Coronation Street Blog: Corrie Story Producer chats lockdown with Coronation Street Blog

Thursday, 9 April 2020

Corrie Story Producer chats lockdown with Coronation Street Blog

A very special guest blog post from Lindsay Williams, Story Producer at Coronation Street

From left to right are some of the Corrie story team on the set:
Stacey Lee Brennan, Tom Courtney (who has left now), Catherine Perrin,
Lindsay Williams, Martin Sterling, Amy Coombes

There is always something going down on the cobbles. There are cast and crews filming new episodes fifty two weeks of the year, the writing and editorial teams are constantly working on new episodes, which we plan out around six months in advance. So it’s been challenging for us to be away from the street with new episodes.

However the show will still be on screen for months to come and that is down to everyone’s incredible work in the last few weeks leading up to lockdown. As we watched the awful news reports and started to realise what was coming, we knew we had to get as many episodes finished as we could to give ourselves the best shot of staying on screen as long as possible.

So it was all hands to the pump. Writers rewriting scenes at a moment’s notice, producers making split second decisions, crew running around trying to get everything set up to shoot as fast as possible and our amazing cast and directors filming quicker than they have ever before and all in a way that kept everyone as safe as possible.

On the last Friday before we halted production we actually shot 7 scenes in just a few hours with some amazing work by the cast who had learned the scenes a few hours earlier. It really went to the wire but we managed to get everything we could possibly shoot finished and edited in record time. I think everyone left the building feeling really proud and privileged to be part of Team Corrie.

Our cast and crew are now at home taking care of themselves and their families. As I work as the story producer I am lucky enough to be working from home alongside a small team of story, script and production staff as well as our amazing writers, getting our scripts and stories in great shape for when they are needed.

We are currently looking at the best way to start filming again whenever lockdown is lifted and luckily been able to keep so many of the brilliant stories we were planning to play over this year, so we’re really excited about what’s to come.

Most days we spend working with each other over hangouts. We get to nosey into people’s houses and coo over everyone’s pets all the while talking about what is next for Yasmeen or David, or how poor Gemma is going to cope stuck in with those four babies. And the great thing is you don’t even have to get dressed.

We all miss being at work with all our brilliant friends and colleagues, but we are also all so proud of our key worker friends and family who are making it possible for us to get back to work. We know we’ll be back on the street soon as we can and in the meantime we have so many brilliant stories coming up over the next few months that we hope everyone in lockdown will love. There’s a lot of heartbreak, a lot of fun and the moment everyone has been waiting for!

In exchange for Lindsay's blog post for us, we've donated £10 to her chosen charity which is Women's Aid, the charity that Corrie have been working with on the Yasmeen and Geoff story about coercive control.

If anyone from Coronation Street - cast, crew, writers, makeup, wardrobe, tea lady, anyone - would like to write a blog post for us about how you're coping with lockdown do get in touch. We'll donate £10 to a charity of your choice in return.

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