It's Coronation Street - German style

(This post was originally posted by Flaming Nora on the Coronation Street Blog April 2013, reposted to this blog with permission.)

Did you know that 30 years ago, the format of Coronation Street was shipped overseas to Germany where they started running their own version of it called Lindenstrasse? 

No, neither did I.

However, because it's now Lindenstrasse's 30th anniversary, they're quite rightfully blowing their own German soap trumpet.

And there's a good article on the BBC website from John Jungclaussen, who is the London correspondent for Die Zeit magazine.  John travelled to meet the cast of Germany's Corrie clone to find out how the German soap compares to Corrie.

Lindenstrasse, which literally means Lime Street, was created by the eccentric Hans Geissendorfer - a renowned director and the man behind some of Germany's most successful feature films. He became hooked on Coronation Street while visiting his British girlfriend in London and returned to Germany in the belief that audiences were missing something big.

Inside Soap magazine editor Stephen Murphy was particularly taken with the throwback to the old kitchen sink drama - the realism - of Coronation Street in years gone by.

Listen to the documentary about this soap in a programme called Coronation Strasse on BBC Radio 4 at 10:30 BST on Saturday 20 April and afterwards on the BBC iPlayer.

And from blogger Graeme N after the broadcast:

I caught some of BBC Radio 4's documentary Coronation Strasse today (still available on BBC I-Player) which recounts the success of the German soap Lindenstrasse. The series was inspired by Corrie and has been on-air since 1985. Interestingly, Lindenstrasse credits its success to the telling of straightforward human interest stories, rather to the 'nuts and sluts' approach favoured by many of their contemporaries. Certainly the Lindenstrasse approach seemed to find favour with the assembled UK soap gurus.

Whether or not Corrie would benefit from a 'back-to-basics' approach is debatable. These days, the basic art of story-telling seems to lose out in UK soaps. With up to five episodes to fill, there seems to be a constant need for visual stimulation. Writers and producers are therefore constrained by the requirement of blockbuster storylines. It is the kind of thing that Channel 4 drama Brookside was ridiculed for a decade ago. For them, a never-ending diet of sieges, murders and a helicopter crashing into the shops every other week finally did for the twenty one year old soap. The somewhat earthy drama of 1982 left the screen as a faintly ridiculous, hollowed-out shell of its former self in 2003.

BBC Radio 4's The Archers, of course, has to rely on the power of the spoken word only. For them, an exploding village pub or the prospect of a herd of angry cows ploughing through Lynda Snell's back garden is not an option. Without the visual outlet though, the emphasis is firmly on the characters and their traits. All of them are damaged or weakened in some way or another and more often than not, the listener is prodded into recalling those foibles.

As a Corrie viewer, I do enjoy the odd set piece. However, the regular occurrences of murder, fire and infidelity are wearing a little thin. There are only so many times that t'faktry can be torched, that Tracy can be a scheming bitch or that Eileen, glowering through yet another relationship breakdown, can be of any interest. Maybe we could find out a little of Mary's back-story or discover what happened during Dennis Tanner's missing years. We need a break from pyrotechnics and marriage merry-go-rounds.

Lindenstrasse gives a nod to Corrie for its own success. Is it time that Corrie went full circle and re-discovered its own roots?

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