Disaster On The Coronation Street Cobbles

No we’re not talking about Sean Tully’s fashion sense, Corrie Boss Phil Collinson has revealed some of the storyline surrounding the nation’s favourite serials’ 50th anniversary.

 

 

“We are preparing for the biggest stunt we have ever staged… …as our show’s 50th anniversary approaches.

 

“Disaster will strike on the cobbles as the viaduct near the Kabin collapses sending a tram careering off the bridge and onto the Street.” – Coronation Street say on their ITV.com webpage.

Coronation Street will be quite literally shook to its foundations with the crash that will leave some residents dead or seriously injured. The ITV Granada team want to give viewers a dramatic sequence throughout the accident so have brought in special effects experts to over see the drama. The image of the tram going across the viaduct at the Corner Shop end of the street was an integral part of the opening titles to the Manchester-based saga for 9 years until a new opening sequence was introduced last month.


Corrie celebrates its landmark anniversary on December 9th and are planning a special week of episodes to note the 50th year of Weatherfield dramas and laughs. The exact details of the storylines are being kept secret, even going to the lengths of issuing alternative scripts.

 

Coronation Street, scene of the latest disaster“Not even our cast and crew know which residents will die and the drama will continue into 2011 as the people of Weatherfield come to terms with the tragedy and the dramatic twists and turns that follow.” Corrie add. It has been reported however that Molly Dobbs – actress Vicky Binns – is to be killed off within the show later this year, however producers have not tied her demise to the tram crash.

Coronation Street top boss Phil Collinson said: “As we celebrate the show reaching such an incredible milestone it feels fitting that we will be screening an event of this magnitude which will affect the lives of all the residents of Coronation Street. We’ll be using all the wonders of modern television production to bring you a disaster that will rock the lives of everyone in Weatherfield.  At the heart of the drama though will be ordinary people on an ordinary street battling adversity – the template for the programme created by Tony Warren 50 years ago.”

 

It’s not the first time such transport disasters have hit the street. The first incident came in 1965 when number 7 collapsed. Brought about off-screen by Corrie moving from Granada’s studio 2 to the bigger studio 6, on-screen the vacant house – previously occupied by the Hewitt family – fell to the ground after weeks of earth tremors caused by underground movement from old mine shafts. The house was demolished – and remained so for 17 years! In 1967 a train crashed off the track in front of the Corner Shop, with a lot of structual damage to the viaduct, but only one death (a minor character). Viewers had been left wondering if street busybody Ena Sharples has been left for dead under the rubble, but Ena and her hairnet were unharmed.

 

Coronation Street, 1970sIn 1979 a lorry crashed into the front of the Rovers Return Inn leaving Deirdre Langton’s huge spectacles covered in dust. The lorry carrying timber sent itself and its load into the pub. Deirdre had left baby Tracey in her pram outside the pub and popped inside only for a few moments when the accident happened. Everyone thought Tracey had been crushed under the lorry. It transpired she had been kidnapped only moments earlier. Other residents were not so lucky, grocer Alf Roberts was left unconscious under a table, businessman Mike Baldwin suffered a broken leg while Deirdre herself was trapped in a corner by the timber planks.

 

Tony Warren, creator of the nations best loved show, said in 1985 that of the success of Corrie was because “It’s not about bricks and mortar, its about people.” And with the 50th plot it will once again be the people of the street coping with the latest life changing drama that is central to the shows celebration – and continued success.