Coronation Street in new 'plugging' row – Daily TV round-up

'Coronation Street' is embroiled in another alleged plugging row, after a theatre production was mentioned in the show.

Weatherfield cafe owner Roy Cropper spoke of having tickets for a real-life show called 'Midnight Tango' in an episode last week, just before the show began a five-day run in Manchester.

The show stars 'Strictly Come Dancing' dancer Flavia Cacace, who is engaged to actor Jimi Mistry.

Mistry is set to join the show later this year.

[Dispatches to broadcast Corrie Twitter sting]

A spokesperson for the show said: “The episode script was written long before Jimi Mistry was even approached.

“It is untrue to suggest there is any connection between the two.”

But an industry source told The Sun that 'it does seem an incredible coincidence'.

“They clearly plugged a commercial business run by Flavia to more than eight million people, three weeks after her fiancé is announced as a new show character,” the source added.

“Even if it was by chance, they should have realised there was a clear conflict of interests and re-edited the scene.”

Cacace even tweeted thanks to the show for the plug, saying: “Thank you @itvcorrie for our @VFMidnightTango mention, can’t believe it but thank you xx.”

At the time of the broadcast, tickets were still available for the shows, and the mention may have breached Ofcom guidelines over the promotion of products.

It's the second run-in 'Coronation Street' has had with the alleged promoting of products by stars of the show.

Channel 4 documentary strand 'Dispatches' is to broadcast a sting on some members of the cast, after they set up a fake cosmetics brands and invited the likes of Brooke Vincent and Catherine Tyldesley to attend a promotional event, which they later tweeted about. [The Sun]

Also in today's press

'Top Gear' has been accused of faking scenes in a recent episode of the show, after seemingly unsuspecting diners at a riverside restaurant were soaked by a transit van converted into a hovercraft. The diners and 'outraged observers' of the stunt, it transpired, were in fact actors. A BBC spokesperson has said that viewers of the show are 'intelligent enough not to have been taken in'. [Daily Mirror]

Filming of Channel 4 show 'What Happens In Kavos' has been suspended, according to reports, following allegations that the show's crew were offered 'a special prize' for finding girls who used the morning after pill 'as a form of contraception' and targeted the sexual exploits of young holidaymakers at the Corfu resort. A boss at Dragonfly Productions, which makes the show, said: “We have apologised to Channel 4 and halted production so we can regroup the team in London, investigate and fully understand how this happened.” [The Sun]

'Emmerdale' fans have reacted angrily over 'disturbing' scenes in the show last week in which character Gennie Sharma was rammed off the road and then smothered by murderer Cameron Murray all before the 9pm watershed. Ofcom has said that it has received 'many' complaints over the scenes. [Metro]