Viewers snubbing Coronation Street over violent storylines? - Daily TV round-up

Fans of 'Coronation Street' are thought to be turning their back on the show following a series of violent storylines.

5.94 million watched the double episode on Friday night, according to the Daily Mirror, one of its lowest ever recorded audiences.

The long-running ITV soap is currently deep into the Tina McIntyre murder plot, which saw a new twist thrown into the mix last week.

But it's the latest in a long line of deaths and other violent incidents on the Street, including the rape of Carla Connor by Frank Foster in 2012, and the tram crash in 2010.

In all there have been 17 violent deaths in the show in four years.

[Ex-Corrie actor wins cheese deal]

One viewer said: “The murder rate is worse than the Bronx. Corrie should get back to what it does best – gentle Northern humour.”

Another added on Twitter: “Chances of dying violently in it must be about one in three.”

The lowest ever audience rating for the show was in 2009, when 5.42 million tuned in on Easter Sunday in 2009.

The show peaked with its audience in 1987, when 26.6 million people watched Hilda Ogden's final episode on the show.

But Jean Alexander, who played Ogden for over 20 years, said recently that she does not watch the show anymore due to its content.

“The only stories they seem to have in mind is who’s jumping into whose bed next. I lost interest somehow,” she told the Daily Mirror.

“Things have to move on, I know, but in the days of Hilda Ogden, Annie Walker and co, the Street was gentle, funny and human. The humour has all but gone out of it.”

Roy Barraclough, who played Alec Gilroy in the show, agreed, recently adding: “I don’t watch the show, it has changed so much now from what it was.

“The characters have changed and it has drifted away from what it used to be – there was a lot of comedy then. In fact I don’t watch any of the soaps.

“They all follow each other, one outdoing the other. If one has a rape, the other has a rape. It’s a shame.” [Daily Mirror]

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