What is the secret of Coronation Street's success?

I never watch it. My wife does so sometimes I may catch a very small piece of it. All seems too far fetched to me, very thin story lines that are particularly well acted. If you like it fine, I've got better things to do with my time than to watch soaps.

"How has the soap endured for so long?"

One has to ask how any soaps have endured for so long.

And then you look at the people sitting with vacant expressions watching them and realise just how they have been around for so long.

Saturating the airwaves with a programme based on voyeurism and then targetting it at women. I would dearly like to get near the TV but it is appears to be a women only schedule these days. Emmerdale 5 days a week, coronation street 4 days a week, doom-enders 4 days a week. None got where they are through being well made or good story lines. The plot seems to centre around dead children, broken marriages and back stabbing your mates.

Familiarity - like an old well-worn comfort blanket.

It's success is based on the fact that it is mindless drivel - which suits the tastes of a society mostly constituted as a nation of mindless dimwits!

All this user's posts have been removed.Why?

Because they spotted a gap in the market for people who find stories about domestic violence, murder and infidelity to be a highly amusing way of making their own dreary lives seem better by comparison.

The secret to the Street's success if that people can relate to the characters easily, there is drama as a result of good stories plus there is a good dollop of humour - which is more than can be said for Enders.

This week's story has been superb and it is easy to understand why so many people have watched it. Long live Corrie!

I rarely watch soaps - however it was on in the background as I did my xmas shopping online so I did see the tram incident - pretty entertaining, planning to watch the next episode.... oh no, looks like im getting sucked into the void that is soapland.......
Just kidding, far too busy to dedicate 1.5 hours every evening - I have a life - and its not on facebook!

wow brilliant topic! defiantly the most interesting thing happening in the world!

can we have some real topics to debate please?

Humour

I suppose it has stayed the course because it is not so mind numbingly depressing as some of the other soaps and humour has always been a feature.
It is the only soap that I would tolerate being in the same room as if it came on TV

10. At 12:09pm on 09 Dec 2010, scotty1694 wrote:
wow brilliant topic! defiantly the most interesting thing happening in the world!

can we have some real topics to debate please?


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Circus and cakes scotty. This circus takes away the reminder that we have no cake for the masses.

This discussion also takes our minds away from the way that it now appears that messengers are to be shot at all costs, and the message they have relayed is to be conveniently swept under the carpet.

It makes for easy viewing and is structured in a way as to be conducive to habitual watching - storylines can be stretched over long periods of time, characters evolve. It's Ronseal television and what it does, it does well.

Incidentally, I don't watch it myself and haven't done so for a long time.

Absolutely no idea whatsoever .... there are millions of us who don't watch the soaps .... and never plan to!

'Coronation Street continues to attract millions of viewers after 50 years on our screens. How has the soap endured for so long?'
No idea at all, I'm as mystified as everyone else.

Oh, and by the way, could there be a connection with the success of 'Soaps' and 'Reality TV' in the UK, and our sinking to 25th in the European intelligence leagues?

We have slowly dropped off the educational attainment charts in direct 'corre'lation to the rise of these programs.

At 12:09pm on 09 Dec 2010, scotty1694 wrote:
wow brilliant topic! defiantly the most interesting thing happening in the world!

can we have some real topics to debate please?

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Why does every discussion on HYS have to be on important issues? If you don't like a topic then find one you do and comment on those. If you don't like something on TV you don't watch it. Or do you just to complain about it? Hmmmmm....

Saddo's will watch anything.

Viewers with sad and shallow lives!

Soap Operas provide an outlet for safe-malicious gossip. Whilst it may not be politic to 'comment' on the behaviour of your next-door neighbour's daughter it is perfectly acceptable to rip into antics of the protagonists of East Enders et al.

A friend of mine - who keeps up with Soaps - says they provide a common-ground when talking to strangers. A bit like men and football I suppose.

