I have liked having just single episodes of Corrie the last week to make way for the Harry Potter movies. I wish they would go back to single episodes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, its far more enjoyable that way.
The Christmas Day episode I didn't like much at all, it was far too miserable and depressing, it just felt like any other Monday episode with a big cliffhanger (literally) that could have been used at the end of the first episode if it had followed the usual Monday pattern. Some of the episodes since then have been decent IMO and im happy that Alison king has returned as Carla, she is definitely needed in the show at the moment!
Really didn't understand putting that story on Christmas Day considering Billy is a character they probably could have written out with Todd and nobody would have noticed.
They've rushed some of their bigger stories lately due to the 6 episode demand. Whatever you think of the Phelan story that is the one making headlines now. They should have kept Andy alive a bit longer and engineered the story so Eileen and co. had Christmas lunch at the house so on the one hand it could be Christmas cheer on the surface but with the jeopardy of Phelan being found out.
Back to the episode count and do think they'd be better structured as 3 x 1 hour eps, moving to 8pm.
They would never move Corrie from 7.30 it's been there since not long after it started?
They've moved it quite frequently as the schedules demanded it (9pm in BGT week, moved from Wed to Thu 8.30 for a few years due to football), and nowadays it probably airs more often at 8.30 or later than 7.30 anyway.
If they merged the episodes together it makes more sense to air at 8pm (and force EastEnders to 7.30pm) to give them the bigger lead in for the 9pm shows. You would also think there is more value to ITV in having that extra commercial break within Corrie than the ads after the first ep and before the second ep, consdiering more often than not Corrie seems to be timed to end as EE begins then begin as EE ends.
I notice it's always very subtle British product placement rather than what you'd get in America.
In the first shot the co-op bags with the logo are fully in shot, then after only a few seconds there is a cut to another shot, then when you go back to the first shot the bags are obscured and the logo can't be seen.
In America I assume you'd end up with the bags on screen for ages like the coke cups on American Idol.
Do Visa still advertise on Corrie? There was a very unnecessary closeup on the contactless card reader in Dev's shop when Michelle couldn't pay for groceries.
Watching through the 70s episodes on DVD it's suprising how often you see a microphone appear in shot! Though I imagine the overscan on TVs of the time would have cut many of those instances off.