Well the trial starts on the 26th March with the verdict on the 2nd April so not long to go now. I assume Kate Ford will leave on or soon after the 2nd depending on the verdict of couse.
I agree its a shame that Paul Connor is leaving the show so soon - there was so much potential in his character.
I think The Connors were good (and still are in the case of Michelle and Liam) but now that we're working up to Paul's departure I think they've become very much like The Kings in Emmerdale with this 'secret' coming out. I really can't warm to this storyline although the scene where Liam told Carla what happened was quite good.
I think a fire at the peacocks would be a bit daft as well after compleatly rearaining the internal layout..quite why they didn't design it like it is now back in 1990 heaven knows.
we just had a fire in the cafe, is there an arsonist on the scriptwriting team at the moment.?
I think a fire there would be stupid too - they only just had the bomb thing. Brookside disease.
And we all know what happened to Brookside.
The show does seem a lot gritty recently with murders, fires and upcoming storylines with drugs and prostitution.
Yet again the fault of people reading too many spoilers
The bomb and the cafe fire were thought to be major storylines, instead they were small plots lasting 1 or 2 episodes
Also note the fact that the comedy storylines don't get the spolier treatment, so whereas it may sound that the soap is going to be too gritty, I'm sure it'll be mixed with some banter with Rita and Norris etc
Well while we're on the subject I might as well post these ideas I made a while back.
- Order a new title sequence, with updated shots of the street. They take a slightly more dramatic angle but the music remains utterly unchanged. Ensure closing credits are included – tell ITV to put up or shut up about them; Corrie’s their best asset it can be excluded from a senseless generic identity.
- Order a total clearout of the cast, to phase out over 12 months. Those on the axe list are the entire Peacock family (Ashley, Claire, Josh and Freddie) – they move away for a fresh start; the Battersbys (Cilla, Les, Chesney) – Les dies suddenly in an accident and Cilla decides to move away with Chesney to give her son the life he deserves. Yana also leaves; Dev Alahan – is bled dry by a woman who claims she loves him, and is left with nothing. At the lowest of the low, he is saved by another woman and is offered a job in America, which he jumps at. Amber goes back to live with her Mum; a fire in the Rovers kills the following characters – Vernon, Lloyd, Adam, Kelly, Sean and Paul Connor. The fire is a massive storyline that leaves the residents reeling. Obviously the Rovers fire will call for a revamp, but it wouldn’t be modernised as such, just redecorated to seem fresher. That’s a total of 12 characters gone. None are drafted in to replace them.
- Clear out the deadwood writers (I mean people like Peter Whalley, Chris Fewtrell, Julie Jones etc who are bland at best) and search for new talent. Brief scriptwriters and ask for more character-led episodes and faster-paced storylines with more twists. As a general rule of thumb, storylines should last no more than 6 months before reaching a conclusion or a massive turning point. Dabble with joint-written episodes by two writers and see what the quality is like.
- Insist directors are more creative with episodes with better camera work to help with the atmosphere of the episode. For example in the Mad Maya episodes after a dramatic sequence a scene began in pitch black with Liz McDonald lighting the air with her lighter, a good link. More location shots are ordered – such as the scenes on the Moors etc. Also insist on not shying away from techniques such as the Queen song over the end of the Christmas episode, but not to an excessive level (i.e. rarely, but not NEVER like now). Better build-ups to scenes and transitions are also required (by transitions I mean not just cutting from dialogue straight to more dialogue, maybe dialogue to scene of busy pub to dialogue). Creativity and diversity is encouraged – more ‘special’ episodes and two-handers/four-handers. Improve the ending of episodes - every storyline being played out should come to some sort of ‘ending’ however small in the final scenes. Consider changing which part of the theme tune comes in over the end, at the moment it fades in at a very dull moment when there are other parts in the piece that would be better.
- The scripting teams are ordered to ensure every character has something – however small – going on in their life at one time. Characters who have been in the dark for a long time and criminally underused – Violet and Eileen for two – are given bigger storylines. Care is taken not to overdo characters and to maintain balance (i.e. not one storyline dominating the show for months a la Tracy / Charlie). Character development is key to the storylines and we learn about each one in each storyline every episode. Several storylines simmer in the background for a while before getting their 'one week of fame' or whatever where they take centre stage. This should be done using overlapping so it doesn't seem like "well, that storyline's over, now let's focus on a brand new out of the blue one."
