Tuesday 19 May 2015

Coronation Street producer Stuart Blackburn dismisses Corrie crisis

(This post was originally posted by Flaming Nora on the Coronation Street Blog May 2015, reposted to this blog with permission.)

There are some strong, positive comments from Coronation Street producer Stuart Blackburn over at Digital Spy today.

Stuart dismisses reports of problems at the show, insisting that Corrie is 'doing fine'.

Corrie son Best Soap and Continuing Drama at the House of Fraser BAFTA Television Awards last night (May 10), taking the title for the second year running. However, the victory followed negative comments in the press surrounding the programme's ratings and upcoming cast exits.

Speaking at the BAFTA press conference, Blackburn commented: "The stories about Corrie not doing very well have to be put into perspective. Apart from, I think it was two weeks in December and the Live Week, we've been about a million ahead of EastEnders every week, every month, for the last two years - we're doing fine.

"The thing is, all viewing figures are down. I don't watch television now - not live, I just go home and Sky+ it or whatever - so that's why the figures are down, but we've probably got the same amount of viewers as before.

"So we always knew we were doing well - but I don't feel any pleasure in beating EastEnders, because I know how hard they work and there's some good people there. I'm just delighted we've won it twice on the trot."

Asked about the celebrity signings, Blackburn added: "Obviously getting names in is great, but Coronation Street has a long history of doing that - Peter Kay was in the show and that worked out. Paddy's (McGuiness) in for about five eps and… look at his CV - it's fantastic, and if anyone's seen [2009 BBC TV movie] Freefall, Sarah Harding did a really good job.

"But this [BAFTA win] is about the cast we've got now - the full-time cast - and these guys could grace any genre and any drama, and it's proven when some of them leave the show - people like Sarah Lancashire, these are good people."



Follow the Bluenose CorrieBlog on Twitter and Facebook

No comments:

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...