Blogger Rachel's take on Stella Price

(This post was originally posted by Rachel on the Coronation Street Blog in June 2011.)

I thought I’d wade in with all this controversy over Stella Price’s/Michelle Collins’ accent. Personally, I don’t think it’s that bad. Yes it could do with a bit of work but at least she’s made the effort to change her voice. Her character shows a lot of promise and seems to be one of the feisty females Corrie is so good at.

Personally, I think part of the problem is the high expectations on Michelle Collins. She’s such a well known actress that people already have opinions and impressions of her. If they haven’t liked her in other programmes, chances are they won’t like her in Coronation Street. I’m not saying that’s everyone’s opinion but if you already don’t rate her as an actress, chances are her appearing on Corrie won’t change your mind. Michelle is a great actress in my opinion, but she does have a lot of pressure on herself at the moment.

Also, as one of the commentators on Jane’s post pointed out, Stella has been the centre of attention and hasn’t had much time to settle in. Whereas her boyfriend and daughter are away from the limelight they’re having more time to be introduced. If the writers were to ease Stella in slower, I think we’d warm to her more.

A perfect example is Becky (Katherine Kelly) I think I’m right in thinking she wasn’t meant to be in the show permanently. Although she did have some hectic scenes early on, she was eased in gradually after that and we got used to the character. The rest as they say is history.

Furthermore, most of us have would never have heard of Katherine Kelly before she joined the show. Therefore none of us had any expectations or judgements already made of her. We just analysed what she did in front of us and didn’t compare her to anyone. Obviously casting an unknown actress or actor doesn’t always work out, but perhaps Corrie might have been best in doing so for this character. Or as I said, building her character up slowly...