Corrie Ratings Slump: Bad Storylines or Gay Characters to blame?

{jcomments on}Several tabloids have reported over the past week that ratings for Coronation Street have dropped by three million viewers with some quick to blame the slump on the arrival of Michelle Collins while others (such as Brian Sewell writing in the Daily Mail) have blamed the number of gay characters. But if the ratings really are down shouldn’t the blame be put on tedious and unrealistic storylines?

There was a time when Ena Sharples and Elsie Tanner would have a slanging match on the cobbles for no other reason than they simply disliked each other – there was no barmy plot involving kidnaps, murders and long-lost children. It was pure human drama with realistic characters who interacted within the bounds of emotions, from love to hate. Remember the days of Hilda Ogden and Elsie  Tanner, trading witty put-downs. Yes the days of good, down to earth, realistic drama.

Nowadays if you tuned into Coronation Street you’d think you were watching a British version of Dynasty or Dallas. There was the big stunt (the Tram-Crash), Molly revealed Kevin was the father of her child to Sally seconds before she died, Becky robbed the Corner Shop to pay her sister for a child, Leanne married Peter at his hospital bedside as he hovered around death and John Stape was lugging a body down the back alley trying to dispose of it. Now doesn’t that sound like one of those big end of season cliff-hangers Dynasty would do?

Fast-forward a few months and you have several long-lost relatives turning up (Tommy, James and Stella) and you have Fizz in jail for crimes she didn’t commit – the John Stape saga still dragging on. Tracy Barlow has been released from prison even though she murdered Charlie Stubbs in cold-blood and confessed so to Ken and Deidre – but seemingly they’ve forgotten that. Not content with (quite literally) getting away with murder Tracy is now trying to destroy Steve’s marriage to Becky – I’m all for recycling but some originality in plots would be nice as Tracy did exactly the same to Steve and Karen’s marriage. There are probably other plots I’ve forgotten to mention but add all the above together and what do you have? Supposedly Coronation Street but I’d say it was more Dynasty.

Several tabloids have blamed Michelle Collins’ dodgy northern accent or the number of LGBT characters in the soap for lower ratings. Well considering where the soap is set is it so unrealistic to have so many LGBT characters? Manchester has a huge gay community! The biggest scandal over gay characters in Corrie is it took them until the 21st century to introduce any! Even the revived Crossroads and the short-lived Night and Day managed to beat them! Personally I think you are far more likely to find more gay people in one street than rapists, arsonists, murders, serial killers, robbers and looters – aren’t you?

Blaming the gay characters is an easy target and plays up to old homophobia prejudices that, for some, are always bubbling away. There will always be a section of the audience that doesn’t see why gay characters have to be on television, why gay people should be represented. So every chance they get the gay characters get blamed for causing ratings slumps or “confusing” children or being “unsuitable” before the watershed. It’s rubbish and it’s a tired old argument but one that won’t really go away.

If Corrie‘s ratings really have slumped – and remember its the Summer and ratings for all soaps are down – then it isn’t the gay minority in the saga that are to blame. It’s the unrealistic, often tedious, storylines that have turned Corrie into a less glamorous version of Dynasty.

• Rosemary Brighte is one of the latest writers to ATV Today, and as a dyslexic joins us with our opportunities for all remit. Rosemary asks that you pardon any spelling errors in the inital report. Our editor checks over stories once a day in order to make any corrections. ATV Network is proud to support all kinds of people who have a passion for writing.