Coronation Street Corrie

[Barbara Fan]

Saw in one of the papers that a whole load of characters are leaving Corrie

Beths son Craig
Debbie Webster
Eileen Grimshaw
and Daisy

At this rate there will be no one left

get rid of Sean, Billy, Bethany, Gemma, Chesney, Maria etc I might tune back! Have still to watch Gails leaving the show at Xmas as I said i would!

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

Saw in one of the papers that a whole load of characters are leaving Corrie

Beths son Craig
Debbie Webster
Eileen Grimshaw
and Daisy

At this rate there will be no one left

get rid of Sean, Billy, Bethany, Gemma, Chesney, Maria etc I might tune back! Have still to watch Gails leaving the show at Xmas as I said i would!

I’d heard about Debbie’s exit but I didn’t know that Eileen was departing too. I watched bits of Gail’s final episode and I see clips on YouTube every now and then and I don’t really know who the show is aimed at nowadays.

It appears to be a mix of crime and issue led storylines. As someone said (possibly on here) it’s like watching a pamphlet. It’s like the writers choose an “issue of the month” and build a story around that while the rest of the time, it seems to be teens stabbing or murdering each other. Soaps traditionally have always tackled issues but when they take a conveyor belt approach to it, I think it feels a bit preachy and cynical.

 

[AndyB2008]

I’d heard about Debbie’s exit but I didn’t know that Eileen was departing too. I watched bits of Gail’s final episode and I see clips on YouTube every now and then and I don’t really know who the show is aimed at nowadays.

It appears to be a mix of crime and issue led storylines. As someone said (possibly on here) it’s like watching a pamphlet. It’s like the writers choose an “issue of the month” and build a story around that while the rest of the time, it seems to be teens stabbing or murdering each other. Soaps traditionally have always tackled issues but when they take a conveyor belt approach to it, I think it feels a bit preachy and cynical.

Mason's exit reminds me of what Shortland Street did to Steve Mills, especially seeing the exit episodes of the latter on YouTube. (Both actors were leaving, but you would have they would get a happy ending if either soap wanted to have them return in the future- like Mason going to Germany, Steve was hinted as moving to Australia with Carrie Burton.).

Instead the characters get bumped off to enable the aftermath - probably seeing it now on Corrie, but on Shortland Street, Sam the ambulance driver, originally a happy-go-lucky character in the early days, developed a darker personality (as he lost his newlywed wife too) what with becoming a male escort and kidnapping babies, while Kirsty Knight and Stuart Neilson acted coldly against Jo Jordan (as it was Steve and Chris Warner arguing over her that lead to the crash). In addition, the death of Steve shocked the clinic staff.

(Think it was the first they dispatched a popular character that way. None of the originals who left before got that).

 

[Whovian]

2.3m viewers for Coronation Street last night - it's joint lowest ever overnight rating.

 

[Rove]

2.3m viewers for Coronation Street last night - it's joint lowest ever overnight rating.

Soaps like Coronation Street had better get use to those numbers. Gone are the days when millions would be glued to their favourite soap. There are so many entertainment platforms where people can get their fix.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

Soaps like Coronation Street had better get use to those numbers. Gone are the days when millions would be glued to their favourite soap. There are so many entertainment platforms where people can get their fix.

I’d love to know how they measure a show’s success overall these days. I know that there’s live ratings, catch-up and streaming figures but I’ve noticed that the ITV soaps (and occasionally EastEnders) are also adding lengthy videos (up to 25 minutes) to their official YouTube channels now. For example, you can watch 20 minute video of Gail’s exit episode with just the scenes involving her or a 15 minute video covering Will’s funeral on Emmerdale. Previously, they’d just upload a scene to give you a taster of what is going on but now nearly full blown arcs can be watched on YouTube. I’m presuming they’re measuring these too as part of the show’s overall reach?

 

[Mel O'Drama]

For example, you can watch 20 minute video of Gail’s exit episode with just the scenes involving her or a 15 minute video covering Will’s funeral on Emmerdale.

Yes. These could be a good way of gauging which storylines and characters are engaging people the most. The view count is an almost-instant equivalent to ratings, and since you can see when people check in or out they can also measure which parts of the stories are most-watched.

And then there are the comments where I'm sure patterns can be seen about likes and dislikes (assuming comments are enabled and not frequented by bots, that is).

 

[Englishboy]

Saw in one of the papers that a whole load of characters are leaving Corrie

Beths son Craig
Debbie Webster
Eileen Grimshaw
and Daisy

At this rate there will be no one left

Shelley King is also leaving to explore other acting opportunities. The actress who has played Yasmeen Metcalfe for a decade has already filmed her final scenes but will remain on screen until march.

Regarding Sue Devaney, I’ve heard it said that her character of Debbie Webster will apparently die of dementia in a storyline similar to one that played out in 2006 when business man, Mike Baldwin succumbed to the illness.

 

[Whovian]

The new producer has been hyping up how they're going to be doing more issue-led storylines. What a load of crud. We want character driven drama not issue led storylines. The issues should complement the characters journey not the character serving as a vehicle to hark on about an issue.

 

[Barbara Fan]

Shelley King is also leaving to explore other acting opportunities.

Acting lessons would be a better idea based on the last time I ever watched the show
She was beyond hammy!

The new producer has been hyping up how they're going to be doing more issue-led storylines. What a load of crud. We want character driven drama not issue led storylines. The issues should complement the characters journey not the character serving as a vehicle to hark on about an issue.

I havent seen Corrie for a good few years now

I gave up as storylines and acting were very iffy to say the least

I wanted a Northern soap, with strong charactersm well written, well acted and with pathos, drama and humour - like 70s and 80s Corrie

It was so far removed from that and resembled nothing like Tony Warrens vision

When I have a spare 5 mins I will watch Peter Barlow at his AA meeting with his family on youtube

Better than any comedy show and top class writing and acting, its fab!

