Coronation Street Dire

Will someone please push the cancel button on this snore fest of a once great ITV soap opera.

Coronation Viewing Figures Plummet

End of Coronation Street

The producers of the ITV soap, Coronation Street haven't yet pulled the plug but they must. It has become a joke. What went wrong?

The soap opera used to be an accurate reflection of everyday life in the North of England. Set in the Manchester area, viewers worldwide became wrapped up in the goings on. At times, the storylines even made their way into the British parliament, hard to believe but it did happen.

But now, Coronation Street has become a complete joke. As a result, people have turned off in droves. Here's a rundown on the viewer figures:

2003 peak 19 million, lowest 8 million

2013 peak 10 million, lowest 6 million

2023 peak 5.4 million, lowest 3.5 million

Over twenty years, Coronation Street has lost millions of regular viewers. It has fallen by 70% over its peaks, and 55% over its lowest viewing figures. And it doesn't end there as the drop is consistent, year-on-year, viewer numbers always decline. At this rate, in a couple of years only two old people and their mangy dog will be watching. 

What went wrong? 

Coronation Street no longer reflects life in general. It is like watching a bunch of aliens from another planet pretending to portray Earthlings. They're lampooning us.

The really insulting part of this is that they think we can't tell. And the scriptwriters are either ignorant or knowingly trying to deceive. Here's a list of the kinds of plot points that people see right through: 

• Heterosexual couples are always unhappy; they're cheating, lying, stealing
• Gay couples are blissfully happy and never behave the way the above couples do, and the "r" word assaults never happen within or amongst the gay community
• The real baddies are white supremacists, far right loons, there are never left wing loons and dare I say it, various faiths prepared to terrorise
• Women fall down and need rescuing by a damaged male who isn't quite as useless as the female
• Everyone loses their money, all the time
• Crime, especially murder occur all the time and everyone knows a serial killer - amazing
• People who commit crime always cough, they hop on down to the police station and confess, then come home and say the police let them off with a warning
• What is the disease of the week?

I could go on, but I'm sure you see the point. Coronation Street offends on every level, it is misogynistic, racist, woke, politically correct, agenda driven and pathetic, all wrapped up in a bundle. Oh, and they think the pandemic was real, and no-one dies suddenly as a result of the latest booster being shot in their arm.

The soap could retain viewers if it became more of a period drama, set today, but still holding out life the way it used to be. People may find that funny or engaging. But, right now they know the Street doesn't reflect their lives. No-one gives up a chance to go to Oxford or University College London. People who make money get the hell out of it, buy elsewhere. And if they do make money and invest locally, they stay rich.

I give it two years, the show must be cancelled.

Coronation Street Improves

Recently, I've been critical of TV soap Coronation Street. The storylines have been very poor and the characters lacked consistency. However, recently things have improved markedly and I note any episode written by Nessah Muthy is really good. I checked who she was and found that she's won awards for her work and is a recent addition to the team in 2021. Well done Ms Muthy, you're a real talent. 

Coronation Street - More Issues

Following on from my complaints about the television soap opera, Coronation Street is getting worse. Now they're killing everyone off, especially children as they seem to have found themselves with too many of them. 

And one of the best characters, the criminal Gary Windass has suddenly lost all sense. He's already told someone about his killing of Rick the loan shark. This is now being touted in media as a murder when in fact it wasn't, Gary killed Rick to prevent Rick from murdering him. Gary at the time was in a fight for his life in the woods where Rick had already dug Gary's grave (phew, convoluted I know).

Now Gary is going to go down for the assault on Adam Barlow when it was his sister who did that. Gary was found with the assault weapon on him in the middle of the day after he retrieved it from his sister's bedroom. He was setting out to get rid of the weapon to protect his sister as it was the only thing that connected her to the crime. Hang on though, Gary Windass wouldn't be so stupid, he'd have left the item under her bed until he had a sure way of getting rid of it. It wasn't going anywhere quickly and his sister wasn't even a suspect at that time. 

This is one of my main complaints about the soap, characters all of a sudden depart from type and do strange or silly things, and then they likely later confess to all and sundry. Not only that, a handy witness is invariably on hand or an off duty cop lurks around every corner.

Do the screenwriters think these stories through? They're getting as weak as NZ's Shortland Street. 

Coronation Street - Issues

I have been following the UK television soap opera, Coronation Street almost from the beginning. It is entertaining but I haven't followed literally every episode, sometimes missing entire years. But I do know the characters and ongoing plots.

These days however, Coronation Street is losing it for me. There are three main issues as I see it. The first is with recycled story lines. They seem to have run out of ideas. An example currently is the Kevin Webster, Abi and evil Ray Crosby story; simply a repeat of the Pat Whelan, Anna Windass story line.

I'm fine with the types that must be in every season. There's the pub owner, usually a woman, the builder bloke, the successful businessperson, the corner shop owner, the community centre person running things and the resident criminal. Of course, the Barlow family must be there too, and there are now places for other businesses and the people around them.

But to stay on the street, all those people have to find reason to stay and this is my second issue. No matter what, everyone gets dragged down, losing money, going to jail, becoming a loser in general. In reality if this was a street that really existed, every time something happened the TV news and every newspaper would announce Britain's worst street is at it again. They'd all be famous or notorious and all be unemployable simply for living in the vicinity. The council would demolish the whole area and put up big box retail outlets.

Which leads me to my final point, flowing on from everyone must be a loser; all strong women must be crushed and become slobbering messes. No doubt a strong man will come to their rescue. Examples of this you demand; OK, Carla once a successful businesswoman, became mentally deranged but was rescued by the alcoholic Peter Barlow. Sally became mayor but went to jail, she ended up being rescued by the illiterate former window cleaner. Yasmeen owns an eaterie but she can't see the abusive nature of Geoff, her new partner as she's dragged into the mire. Who will rescue her, another reformed but very capable man? Hmm? The list is endless with this stuff.

How about stop doing this as Coronation Street has to be shedding viewers. How about someone can be successful and remain so, avert tragedy, suffer a few setbacks but manage their exit adroitly. Where are these people now, they used to be on the street. And what is it with everyone confessing? Everyone confessing their wrong-doing and going to jail. How about stop doing that too, otherwise call the police station Confessions R Us.