After an hour of corrie cast chat, techy talk, and filming secrets, the corrie zoom press call came to an end. I closed my laptop down and had ten minutes of quiet contemplation. Planning these blog posts, I thought I'd split it in three, and save the best until last!
Do scroll down to the end where I give you my 6 most important corrie COVID facts I learnt on attending this virtual press day event!
Series producer Iain Macleod was most contemplative and impassioned when asked about how COVID-19 has affected the writing process "The storylines are still the same on the whole with a couple of exceptions. What we have had from people who have read the new script, if you did not know these have been simplified, you’d never know. It doesn’t feel like compromised Corrie but classic Corrie so it was reassuring to hear. We needed to stay true to what it is and not turn it into a soap version of a medical drama or cinematic pandemic film. It will subtly reflect the world we live in now"
Iain also gave us juicy insight into a stunt that is still being filmed (despite COVID 19) using camera trickery "We are embarking on a post-pandemic cast stunt. Two characters will look like they are in close jeopardy and right on top of each other but will be 2 metres apart at all times, we are currently looking into how that will play out"
Iain was also asked about Corrie's 60th celebrations and how they would be affected by the pandemic?
"What we have had to strip out for our 60th is the Hollywood spectacular elements as we didn’t have time to build and install what we had originally planned. What we have discovered beneath the spectacular is a strong community story which has resurged under lockdown. There’s a real sense of street community now. We’ve got a huge human interest story which emerges from something on-screen which has been engaging. A classic soap love triangle is also in there and we still have some unmissable storylines. If we do lockdown again, we will still have those episodes, it will just transmit later. But I'm confident we can have some classic Corrie episodes for the anniversary and Christmas"
My 6 most important Corrie facts I learnt on attending this press day event;
1. Location filming is suspended indefinitely! Corrie bosses have said that if any sets need building - they can build them on-site!
2.COVID-19 shall be first referenced on-screen from July 24th.
It's been promised that this will be a 'light touch' as opposed to anything serious or hard-hitting, and will be reassuringly familiar!
3. Corrie's 60th celebrations are still planned to air in December
4. We shall have 3 episodes a week for some time yet, although 6 episodes a week is the long-term plan, post-pandemic.
5. 'Britain's Got Talent' Final week Corrie spectacular is not happening in 2020. The drama that was planned specifically for that week shall be pushed forward to later this year.
6. Some older cast members will be featured in storylines on-screen via facetime, zoom, and video calls
Huge thanks to our editor Glenda Young for letting me zoom in and join this privileged event! If you enjoyed this, I do write weekly episode reviews of Wednesday's Corrie and the occasional opinion piece. I am @rybazoxo your cobbles connoisseur and budding corrie-ologist!
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2 comments:
Any news as to if Tony Maudsley from Benidorm is still joining as Archie Shuttleworth's son as most of the people that Archie interacted with are sidelined because of Covid 19?
I really enjoyed your Press Day report, Ryan! I'd been feeling less than optimistic about how Corrie could go on during Covid time. A return to a more classic feel is going to please a lot of us! The team sound so positive about the whole endeavour. Thanks!
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