John Savident has no time for Coronation Street

Former Coronation Street actor John Savident, who played butcher and later Rovers Return owner Fred ‘I say, I say’ Elliott says he no longer has much regard for the famous terraced saga.

Speaking to the Manchester Evening News the 73-year-old told the local newspaper that he has little time for the show that made him a soap opera icon. But the actor who has a string of previous television credits to his name, including Granada’s Crown Court and ATV’s Tightrope, says six years after his on-screen death he rarely has time for the five-episode-a-week serial.

“Honestly I rarely watch Corrie now…  …Some of the young people just want to be on screen and have no ambition to act anywhere else – what future do they have when their contract ends.  One of them asked me who this Lawrence Olivier was I was talking about as he’d never heard of him! Olivier was my hero and I had the honour of working with him on a couple of occasions” he told the newspaper.

It isn’t just the influx of youth to Weatherfield that has turned the actor off the Manchester based production. He’s also not keen on the show turning a little soapy, with the introduction of celebrity guest appearances.

“Don’t get me started on that score” exclaims John. “I took Sir Ian McKellen to task by asking how he could play a role in Corrie which meant some poor actor who needed the work lost out.  He didn’t reply – just hung his head”.

Coronation Street built its legend, and indeed respect for quality, on the fact it aired twice a week and was a continuous drama serial, not a soap opera. William Roache has regularly over the years – as did Granada themselves – stated to the press that Corrie was not a soap opera, in fact the only ‘soap opera’ in the UK at that time (to the true American format) was Crossroads. However when ITV’s evening schedules needed propping up, it was the high rating serials that ended up having more and more episodes added to the output from the late 1980s onwards.

“When the pace changed to five shows a week I knew the quality would suffer. My family were in Surrey but I was in Manchester, often going to work every day and never filming a scene…” This lead the actor to make the decision to quit the street.

“Although I’d asked to leave I wanted to go quietly and suggested that Ashley discovers Fred dead in bed on his wedding morning.  But they preferred a dramatic finish so as he was about to marry Bev Uwin he died on his last visit to Audrey.”

The actor with a long history of theatre performing added that he didn’t regret leaving the saga-turned-soap and only misses some of the cast.

“Particularly the lovely Sue Nicholls who is such a lady, Bill Roache and the wonderful Betty Driver.”