User reviews

I once rated this legendary soap as the best drama series ever made! It had everything...great characters, superb storylines, lots of laughs intermingled with some hard hitting and serious plots. A wonderful programme, it was peerless, no other series came close. It was quite easily a 10/10.

Then the slow decline started from the late 90s. It remained a good show though, despite losing its unequalled dominance...but the rot set in deeper and deeper until it is now just another British soap that is using murder and mayhem to shock us into watching. Gone is the comedy that set it apart from other soaps. Gone are most of the legendary characters. Gone is the superb acting where just a raise of the eyebrows told us all we needed to know. It has been replaced with shouty, unpleasant characters, serial killings galore, forced and unfunny "comedy" lines and unbelievable nonsensical plots.

They maintain some decent performances with a few of the characters from the old days still there flying the flag for this iconic show. But I dread what the show will become when the very last one of them finally leaves. With regret, it will probably die a natural death and be removed from our screens.

That would be a sad day indeed.

I've joyfully sat through some of the classic years on Britbox, 10/10 quality viewing, with glorious characters, uplifting storylines, it represented pure escapism, it was watched by huge audiences, it was wonderful.

Skip forward to 2020..........

What on Earth have they done to it, why on Earth do people watch it, what a horrible, trashy show. You wonder why on Earth people don't move away from the place, murder, arson, rape... Is this the teatime entertainment people want to sit down and watch? Clearly not, as millions have switched it off.

Dear writers, the occasional, big storyline is great, but every other week? Please tone it down, add a little more fun into it, you never know, people may switch it back on.

1990 9/10 2020 3/10

Fair score 6/10.

There was a time, when I used to look forward to watching Coronation Street, but those days are no more. There are a number of reasons for the decline in the show, to understand them you have to seperate the show into two eras - before and after Eastenders! The soap was significantly different before February 1985 - the year that Eastenders began. The characters were likable and you warmed to them, the stoylines were almost an issue free environment. In order to compete with the new kid on the block, the establshed characters, and their storylines became darker. New, more realistic characters were introduced, in the begining they worked quite well. We are talking about the period from 1989 to the early nineties. The episodes increased from twice a week, to the six we have in the modern era. The quality of the writing and acting has fallen dramatically. Many of the modern storylines are issue led, which can make for tedious viewing. I can't tell whether I am watching Eastenders or Brookside sometimes!. The show has become a shadow of it's former self,

Watching an episode of coronation Street now is like watching a party political broadcast for the Green party, its covering too many topical subjects all at the one time. Watching TV should be a form of relaxing entertainments not constantly preaching about how to live our life's.

Is it really necessary to make every woman over the age of fifty a bumbling idiot. Gail and Sally have become impossible to watch, two once strong independent women are a pair of clowns and figures of fun.

Shame on you coronation street.

This believe it or not was once a good soap. The last 10 years though it has seriously declined badly.

I used to be a huge fan of Coronation Street and would defend it to the hilt .. it was based around ordinary people doing ordinary things .. shopping, gossiping in the pub or on the street with lots of laughs and witty dialogue and some occasional high drama .. I sadly gave up on Corrie in 2011 when yet another serial killer to live in the street, John Stape, fell off a hospital roof, which was at least 5 floors or so, onto concrete and got up and walked away. That was the last straw for me and I haven't watched it since. The producers now seem to think they are making a Hollywood film al la Die Hard ... whenever I read about current storylines in the TV magazines it seems to be full of serial killers, psychopaths, revenge and general nastiness. Ena, Minnie, Annie, Albert, Elsie, Len, Stan and Betty etc ... must be spinning in their graves. Too many episodes with too many characters all needing something to do .. usually killing !!! The golden goose has sadly died.

Coronation Street might not be as bad as some other soap operas like Emmerdale, & EastEnders, but don't confuse that with Coronation Street being good.

I grew up watching it in the 70's and 80's when it was a truly wonderful programme.

I have now reached the point where I have decided to watch it no longer, it is truly lamentable.

Ridiculous storylines that seem to go on forever, poor acting from younger cast members, ham fisted attempts at humour, there's just nothing to recommend it now.

If I were Ken, Roy, Audrey or Brian, I'd be getting out pronto.

O.

