has charmed the nation since it first aired way back in 1960 – and it’s been one of my favourite soaps for decades.
But if writers on the continuing drama don’t change one thing heading into 2025, I’m tempted to switch off for good.
Soaps are for a certain type of person – or for a certain type of mood. When I don’t fancy a gritty drama or a straight-out sitcom, when I want my story endings tied up in a neat bow and the baddies behind bars or six feet under, I turn to a soap.
When I want some light comic relief mixed in with a whodunnit element or just to be secure in the knowledge that despite everything looking a bit tragic right now, it’ll get better down the line.
just isn’t scratching that itch for me anymore. Where long-spanning whodunnit plots used to be progressed in a logical way – before reaching a definite conclusion – those plots are now getting muddied with strange breaks in between and characters acting, well, totally out of character.
Don’t miss…
If Coronation Street doesn’t make a big change, I’ll turn off (Image: ITV)
Take this year’s storyline with Joel and Lauren. It starts out with a missing girl – who has taken Lauren and where is she now? With Roy behind bars, I was kept on my toes long enough to wonder if the soap legend was going to be taken in his original direction of creep – before, plot twist, he was declared innocent.
Then Lauren rocks back up in Weatherfield, and in such an underwhelming way I found I didn’t care what happened to her. The revelation she’d been dating Joel seemed completely random except for the gift of a necklace – and nobody seemed outraged enough that a grown man had been grooming a teenager.
Instead, DeeDee seemed to blame Lauren for the affair, while Lauren having a baby with this adult lawyer was totally brushed off because of course the 17-year-old wants to bring up a child on her own.
Then Joel disappears, turns up dead, and… I just didn’t care. The plot wasn’t set out like a classic whodunnit in the days of Tina McIntyre’s death or Adam bludgeoned in the Bistro.
The recent whodunnit storylines have been falling flat (Image: ITV)
Sure, we’ve got the tense, beautifully filmed flashback scenes. But the fact that these whodunnits are only encompassing such a small part of the cast, while the majority of the street seems completely unaffected by the ongoing murder investigation a few doors down.
While we’re at it – I’m ready to plead with bosses to stop killing off the best characters. Paul’s MND storyline was heartbreaking in all the right places, yes, but Paul was such an interesting character who could have gone on to play a part in so many new storylines if he’d been allowed to stay in the show.
The same with Debbie Webster. With bosses planning to give her dementia – which will, inevitably, result in her death – one of the strongest women in the street will be gone, and we’ll have to rely on Carla Connor’s budding romance with Lisa Swain if we want a break from whiny Leanne and Daisy’s doe-eyed flirting.
Maybe the show needs a bit more pizazz. Bring back someone from the dead. Introduce a long-lost twin to revive Kylie Platt star Paula Lane in the soap where she belongs. Stage another disaster like the tram crash and cut off some of the dead wood.
So, bosses – sort it out, please. Or you’ve lost a viewer for 2025.