Should Corrie look back to the 1970s for inspiration?

I've been watching a lot of old Corrie episodes from the 1970s lately, thanks to the joy of Youtube. Why they are never given a proper rerun on one of ITV's countless digital channels I'll never know. Anyway, it made me wonder whether the powers that be of the 2010s shouldn't pop onto Youtube themselves.

Should modern day Coronation Street learn a few lessons from days gone by? 

For a start, the collection of characters Corrie had to offer in the mid to late 70s is far fewer than the cast of thousands we watch today. I often struggle to keep track of all the comings and goings and feel that some characters barely get a look in. In the 70s the cast totalled thirty regular actors if that and each and every one of them holds my attention and gets a chance to shine.

The viewers also only got an hour of Weatherfield life each week during the 1970s. Half an hour on Monday, the same on Wednesday. There was no need for double episodes, hour long specials or, heaven forbid, special weeks with Corrie broadcast every night. Yes I know there were only three channels at the time, but Corrie's viewing share was still immense. Less was more. A cliffhanger on a Wednesday evening would have the viewing public hanging on tenterhooks until the next episode the following week. These days, as I've often said I can miss several episodes without worrying that I'm missing out.

Everything in the 70s seemed to move at a slower pace too. We can probably count the major disasters, events and incidents on one hand for the 1970s. In contrast, the Weatherfield of today seems to be increasingly explosive, dramatic and 
bizarre in a desperate attempt to keep us watching. In the 70s a wedding or a funeral would take place without an explosion, a murder or a punch up at the reception or wake. These events resembled the weddings or funerals of the viewers who tuned in loyally each week, and that's why it worked. These days Corrie weddings take place at grand country houses and most congregations are subjected to a dramatic intrusion or an explosive secret tearing a family apart. 

Some could say the content of Corrie episodes from the 1970s was a bit dull or that nothing momentous happened. It just feels more real to me, I can believe in the characters and situations. You would never see the majority of an episode in 2013 devoted to a character like Deirdre's forlorn search for council housing, however the sight of Deirdre, Emily and Alf climbing the stairs of a desolate block of flats in January 1979 somehow had me hooked. There was more tension and drama in a scene where Annie Walker found out that Fred Gee had taken forty pounds from the Rovers till than in any one of Tina McIntyre's attention-grabbing trysts.

Maybe I'm just old fashioned and in the minority on this one, I don't know. I know modern soap operas are not supposed to reflect real life and most people don't want to see their own boring day to day existences, they want escapism. However I want to believe in the characters, empathise with them and understand their problems. 

Is that not what working class, continuing drama is all about?



Follow Coronation Street Blog on Twitter @CoroStreetBlog and Facebook: CoronationStreetBlog


All original work on the Coronation Street Blog is covered by a Creative Commons License

Tied results in blog's fave 1970s Corrie poll

 

In a first in this series of polls, there is a tie to who has triumphed in the poll to find Corrie fans' favourite moment from the 1970s. 156 voted and both when Hilda revealed her 'muriel' in July 1976 and Ernest Bishop being shot in January 1978 came first and received 27 votes (17.31%).

 

In second place with 21 votes (13.46%) came when the Ogdens went on their second honeymoon in November 1977. In joint third place came the Street's Silver Jubilee celebrations in June 1977 and when a lorry crashed into the Rovers in March 1979 with 16 votes (10.26%).

 

Hilda Ogden holding a séance in August 1977 received 10 votes (6.41%) while Valerie Barlow being electrocuted to death in January 1971 received 8 votes (5.13%). Betty Turpin revealed as Gordon Clegg's mother in December 1974; Elsie Tanner's return in April 1976; and Suzie Birchall mistakenly dropping a brick down the Ogdens' chimney in March 1977 all received 6 votes (3.85%).

 

The Kabin opening for the first time in June 1973 received 4 votes (2.56%) while Ernest Bishop and Emily Nugent's wedding in April 1972; Eddie Yeats saving Bet Lynch from suicide in April 1975; the warehouse fire in October 1975; and Len Fairclough and Rita Littlewood's wedding in April 1977 all received 2 votes (1.28%).

Deirdre being assaulted under the viaduct in October 1977 received 1 vote (0.64%) and when Joe Donnelli held Irma Ogden, Minnie Caldwell and Stan Ogden hostage in December 1970; and Lynn Johnson's murder in January 1975 received 0 votes (0%).

Happy with the results? Leave your comments!

And if you haven't, you can vote for your favourite moment from the 1960s here. Voting closes on Monday, 30th September.
 

You can follow us on Twitter @CoroStreetBlog and Facebook: CoronationStreetBlog

All original work on the Coronation Street Blog is covered by a Creative Commons License

Corrie A-Z: S is for the Seventies

Bookended by strikes, it could be said that this decade was the most testing for Coronation Street in its history. It was the first time that the producers experienced that the cast wasn’t invincible. They had experienced departures in the 1960s, but not the loss of big characters. During the 1970s, they lost many key characters through death or departures while other characters were absent due to ill health. Producers had relied on the same characters more or less since the show’s inception, and so during the 1970s had to invest in new characters to secure its future.