To me it seems to be part of a continuing trend towards virtual-friends. You may not know your neighbour's name - but you know the name of everyone in Neighbours...

Eastenders is depressing and Emmerdale is daft, but Corrie has brilliant scripts and characters.

Also 7:30 in the evening is the optimum time to relax and let the post-dinner digestive processes take place.

'Appen as like.

4. At 11:54am on 09 Dec 2010, Alasdair Campbell wrote:
Familiarity - like an old well-worn comfort blanket.

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That's it in a nutshell.

There only so many storylines in soaps:

Who's having it off with whom?
Who's leaving whom?
Who's having a baby?
Who's the father?
Who's the mother?
(sorry couldn't resist)
Who's leaving the area?
Who's coming back?
Who's having a problem?
Who's the bad boy/girl this week?

I am suprised that computor game writers han't made a computor game where you write the plot, (proberbly have done).

Personnally I cannot watch them as I have a medical condition that stops me, it's called a brain.

PS My daughter (who has a Phd) watched Hollyoaks when at Uni. On a visit I watched an episode and I believed, I mean I REALLY believed, that there was one, and only one blond haired actress playing ALL the parts.

I was in hospital in 2004, layed on my back unable to move, listening to an extended episode of eastenders. Someone called Kat was pressurised to have it off with a villan to save her husband from having his legs broken. A half hour plot spread out over TWO HOURS!I almost lost the will to live.

I accept that what is one man's meat etc. but do we HAVE to have them on several times EVERY night.

Although I do watch and like to programme, this latest storyline is doing nothing for me. There has been a viaduct, with rail/tram lines on it all this time. Only in the past couple of weeks was there any background noise from a tram. No-one ever mentions travel by tram, they go by car, bus or Steve's taxi's.
This story is like watching "the apprentice". Someone comes up with an idea, and not matter how naff it is - everyone else's mind goes blank and they run with it.
I am afraid out of all the other gems over many years of watching - this one wont be on my list ---- whoever stays or goes

I think calling Corrie watchers "saddo's" is a bit judgmental. I don't do soaps myself, but there's clearly something there.

Maybe we all want to be Ken Barlow.

What is the secret of Coronation Street's success?
It’s not a secret, mindless people equals mindless lives.

Why do some posters bother contributing just to be negative, if you don't watch Coronation Street then maybe this debate isn't for you?

3. At 11:50am on 09 Dec 2010, PFC_Kent wrote:
Saturating the airwaves with a programme based on voyeurism and then targetting it at women. I would dearly like to get near the TV but it is appears to be a women only schedule these days. Emmerdale 5 days a week, coronation street 4 days a week, doom-enders 4 days a week. None got where they are through being well made or good story lines. The plot seems to centre around dead children, broken marriages and back stabbing your mates.

Nonsense. I'm a woman and regular Sky Sports watcher. I also enjoy so-called "bloke" telly like Top Gear. Out of your list, Corrie is the only one I watch - along with my fella, who follows it more closely than I do. I think the secret to Corrie's success is great acting, great scripts, strong characters and a good mix of humour and drama.
Unlike EastEnders, which I dread catching the occasional accidental bit of - relentlessly depressing and peopled by rough, aggressive, dirty-looking characters you'd change postcodes to avoid.

My favourite bit of Cornation Street is the closing titles - this means I may then get the chance to watch something decent (? is that possible?)on the tv once the wife and her braindead friends have had their nightly fix!

What would the women of Britain talk about without it.......

Not sure it’s a secret.

It portrays people who are badly organised, lazier, nastier, sillier, unluckier, dumber and sadder than most and that boosts the morale of its viewers as they can see someone worse off than they are.

It sells a good deal of product for its advertisers so ITV still run it.

Is this a mystery?

With the exception of the bed ridden or elderly, avid soap viewers should get a life of their own.

A past life and wife, we watched soaps, or rather she did, food on our knees.

My new life involves 6-9pm with the kids, eating at the table, doing homework, out of school sports, laughing, putting them to bed, sometimes watching interesting TV.