Well I can't see Adam lasting much longer. In fact I read that he leaves with Peter.
I think the cast seriously needs to be scaled down though.
Ive thought that for ages. Whilst the Connor family were a welcome addition to the cast I dont know why they are introducing yet another family.
Because someone needs to live in number 6?
It's also not very often that a full family starts in a soap, rather than family members drifting in over time. The Connors don't live on the street and aren't exactly a family as in parents and 2.4 children so don't count
Well I can't see Adam lasting much longer. In fact I read that he leaves with Peter.
I think the cast seriously needs to be scaled down though.
Ive thought that for ages. Whilst the Connor family were a welcome addition to the cast I dont know why they are introducing yet another family.
Because someone needs to live in number 6?
It's also not very often that a full family starts in a soap, rather than family members drifting in over time. The Connors don't live on the street and aren't exactly a family as in parents and 2.4 children so don't count
They're still characters adding to an already overflowing cast.
Well I can't see Adam lasting much longer. In fact I read that he leaves with Peter.
I think the cast seriously needs to be scaled down though.
Ive thought that for ages. Whilst the Connor family were a welcome addition to the cast I dont know why they are introducing yet another family.
Because someone needs to live in number 6?
It's also not very often that a full family starts in a soap, rather than family members drifting in over time. The Connors don't live on the street and aren't exactly a family as in parents and 2.4 children so don't count
One of the reasons I like the Connors is because they arent the same as other soap families with 2 parents and kids. Siblings can be just as close a family as parents/children can. So I think they do count.
Well while we're on the subject I might as well post these ideas I made a while back.
- Order a new title sequence, with updated shots of the street. They take a slightly more dramatic angle but the music remains utterly unchanged. Ensure closing credits are included – tell ITV to put up or shut up about them; Corrie’s their best asset it can be excluded from a senseless generic identity.
- Order a total clearout of the cast, to phase out over 12 months. Those on the axe list are the entire Peacock family (Ashley, Claire, Josh and Freddie) – they move away for a fresh start; the Battersbys (Cilla, Les, Chesney) – Les dies suddenly in an accident and Cilla decides to move away with Chesney to give her son the life he deserves. Yana also leaves; Dev Alahan – is bled dry by a woman who claims she loves him, and is left with nothing. At the lowest of the low, he is saved by another woman and is offered a job in America, which he jumps at. Amber goes back to live with her Mum; a fire in the Rovers kills the following characters – Vernon, Lloyd, Adam, Kelly, Sean and Paul Connor. The fire is a massive storyline that leaves the residents reeling. Obviously the Rovers fire will call for a revamp, but it wouldn’t be modernised as such, just redecorated to seem fresher. That’s a total of 12 characters gone. None are drafted in to replace them.
- Clear out the deadwood writers (I mean people like Peter Whalley, Chris Fewtrell, Julie Jones etc who are bland at best) and search for new talent. Brief scriptwriters and ask for more character-led episodes and faster-paced storylines with more twists. As a general rule of thumb, storylines should last no more than 6 months before reaching a conclusion or a massive turning point. Dabble with joint-written episodes by two writers and see what the quality is like.
- Insist directors are more creative with episodes with better camera work to help with the atmosphere of the episode. For example in the Mad Maya episodes after a dramatic sequence a scene began in pitch black with Liz McDonald lighting the air with her lighter, a good link. More location shots are ordered – such as the scenes on the Moors etc. Also insist on not shying away from techniques such as the Queen song over the end of the Christmas episode, but not to an excessive level (i.e. rarely, but not NEVER like now). Better build-ups to scenes and transitions are also required (by transitions I mean not just cutting from dialogue straight to more dialogue, maybe dialogue to scene of busy pub to dialogue). Creativity and diversity is encouraged – more ‘special’ episodes and two-handers/four-handers. Improve the ending of episodes - every storyline being played out should come to some sort of ‘ending’ however small in the final scenes. Consider changing which part of the theme tune comes in over the end, at the moment it fades in at a very dull moment when there are other parts in the piece that would be better.
