Coronation Street

[doppelkorn]

Also Russ has leapfrogged to the front of the good child actor queue.

[doppelkorn]

And another thing!

They give Lloyd a meaty storyline and surprise, surprise, he turns out to be a flawed, weak, jealous man while Cheryl is strong like bull! Why can't men be strong role models in this soap?

[Ash]

But where the men aren't weak, the women are, they're absolutely crap role models too. Crapper, even, because all they're allowed to care about are men and, inevitably, shrieking about children or not being able to have children. Look what's happened to Becky!

Not that I'm defending Cheryl in this ridiculous plot, mind you. But the whole Carla/Peter/Leanne triangle strikes me as a perfect example of where female characters/women get the rubbish end where-as skeevy, nowhere-near-in-their-league Peter has two beautiful women in love with him, inexplicably.

Wee Russ is a lovely child actor *cough-unlike Simon-cough*. He seemed natural, where-as with Simon I get the feeling the whole cast is forever praising him for how cute he is and he plays up to it.

[23 Daves]

I don't necessarily have an issue with Peter Barlow's luck with the ladies - I can think of plenty of people I've met who seem to attract admirable amounts of women (or men) despite not seeming to be conventionally attractive or personable.  In fact, in most of the relationships I know there's definitely an attractiveness gap if nothing else.  Ugly men seem to pair off with presentable ladies quite frequently. 

In Barlow's case, he's that combination of ruggedness combined with a keenly listening ear.  An ex-services man who can engage you on a pop-psychology level at any time.  I've watched such types get plenty of quim. And he's not an ugly chap, just slightly-above-average looking. 

Could Carla do better for herself?  Probably, but then so could a raven-haired, red lipstick wearing actress I've met who is presently going out with an obese record collector.  You go figure. 

[doppelkorn]

Could Carla do better for herself?  Probably, but then so could a raven-haired, red lipstick wearing actress I've met who is presently going out with an obese record collector.  You go figure.

That's gone completely over my head. Is it a Craig Charles reference?

[23 Daves]

That's gone completely over my head. Is it a Craig Charles reference?

A reference to both Charles and a real-life situation I'm aware of at the moment.  It happens.  Life is full of unexpected surprises. 

[buttgammon]

My cousin (who could easily double for Kat from Eastenders) has a crush on Peter Barlow so real life women do actually like him, even though they get teased for it until it becomes a running joke in the family.

[Mister Six]

It's hard for it to have been made an issue when they've had so few non-white characters over the years. There weren't any until the 90s.

Sounds like a fairly accurate depiction of Lancashire to me.

[Uncle TechTip]

It's hard for it to have been made an issue when they've had so few non-white characters over the years. There weren't any until the 90s.

How could you forget Curly's first love. Shirley?



"Being coloured they encountered hostility from many quarters including their landlord, Alf Roberts and Curly's parents" (NB: Curly was white and this is a poorly-constructed sentence)

http://www.corrie.net/profiles/characters/armitage_shirley.html

Sounds like a fairly accurate depiction of Lancashire to me.

Yes, places like Blackburn, Burnley, much of Manchester and indeed all of Lancashire are utterly white. Corrie used to take a lot of stick for this and even Shirley's introduction in 1983 was deemed "late".

[SOTS]

This is the problem i've always had with things like this. Coronation St could add new ethnic minority characters to reflect the multiculturalism of the country as a whole OR... they could represent what many places in the country are actually like. Feeling the need to introduce a black character for the sake of "having a black character" is almost insulting. The usual excuse is that ethnic minorities may want to see someone on screen that they can relate to, but isn't it utterly patronising and a bit offensive to assume that ethnic minorities cannot relate to white characters? Why should there be a difference?

It's like when they deliberately hire black actors to play particular roles that are usually portrayed as white in historical dramas or whatever. Surely if race truly didn't matter, you wouldn't need the token inclusion of various races to reflect modern society in television programmes portraying previous eras. I feel this is especially the case in children's television programmes. Adults notice race, and therefore make sure that children's programmes are inclusive and display all backgrounds. But as a child, I really didn't notice race at all. People were just people. This continued until adults pointed out the issue of race to me, but only to say " It's okay if people look different to yourself, because they're just like you, and we live in a diverse society where everyone is equal." I genuinely believe such issues wouldn't such a big deal if they weren't constantly earmarked and pointed out.

Whilst TV producers mean well, pointing out differences (when they shouldn't really exist) between people is still pointing out differences whether your intentions are good or bad.

[23 Daves]

The two episodes on Friday night were among the best comedy ITV has broadcast all year.  The long, awkward silence that followed the moment when Mary said: "I couldn't imagine Norris in women's clothes.  He's far too... rugged and masculine" was priceless.

The scriptwriters seem to have been dropping endless hints that Norris is an in-the-closet gay character for the best part of four years now, without ever actually developing that idea (and obviously he's been married as well).  It's a marvellous piece of restraint, and I honestly hope they never do take it beyond the one hint they drop per year. 

[Janie Jones]

... they've had so few non-white characters over the years. There weren't any until the 90s.

In 1978 or thereabouts, Ray Langton left his wife Deirdre for a waitress played by Angela Bruce, a Black actress who went on to do loads of TV work including a part as Craig Charles' alter ego in a parallel universe in Red Dwarf. 

[doppelkorn]

This has fallen off page one - bad show.

Tonight's firey Carla/Peter episode was good. Why have they decided to push Adi as a golfer. He's the fourth best male child actor on the show, even below Max.

[23 Daves]

Well, it's nice that we've all got back to remembering that the complete and total personality void that is Frank is, far from being a dynamic, charismatic, go-getting businessman (which he never did a very good job of portraying) actually a cold-hearted rapist.  So all is well in the world of Corrers again, then.

I have to admit, that was a neat tug of the audience's expectations.  They left us lingering for months with the collective idea that maybe Frank was OK after all, and maybe it had all been a misunderstanding with Maria, until...

I suppose now wouldn't be a good time to tell everyone that Frank reminds me of a celebrated Serbian poet I once knew.  He looks the same and acts the same.  The very same Serbian poet once took the mic at a reading and said: "We've got some female poets coming up in the second half this evening... and some of them are actually quite good".  Obviously I can't get that out of my head whenever he's on screen.