Coronation Street

Agree a major cull is needed, especially of the periphery characters.


Just look at Home and Away for example - they produce a pretty good quality soap with a much smaller regular cast and a number of guest characters who come in for a major storyline then disapear when no longer required.

A cull indeed is needed. A cull in characters, and a cull in episodes.

There are too many cast members and too many episodes. Reduce both by around a third and you've fixed the problem.

Isn't age of the cast a factor though?

For example we could say, axe Betty, Emily, Jack, Vera, Rita, Ken, Norris because they go through phases of not doing much. But we wouldn't want that would we? Yet at the same time you can't expect them to big storylines all year round

Plus, there's the factory girls. Most of them don't do much but if they were all axed it'd look a bit strange if Lippy and Hayles were the only ones who spoke. The same applies in the garage and the cab office. I'd be unrealistic if Kevin was working alone in the garage etc

I'm sure we'll all grow to love Molly, she's Corrie through and through with their history of strong female characters.


Anyway, Jez I'm surprised you haven't mentioned Rita's performance in yesterday's episode

Ollie in Emmerdale was a much better character than Molly is. I too am not looking forward to tommorow's episode but im looking forward to Mondays as Emily finds out the truth about Ed, and has a scene with Reet and Deirdre on Wednesday to discuss it. Im glad about that as Deirdre and Emily used to be such close friends but hardly get scenes together these days.



I think they do need to cut down the cast, I remember I counted how many regulars there were not so long back and it was something like 62. I think when people say we should axe some of the cast they mean people who are generally pointless and add nothing to the programme like Nathan, Diggory etc - I liked Crabby for once this week when she gave money to that "friend" of hers but usually she is terrible as well.
I disagree about Molly, I dont think she will be remembered in years to come as a strong female character like so many other characters will.

They need to cut down on the amount of shops, it was better in the old days when the Kabin and Cafe were on Rosamund Street and we had just the corner shop, rovers and factory on the street itself. The garage was also elsewhere and we had Better buys supermarket so it gave the chance to have scenes away from the street. These days everything is on top of one another, and we hardly ever see inside the chippy, bakery or bookies, and dont see the corner shop or kabin as much as we used to.

With regard to Rita last night, yes I did enjoy those scenes, the final one in particular was brilliant, she didnt have a single line in that scene but did it so well.

I think this is what Steve Frost (who loooks different in every picture of him I see) is doing. He's getting rid of characters who have no real connection to the street, which is true with the likes of Nathan and Diggory.

So true - but there is little chance of them getting axed, even if they aren't up to the job.

And if they aren't up to the job - well in any other industry they'd be retired!


As for episodes - I don't think five a week is too much to ask, but the extra episodes should definately be axed.

I'd also axe episodes rather than reschedule them when they make way for sporting events (such as football, F1 etc.)

With the World Cup coming up, I agree with the idea of having a major cliffhanger, then taking the show off for a few weeks.
It'd create plenty of speculation as to how the cliffhanger would be resolved, and also give the cast a well earned break.

But, you're more likely to see Lord Lucan riding Shergar down Rosamund Street, than see ITV rest Corrie for a few weeks!

I don't think they should take it off the air, just not bother rescheduling episodes - if football clashes, then remove it from the evening.

That makes no sense. Surely if they "remove it from the evening" then they have to re-schedule it somehow.

I dont think ITV need to rest Corrie for a few weeks though. Its like going from one extreme to the other. Id much rather they just showed it 3 times a week, every week, and have the occasional 1 hour special when there is a big enough storyline to justify it, rather than take it of for weeks then have it 5 times a week when it came back.

250th page - I believe that's the tin foil anniversary...

Yes 250 pages in just over 2 years, and this thread is just as popular as ever.

Anyone watching the repeat of the Platts family album? A few Gail force scenes there with the nanny from hell storyline. Id have liked more clips from before 1990 though but at least we got Gail's first scene from 1974. I still think it was a mistake for "R Brian" to be killed off, he was so much better for Gail than Martin.