- The scripting teams are ordered to ensure every character has something – however small – going on in their life at one time. Characters who have been in the dark for a long time and criminally underused – Violet and Eileen for two – are given bigger storylines. Care is taken not to overdo characters and to maintain balance (i.e. not one storyline dominating the show for months a la Tracy / Charlie). Character development is key to the storylines and we learn about each one in each storyline every episode. Several storylines simmer in the background for a while before getting their 'one week of fame' or whatever where they take centre stage. This should be done using overlapping so it doesn't seem like "well, that storyline's over, now let's focus on a brand new out of the blue one."
And that's quite enough of my rambling.
Keep up Pad! ... Cilla is leaving before the end of the year. I suspect that her cancer will return, and nobody will believe she is going to die (since she 'lied' last time). Paul Connor has said he is leaving before too long also-- killed off it is rumoured.
Is it such a bad thing having "too many" characters? After all the viewing public is not paying for them (as they would with the BBC!).
Yes, some characters are superfluous-- Adam Barlow being a prime example. I think characters should be eliminated on their usefulness and/or popularity-- quality rather than quantity.
I would argue that you can't get rid of too many characters; after all you need people to live in all the house on the Street, people to work in and run the factory, people to run/work in/drink in the Rovers, people to work in or visit the garage, cafe and the hair salon etc.
Remember that even soap actors need their holidays, or have to take sick leave or maternity leave-- somebody has to able to cover them!
What I would like to see a fairer distribution of storylines amongst the characters. The Barlows, the Connors, Sean, Steve, Liz and Vernon seemed to have been dominating too much of late.
I think the reason people feel there are too many characters, is that other characters dominate so much, it makes the other decent characters seem superfluous. It's about time the Duckworths got another decent storyline for instance-- Violet is criminally underused too. Molly and Tyrone are good comedy characters, why not use them more?
I feel characters like that are being sidelined, which is putting people off them, becuase they are seen as non-entities! They are enough epis of Coro for them to spread the load between all the main characters after all
Is it such a bad thing having "too many" characters? After all the viewing public is not paying for them (as they would with the BBC!).
I don't understand that point. It's OK because we're not paying for them?
My problem is that with such a large cast is that we hardly know any of them. I can safely say that I know very little about so many of those characters. For example, we've learnt absolutely nothing about Violet, her family or her past except she had a bit of boyfriend trouble once. I'm sure that wouldn't be the case if there was a smaller cast and we could focus on certain characters more.
Roger Mellie posted:
Yes, some characters are superfluous-- Adam Barlow being a prime example. I think characters should be eliminated on their usefulness and/or popularity-- quality rather than quantity.
Absolutely.
Roger Mellie posted:
Yes, some characters are superfluous-- Adam Barlow being a prime example. I think characters should be eliminated on their usefulness and/or popularity-- quality rather than quantity.
Absolutely.
Roger Mellie posted:
I would argue that you can't get rid of too many characters; after all you need people to live in all the house on the Street, people to work in and run the factory, people to run/work in/drink in the Rovers, people to work in or visit the garage, cafe and the hair salon etc.
Yes, but can't the people who live on the street also be the people who work in the factory and the pub, use the garage, the cafe, the hair salon etc. We seem to have quite a few characters who don't live on the street at all.
Roger Mellie posted:
Remember that even soap actors need their holidays, or have to take sick leave or maternity leave-- somebody has to able to cover them!
Yes, but once the Morton's join, Corrie will have over 60 regular characters. EastEnders - which I think has more screentime (or at least a similar amount of screentime) than Corrie due to the adverts taking time off individual Corrie episodes - has just over 40 regular characters. Corrie can afford to lose characters. It's not as if the actors are all going to go on holiday at the same time.
Roger Mellie posted:
What I would like to see a fairer distribution of storylines amongst the characters. The Barlows, the Connors, Sean, Steve, Liz and Vernon seemed to have been dominating too much of late.
Yes, I'd agree with that as well.
Roger Mellie posted:
I think the reason people feel there are too many characters, is that other characters dominate so much, it makes the other decent characters seem superfluous. It's about time the Duckworths got another decent storyline for instance-- Violet is criminally underused too. Molly and Tyrone are good comedy characters, why not use them more?
The main reason why people feel there are too many characters is because there are too many characters - and many of them add very little to the show. However I do agree that there seem to be certain characters who are dominating the show lately. If it's not The Barlow's then it's Sean. If not him then it's The Connors and The McDonald's.
