Corrie

Well - here I am again, about to complain on this blog - it's becoming oh such a depressing read!

However it's not all bad - I might slip in a few semi-positive comments... possibly.

As part of our television module with Andy Dougan, we were asked to watch an episode of the long-running British soap opera, Coronation Street. Being, without use of a better phrase, a soap virgin - I had many, probably unfounded, prejudices against the show before I even sat down to watch it. I was expecting a excessively dull, banal, visually unexciting and terribly acted twenty minutes - and was pleasantly surprised to find that that was only 95% true!

I had not appreciated the effort it takes to story-line television like 'Corrie' until Andy took us through the process in his class. I can see the talent involved and I am very impressed at how the writers can keep a show going for as long as this has without dropping viewing figures. That said - I feel that the process is irrelevant when what is produced - is to me - absolute non-entertaining drivel!

The plot - although realistic to some extent - is melodramatic - It is the 'real' world as seen through the eyes of social services. I get the impression - the target audience is those who watch 'Big Brother' live - 24 hours a day. I was watching the trivial pursuits of a bunch of Mancunians that I really cared nothing about - there was no romance, no drama, no emotion. It felt dry.

There was one particular plot-line which caught my attention - and not in a good way. Apologies for the lack of names, as I was introduced for the first time to almost 12 different people in a mere twenty minutes - (it took me several days to remember everyone's names in DFTV1). A grandfather takes his grandson out after he collects him from school - an opportunity to sit on Santa's knee catches the grandson's attention but is, not very subtly may I add, avoided suspiciously by the grandfather. When the boy finally convinces his grandfather to take him there - Santa is revealed to be the boy's other grandpa - the men evidently do not get on and a ridiculous argument breaks out between them - resulting in the Santa being fired! This was probably one of the most staged pieces of television I have seen - truly cringe-worthy!

I feel that this has sufficiently conveyed my views towards 'Coronation Street' - Although many of my colleagues have taken the view that if it does not star David Attenborough, a host of exotic animals and include the quest to save Middle Earth - then I will not like it - that's not quite true - this was just really not a street I would venture down again.