for Tim's accidental trolly-dolly wife who's escaped with the divorce papers. 

We should by all means embrace what's good about Britain. There's so much that's good. Corrie's just one of the institutions that makes me proud to be British. And we can want to hold onto everything about the UK that is different and unique to the rest of the world. We can cherish our memories of simpler times and try to reignite old traditions. But we mustn't shut the world out. 

Unless Corrie's on.

@StevieDawson 

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