4 Corrie Characters We Want to See More Of

Our blogger Graeme posted an intriguing question on Twitter recently.  You can follow him on Twitter here.

Graeme asked which Coronation Street characters fans would like to see more of?  And he posted the four pictures seen in this blog post too. 

Erica Holyroyd is one I'd love to see more of, without a doubt. Stick her behind the bar with Liz and give the Rovers a smile, please Corrie! Oh, and take her away from Dev, he really brings her down.

I suspect we'll start to see more of Zeedan now that he's a man with a plan and a van. I just hope his Speed-Dahl business doesn't go up in smoke the way so many other van-based businesses in Weatherfield have done in the past! Take a look at them all here.

Yes! Yes! Yasmeen!  Woefully underused in a soap that has traditionally focussed on the more mature woman and the matriach.

And another one is young Craig, who always brightens up the screen every time he appears. Now that he's training to be a policeman, we speculate that he might be the one who helps Bethany escape from evil Nathan's clutches. You can read more on that here.

Which four characters would YOU like to see more of? Do you agree with Graeme's choices?

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Keeping up appearances on Coronation Street

No, it's not about the hilarious antics of Hyacinth Bucket and hubby Richard - although Patricia Routledge did appear on the Street for a few episodes in 1961!

Having looked at the appearances of characters over the last few months, what came to my mind was how important it is for every character to keep up their appearances and not become absent for long periods of time - unless of course illness or bereavement on the actor's part keeps them from appearing.

I think in a show like Coronation Street every character should have equal screen time. Or maybe not equal, but no character should be over-exposed. It is natural that the Rovers' boss and the bar staff appear more often than any other, but they shouldn't necessarily appear all the time.

Back in the 1970s and 1980s, Annie Walker, Betty Turpin and Bet Lynch would appear in 70-80 episodes a year, so you had about 20-25 episodes where they didn't appear. In many of the episodes, they weren't the stars of the episode, they were simply pulling a pint or having a few lines of dialogue. In recent years, the likes of Becky, Tina and Stella have been over-exposed in their Rovers roles and so we tire of them. If they're not having a crisis, they're always seen behind the bar. They seem never to have a day off.

Or maybe I'm looking through rose-tinted specs? You viewers of Corrie back in the 70s and 80s, did you feel that certain characters were over exposed? Maybe you grew tired of Elsie, Hilda, Bet or Len? Both Len and Elsie topped the appearance charts for 20 years or more. But was there a difference that they didn't dominate episodes like current top-appearing characters?

Maybe the fact that there are more episodes now so characters have to appear more on screen. Prior to 1989, if you grew tired of a character on a Wednesday, you had until the following Monday to have a break from them. 

I just feel that certain characters are being cruelly underused - like Kirk and Deirdre for instance. Whereas Deirdre was the soap's biggest asset at one time, she's now a background character. And yet Gail is still a vital part of the show and Helen Worth is older than Anne Kirkbride. 

What is your view? Do you think every character should have an equal footing? Or do you have a thrill of seeing Emily Bishop appear on a recurring basis? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

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Character appearances on Corriepedia.

For those of you who've been following my series of blog posts about the top 12 faces of Corrie, you'll be interested to know that over on Corriepedia they've been using the data that I've collected (and sent to them) to make a full list of character appearances for every year. And that's every main character from 1960 onwards. 

So if you want to know how episodes did Ena Sharples appear in 1976 or how many did Maria appear in 2002, well Corriepedia's the place to go.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank John Tomlinson, who's one of the editors of Corriepedia, for all his hard work in compiling these lists. Over the last few months we've been corresponding regularly if my posts needs editing!

I hope John doesn't mind, but I'd like to quote what he told me in an e-mail in February about the special relationship (as Churchill once said) that Corriepedia has with us here at the Coronation Street Blog. And I have to say they're my sentiments exactly:

"Can I...take this opportunity to congratulate you on the Coronation Street Blog and thank you for your work there? Many, many times we've used you as a resource for information as you're comprehensive, accurate and a mine of information on the development of the show and its associated spin-offs. I just wish you'd been going and had an archive since 1960!! You're also just great fun to read which is also a blessing! I think we complement each other in an unintended way - you're on the case as regards the future of the programme as well as its present form (and some of the past, mainly through [Llifon's] postings) and we're solidly in the past, filling in those gaps because there hasn't been the web since 1960 and because the sheer volume of data precludes anything like us being available in book form. A huge interest for me is that it's also uncharted territory: we've uncovered some facts that even the production office don't hold, such as repeat information and the like. Finding such things out is time-consuming but great fun and I'm sure you get the same kick out of your endeavours. We're also a little dry and factual whereas you bring out the fun in being a Corrie watcher!"

I would also like to thank David McGowan, who is the creator of Corriepedia, for his hard work in creating a haven for Corrie fans! No other soap opera (I believe) has an encyclopedia of its history and I for one love to browse through various episode synopses or character profiles. And thank you also to all the contributors to the site - you're work is much appreciated! 

To see the character appearances lists, click here. The link takes you to 'Coronation Street in 1960' and if you scroll down to the bottom of the page you can pick and choose the particular year you want. There's also an arrow if you want to skip a decade. 

I hope you've enjoyed the series of posts as much as I have been compiling them. And in case you missed any of them, you can see the whole series here.

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