 

[Englishboy]

2.3m viewers for Coronation Street last night - it's joint lowest ever overnight rating.

In fairness, this was to be expected.

It got clobbered off “The Traitors” which has over taken “Strictly” as Britain’s most watched tv show.

 

[Ryan Connor]

A big improvement this week. Charlotte Jordan excellent as always. Daniel is a weasel and deserves to be alone.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

ITV has announced that they are changing the scheduling pattern of Corrie and Emmerdale, starting next year. Both shows will air 30 minute episodes, Monday to Friday, in a “soap power hour” with ED at 8pm and Corrie at 8.30pm. The move means that both shows will air 30 minutes less per week than they currently are.

Emmerdale and Coronation Street schedules face cut backs

The flagship ITV soaps will lose an hour a week of schedule time between them from 2026.

www.bbc.com

 

[Mel O'Drama]

ITV has announced that they are changing the scheduling pattern of Corrie and Emmerdale, starting next year. Both shows will air 30 minute episodes, Monday to Friday, in a “soap power hour” with ED at 8pm and Corrie at 8.30pm. The move means that both shows will air 30 minutes less per week than they currently are.

I think this is a step in the right direction.

One thing that strikes me as particularly off-putting with the soaps in recent years is the scheduling. If I ever wanted to dip into one of these series and watch an episode during transmission I wouldn't have a clue what day and time to find it, or how long the episode would run.

While I realise the number of people who watch an episode during its scheduled airtime is diminishing, the schedules are there for a reason, and one of the things that's always helped serials like this is the regularity of programming. Those who are going to follow these programmes on air (and I know older people who do) shouldn't have to look up what time it's on. It should be the same days of the week, and the same time of day for each transmission. Otherwise people are going to lose track, give up and tune out.

I also like that this clearly defines the series as half hour serials. Three hour-long episodes per week ( six if you watch both series) sounds quite fatiguing to me. Somehow, following the traditional Crossroads/Neighbours/H&A "five half hours per week" seems much more manageable and appealing.

I also don't think losing 30 minutes is a bad thing at all. Less is more, in my book (I'm one of the viewers who felt overwhelmed and checked out when the soaps all started taking up three or four half hours per week).

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

One thing that strikes me as particularly off-putting with the soaps in recent years is the scheduling. If I ever wanted to dip into one of these series and watch an episode during transmission I wouldn't have a clue what day and time to find it, or how long the episode would run.

I also like that this clearly defines the series as half hour serials. Three hour-long episodes per week ( six if you watch both series) sounds quite fatiguing to me. Somehow, following the traditional Crossroads/Neighbours/H&A "five half hours per week" seems much more manageable and appealing.

I think it’s a good move too. It brings it more back to basics like the 90’s schedules where on any given weeknight, viewers could enjoy 60-90 minutes of soaps a night between CS, ED, Brookside, EE and (for a brief period) Eldorado.

The uniformity of the scheduling is good too. ITV lost the run of themselves with the soaps from the 00’s onwards, with the introduction of hour longs, two episodes a night and Sunday episodes. The schedules felt bloated with soaps and as you said, committing to three or six hour longs a week is a fatiguing prospect when you consider you could watch a different limited series a week in the same time. I think pulling them back into the 30 minute format will help their longevity in the long run.

 

[Whovian]

Think this is the beginning of the end for the ITV soaps to be honest. They've stated their doing it partly because the half hour episodes rate higher which suggest they aren't entirely happy with how the shows are currently rating. I can easily see them gradually dropping episodes over the next few years - rid of Thursday then Tuesday and taking us back to 3 half hours a week. Would mean a lot of job losses but if that's what it takes to improve quality then it needs to be done.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

Think this is the beginning of the end for the ITV soaps to be honest. They've stated their doing it partly because the half hour episodes rate higher which suggest they aren't entirely happy with how the shows are currently rating. I can easily see them gradually dropping episodes over the next few years - rid of Thursday then Tuesday and taking us back to 3 half hours a week. Would mean a lot of job losses but if that's what it takes to improve quality then it needs to be done.

The job losses are the one unfortunate offshoot of changes like these, as we saw recently with Hollyoaks. The regular cast on Corrie is made up of nearly 70 characters though, so it could probably do with a cull at this stage.

Regarding future episode reductions, I’d wonder if ITV has a minimum number of episodes that they’d need to keep on air to get a return on investment in the shows? As in, could they go back to three episodes a week with Corrie and still make money on the show without changing it drastically?

 

[Walford Boy]

I bet the BBC are glad they stuck to their guns with their schedules at 7:30 pm.

Think this is the beginning of the end for the ITV soaps to be honest. They've stated their doing it partly because the half hour episodes rate higher which suggest they aren't entirely happy with how the shows are currently rating. I can easily see them gradually dropping episodes over the next few years - rid of Thursday then Tuesday and taking us back to 3 half hours a week. Would mean a lot of job losses but if that's what it takes to improve quality then it needs to be done.

They will all end one day but Corrie will out live all of the main soaps apart from The Archers.

 

[silverstar]

Maybe the 1970s were the hey day for the famous soap.... Elsie was glamorous with
amazing hair dos.... the lovely Deidre came into the soap... it was all in glorious colour of course...
Len was still a handsome guy ....... Annie Walker and Ena were in their prime....

Just wish that some Sat channel would start showing the 70s episodes from jan 1970
one episode each weekday night.....

 

[Barbara Fan]

Eileen Derbyshires son posted a wee update on his mum

Major update on Coronation Street legend, 93, after disappearing from screens

The actress was a real Corrie icon.

metro.co.uk