My kids have never watched soaps, I want them to grow up and learn about life themselves rather than be pre programmed by a lazy parent who puts their own entertainment before catering to their childrens needs.

Adult soaps should be on after 9pm and never repeated during the day at weekends like they are at the moment, they are particularly nasty devicive conduits to poison the minds of the younger viewers and that includes teens.

Its a miserable depiction of life north of the m25, but then again try watching Eastenders, count the frowns, no point counting the smiles, sad sad programs, but some will defend it.

I've never understood why so many people should be interested in the lives of fictitious characters living in a fictional street nowhere near where you are.
The fact that so many are must show something but me - I just don't get it.

A Nation of commatose worker bees to tired to do anything but stare at a screen and too skint to go out. Success a given

Makes me chuckle to read the posts about Corrie being for saddos and the unintelligent.

I bet a lot of people would say the same about HYS.


‘Oh I don’t watch that. I’m way too good for that. Instead I put my opinion about stuff on an anonymous website where I can ridicule and gloat over what other people think. That’s far cleverer than Corrie’.

Coronation Street has been enduringly popular because in its earliest days, it was a realistic, kitchen-sink drama about real, working-class Northern families. How many people down South had even seen a programme about Northerners? It had just the right mix. Characters that viewers could relate to several nights a week, quality scripts, gritty storylines but also just the right balance of light humour. These days, it has lost a fair bit of realism in favour of sensationalism (I blame EastEnders and Brookside) but it still retains all the other elements that made it successful.

5. At 11:55am on 09 Dec 2010, The Ghosts of John Galt wrote:
It's success is based on the fact that it is mindless drivel - which suits the tastes of a society mostly constituted as a nation of mindless dimwits!
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A bit like HYS then!

The secret is that nobody has the cojones to cancel it.

As a self-confessed intellectual snob, I make a point of not watching soaps, reality shows, property shows, 'talent' shows or shows featuring third rate celebs - Strictly Come Dancing comes to mind here for some reason.

CORRIE IS SOAP OPERA...... and that's what it's supposed to be, and that's what it is !! If you want complicated plots and subplots, go and watch a James Bond movie. Coronatin Street gives us an insight into gossips and relationship between characters either at home, at our place of work or at the pubs where they socialise. If you don't like soap operas, switch off or watch something else.

"What is the secret of Coronation Street's success?"

That’s its fed to a populous consisting largely of vacuous halfwits who, for some reason beyond me, find peeping into the lives of others that are just as depressing and monotonous as their own interesting. Soaps are banned in my house and have been for a good while.

34. At 1:27pm on 09 Dec 2010, coolhandpaul wrote:
Makes me chuckle to read the posts about Corrie being for saddos and the unintelligent.
I bet a lot of people would say the same about HYS.
‘Oh I don’t watch that. I’m way too good for that. Instead I put my opinion about stuff on an anonymous website where I can ridicule and gloat over what other people think. That’s far cleverer than Corrie’.

Well said! I'm not sure how anyone proves their superior intelligence - or that they have better things to do with their time - by commenting on a show they don't watch, to a forum full of strangers to whom their opinion doesn't matter! :)

The secret of Corrie's success is that thank God its not Misery-shouty-EastEnders!!

Alan Bradley, Greg Kelly, Richard Hillman, Charlie Stubbs and Colin Fishwick aka John stape....... strong male characters

I see the usual amount of sanctimonious twaddle on here by the usual suspects...

I don't watch Corrie myself but I can see the appeal and I certainly wouldn't write someone off as being stupid if they enjoy watching it. I know a fair few highly intelligent people who watch it religiously. Perhaps it's just a good form of escapism after working all day in a high powered job and I see absolutely nothing wrong with that. I get rather cross with the arrogance of some people on here thinking that they are a cut above everyone else.

