Why is my beloved Corrie copying Eastenders? asks Fern Britton

The article to the left was written recently by the TV presenter and longstanding Corrie fan Fern Britton. I wanted to share it here because her views chime with those expressed widely on this Blog over the past few months and especially this week. In my view, Fern hits the nail right on the head; Corrie just isn’t Corrie anymore. If you click on the image to enlarge it and then zoom in, the article should be legible. It's worth a read.

I've been writing for the Coronation Street Blog for four years now and I have always tried to apply the principle that if I can't blog something nice, then I shouldn't blog anything at all. That probably explains why I haven't written much recently!

However, watching Weatherfield’s vicar turn up at Church on Monday evening - not to take communion, but to take heroin - was the final straw for me and I had to speak out about the direction of travel my favourite soap is going in. It's the wrong direction. 

It's not that I’m squeamish about a smack storyline - I’ve read a lot of Irvine Welsh! It’s just that this kind of thing doesn’t belong in Coronation Street. I'm also OK with dark drama but not six times a week after a hard day at work.

I have always said that I love Corrie because it is gripping drama juxtaposed by the very best of Northern wit. Sadly, that genuine warmth and humour that Coronation Street has always done so well is currently in short supply.

What a contrast to the Classic Coronation Street episodes being broadcast on ITV3. The episodes on at the moment date from 1987/88 and are an absolute joy to watch. They also bring into sharp focus just how far Corrie has strayed from its original charm and everything that we love about the show - the believable human relationships, the humour, and the reflection of real life that Fern Britton talks about in her article.

On Wednesday, ITV3 showed the episode in which Hilda Ogden left the street. I was only five when Mrs O departed and so it's been fantastic to see her on screen, albeit at the end of her run. The scriptwriters certainly don't make 'em like Hilda anymore.

A few hours later, over on ITV1, we saw Billy the Vicar score some more horse and throw up in his kitchen. Oh, and Bethany glassed some bloke with a beer bottle. Nevermind 'Eastenders' - both are scenes lifted directly from 'Trainspotting'. In a couple of weeks' time, we're going to have the David Platt storyline and that's hardly going to lift the mood!

Fern Britton mentions Mary Taylor, Roy Cropper and Ken Barlow as examples of characters with "that heart we love". Mary hasn't been seen much of late, Roy has disappeared and Ken is little more than a bit-part player these days. It's all looking a bit bleak. If he were still with us today, I'm not sure that Tony Warren would recognise what his beloved Corrie has become. 

What do we reckon guys - is there a way out of the darkness? There must be, right?!! I hope so.

By Martin Leay, on Twitter @mpleay

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Cobbled

When I'm not watching two and a half hours of Weatherfield antics, I like to romp all over the country on trains.  I spent five years visiting every Northern station, which means I have a keen eye for railway buildings.  Yesterday the two interests collided, so I wrote a blog about it over on my own page.  Our Glorious Editor suggested it might be worth sharing over here too.  So here it is.

Last month I inadvertently watched Emmerdale, and as a result, I got to enjoy a rare trip out on the trains with the country folk.  I'm much more of a Corrie fan, of course; I like my Northern soaps laced with a heavy dose of camp. I write the occasional piece about how awful Michelle is for the Coronation Street Blog, and I've actually visited the set not once, but twice.  I've had my picture taken with Kevin Webster!

You can imagine my delight, therefore, when the distinctive purple livery of Northern suddenly made an appearance in last night's episode.

Faye and Seb were off on a day trip to Chester (actually Faye was planning on running away to Dublin via Holyhead - it's a soap opera, go with it).  However, signalling problems curtailed their plans and dumped them off at "Mosford" station.

The Emmerdale station was familiar to me, but not familiar enough; I vaguely remembered it but had to do a lot of trawling through my memory banks to work out where "Connelton" was.  Mosford, on the other hand, was immediately ringing bells.  I knew that station.  I recognised it.  Was it Patricroft?  It was definitely this side of Piccadilly.

A descent into a dramatically lit subway and I knew it.  Irlam!  This was definitely Irlam, on the Warrington line between Manchester and Liverpool.  I sighed.  I already thought Faye's attempt to spirit Seb out of the country was a bit naive, but the poor girl couldn't even work out that there are direct trains between Manchester and Chester.  She didn't deserve to succeed.

One commercial break later and Faye and Seb were having a Coke at the very nice cafe bar in the Irlam station building.  Seb was absolutely desperate to get back into town before six o'clock, which is why he took some time to have a nice sit down and a drink.  Later, rather than boarding the bus replacement service as Faye suggested, he tried to steal a Ford Fiesta, then legged it when the man from Northern turned up; it didn't really make sense on any level.  I'm not sure where Mosford was meant to be but they were talking about getting back to Weatherfield like it would involve a trek over the Atlas Mountains on a donkey.  

Still, it was good to see a bit of my territory on the telly, and one of the pretty ones too.  I suppose Northern aren't likely to offer up the desolate hellhole that is Ardwick for filming purposes.  If you need any future advice on railway stations, ITV, I have a very reasonable consultancy fee.  It might involve access to Gary Windass' dressing room, but I'm happy to come in at any time.

Tweet me station-spottery thoughts @merseytart.

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Roy's railway on Coronation Street

A wonderful email landed in my inbox this morning from Coronation Street fan and train fan Phil Greaves. Phil tells me about the great deal of authenticity which has gone into Roy's Woodhead line railway project.

All the loco names, classes and history he has cited are entirely accurate and are as follows:

BR No.     NS No.     Build Date     BR Withdrawal Date     Name
27000     1502          12/53             10/68                            Electra
27001     1505          3/54               10/68                            Ariadne
27002     1506          5/54               10/68                            Aurora
27003     1501          8/54               10/68                            Diana
27004     1503          9/54               10/68                            Juno
27005                      12/54             10/68                             Minerva
27006     1504          12/54              10/68                           Pandora

An excellent place for background to the line (which was electrified post-war then disgracefully closed in 1981) is http://www.thewoodheadsite.org.uk/.

As Roy says, it was the biggest post-war engineering project in Europe, and gave us Britain's first all-electric main line.

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Choose your soap, choose Corrie, choose life

It's the Easter weekend, I'm off work, I've eaten too much chocolate and I've gone a bit mad. I've got time on my hands and inspired by the seminal Irvine Welsh book Trainspotting, and the film of the same name, here we go with Choose Corrie, Choose Life as imagined by yours truly.

And here's the original.

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