This was a chance for Blackburn to save his reputation and he failed.

A huge challenge that nobody wanted him to fail at.

To me the decline started when they added the third episode. Sure it was great at the time (in the midst of the Alan Bradley storyline) and we've had decent characters (Raquel, Des, Fred, Ashley, Maxine) and storylines, but it meant a bigger cast was needed. And wacky plots became order of the day. It meant shorter, snappier scenes. Before you could have a candid scene between Rita and Mavis lasting nine minutes, now that's not possible.

They added a fifth episode around the time of 2002, which was great because of the Hillman climax. But again the shortcomings were laid bare once he left.

Corrie still has the odd moment of brilliance. But it lacks consistency. ITV scaling back on episodes would be a start.


That was an awful storyline TBF.

If the same writing team remains, how much difference would replacing Blackburn even make?

Even EE isn't showing any real creativity under dtc. I guess it's very hard when soaps have been around so long and almost every s/l has already been done.

Stop watching, negative people, you'll destroy yourselves

I couldn't agree more!
A respectful, short clap could have worked nicely but that prolonged clapping was just awkward and inappropriate

I haven't really watched Corrie in a long while, but I adored Deirdre and tuned in for the funeral.

I know people have been saying on here that the show has gone downhill, but I was actually almost shocked at how bad it was. I can't even totally put my finger on it, but the tone was all wrong. Awful writing. People talking over the coffin being brought in? Really? Tracy (who was doing her best with it) and Ken rowing publicly instead of being cut up by grief? Inter-cutting with that terrible stuff with 2 horrible young teen girls? It all just seemed cack-handed, unsubtle and awkward. I felt embarrassed and switched off.

It's sad that Corrie, the flagship original soap, is turning out stuff that badly written and edited.

Great post, although how sad it is that people are complaining like this about Coronation Street when once upon a long time ago, it was just really riveting, and great televisión, and it was unthinkable to even miss one episode, and now look what it has become.....

I stopped watching when the muslim family arrived ( i gave them a chance, but eventually no more....) and I wanted to watch the death episode last week, knowing for sure it would be a really good episode, and it wasn't, it was just pure crap!

I think one of the big problems is their casting. The young actresses that they take on now, all look like Identikit acting by numbers type of young girls. All with the same look, the same hair, all white teeth etc, and absolutely nothing about them that would set them apart as a great actress and someone to remember.

We need this generations, Elsie Tanner, Annie Walker, Bet Lynch (in her younger years....) Rita (when she could act..) Ena Sharples, Hilda Ogden, Jack and Vera......

Obviously noone could créate these characters again and in some ways, these characters could and would never work as a lot of them do belong to another time, but at least have actors of this calibre!

I hope one day I'll go back to watching Corrie, though I doubt it, and unfortunately EE looks to be going the same way as well.

I've watched Corrie all my life and lately I've wondered why I'm bothering, it's very very poor right now and I'm watching more out of habit than anything else.

They had a chance to redeem themselves a bit with Deirdre's funeral but they had to shoehorn the scenes in around it with Bethany and Callum and his pretend gangster mates who are shockingly bad.

So many dreadful characters remain.. Fiz, Kirk, Dev, Michael, Callum, Bethany, Tyrone.. the list goes on. I seriously hope action is taken to revamp it soon, it needs new writers at the very least.

I was disappointed they backed out of having any comedy characters in there, especially as they are so versatile they don't need to be cracking one liners. Norris and Mary really wouldn't have missed it.

Plus I felt there wasn't enough cast in the episodes. Would Fiz and Tyrone really give it a miss having known Deirdre for so long? Anna, Izzy, Gary? How about Nick, even Michelle and Sean were nowhere to be seen. I was hoping for something big, but it felt small, like Deirdre only mattered to a few people.

You sure about that?

Why bother having these characters? When was the last time a time of them had anything to do with Deirdre.

Interesting you brought up Michelle, Sean, Fiz and Tyrone. If they were brought to the funeral everyone here would be having a field day and complaining about them being there.