It has endured because it is, and always has been, quality TV soap-drama. Through some most harrowing story-lines, it still manages to be both "serious" and tongue-in-cheek at the same time. I cannot think of any other drama that can (successfully) pull this off. The actors are genius, if some a little irritating; the writing is always very slick, and a lot more complex than it is sometimes given credit for. Long may it continue - BRILLIANT !!

I guess soaps succeed because people have extremely low expectations of what constitutes quality entertainment. Over the years, UK soaps have been plagued by unrealistic story lines, dreadful acting (with a very few notable exceptions)and directing, and a penchant for stereotyping every group. What little qulaity there was hass now disappeared completely and I'd rather do something more constructive than watch a lot of overpaid and under-talented actors strutt their stuff every week

Escapism, a half hour where viewers don't have to engage their brains? I don't watch it personally but my Mum used to watch it when I was a kid. It's pretty much the only thing she has on series record (how the convenience of recording Corrie and Emmerdale warrants a Sky subscription is beyond me).

It's been around for 50 years, so it's safe to assume that people have been brought up with it and it's a part of daily life for many households. If I had to pick a soap to watch, I'd take the humorous, light hearted approach of Corronation St over the ultra seroius Cockney steriotypes in Eastenders any day.

BrimfulOfAshes wrote:
3. At 11:50am on 09 Dec 2010, PFC_Kent wrote:
Saturating the airwaves with a programme based on voyeurism and then targetting it at women. I would dearly like to get near the TV but it is appears to be a women only schedule these days. Emmerdale 5 days a week, coronation street 4 days a week, doom-enders 4 days a week. None got where they are through being well made or good story lines. The plot seems to centre around dead children, broken marriages and back stabbing your mates.

Nonsense. I'm a woman and regular Sky Sports watcher. I also enjoy so-called "bloke" telly like Top Gear. Out of your list, Corrie is the only one I watch - along with my fella, who follows it more closely than I do. I think the secret to Corrie's success is great acting, great scripts, strong characters and a good mix of humour and drama.
Unlike EastEnders, which I dread catching the occasional accidental bit of - relentlessly depressing and peopled by rough, aggressive, dirty-looking characters you'd change postcodes to avoid.

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Sky Sports is subscription and Top Gear is on for about 8 hours a year. The 3 soaps I mentioned are on for about 7 hours a week without the sunday omnibus. But I agree 100% with your comments on Eastenders. How many people find a neighbour they don't get on with in their bedroom and don't ring the police?

Actually I tell a lie. I have watched Corrieorriorrie a couple of times in the hope that Norris and the wierd one who ran his mate over get killed in some hilarious freaky accident.

Don't watch it myself, don't really enjoy soaps.

My mother is an avid fan and has been watching for at least my 38 years. She was elated when we bought our first video recorder as it meant she would never have to miss an episode.

6. At 11:58am on 09 Dec 2010, Peter Bridgemont wrote:
kids played outside without exaggerated fears of paedophiles, kidnappers, imaginations not stunted by screen games etc

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You almost had a good point until you brought up the 'videogames are mindless' line. Videogames have been scientifically proven to be just about the most mentally stimulating media form on the planet, certainly more so than watching television which is for the truly passive. Quite frankly videogames are just about the only thing keeping kids' minds active these days, since the neutered education standards certainly aren't doing the job.

I prefer films to tv shows but 50 years is commendable and I did catch sight of the tram crash on Monday which looked a fantastic stunt to rival anything Hollywood can do.

Soaps are not real and do not have realistic stories but does anybody argue otherwise? The writers take true ideas and go from there.

From what my Mum tells me its the strong women of the street who have kept it going all these years - oh yes and Ken Barlow of course.

"Sky Sports is subscription and Top Gear is on for about 8 hours a year."

Clearly you haven't heard of Dave.

I would think its all the free advertising its getting from the BBC at the licence payers expence.

It just simply proves the British appetite for philistine interests & pursuits.

Doesn't the BBC have the Points of View website for talking about TV?
This is a news website and corrie is not news!