 

In 1970, the show experienced the first death of a cast member. Arthur Leslie, who had played publican Jack Walker since the beginning, died suddenly and Jack was the first character to be written out due to the death of the actor. Doris Speed, who played his wife Annie, considered leaving but decided to stay put and Annie soldiered on behind the bar with barmaids Betty Turpin and Bet Lynch. The same year Anne Reid, who played Valerie Barlow, also decided to leave. Valerie was electrocuted by a faulty hairdryer in 1971 and over 18 million watched her death and her funeral.

 

In 1973-4, Coronation Street reached crisis point. The ratings hit a new low: 8 million (about the same ratings we get these days) in early 1973 while Pat Phoenix, who played central and popular character Elsie Tanner, quit the serial without notice later that year. To add fuel to the fire, Violet Carson, who played as-central Ena Sharples, suffered a stroke and was absent for most of 1974 and didn’t appear on a regular basis for the rest of her time on the show. Doris Speed also took a couple of months sabbatical leave. During this time as well, ITV’s other soap Crossroads was also gaining success with its Thatcheresque lead character Meg Richardson very popular. Many saw Meg as a replacement to Elsie as she was also a redhead. The sudden departures of Elsie and Ena and the absence of Annie led producers to develop characters who had before been in the background. Characters like Bet Lynch, Rita Littlewood, Deirdre Hunt, Mavis Riley and Gail Potter were built up in this period. As we know, these characters would be in the show for years to come – while some are still there!

 

Humour of course had been a vital ingredient in the success of the street very early on. By the early 1970s, the humour was few and far between. In 1976, new producer Bill Podmore decided to re-introduce the humour back into the show involving Stan and Hilda Ogden, Eddie Yeats, Mavis Riley and Fred Gee. As well as this, 1976 was also a positive year for the show. Pat Phoenix returned to the show after a three year absence and Violet Carson also returned on a more regular basis – 42 appearances compared to the 13 she appeared in 1974. But the same year the show lost another of its stalwarts. Margot Bryant, who played original character Minnie Caldwell, had begun to suffer memory loss and had to be written out in April 1976. But the late 1970s was a period where the old guard and the newcomers were brought together with various relationships being formed between characters of different ages: Elsie took in Gail Potter and Suzie Birchall as lodgers; Eddie Yeats became involved with the Ogdens; Mike Baldwin becme the new factory boss; and Annie Walker continued to reign supreme at the Rovers with Bet, Betty and now Fred Gee.

 

Storylines during the decade consisted of various marriages and romances – Alan Howard and Elsie Tanner, Ernest Bishop and Emily Nugent, Billy Walker and Deirdre Hunt, Ray Langton and Deirdre Hunt, Len Fairclough and Rita Littlewood and Mike Baldwin and Bet Lynch and Brian Tilsley and Gail Potter. Others include Betty Turpin revealed as the mother of Gordon Clegg in 1974, the warehouse fire in 1975, the murder of Ernie Bishop in 1978, and a lorry crashing into the Rovers in 1979.

As for competition, the 1970s was a quiet decade for the show. Both the other two soaps of the 1970s, Crossroads and Emmerdale Farm, weren’t a competition to Corrie (although Crossroads did grow in popularity between 1973 and 1975) and were, as someone said, the little boats floating alongside the huge ship. It would be in the 1980s that Corrie’s position as top soap would be threatened.

Do you have a favourite storyline from the 1970s? Did you start watching Corrie in the 1970s?

What’s your favourite moment from the 1970s? Vote in the poll below. And if you haven't yet, you can still vote for your favourite Rovers boss here. Voting closes at midnight tonight.
 

You can follow us on Twitter @CoroStreetBlog and Facebook: CoronationStreetBlog


All original work on the Coronation Street Blog is covered by a Creative Commons License

The faces of 1970s Corrie

Inspired by Daran Little's 40 years of Coronation Street and having done some research on Corriepedia, I have come up with the top 12 faces of Coronation Street in every decade.

In the second of five posts, I look at the top 12 faces of Corrie in the 1970s. These are the faces who appeared the most during the decade.

1. Len Fairclough (749 episodes, 1970-1979)
2. Betty Turpin (699 episodes, 1970-1979)
3. Annie Walker (676 episodes, 1970-1979)
4. Bet Lynch (675 episodes, 1970-1979)
5. Hilda Ogden (661 episodes, 1970-1979)
6. Ray Langton (636 episodes, 1970-1978)
7. Ken Barlow (634 episodes, 1970-1979)
8. Stan Ogden (585 episodes, 1970-1979)
9. Emily Nugent/Bishop (580 episodes, 1970-1979)
10. Elsie Tanner/Howard/Tanner (552 episodes, 1970-1973, 1976-1979)
11. Rita Bates/Littlewood/Fairclough (519 episodes, 1972-1979)
12. Albert Tatlock (501 episodes, 1970-1979)

Average age: 50

See also: The Faces of 1960s Corrie

You can follow us on Twitter @CoroStreetBlog and Facebook: CoronationStreetBlog


All original work on the Coronation Street Blog is covered by a Creative Commons License

Coronation Street 1970s Spectrum

With thanks to John at http://coronationstreet.wikia.com/ for sending this to me. It's a 1972 edition of the Ulster Television arts programme "Spectrum" which features long and fascinating interviews with Doris Speed, Violet Carson, William Roache, Peter Adamson and, from the production side, Harry Kershaw and two unidentified writers who John suspects are Susan Pleat and Malcolm Lynch .