Corrie’s 60th year is monumental, not only in terms of British television, but in a year of unprecedented (sorry, I hate that word too) pandemics I for one am relieved it's managed to stay on our TV screens.
So, what's the plan for the 60th anniversary? What can we expect to be watching and how do Corrie plan such events?
As part of Corrie's 60th anniversary press day, I joined a zoom interview between ITV journalist Nina Nannar and Corrie producer Iain MacLeod to find out just how these episodes are planned, a ditched pandemic storyline, and Covid bubbles for an anniversary stunt.
NN = Nina Nannar, IM = Iain MacLeod.
NN - ‘No screenwriter could have come up with a plotline involving a global pandemic. Anniversary programmes are usually live episodes, stunts, and special effects. How have things changed?’
IM - ‘Just an aside, you say no screenwriter could have predicted this, however, late last year when discussing the anniversary, two of our writers had an idea for a pandemic on the street, would you believe. It originated in Tyrone’s pigeon loft, a homage to Jack Duckworth, and came in as some kind of bird flu. The consensus around the writer’s table was that it was too far fetched and too unbelievable!’
‘Although we have technically changed things, the stories you will see for the anniversary remain unchanged, it is as planned. We did have to strip away some stunts, some stuff we couldn’t build, we physically couldn’t get the personnel together. However, the stories we are telling are the same thing. It has forced us to concentrate on characters, writing, and performance which is, in essence, arguably truer in the form to the original idea of coronation street than the bells and whistles version we were going to do. It has been interesting to distil it down'
NN - How far in advance do you look at working on stories for the 60th anniversary?
IM - ‘I started in my current incarnation on Coronation Street in 2018, the first email I sent to the writers was to ask 'what are we doing to do for the 60th, we need to get planning'. You need to organically grow stories which can take a while, more than two years in the making. Anniversary storylines were written 6 months ago, 3-4 months scripts and redrafting with 2-3 months pre-production filming and post-production editing to get everything in place. I have watched the footage countless times to make sure everything is correct and that I’m happy with it. A lot of hours have gone into that’
NN - ‘I gather there are still a few stunts to be had during the anniversary week?’
IM - ‘There is yes, less so due to the pandemic but we have a high-octane thriller-ish sequence that I’m very proud of and was incredibly challenging to film. The difficulties in filming continuing drama when social distancing measures are in place do restrict when physicalities are required. So some of the stunt stuff was quite difficult, we had to isolate the actors involved, in seclusion bubbles for two weeks and then text them to ensure they were Covid free before continuing production. It's the 60th anniversary so we wanted to push the boat out and make it all worth it’
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A great interview with Corrie series producer, Iain MacLoed. What are your thoughts about next week's big event? Do drop us a tweet and let me know!
I am @rybazoxo your cobble connoisseur!
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2 comments:
Shame they couldn't have bubbled Leanne with Nick or Toyah, someone should have given her a hug for chrissakes, pandemic or not.
I'm with Fluttershy - there's been so much heartache on the street, and it's strange not to see people physically comforting each other.
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