Corrie has changed since the early 60s in good ways and bad ways i didn't like it during the black and white days and the early 70s but from the late 70s to the early 2010s it never lost it touch and was a comedy about people living everyday life but now its about murder and rape how TV has changed.

I was four years old when i first viewed Coronation Street (the episode being Stan and Hilda's second honeymoon in 1977) and immediately (even at such a young age) I hoped that this show would run forever (and by the looks of it, it will!). Im 33 now and during the past nearly 3 decades I have witnessed many changes to the soap. characters have gone (Annie Walker, Elsie Tanner and Hilda and Stan Ogden to name but few) but despite many more adult story lines one key thing remains the same and thats that essentially this is a programme about a huge nucleus of people living in the same community dealing with their own problems and being there for each other (a good example of this is the relationship between the Barlow's and Emily Bishop who is always there for them).

Sure it shows the negative side of life as there have been many baddies walk the weatherfield cobbles (Alan Bradley, Charlie Stubbs and of course Richard Hillman amongst others) but mixed with that is plenty of humour like when Jack (Vera's husband) tried dating several years ago only for Vera's to find out of bet lynch and use her handbag to clobber him out of the rovers return.

The rovers return is the focal point of the programme. Everybody meets here and it is here that some of Corrie's finest acting moments have took place. There have been many fights in the rovers but the best ones have to be the fights between Ken Barlow and Mike Baldwin. Mike had an affair with Ken's wife Deidrie in 1983 and right up to Mikes death last year Ken never really forgave him. Story lines like this are what keeps Corrie firmly stuck in reality and may it be part of our reality for many years to come. God bless Corrie.

I never use to watch this because the Hayley Cropper character remind me too much of my ex who also use to be a man. Since she has left the show I find it much more enjoyable and it has helped me move on with my life

Don't bother watching this nonsense and just stick to classic Corrie, back when it was actually good and enjoyable to watch. Corrie has seriously gone down the pan over recent years and has completely lost its way.

TV is a fickle business and never more so than in one of its dramatic mainstays - the humble soap.

Getting the balance between comedy and drama can be a tricky affair, not to mention having (and keeping) a cast of likeable characters who make you want to tune in for more week after week.

While Eldorado and Albion Market failed to capture the imagination of the nation, there are others that manage to shrug off the birth pangs, cope with a difficult adolesence and settle down while seizing the heart of the nation.

In case you didn't know it, Corrie is 40 this year and as one of the world's longest running soaps it has earned its place in the record books.

It began not with a bang but with a whimper.

The opening scenes are still etched in the mind of creator Tony Warren, who developed the show while still a mere slip of a lad. Mrs Lappin slipped a coin into a bubblegum machine outside her corner shop, and Ena Sharples, scowling like a bulldog beneath THAT hairnet, demanded: "Are those fancies today's? I'll take half a dozen - and no eclairs. NO eclairs."

Lest we forget, the show gave rise to some of the best actors and writers in the business, including Joanna Lumley, Ben Kingsley and The Royle Family's much loved mate, Twiggy (Geoffrey Hughes).

Scriptwriters like Jack Rosenthal (Yentl, London's Burning) and Frank Cottrell Boyce (Jude, Hillary and Jackie) gave us dialogue and scenes that went above and beyond the realms of most shows while it enlivened many a dull night's TV by its very presence alone.

Over the years, we have relished the clashes between Ena (Violet Carson) and Elsie (Pat Phoenix), thrown soft furnishings at the TV while dithery Derek (Peter Baldwin) and Mavis (Thelma Barlow) tested the patience of saints and wept buckets as Judy Mallett (Gaynor Faye), Des Barnes (Phil Middlemiss) and most of Ken Barlow's (William Roache) wives became another statistic in the suspiciously high list of Weatherfield residents who met their maker far too early.

This year has been as unmissable as any in its four decade history with the Tony Horrocks murder and the 'Martn' (Sean Wilson) and Rebecca (Jill Halfpenny) affair coming to a head, not to mention Jez (the excellent Lee Boardman) and Alison (Naomi Radcliffe) reaching a sticky end as polar opposite characters both cut short by some brutal scripting.

The Street has become so ingrained in people's hearts that, over the years, many have lost sight of that thin line between fact and fiction.

When Elsie Tanner was lying unidentified in a London hospital after being knocked down by a taxi, viewers wrote to her husband to tell him where she was.

