Friday 24 July 2009

Speak Easy - 2 - When Was The Golden Age Of Coronation Street? Reality Bites - It WASN'T The 1970s!

Back to The Speak Easy, where your views can be heard... Free and easy, bright and breezy, that's Speak Easy.

Christine has been reading up on Corrie history on-line and writes:

I keep reading that the Street's "Golden Age" was the 1970s, I even read it on some DVD blurb, but I disagree. Does nobody remember how bad the first half of that decade was for Coronation Street, and how the show tumbled in the ratings?

Well yes, Christine, I do. Some people seem to feel the need to make out that the 1970s are the be-all-and-end-all in a variety of ways, and I don't quite understand why.

Street historians also need to back up their assertions with more than "a lot of people think the 1970s were Corrie's Golden Age," which is something I've recently read on-line. Why do they? Is it really that many people? Is the belief based on reality? Was it? What do the ratings and media of the time tell you?

Personally, I find the majority of episodes from around 1970-1974 very painful to watch! It was the low point of the Street's career in my humble opinion. And the ratings dropped disastrously. The show's ratings were consistently higher in the 1980s than they were in the 1970s, too. Bill Podmore wrote of the problems the Street was experiencing before he became producer in his 1990 autobiography, Coronation Street - The Inside Story.

My own favourite era is the 1960s - I'm too young to remember, but I've thoroughly enjoyed all the episodes I've seen from that decade. My favourite era as a viewer was from 1976-1983. Things don't have to neatly fit into decades!

And the disappearance of the last of the original 1960s characters marked a new Corrie low point for me.

I run a few blogs - including some about recent decades, and the amount of nonsense I've come across whilst researching the 1970s you wouldn't believe!

It's as though the 1970s are also the 1960s and 1980s.

Strange how some people delude themselves. A lot of what we believe is based on hot air and hype.

And sadly the WWW. has not helped.

Mind you, lovey, here you get only the best information. I mean, would we seek to delude? By the way, the boiled ham's very nice today, and I think I've got some sweet piccalilli in't back...

6 comments:

Chris said...

It was the 60's - that was the sunny golden Corrie time. People talk a load of old cobblers about the 70's. The Street was having serious problems for over half the 70's and was a load of crap until Bill Podmore came to the rescue. Bill Podmore put the humour back.

Anonymous said...

Does it matter what people say? It's all a load of trivia anyway.

Drew said...

When you're stood 'ere behind this counter all day, slaving over hot (but trivial) articles for this blog, you've got to have summat to natter about!

Maria said...

Anonymmous wrote:

"Does it matter what people say? It's all a load of trivia anyway."

It DOES matter. You've got a load of googly eyed little twits bleating about a fantasy 1970s and the current day can go hang! You should read my blog!

Ben said...

Andy

I love this blog, it's FANTASTIC! That's all for now.

Ben.

Drew said...

Well, Ben! Thank you! Please call again!