Each to his/her own really. Life's rich pattern. I detest seeing that green table on the telly for hours at a time with blokes pushing balls about with long sticks. I'm not really interested in spending hours watching blokes ( blokes again ) kicking a ball about, nor horrid noisy cars rushing round circuits. ( driven by blokes again.) Then there are little darts being thrown at a board. But some people love to watch all of these activities and spend hours doing so. And it therefore follows that others are happy to watch Soaps. Take your pick.

I believe it is successful because it appeals to certain personality types, vis-a-vis Myer-Briggs. It is characteristic that many other "successful t.v. shows utilize. So, in an industry that uses demographics and statistics; this tilts the "playing field".

It is not by accident they are called "soap-operas". They were designed as the vehicle, by which, to sell soaps in the advertising slots. Once you have your captive audience ............

These days in N.America the advertising spots are for banks and insurance companies, etc. Ya' know? Stuff you do not need! But, you have that captive audience ...... for that same old bunch; of carpet-baggers!

"56. At 3:35pm on 09 Dec 2010, Semisatanic wrote:

Doesn't the BBC have the Points of View website for talking about TV?
This is a news website and corrie is not news!"

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Points of View is for viewer feedback on BBC programming specifically, not TV in general.

This is a news website - correct. And under the vast umbrella of "news" there is a section called "Entertainment & Arts" which specifically deals with subjects pertaining to that particular genre. The 50th Anniversary of one of the longest running TV shows ever, classes as a piece of "entertainment news" I'd say - whether it is of any interest to you or not.

Lighten up eh?

What is the secret of Coronation Street’s success?

Coronations Street’s longevity is not something for the nation to be proud of, but something to be thoroughly ashamed of.

Life is not meant to be lived in doors staring at some box, watching some show, poorly written and badly acted and displaying all the bad points about humanity and its ills. It also demonstrates that for too long, life in this country for a great many has been prohibitively expensive and the choice we have endured, only up until the last few years, was three to four channels, championing this and other bilge just like it.

Switch off the box and go live life. Coronation Street and its soap ilk are the killers of inspiration, ambition, hope and dreams. Revile them for the filth that they are.

Beacause it satifies simple needs.

What is the secret of Coronation Street's success? The sad people who watch it week, in week out.

I'm afraid to say that Coronation Street, as with all soaps, has become obsessed with pleasing audiences with subject matter which is neither realistic or enjoyable, unless you have undergone a lobotomy.
Coronation Street may have once been an important programme charting the social history of Northern England but it has long since lost that mantle, and has degraded itself by engaging in the cheap and shallow storylines that do not even reflect reality, let alone Northern England.
Television in Britain has been debased by the quality of storylines in all soap opera's and the advent of reality tv.
Rather than filling the schedules with nonsense such as X-factor and Strictly Come Dancing, please can we go back to good drama, documentaries and films.

Yoowot-looooove ? Sooocceeeessss ? It might be for the masses but for me soap operas are chewing gum for the brain. Having said that, of the single episodes of the two main soaps I once tried to endure, I much prefered Coronation Street for its soft daft style than Eastenders that exudes hostility and aggression, veritably it is Grunt TV - just like our chav high streets it sponsored. Thankfully we have BBC TV 2, 3 & 4 to save our sanity.

"...former Cabinet minister Lord Hattersley, an unashamed fan, said "Coronation Street is a national institution which has won its way into the hearts of 18 million people".

Interesting; almost 70 million people living in Britain and only 18 mil watch Corrie. Not exactly overwhelming but, a sight better than just below 3 mil watching Big Brother.
I lost interest in all soaps as far back as the very late 90s. They've lost their appeal for me. Storylines are rather weak and uninteresting. I think Corrie's been on for too long now.

"62. At 4:05pm on 09 Dec 2010, Kuradi Vitukari wrote:

What is the secret of Coronation Street's success? The sad people who watch it week, in week out."