Dozens of women took up their knitting needles to make dustman Eddie Yates a new woolly hat when his own was shredded in the washing machine, and when Ena lost her post as secretary of the Glad Tidings mission, the job offers flooded in.

People have even tried to book Christmas parties at the Rovers Return and rent the houses which become vacant in Britain's most celebrated terraced street. Former producer Bill Podmore once said: 'All over the country, old terraces like Coronation Street are disappearing, but a change in the Street could destroy the roots of the programme, because the architecture is as much a part of its character as the people.'

But it was regular script writer Harry Kershaw who summed up it's enduring popularity and extraordinary success both at home and abroad. 'Coronation Street is about life,' he said, 'and life has its universal situations, its problems and laughter; therefore it has an international appeal.'

We have laughed, cried and run screaming by the sight of hamster-faced Gail (Helen Worth) and the haircut from Hell, poodle-haired Liz (Beverley Callard) dressing like a woman half her age and Mike Baldwin (Johnny Briggs) working his way through the Street's female residents. How long can all this go on?

Well, as long as Granada keep hiring some of the best cast and crew in the business while putting a fresh spin on age old stories of love, lust, infidelity and, in Fred Elliott's case, fine meat products, let's hope it never ends.

This used to be a top class soap opera. Was watching this from the late 70's till the early 2000's, then it slowly became a very childish show. Since the pandemic they must of sacked the scriptwriters and now just write stuff in their tea break. Nothing is researched so they are so many mistakes its indescribable nonsense. People seem to be able to go off to other Countries without packing their bags and most of the time without a Visa nor passport. Non plausible story lines, mixed with the most wooden acting to ever grace the TV screen. The actors have no character building put in place, the dire sets, the pub that only serves orange juice with less than 2 people on set at any time, every character has a heart problem, Also they are so many births that go wrong its like a third world sit com, dont watch it.

Much loved by many, this show from being part of the nation has become unfit for human enjoyment or entertainment at the hands of the ITV bosses, it's not even fit enough to be flushed down the toilet !!! I used to be a great fan, never missing an episode, enjoying the great acting, story lines and the whole corrie universe, now it has been hit hard on two fronts in the last couple of years, which i can only presume that the ITV heads are wanting to end the series or sell it on. Although the acting is generally good and far superior to other TV Soaps, the two major points in it's continued downfall are as follows ... Point 1 Scheduling by ITV ... ITV have absolutely no care for Corrie episode planning, we go to moves such as 9 - 9.30pm start times to make way for X-Factor finals, to complete cancellations for football, even changes from 30 mins to one hour episodes to make way for Lewis etc, with the added enjoyment of the announcer forgetting to inform us of when the next episode is .... oh well, there answer is go to the HUB and watch catch up TV, no i think if you don't care why should i? Point 2 Script .... the script writing is absolutely horrendous and completely unbelievable, well loved characters suddenly becoming killers, level headed persons becoming serial bigamists, criminals becoming saints ... if i want to watch Game Of Thrones then i watch the good stuff not cheap TV wannabe! On the whole the show has become a real let down, with the odd occasion that has inspiration but generally annoying and dull. After i broke the addition i now find it very very easy not to watch Corrie, plenty other things to do and watch, ITV if you don't care then i don't !

I have watched this, irregularly for the first ten years , but for the last 30 years have rarely missed an episode. It is part of Tuesdays & Thursdays. I usually have a crossword or sudoku at the same time, but it is something to look forward to. Nobody phones at that time.

I admit that Coronation Street does vary in quality from time to time. There are far more unlikeable characters now - Charlie, Tracy, Cilla and David for example, & some of the story lines drag on and on, but there are so many moments of brilliant dialogue, such as Rita's put downs of Norris, and some of the discussion between Kirk & the lovely Fizz. We are a year behind in New Zealand but it doesn't seem to matter if you read of what's happening in English magazines or the Internet. Here's to another 30 years!

It is bad and the storylines are worse as they make money and exploit peoples real life stories

Actors/actress are old or so bad

Please let this awful show die

Coronation Street is now nearing its 50th birthday and even today it remains one of Britain's most popular series. The reason for its continuous popularity is very simple. It has good story lines, humor and wit, drama and tension, colorful characters, excellent lightning and direction, simple locations and it evokes the majority's emotions on a weekly basis.

