How Coronation Street’s new boss can save the iconic soap and put it back to its best

Coronation Street – we are obsessed with it at Metro.co.uk. Always have been, always will be. And, it’s because of this warm love we have for the British institution that we intricately assess it at all times.

Recently, Emmerdale producer Kate Brooks was confirmed to be moving across the cobbles as the new boss, overseen at a distance by former Corrie honcho Iain MacLeod.

Kate has been behind a lot of Emmerdale’s biggest storylines, which landed the show an era of non-stop awards and critical acclaim. We’re talking Marlon’s stroke, Paddy’s depression and the delightfully camp serial killer Meena.

Hopes are high and fans are eager for the plans she will bring to the table. And, of course, we have our own thoughts on the soaps desk here at Metro.co.uk.

Here, four of the gang deliver their thoughts on where Corrie could strengthen up. It’s no secret that ratings have fallen (although the show remains a well deserved success for ITV) and there is much discussion around the current output potentially being quite exhausting with three weekly hour long episodes packed with crime and misery.

From the recovery of forgotten relationships and the need for more warmth, to representation issues and suggestions for filming locations, here are our demands.

Soaps Editor Duncan Lindsay says…

Coronation Street is one of my most beloved and warming shows of all time, but for me, the heart has been lost for a good while now. Watching Classic Corrie on ITV2 has been filling far more time in my life than is healthy, but it is a genuine treat which the current era just hasn’t been delivering for me.

Many may argue that nostalgia plays a heavy part in this – to an extent that’s true, it certainly had many flaws and dud stories and moments in the past – but I can’t find any way to argue that the Corrie of new holds a candle to it.

There is so much talent on the show, with some of the best actors and writers in the industry, so there’s no reason that with some solid tweaking, the show can’t enter its next golden age. In the same breath, I would argue that the cast is simply too big, and that many characters just sit on the sidelines for years at a time. Hello, iconic Debbie Webster.

That’s not for lack of storylines – the show is packed, too much so that it is at the detriment of aftermath. It’s bang, bang, bang then onto the next one, which is exhausting.

That’s not really the fault of the creatives to a large degree; the pressure is on to fill hour long episodes (don’t get me started, ITV) that need to be engaging and boast endless cliffhangers. Add to that pressures of things like Britain’s Got Talent week and Super Soap Week, it’s a difficult job for bosses to hit the pause button.

But slowing down is exactly what Corrie fans, very much myself included, are crying out for.

Right now on ITV2, we have one or two big, dramatic plots running at a slow and careful pace. And at the same time, we have arcs such as Jack Duckworth recruiting for a bowls team, and the pensioners protesting against a statue of Alf Roberts. These stories are brimming with cutting dialogue, warmth and conflict and a fabulous and very relatable group of characters not engaged in crime, debauchery and heartache.

For the painful stories to be effective, we need the juxtaposition delivered by comedy and everyday events. Corrie still has comedy, I will fight on that hill, but too much of it is slapstick buffoonery rather than subtle stories peppered with brilliant dialogue.

There is not really much room for it. In the last months, we have had an acid attack, a terminally ill show favourite declining through MND, non-consensual sex, a teen missing and assumed murdered, gangsters committing endless crimes, alcoholism, a serial killer, bullying and knife crime and a gambling addiction.

It’s too much misery at once and these storylines, most of them individually strong, are not given the space to breathe and are consequentially rushed to the end.

Corrie does issue based storylines so very well – Aidan’s suicide literally changed my life – so they should definitely continue. But not at the expense of fun, warmth and forgotten character relationships. Do we ever really see Maria interact with her brother Kirk? What happened to BFFs Sally and Gail?

Kate Brooks is an incredibly talented producer who oversaw a golden, award-winning era at Emmerdale so my hopes are high. Changes can’t be made overnight and Corrie is far from on the skids for me. With a bit of love and care, it can regain its special identity rather than acting as a rival for the misery of EastEnders and Brookside.

