You're pretty much spot on there - though not sure Chesney should still be round in 10 years to get a degree. And I thought Kirk was supposed to be leaving ages ago?
It all stems down to the problem though of too many characters. Yes, you need some there in smaller roles just to add to the familiarity of it, but I think another problem is they need to expand from the sets of basically just the pub, factory and occasionally cafe and Kabin for scenes outside of the home.
And by too many characters I'm not accepting that's a result of too many episodes. The Aussie soaps have got by with smaller casts for years with five episodes a week, and Hollyoaks and even Emmerdale seem to cope much better with it too.
I think alot of the problems with the "work" scenes is that with the exception of the factory, they're largely split along the same lines as the out of work scenes too.
i.e. Obviously those that live in the Rovers work in the Rovers, but also you've got the same deal with the Bookies, the Mortons, the hairdressers and to a certain extent the Butchers. Even at the garage you only really see scenes there with Sally involved, rather than just "the lads".
Trouble is with the soaps, especially the big three, is their default set is always the local pub - and that's always used as the centre of each show. That's why I'd like to see the Rovers get a refit so they could close it for a couple of weeks and have to base scenes elsewhere.
They need to reduce the number of episodes to 3 a week and get rid of half the cast. About 60 characters is far too many. And by reducing the episodes they wouldnt have so much padding and pointless scenes like the father and son last night.
The aussie soaps are diffferent entirely. There actors seem to be contracted to do so many episodes a week (it seems to range from 2-4 episodes per week) so in some episodes you might get say 8 characters, then the next episodes a completely different set of characters. No-one is underused like in Corrie and Emmerdale. Id argue that Emmerdale also has too big a cast and could also do with losing at least 1 episode per week.
They did that before and closed the Rovers for a revamp after the fire, they introduced a new club/pub where the health centre is now though.
Interesting points, I agree as well. There did seem to be a lot of filler in last nights episodes - those bookies seems pointless as does Sinbad who was also involved in another pointless scene with David in the street.. wha?
Also there seemed to be a dodgy cut last night with Rita in the hairdressers suddenly adding she'd seen Vera's announcement in the paper.
(Excuse the 'dodgy cut' 'hairdressers' pun! )
There's such a contrast with Corrie at the moment - you get some great scenes and some really pointless filler ones.
I've said this before but I think the problem with the double episodes is the first one is generally full of filler crap to lead up to the cliffhanger at 8pm, and then the nights storyline doesn't play out until the second episode at 8.30pm.
In that regard it might be better to air them as one-hour episodes - at least then generally it's just the first part (of just 5-10 minutes) setting up the episode, and then the storyline playing out over the rest of the hour.
The size of the cast though is the main problem - even with five episodes a week it doesn't warrant a cast of 50-60, especially when half of them are little more than extras.
What the show needs is somebody brave enough to come along and arrange a cull - it might not be popular, but it's probably what is best for the show in the long run.
P.S. What happened to Jim McDonald - is he still hanging around or has he gone back out of it?
I don't feel that the cast is too big. It only seems big if you count the numbers. Various characters are only there to add a funny line or two in the background, or are really old compared to other soaps, and axing them just to reduce the number on paper wouldn't improve the programme at all
For example you need a decent number of people to work in the factory, even if they all aren't going to have a storyline each. It could be argued we need an extra person to work at the garage and a new person to work at the salon to improve these settings. More than just Roy and Becky in the cafe would add more scenes in the Cafe too, and also more cab drivers?
You also need the houses to have proper family units and stop having houses with residual family members hanging about like Jamie or Kirk etc
depends what you call a family unit, most of the house are shaired by relatives
we have 2 family units in the Pub, Vernon, Liz, Steve, Amy / Michelle and Ryan
The Barlows are the 3rd family unit
Emily and Noris
Chesney and Kirk
Maria and Liam + baby would be a fourth family (if it happens)
Jack & Paul 5th (+ Tyrone and Molly)
Eileen & Jason 6th (+ Lauren)
The Websters 7th
Dev and Amber 8th
The Peacocks 9th
The Morons 10th
The Platts 11th
Rita lives alone
Jason and Violet plus baby would make 12th family unit, rather fitting as they live at number 12.
The two Bookies really can't act can they? Their scenes tonight were so cringeworthy... partly down to bad writing in fairness to them.
Yeah, I see what you're saying. The sad thing is, Matthew Compton was good in
The Bill
as PC Sam Harker and Jack Ellis was spellbinding as Fenner in
Bad Girls
(IMO).
To me they just seem to be mismatched and out-of-place on the Street, especially Jack Ellis. I don't mind Matthew Compton so much, his character has potential-- I've enjoyed his sparring with Blanche.
But can somebody please explain the point of Lauren though?
I think part of the problem is they concentrate on certain characters at the expense of others. Look at the Platt Family - they have been at the centre of the storylines since early 2000 with Sarah getting pregnant at 13, then we had Gail and Martin splitting up, Sarah almost killed in a car crash, Richard Hillman, Sarah/Todd, Sarah/Jason, and for the last 2 years David. The family still havent been rested even though Sarah has now gone.
The Vera Duckworth special tribute is next Sunday at 5.45pm on ITV1
I found the scenes involving the Bookies totally ruined the programme on Friday. After a moment or two of their badly written and badly acted second scene they were added to Dev on the list of "characters to fast-forward through". I probably ended up with about 20 minutes worth of watchable Corrie on Friday.
They were clearly there as padding for a double episode. I'd rather have a single episode on Friday if they're going to fill most of it with this sort of rubbish.
They were clearly there as padding for a double episode. I'd rather have a single episode on Friday if they're going to fill most of it with this sort of rubbish.
I totally agree. The amount of padding in those episodes proves the Friday and Monday doubles are really not needed. One episode is enough.
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