ITV continues to
milk mark Coronation Street's golden jubilee with The Corrie Years.
Here's the official spiel;
"New three part series, The Corrie Years, focuses on 50 years of storylines which have been national talking points throughout its history. It touches on the plots and characters that have made headlines and courted controversy, broken new ground in television drama, challenged taboos and reflected the seismic changes in society which have occurred since the very beginning of the soap in 1960."
Got that?
How ironic then that this is being broadcast in the eye of a media-invented shitstorm about
whether "Corrie is now far too gay".
But does anyone actually care?
Tabloids have been dredging up old Street stars presumably hoping they'd be outraged.
Johnny Briggs/Mike Baldwin was quoted as saying;
“I haven’t watched it recently so I don’t know about the new gay characters, but my philosophy is: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it."
Oh.
The Sun managed to dig up Ken Morley/Reg Holdsworth
who they quote as saying;
"The Street has gone too far with gay problems, gay shoes, gay fish and chips. They need to get back to square one and deal with people's everyday problems in a humorous way."
Though as this quote is in The Sun it may well be completely made up.
Ken's recipe for saving the Street?
Go on and guess.
"They need characters like Reg again. A Holdsworth in the Rovers Return would get people tuning in.
"There is nothing he couldn't do - a character like that could save Corrie single-handedly by ranting about real issues in the Rovers."
Way back in May Jean Alexander/Hilda Ogden said:
"Every community has people who are gay and they are very nice people.
"I'm not running the Street down - and let's not forget its creator Tony Warren is gay - but three couples seems excessive."
But again, this was a quote
in a now defunct newspaper called the News Of The World, so I doubt she actually "said" it.
Fagburn has been away for the last week - which means I also missed;
'Coronation Street uproar among cast and fans as ratings slump' -
Daily Mirror.
Though apparently viewers are leaving "in droves", not because the plotlines are too racy, but because they're just too dreary.
Even so, producer Phil Collinson still had to defend the gay stuff.
Appearing
on ITV's This Morning he matter-of-factly said; “There is no gay agenda. We’re just telling stories about love. Audiences want that.”
The Mirror asked its readers and gave us
'Your verdict on why things are wrong on the street'.
In fine; the stories are boring/unbelievable and it's on so many nights a week now quality has clearly been sacrificed for quantity.
But what about all Teh Gays?!!
George Horncastle wrote; "I am gay, but there are too many gay characters in such a small street, and I believe it comes across more as a crusade."
How fascinating!
Collinson vowed to cut crime storylines - and admitted doing 250 shows a year may be stetching things, just a tad.
In a shameless piece of mountain out of molehill-making, the Mail -
who began this fantasy that "Corrie is too gay" - managed to spin this out into;
"Collinson, who is openly gay, also defended himself following accusations that there has been an influx of homosexual activity on the show.
"In April, it was reported that current and ex-members of the cast were concerned by the number of gay plotlines introduced.
"And earlier this month, poor ratings were blamed on the increase of same-sex couples.
"But Collinson, 40, told OK!: 'I haven't introduced any gay characters.'"
D'Oh!
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