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So do please tell us, oh wise one. What should we be watching that isn't "sad" then? Enlighten us, so we may all follow your wisdom...

MATT MARSHALL @ 40......you said you ban SOAPs at your house; does that make your household clever and "full-witted", while you labelled the rest of us, who love watching soap, as vacuous half-wits. A rather strange conclusion, I must say, coming from an ostensibly "clever" person. I watch Coronation St because I can identify in many episodes characters portrayed who are almost like my own friends or members of my own family with the turmoils and the ups and downs of their everyday life are all there, and I'm certain those who write the plots have those in mind when creating Soaps. MATT, I bet you and your clever family support TORIES and go on SAFARI to shoot wild animals as trophies, and speak with that "plum and srawberry" accent.

42. At 2:21pm on 09 Dec 2010, ColPete wrote:
The secret of Corrie's success is that thank God its not Misery-shouty-EastEnders!!

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Fair point, but how do you explain EastEnders' success??

29. At 1:17pm on 09 Dec 2010, pzero wrote:
"My favourite bit of Cornation Street is the closing titles - this means I may then get the chance to watch something decent (? is that possible?)on the tv once the wife and her braindead friends have had their nightly fix!

What would the women of Britain talk about without it......."

Perhaps you have a computer (maybe the one you posted your comment with)? In which case there is plenty of "decent" viewing on the BBC i-player whole waiting for the "proper telly" to become available!

As for what the women of Britain would talk about: probably how irritating their husbands are (just like they used to).


At 12:09pm on 09 Dec 2010, scotty1694 wrote:
"wow brilliant topic! defiantly the most interesting thing happening in the world!
can we have some real topics to debate please?"

Oh, I don't know: this one seems to be going pretty well! check out comments 34, 36 and 41 for starters!

I don't watch Corrie myself so missed the excellent wedding story featuring the East Lanc's Railway. My preference in soap operas can usually be found on the BBC Parliament Channel

5. At 11:55am on 09 Dec 2010, The Ghosts of John Galt wrote:
It's success is based on the fact that it is mindless drivel - which suits the tastes of a society mostly constituted as a nation of mindless dimwits!
--------------------------------

So you like it then!
Try watching a documentary for a change.

AND as for this hypocrisy….....

• 1. At 11:44am on 09 Dec 2010, Tio Terry wrote:
I never watch it. My wife does so sometimes I may catch a very small piece of it. All seems too far fetched to me, very thin story lines that are particularly well acted. If you like it fine, I've got better things to do with my time than to watch soaps.


• 19. At 12:51pm on 09 Dec 2010, Toothpick Harry wrote:
Saddo's will watch anything.
• 20. At 12:54pm on 09 Dec 2010, RonC wrote:
Viewers with sad and shallow lives!

• 26. At 1:15pm on 09 Dec 2010, DoleBoy wrote:
What is the secret of Coronation Street's success?
It’s not a secret, mindless people equals mindless lives.


LAUGHABLE!! I wonder what these ‘clever’ people in the rest of their lives apart from giving negative derisory comments on HYS?

Please tell us!!

I think is a kind of voyeurism that compels people to watch soaps, dramas, or reality tv shows.

The people who watch this kind of tv show are the same type that peer out from behind the curtains in housing estates to see what their neighbours are up to, so they can gossip to their friends about them.

I have never been a fan of soaps or reality tv. I like action series and classic cult crime series like Coloumbo, Hawii-5-0, the Mike Hammer tv series of the 80's and so on, which a beginning a middle and a conclusion in a single episode or at most two episodes.


Pity they don't show their likes on BBC anymore

A mindless audience.

You mean to say that it is not Real? - I am now totally devastated !

34. At 1:27pm on 09 Dec 2010, coolhandpaul wrote:
Makes me chuckle to read the posts about Corrie being for saddos and the unintelligent.

I bet a lot of people would say the same about HYS.