Plus let's not forget Saint Deirdre testified against Tyrone thinking he was a woman beater and stuck up for Kirsty. We didn't even see her apologise when Kirsty was revealed as the true abuser.

Up almost a million on last Monday.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/soaps/s3...s-funeral.html

I disagree, this was not only saying goodbye to a character but to the actress herself. I really expected a bigger turn out of the cast . The extras at the back filling up the seats was an insult to her. Even if the cast didn't all do the church scenes they should all have been on the street as the cortege left.

And the worse thing is, thats probably Corrie at it's 'best'

Even if Bethany still has her Salford accent, after 7 years you would think that she would have picked up some words or slang in Italian. Growing up in Italy or any other country for that matter people and especially kids will pick up street slang, rude words etc, it stands to reason, she wasn't living in a vacuum even if she did go to the English school in Milan. The only thing she has mentioned about Italy is having had enough of spaghetti! How bl**dy ridiculous is that. When she was speaking to her friend in Italy she didn't use any teen speak or Italian words. Unbelievable.

Corrie has come a long way off from being a soft feminist soap with tiresome dramas with a bunch of oldies or families talking a load of crap.

I am glad Corrie has become darker like eastenders (but without the depression) and hollyoaks instead and as for Bethany having a salford accent, its already been explained by numerous people that she was born and brought in salford and had later lived with her mum (who also has a heavy manc accent) in italy.

Not everyone loses there accent.

For a character who was there over 40 years it's still a poor rating the share for the 1st episode should've been 40%, the share dropped for the 2nd episode of Deirdre's funeral.

I don't think the complaints are about Corrie being darker than it was many year ago. Even nearly 20 years ago in the 90s, the show had s/l's about drugs, prostitution and rape, but it was much better written, directed, believable and character driven than the tripe now.

I agree, cas1977, the casting department is at fault, if in fact Corrie even has a casting department. Is it laziness that they just hire girls because they are pretty, have white teeth, are related to a cast member, or are a has-been celebrity? . Life is made up of all shapes and sizes, and whoever does the hiring should concentrate on acting ability, which has not been the case for some time.

I wish I could disagree with what you say, but I can't. Everything you say is spot-on. I would rather they had ended it altogether than to see the farce it's become. It's really very sad.

Re: Bethany, perhaps she wouldn't have an Italian accent but her Salford one wouldn't be as strong as it is. People go on about her being 7 when she left but babies don't speak at all and toddlers can only say a few words. She had only been speaking properly for 4 or 5 years. It's entirely possible for her to have lost her Salford accent living in another country. I think the bigger issue is that this is a woman playing a child.


People don't know how good or bad an episode is going to be before they've watched...

I would've liked Peter to have been at the funeral since Deirdre didn't belong to a big family. When the news broke about him returning, it did say that he would be attending.

Corrie have done this odd thing before at funerals with random extras in the background.

In real life the actors playing those I mentioned would have already said goodbye to their colleague, it wasn't really necessary to have the characters attending.

As I said, if Sean or Michelle were there, we would have complaints about Anthony Cotton or Kym Marsh trying to get attention and have no right to be there for a long-running character.

New EP, new writers and some axings need to happen.

Reading through the posts/comments here I think you all raise some great points about the decline of a ITV flagship program

Here's what I think most would agree with
1) After last nights episode it cant get any worse??
2) New producer/director
3) New casting team
4) reduce no of episodes or have two 1 hour episodes
5) hire a script writer with a good pedigree (examples could be Kay Mellor or the team that wrote Ordinary Lives on BBC1
6) Hire some quality actors -There are 100's of brilliant northern based actors -hire them instead of x celebs/pop stars
7) In recent weeks/months one of the stand out dramas for me was Ordinary Lives on BBC1
Watch it & see how its done properly!!

One final point re Bethany Platt-see moved to Italy aged 7 -from experience kids of that age adapt much quickly to local dialect /environment than adults

So the line about she would have a northern accent still is codswallop
Plus she looks older than her mother

Whats everyone else think??