These things are very simple and most soap operas incorporate them but Coronation Street has the upper hand continuously because they juggle all them in every episode and there is never central focus on any particular theme it is all dealt with equality of division.

The star of the show is not the actors or the story lines but the characters. When people tune in they do not do so to watch Bruce Jones who plays Les Battersby but they do so to watch Les Battersby. Les Battersby and the other characters have become as real as the actors that are playing them and in most cases more famous. The characters are wonderfully written and in most cases portrayed by very talented individuals who seldom over act but are willing. They successfully cover a wide spectrum of human emotions and their acting ability should be honored considering that being an actor on Coronation Street could sometimes mean story lines that require 24:7 attendances on the set.

The story lines are very good also and they always have two to three separate story lines going at all times. But there will always be a major theme covered over a pro-longed period. At the moment they are dealing with Post-Natal Depression a topic that has been touched upon before in many soaps but not as vividly as it has been done in Coronation Street. Not only is it a hooking storyline but also it is very educational on it can manifest itself in different people and the adverse effect it can have on the families and friends that are involved.

Coronation Street has consistently been the publics favorite for many years because of it's down to earth approach to characters and story lines but it only loses out to other soaps because it has a reluctance to over do it with crime or natural disaster stories. It does from time to time have larger than life story lines consisting of serial killers or murders but these are few and far between. Unfortunately it's attempts to keep with up with rival soaps means that it is transmitted four times a week also means that this provides me with my only fault and this is viewers can be over exposed to heavy story lines and this can be quite daunting even for the most hardcore fan. Other than this I would say you could do a lot worse.

This writer needs to look back at the rovers and realise the story lines were made in the pub and cafe Not by one or two people inside.

They are going to loose their great ratings if they don't change.

Bobby coming into Corrie is the worse thing ever... he's awful only seen him in it twice and have already said if he's staying in it I won't watch again.. the way he acts is a joke... but not funny!!

No one acts like that and gets away with it, but it's so false so annoying !!

It's an instant turn off.

Get rid or get off!!!

And to think he can come into Corrie as soon as Peter left was a big mistake!!

The worse decision ever the worse acting the worse scenes.

Sorry but Corrie is trailing so far behind eastenders this has not helped at all.

I already want to turn over soon as he's I actually say out load oh no!!!

In America, we get the depressing and unattractive grim EastEnders rather than the funny and tragic Coronation Street. I was watching the first five episodes of Coronation Street on DVD yesterday. It was worth it. I love watching the original episodes and I followed it by the documentary of its 40 year celebration. I love watching the great Violet Carson as Ena Sharples and Doris Speed as Annie Walker. I was born in the seventies. Sadly, early Coronation Street is very much like the early days of American soaps like As The World Turns and Guiding Light. Coronation Street should run another 40 years! It is well written, conceived, and thought about. I was wondering why they only get MBEs like Betty Driver, Doris Speed, Tony Warren, Julie Goodyear, William Roache, Elizabeth Dawn, Jack Howarth, etc. It is because the working class recipients are often awarded the MBEs too. I think people like Tony Warren would have gotten Knighthood for giving Coronation Street to the world. When it comes to the British honors system, they lump the soap stars into MBE's only. While Coronation Street outnumbers EastEnders Wendy Richard and Barbara Windsor with MBE recipients, there are more that should be honored for their contributions. Emmerdale has no recipients that I know of and that is a shame. When the prime ministers award them, they should get the royal treatment like everybody else. So Judi Dench is given damehood for playing Shakespearan roles, what about the marvelous Elizabeth Dawn who has done so much charitable work in Leeds and Manchester? There is even the class system of actors in America, soap stars are on the bottom of the awards ladder much like Coronation Street and EastEnders. They rarely get the recognition that they richly deserve. It would be nice to see someone to get a higher than an MBE which is a tremendous honor in itself anyway. But come on, William Roache has been on 45 years and he has only an MBE? Besides I think the British public would support them anyway and love them anyway. I think the entire cast should all get MBEs, anybody who has lived long enough on Coronation Street deserves recognition from their peers and from the community. So I wish Coronation Street and EastEnders and Emmerdale to receive the same honors that their alumni actors and actresses have received. Come on it's time to reward them.