‘Oh I don’t watch that. I’m way too good for that. Instead I put my opinion about stuff on an anonymous website where I can ridicule and gloat over what other people think. That’s far cleverer than Corrie’.

==================================

You're not wrong, chuck...!

I'm not proud - I'll happily admit to being a fan of Corrie and I'll be there tonight in front of the telly to watch the live episode.

If people on here think I'm a simple-minded, vacuous saddo without a brain or a life.....that's fine; I don't know you, I don't want to know you and I really don't give a monkey's what you think of me or my TV viewing habits.

You all stick to your high-minded pursuits, I'll stick to Corrie and watching England beat seven bells out of Australia to retain The Ashes.

Of course it's drivel, and has no intellectual content. I watch it when I happen to be in and not doing anything important, because it's relaxing and it makes me laugh (even without the priceless Blanche). We all need a bit of fun and light entertainment sometimes.
The apparent competition between Corrie and Eastenders to produce a mad wedding scene is hilarious. And when it seemed that every possible mad wedding scene had already been done, along came Leanne and Peter's - disrupted by explosion and carnage. Beat that, Eastenders!
And to all HYS contributors with a sense of humour, enjoy tonight's fun. I will.

It's always on when I'm out.

"
66. At 4:27pm on 09 Dec 2010, Purpleandy wrote:

"62. At 4:05pm on 09 Dec 2010, Kuradi Vitukari wrote:

What is the secret of Coronation Street's success? The sad people who watch it week, in week out."

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So do please tell us, oh wise one. What should we be watching that isn't "sad" then? Enlighten us, so we may all follow your wisdom
"

Read a book or get a real life.

TV is almost totally rubbish these days. It all start going down hill with the soaps, then sky, then reality tv. All great for small minded people with little to do with their lives.

Isnt'it time to kick this rubbish out of the prime time schedules so that we can watch something more entertaining and original? Why do highly-paid programme makers get away with continuing with such a tired and irrelevant formula?

"
73. At 5:13pm on 09 Dec 2010, doilookthatsilly wrote:

You mean to say that it is not Real? - I am now totally devastated !
"

I used to read in the papers back in the 80's that soap stars who played baddies in the likes of Eastenders and this tripe, used to get hate mail and death threats! People never cease to amaze me in their stupidity.

I liked the episode when KB dresses as ET (kneeling, with a towel over his head) and is pulled along the road on a makeshift,kids,wooden go-kart.

Still not too sure why they also put the shot(of him) eying up a yummy mummy going to a fancy dress party.

Oh dear apparently I am a mindless moron as I ahve watched Coronation Street for years. It is like a well read book you can put it down and go back to it any time and not be lost. The writing isnt as good as once it was when Tony Warren wrote the series he wanted realism and that was great and it had humour and pathos and everything inbetween and that is what life is made up of. Now it is too dramatic and would be better if it was more realistic but then maybe people want more escapism and dont want realism. At least it isnt another dancing with stars or dancing on ice or I am a celebrity mindlessness that grips people. Elsie Tanner and Ena Shaples were very much representaive of the people you met then in working class areas so it would be nice to meet real working class people again. Or maybe i am just nostalgic for all those kitchen sink dramas I was too young to watch. The humour of Graham, the evil of David and the trollopness of Liz all gores to make this work - but do get rid of John Stape that storyline is just stupid after all how many kidnappers and murders does any street need?

I Suppose if it was ever on our TV the Goldfish just might watch

But: There again the Goldfish as the right mentality..

No idea. My grandmother used to watch it in the days of Ena Sharples.

I find it worrying now when I hear that viewers have sent baby presents to actresses who have "given birth" but who in real life were not pregnant....

Subliminal eating and drinking?? And gossip.

Looking at the other posts, there doesn't seem to be much idea of why it's a ''success''.

Puzzling in itself.

[Did I say ''puzzling'' ??,
Sorry, I meant ''guzzling'']

BBC Have Your Say:
Q:''What is the secret of Coronation Street's success ??''