Oh, and bring back queen of camp Mad Maya. That’s a demand, not a wish.

Soaps Reporter Calli Kitson says…

My love for Coronation Street developed because every evening, it would feel like I was catching up on people’s lives in Weatherfield. It wasn’t just a show, I was sitting down to see what the Weatherfield residents are up to in their day-to-day lives. This vital component, sadly, has lost its way in recent years.

When I think of Coronation Street, I think of real-life, hard hitting storylines like the hate crime attack on Nina and Seb, or Aidan Connor’s suicide.

I don’t think of Damon Hay and Harvey Gaskell’s endless crimes or Summer Spellman being held hostage by couple desperate to have a baby. I think of the power Coronation Street has to change lives by airing a storyline that is relatable and makes people feel heard – which doesn’t happen when we – once again – watch Sarah Platt fall for the wrong man, or see Stu Carpenter pay off the father of his grandchild.

Don’t get me wrong, Coronation Street is a drama so elements that are somewhat left-field do create a balance, but I hope Kate Brooks recognises the balance, right now, is way off.

Narratives like Paul Foreman’s MND or Liam Connor’s bullying have been powerful and are important, but sometimes they’re overshadowed by the absurdity of Daisy Midgeley stealing money from dead Stephen Reid or Steve McDonald realising his footballing hero has been sleeping with his wife.

That needs to change.

Soaps Reporter Maisie Spackman says…

Over the years, one thing Coronation Street has struggled with is its lesbian representation. Almost every lesbian relationship on the show has ended in cheating or death – not an accurate portrayal of most real-life lesbian couples.

When Nina Lucas and Asha Alahan’s relationship began to show signs of following the same pattern, I was devastated, especially given that their love story was the catalyst to my own coming out.

It is an all too familiar pattern in soaps, and I’m only grateful that this one didn’t play into the ‘bury your gays’ trope.

However, with Nina and Asha still on the scene, and the recent introduction of DS Lisa Swain as a regular character, there is still plenty of scope to explore more sapphic relationships – preferably ones with a happy ending.

With the show having only just seen its first gay wedding when Billy Mayhew and Paul Foreman tied the knot in 2023, I would love to see a successful lesbian wedding under Kate Brooks’ reign.

LGBTQ+ representation as a whole is so important in soap, and Coronation Street has been a leading force in the past, particularly when it comes to transgender issues. Unfortunately, when it comes to lesbians, it just hasn’t lived up to its potential, though I am hopeful that that can change.

Soaps Reporter Michael Adams says…

I think the first priority should be for the show to find its heart again. It seems that scenes where characters sit down in the Rovers and dwell on their day are of a bygone era.

There was a time when things would play out across the course of a day, but now it seems that every scene just happens, irrespective of the day of the week the episode airs on or the time in which a scene is set. It can often be seen as a constant cycle of misery as the characters leap from one trouble to another. Give them a break.

Places such as the Chariot Square Hotel have allowed us to see more of the fabulous Debbie Webster and the police station has introduced us to the marvellous DS Swain, but there seems to be too much reliance on places that are alien to a casual or returning viewer – the focus should be the Street.

I’m not saying cut location filming entirely, in fact I’d welcome seeing nearby roads which were commonplace in previous decades. But the reliance on the backlot set and neighbouring Salford Quays is draining.

We need Weatherfield cemented back into Greater Manchester, like when we’d see a character drive down a real Salford street before turning onto Coronation Street.

Tony Warren’s vision was to concentrate on strong, Northern women. Groups like ‘The Six’ in EastEnders have shown that these pairings can be incredibly successful, and criminally underused characters such as Debbie and Glenda should be at the heart of the soap.

Sidenote: There’s also long forgotten connections that could be explored again – when was the last time we saw the mother and daughter bond between Rita and Sally?

Even before Jennie McAlpine’s maternity leave, why are brother and sister Fiz and Chesney rarely seen together? Does Gail have any interactions outside of No. 8?