Kieran Roberts: Corrie Characters Always Come First

 

 

 

Coronation Street’s executive producer Kieran Roberts has discussed this week’s 50th anniversary of the Manchester soap and the tram crash but insisted that then soaps characters always come first rather than plots and “events”. This week will be one of the most dramatic and expensive weeks the Granada soap has ever seen with a tram crash causing devastation and death in its wake and a live episode on Thursday to tackle the aftermath – and to mark the soaps anniversary.

However, while the week-long anniversary episodes will no doubt see a rise in viewers executive producer Kieron Roberts insists the Granada soap is always about its characters first and not “events” or storylines and that it won’t become gimmicky in order to regularly boost ratings. Discussing the tram crash and the recent death of Jack Duckworth which saw the brief return of actress Liz Dawn as Vera, Roberts said:

 

“There was a moment’s silence when the writer pitched it. But it worked as a piece of magic realism. It was right that Jack was reunited with Vera in his final moments, it was true to the show. We have to be careful that we don’t do gimmickry,” he adds, maintaining the serial can do justice to its proud heritage while embracing the future: “Character always comes first. Going right back to Tony Warren’s first episodes, they didn’t have huge storylines but they had characters that leapt off the screen.” – Kieran Roberts quoted in Media Guardian

Robert’s comments may ease the concerns of some Coronation Street fans who were worried that big disasters could become a common occurrence on the soap as they have done in the past decade on its fellow ITV soap, Emmerdale. It was recently announced the Yorkshire soap would feature another disaster next year meeting with criticism from some that Emmerdale was going down the Brookside route. The Channel 4 soap Brookside lost credibility with its audience and was ultimately axed when, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, it featured a series of sensationalist plots and seemed to regularly blow up part of the set. Declining ratings and a failed revamp to take the soap back to reality saw Brookside axed after 21 years on-air.

Coronation Street’s 50th anniversary is marked across the week on ITV1 not just with the dramatic tram-crash but also with a repeat of the very first episode and a special documentary charting the street’s most memorable storylines.