Coronation Street: Discussion Thread

[All My Shadows]

Goodness, Thelma Barlow could bring a person to tears. "They were all friends...and they ain't there no more."

[DRW50]

 

I'd read she would be in a "women of Corrie" documentary but wasn't expecting to see her here. Very moving. And I'm impressed at how lucid she still is. She made the right choice to never go back, but I still wish sometimes we could see her pop in, just for a few scenes, to talk with Rita. 

 

I'm glad they gave Julie the last moment. It's the most we'll ever likely get of a farewell for Bet. 

 

Corrie of all the soaps has such a rich history...those clips really get to you no matter how many times you see them. They are all indeed friends.

[BetterForgotten]

Julie’s This Is Your Life episode from 1980 was also recently posted in its entirety. 
 

For years Julie has told the story of Pat Phoenix giving her encouragement and advising her to pursue training in rep theatre to hone her skills when her initial contract with Corrie wasn’t picked up. It’s nice to see Pat tell that story herself in this.

 

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[Graham]

They did poor Barbara Knox dirty giving her knock off Alan Bennett monologues while lying on the floor. 

 

I truly, truly dislike the direction they've taken Gary in. He just doesn't work as a baddie. 

[BetterForgotten]

Kym Marsh looks back on almost 14 years of contributing absolutely nothing to this show  as Michelle:

 

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[victoria foxton]

It feels like it's been 5 years. Since it was announced she was leaving. 

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[DRW50]

The embarrassing part is they got one clip completely wrong. Sonni was certainly not the guy kissing her in that clip - that guy was her son Ryan's school friend, who made a move on her. (played by Lucien Laviscount, who has since gone on to reality TV and a failed Supernatural spinoff).

[Dion]

 Didn't that character also date Sophie Webster for a while, before she realised that she was a lesbian and in love with Sian?

[DRW50]

 

Yes.

[KMan101]

Not ready to talk on plots or characters yet but I've been having classic Coronation Street playing in the background the last two days and I just love it. They have such a specific tone and it works so well.

 

But then I click on any episode post, say, 2002/2005 and holy wow the difference is noticeable instantly. The tone and feel is just gone. You see glimmers of it at times, but it's become darker and more depressing. The stormy opening really does fit. You hear the theme music, you see a lot of familiar faces, but it feels more hollow and empty. It's sad really (and it rings true for all the US soaps too). 

 

I know this has all been said before by others but this is the first I've really watched and compared and holy cow.

 

I also think the move to HD, I guess, changed the filming and look of the show and while it's gorgeous it's also not the same show at all. It's just very different, the whole feel and look of the show changed! It's kind of jarring. I mean, sets are familiar, characters are familiar, but it's not the same show.

 

Who decided Corrie needed to be like EastEnders? The sets became darker and the tone just felt like I was watching EastEnders when it clearly said I was watching Coronation Street. lol. Just an observation.

 

And this is from someone who's just watched random episodes! lol. I can't wait to watch in order and regularly.

[BetterForgotten]

Corrie lost a lot of its identity by the late 90’s. I guess you can look back and say Julie Goodyear’s exit as Bet in 1995 was the end of classic Corrie as we knew it.

 

The show floundered throughout 1996, which led to a massive overhaul in 1997. The show became more sensationalistic and less about the vivid characters and community that had defined the show before then. That shift just continued on. They had some great years in the early/mid 00’s, but that classic Corrie sensibility was hard to find by the mid 00’s.

But, it’s heaven to revisit just about any episode from the 60’s through mid-90’s. Corrie just had these vividly drawn characters that you couldn’t find anywhere else. Even if the plots weren’t always the most exciting, the characters were often exceptional and you couldn’t stop watching or caring about the ones you found most endearing.

 

[KMan101]

I just watched Bet's 1995 exit. Ouch. I feel like they wanted her to become the EastEnder's Peggy Mitchell of Corrie and it wasn't the type of character she was. JMO from my brief watching. Was someone from EastEnders writing the show at this point? I really need to learn to pay attention to the end credits ...

 

I agree that her leaving seems to be a huge loss they never recovered from. As someone who's heard different details on her exit, was it her choice/mutual, was she over it? The writing seemed ... harsh (and I've read from slanted fans that she was a diva in her later years but then again she probably hated the writing which, who could blame her? so she gets labeled as a bitch) 

 

But then again it seemed like they wanted all the old school vets to be either goofy or miserable/depressed. The actress playing Betty looks more and more checked out as the years progress. It is fun clicking on any 70s/80s/90s/00s/10s episode and seeing characters like Gail and Ken still at it and looking good (though Gail seems to become somewhat lost as a character along the way @DRW50 I think has spoken to this). Losing Deirdre seemed to be a big loss. So odd seeing sweet little Tracy knowing how she grows up lol

 

Soaps used to have characters in place to take the place of the old guard. Bet was the next Annie Walker. 

 

It really is a shame, like the US soaps, that the UK soaps lost sight of what worked for them. Corrie seems like an entirely differently show. I tried to watch a few random episodes from 2005 and I just couldn't, but at least there was still some very small attempt to have some scenes that felt like classic Corrie, though hollow as they were.

 

Execs seem to go for "quick fixes" like youthful characters (having youth is great but not when most of them are nowhere near the level of who was featured before them) and shocking plots. Much like the US. I keep saying it, but it's a real shame.

Edited December 30, 2019 by KMan101

[All My Shadows]

Classic Coronation Street, more than any other soap, regardless of national origin, reminds me of where I grew up. Somehow, the white people on an urban street in the north of England were just like the black people of a rural trailer park in south Louisiana. Those blurred lines between community and family - the realization that your community IS your family, the very strong matriarchal structure, the unashamed working class mindset (people always struggling to make it through), the reverence given to older people, the sentimentality of thinking of days gone by, etc. To me, that’s what set Corrie apart from the other U.K. soaps more than anything else, yet of course, that identity was deemed uncool and so it was washed away.

[KMan101]

 

And it was such a mistake to wash it away and turn it into a dark EastEnder's clone (and I love me some *good* EastEnders). It's really a shame soaps wanted to be like each other instead of sticking true to what made them work in the first place. Just look how [!@#$%^&*] generic the ABC soaps became under Frons (though I say it started when Disney bought ABC around 1995/1996, you can see the difference)

 

It is a shame Julie Goodyear wasn't able to keep up with the new pace of the show when she returned in 2002 (I also think she was going through a lot of personal issues at the time). I watched an interview with her (with Piers Morgan, and I detest that man) and it's really horrible how the British press basically made her tabloid fodder and wanted her to fail. 

 

I can see what the show was going for in her 2002 return (and then they rapidly replaced her with the lady who's now playing Tyrone's grandma, I can see them just basically crossing out Bet's name for the new landlandy and I lowkey cringe at their potential take on Bet). Makes me so sad because we were so close to having her back where she belonged but then I see the writing and maybe it was for the best. Her 2003 visit was better and her old hairstyle was back, but I cringed when they had her pop out of the toilet to greet Liz. Really?

[victoria foxton]

https://youtu.be/uGrHBM1OmWM   You Can't Fire Me, I'm Famous - Julie Goodyear (25 September 2007) 

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Edited March 3, 2020 by victoria foxton