Monday 27 June 2016

Should Corrie include big news stories in its episodes?


(This post was originally posted by Ruth Owen on the Coronation Street Blog in June 2016, reposted to this blog with permission.)


Unless I missed it, I don't think that Coronation Street has ever mentioned, in recent months, the EU referendum. Maybe, if we had seen more of Ken and he wasn't quite so worried about Tracy or wasn't  grieving for Deirdre, it may well have been him who would have tried to engage residents on the cobbles in a discussion as to why we should Leave or Remain in the EU.

In one of the talks I did this spring, a couple of people asked me why Corrie never mentioned political hot potatoes. One of them said that Corrie would be more realistic if it did. I would be very interested to know what viewers think. Is it a good idea to introduce serious political discussion or should we leave that to Newsnight and Andrew Marr?

Perhaps big news stories might be mentioned in passing, without a full blown discussion emerging, though, given that Corrie is filmed in advance, it may well prove too difficult. Any such comments though could still be mentioned, even after big news stories, which might well add to the suspension of disbelief. If all the country is talking about something, might it not be odd, if the residents of Weatherfield don't mention at all what is on everyone's minds?

Corrie never shies away from issues, including: teenage pregnancy, surrogacy, drugs, mental health,
prostitution, domestic abuse, illegal immigration, gambling, to name just some. The inclusion of issues such as these make Corrie relevant and up to date. Some of these issues will or do already affect our lives, and so to see issues played out in front of us can make us feel less isolated and more willing to talk about them.

Ruth Owen



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2 comments:

Imogen said...

I would love it if they could work in broader events on Corrie but I can see how filming so far ahead would make that difficult. The Brexit issue went on long enough though, that a passing reference could be made as to how it was dominating the news or something.

kib said...

I agree with Imogen in that filming so far ahead must impede issues like Brexit. I did like it when Norris volunteered for the Commonwealth games and I'd love to see that sort of thing. It seemes to me that Kevin and his pals used to cheer on their local footy team. Someone could knit something for the next Royal baby, or use some other tame issue to argue about.

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