A:
OK.
Eh.
Er.It's a secret.

Tired ground-down people with minds that ache - as Lennon put it.

Golly it's my lucky week, what with the ongoing never ending rolling snow thread yielding all those incredible revelations about travel delays and accidents...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...and now soaps.....I think we should have one on the X Factor vote rigging conspiracy...that really would be the perfect end to a fab week...go beeeb go!

I haven't watched it for years, and never regularly, but I suspect that its enduring popularity has been attributable to its portrayal of normal everyday life, and humour.

comment 40 says soaps are banned at his house. Must be starting to smell a bit by now then

They are starting up a new soap channel very soon and moving all the soaps to it to run 24 hours a day luckly it is unatainable on all current tv systems. Total mind numbing tosh

40. At 2:17pm on 09 Dec 2010, Matt Marshall wrote:
"What is the secret of Coronation Street's success?"
That’s its fed to a populous consisting largely of vacuous halfwits who, for some reason beyond me, find peeping into the lives of others that are just as depressing and monotonous as their own interesting. Soaps are banned in my house and have been for a good while.
-*-
Really!
You must use a lot of deodorants then.

At 6:04pm on 09 Dec 2010, ruffled_feathers wrote:
No idea. My grandmother used to watch it in the days of Ena Sharples.

I find it worrying now when I hear that viewers have sent baby presents to actresses who have "given birth" but who in real life were not pregnant....


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Some people who watch soaps seem incapable of distinguishing reality from make-believe.


When I was young, I thought Raymond Burr was wheelchair-bound in real life when he played Ironside, James Franscicus was blind in real life when he played Longstreet, or they really could 'beam-up' from one place to another in Startrek.

The tense of your question is wrong. It should be "What was the secret of Coronation Street's success?", the answer is it had strong characters (mainly female). The storylines were credible and often half hour dramas which were plays in their own right. The actors (not stars!) adopted their characters personas and had to remain true to them.

Today it is not the same alas, like Eastenders it is issues driven, the characters have "superstar" hairstyles, are mainly poor actors and the scripts are weak and predictable.

The show was often at its best when no major event was taking place, it was character building and character interactions that made it a beautiful piece of drama. "Are them barn cakes fresh?"

"82. At 6:00pm on 09 Dec 2010, Lord Rant wrote:
I Suppose if it was ever on our TV the Goldfish just might watch

But: There again the Goldfish as the right mentality..2



Now, now. Goldfish have been proven not to be as stupid as originally thought. (I shall probably now be removed for being off topic.)

But if the Goldfish are compelled to watch, perhaps the RSPCA should be notified!

In a word "identity", since it`s humble beginnings, has`nt it always mirriored meticulously the typical British psyche. I mean that`s what Britain is about, one big oscar performing soap.

I gave the show a chance to hook me 50 years ago, the first episode did nothing for me so I watched no more. Perhaps in a year or two when I have given up on real life activities I will sit down and watch other peoples (ficticious) lives.
More likley I shall take out more Library books.

38, Wyn wrote;

As a self-confessed snob......
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Wyn apply for an audition, I think you would make a cracking good new Ena Sharples, sadly missing in Street.

what better subject for a storyline....a script writers dream....its simply a street,,,like all streets,,ever changing,,,,mixed,,,could be anywhere,,,,stories can change as society changes,,,people come and go like in all streets,,,,births ,,deaths,,marriges,,,,its just a street.
Ho by the way,,,last time I watched it elsie tanner was in it.

WHY is it a success?

It appeals to the all walks of life, but particularly the intellectually challenged; those content with a humdrum life; those who have a humdrum life who want to see a portrayal of an exciting version of one; those who watch other similar soap operas from around the world; journalists of a certain age; and rich people who think that all the poor live like this or should live like this; and above all those who live in dreary places that remind them of the Street.

Most probably because a lot of people believe in fairy tales ...myself I never quite took to little miss muffet