Is there corona in Coronation Street?
Apr. 29th, 2020 12:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
blogcutterAt first glance, you would think that covid 19 had completely bypassed the town of Weatherfield. No one has said a word about it. Nobody wears a mask or uses hand sanitizer. You don't see people queuing up 2 metres apart, waiting to get into Freshco to buy their groceries. At the posh old folks' home where Ken and Claudia and Norris live, no one is falling ill or dropping dead.
What gives? Is this one soap that has thoroughly washed its hands of the pandemic?
There are a few signs to suggest that that's not the case. The production schedule has been scaled back from six episodes per week to three. And while shops and other businesses along the cobbles still appear to be open, we've seen very few crowd scenes lately. No big celebrations in the Rovers or the Bistro. No gaggles of gossiping seamstresses in the knicker factory. Not even the usual frantic to-ing and fro-ing at the Medical Centre or Weatherfield General.
Instead, we see lots of scenes with only one or two characters. Emma sits with Eccles the dog, moaning about the sorry state of her love life. Gemma flops down on the sofa, surrounded by the urgent wailing of babies. From a distance, Chesney calls out, "Right, I'm off to work now." Yasmeen stares glumly at her mobile phone as she comes to terms with the truth of Geoff's abuse. Geoff spies on her electronically from somewhere else as he hooks up with his dating services.
There haven't been any big new story lines in a while. A drama that used to be many times more dramatic than most people's lives is becoming positively humdrum!
I'm not sure how this will play out over the next few months. Will they start relying more on old footage and reminiscences and videos left to heirs by now-dead characters? Will they eventually incorporate the pandemic into new story lines? Will they entirely suspend the filming of new episodes? I'm betting that they will at the very least want to prepare something for the show's 60th anniversary in December.
What gives? Is this one soap that has thoroughly washed its hands of the pandemic?
There are a few signs to suggest that that's not the case. The production schedule has been scaled back from six episodes per week to three. And while shops and other businesses along the cobbles still appear to be open, we've seen very few crowd scenes lately. No big celebrations in the Rovers or the Bistro. No gaggles of gossiping seamstresses in the knicker factory. Not even the usual frantic to-ing and fro-ing at the Medical Centre or Weatherfield General.
Instead, we see lots of scenes with only one or two characters. Emma sits with Eccles the dog, moaning about the sorry state of her love life. Gemma flops down on the sofa, surrounded by the urgent wailing of babies. From a distance, Chesney calls out, "Right, I'm off to work now." Yasmeen stares glumly at her mobile phone as she comes to terms with the truth of Geoff's abuse. Geoff spies on her electronically from somewhere else as he hooks up with his dating services.
There haven't been any big new story lines in a while. A drama that used to be many times more dramatic than most people's lives is becoming positively humdrum!
I'm not sure how this will play out over the next few months. Will they start relying more on old footage and reminiscences and videos left to heirs by now-dead characters? Will they eventually incorporate the pandemic into new story lines? Will they entirely suspend the filming of new episodes? I'm betting that they will at the very least want to prepare something for the show's 60th anniversary in December.
