Coronation Street

Coronation Street. Where to start?

I was quite surprised in class the other day to find out that quite a few people had never even seen an episode of the soap. Expectedly most people are not avid viewers of Coronation Street but it's one of those shows that it's pretty difficult not to have seen. I've seen a fair few episodes in my day, mainly due to the fact that my mum used to watch it quite regularly. I haven't seen it for quite a while now though, probably due to the advent of programmes like CSI and NCIS which have knocked Corrie from my living room TV screen.

So I sat down tonight and watched the first episode of Monday night's double bill. All in all when you actually look at the 22 minute episode, nothing in particular happened. A small confrontation with Peter Barlow and Ken, a little meeting between Kevin and Molly who are having an affair and a bit of planning for the Christmas panto in the Rovers Return. Not much happened at all when you examine it like that but nevertheless it gradually progressed the storyline piece by piece.

I think, however, that people enjoy shows like this for a number of different reasons. Firstly, it's entertaining in the fact that it is a comfort to people. People enjoy watching other people's lives and Coronation Street allows the audience to temporarily forget the stresses of their own lives and immerse themselves in other people's. It's also great to watch because it shows in quite a realistic way that there are other people out there just like ourselves who have the same problems etc. in life. Further to that, it can also remind us how good our lives are or how normal we are compared to all these people who have, on average, about three illicit affairs every few months. It's great for gossip. There's always something happening to hook the viewer to watch the next episode and keep watching on a regular basis to see how the story pans out. Another reason I think many watch it is due to tradition. It's a generation thing quite often I think. People watch it if their mums watch it and it gets passed down through the ages. Clearly though, people enjoyed watching the trials and tribulations of life for the characters on the street in December 1960 and they still enjoy watching in December 2009.

In the episode I watched, I know we discussed it in class the other day, but I was quite surprised that the main storyline was still Kevin's affair with Molly. The last time I watched the show I now remember was during the summer when this affair was just kicking off. And it's still the main hook for the viewers apparently! Throughout the episode as I said not a great deal happened but all the scenes I noticed contained very realistic situations and confrontations which could easily arise in real life and that many can relate to. For example, the small plot of some new guy who must have just come out of prison who is going to join the army. Obviously, the majority of the audience won't have sons who are ex-prisoners but many people are affected by young men joining the army and the appeal for this is shown when the mother(?) who works in Roy's café says she will be very worried and unhappy when he goes to Afghanistan. I also noticed in the episode they gave a couple of lines to Sophie Webster and some other young guy, possibly just to appeal to the younger audience. There is also a noticeable part for the male audience when Dev is in the bar talking to Steve about his new mistress who is beautiful and loves golf and what could be a better relationship. One thing I did notice was that at the end of the first episode on a Monday night there is usually a strong hook or cliffhanger type situation that entices the audience to come back at half past eight and watch the second part. This wasn't very strong in the episode I watched and only consisted of a domestic between Deidre and Ken about the opening of the new bar and Ken's interference in it - nothing that really made me want to rush and watch the next episode.

Anyway, overall I actually don't mind Coronation Street at all. Is the acting perfect? Not at all. Are all the plots and characters 100% believable? No they're not. But Coronation Street will have a place for years to come I think because it is human nature to like watching such programmes. I'm not a regular viewer but if I'm being completely honest if I was sitting watching telly myself and there was nothing else I wanted to watch, I would unashamedly settle for an episode on the famous street - as the picture says: REAL MEN WATCH CORONATION STREET!