Makes Brookside Seem Tame
Sensational and Pantomime, not two formats you'd expect to come together, but for producer Steve Frost he's made a career out of turning some of the nations favourite soaps into such things.
Emmerdale, under Frost, started to employ ex-sitcom stars and the slapstick increased. Yet in the same era Brookside-style regular sensational plots were also on the increase, there was a time when soaps would do something dramatic once in a blue moon, under Frost it almost became a monthly event.
Whatever happened to character driven storylines? Under Frost this has also been eroded from Emmerdale, and now, Coronation Street - his latest victim.
Corrie was once renowned for its characters, and how they reacted to situations. Today its about sensational plots and pantomime acting. How times change. Steve Frost has obviously learned a lot from old Corrie and Emmerdale Producer Tony Wood - who also seemed to think sitcom mixed with unrealistic weekly sensation was a great idea.
Sadly young audiences have been fed on such drivel for too long, and now seem to expect big events all the time, caring little for clever dialog or storytelling - wanting just big explosions and clever effects.
Frost Files:
Some of the things our Frosty has done to make soaps a bit too silly-sensational:
* Emmergale - Trisha was killed with chimney, carry-on style effects added to the humour in this plot.
* Clearly annoyed by people suggesting Emmerdale was rubbish, he blew up the rubbish truck in protest.
* Disgusting Jamie-Frankie-Danny "love triangle" He likes his love triangles, maybe he's not getting enough?
* 16-year-old David Platt blackmailing 30-year-old Tracey Barlow to have sex with him. Yuk.
* Yes that other love triangle, Sonny-Sean-Michelle - first bi-sexual story for Corrie.
* The storyline everyone guessed at Christmas - the totally none-shocker expose that baby Holly actually isn't Jason's but is Charlies!
* Recycled plot from the 1960's involving an unexploded WWII bomb being found underneath the Peacock's garden.......which was completely missed by the builders of the late 1980s!
* Bringing back unpopular characters like the vile Vernon and bland Kelly........what about bringing back decent characters?
* The mysterious disappearances of characters for huge peroids of times without any explination being given at all. Worst offenders? Dev and Lloyd who disappear up to six months at a time but still manage to keep abreast of all the gossip - maybe they're watching Corrie at home?
* Claiming Corrie is doing "soap firsts" such as the bisexual love triangles when....er they clearly aren't.
Steve Frost Related News Stories
And Editorials
Unexploded bomb saga for The Street
An unexploded bomb from World War Two will cause havoc on Coronation Street. The bomb is discovered beneath the garden of the Peacocks and the street is evacuated while bomb disposal experts move in.
This is NOT the first time such a storyline has been played out on the street. In the 1960's an unexploded bomb was also found on the other side of the street forcing an evacuation to the Mission centre, where Ena Sharples worked.
Which begs the question just how many unexploded bombs are there under Coronation Street? And why wasn't the peacock one found earlier? Surely when the factory was demolished in the late 1980's and the new houses built the bomb would have been discovered by the builders? Or maybe that will be overlooked by the writers?
Filed 23/02/07 By Douglas Lambert
Yet Another Stereotypical Storyline
Coronation Street is to feature a storyline about a Polish worker at the factory. Actress Wanda Opanlinska will play new factory girl Vicki but her fellow workers won't be happy with her arrival.
Several of the factory girls will apparently rant about "foreign invasion" while the bosses will joke about "little polish pay packets". However, Coronation Street bosses are confident the scenes will not upset viewers despite the recent Big Brother racist row. Although the scenes were filmed before Big Brother began producers are still confident, despite feelings being high over such issues, that fans will not be upset.
At NewsZone we are dismayed at this storyline, not because its racist, but because it is playing up to two stereotypes. It is playing up to the stereotype of foreign workers arriving in Britain and "taking" other people's jobs and playing up to the stereotype of such workers being bullied by their English colleagues. Can't Coronation Street be original and move away from those two stereotypes and try to do a storyline that will do some good, such as showing how the residents on the street help Vicki to adjust to being in England? However, Coronation Street seem to like walking stereotypes as Sean Tully is the perfect example of one.
Filed:28/01/07 By Douglas Lambert
All it takes is a some decent research or a good memory!
Digital Spy are claiming that Coronation Street will feature soap's first bisexual storyline. The news story on the soap page of Digital Spy says:
"Coronation Street will feature soap's first bisexual love triangle in the near future.
"The triangle between Sean (Antony Cotton), Sonny (Pal Aron) and Michelle (Kym Ryder) will make soap opera history when it kicks off, with Sonny admitting he is bisexual."
Nice to see someone at Digital Spy hasn't done their research! EastEnders had a bisexual storyline in 1997 involving Tony Hills, Simon Raymond and Tiffany Raymond. Tiffany was dating Tony before he got together with her brother but Tiffany wasn't so innocent because she was sleeping with Grant. And before we get emails saying that Tony was confused and really gay, he wasn't. Tony admitted he was bisexual before he left the Square with Simon.
More recently it was Family Affairs who featured a bisexual love triangle.
Of course what Digital Spy actually mean is Coronation Street's first bisexual love triangle, not soap in general! And to find out what we think of this bisexual storyline visit our editoral section here.
Filed:17/01/07 By Douglas Lambert
UPDATED:
Quick list of previous bisexual storylines
Steve Frost, Corrie producer, seems to think his upcoming bisexual love triangle, involving the awful Sean (Anthony Cotton) is the first of its kind in soap opera history. Sorry Steve but er we think these guys got there first!
EastEnders:
Tony/Simon/Tiffany - 1997
Sonia/Martin/Namoi - 2006
Emmerdale:
Charity/Chris/Zoe - 2001
Family Affairs:
Mel/Brendan/Sean - 2004
Footballers Wives:
Conrad/Noah/Tanya - Season Three
Crossroads
Bradley/Tracey/Tom - 2001
And they are just the ones we could come up without actually doing any research! So we're a little bit bemused as to why Steve Frost seems to think his bisexual love triangle will be the first such one but then again he did think the Jamie/Frankie Baldwin relationship was a good storyline&ldots;.whereas most viewers thought it was plain sick.
Filed:20/01/07 By Douglas Lambert
Sore Losers AGAIN!
Another award ceremony and another story about the cast of Coronation Street getting stroppy and childish about loosing an award. At the National Television Awards, broadcasted by ITV, and hosted by Sir Trevor MacDonald the Manchester based soap lost the Best Soap award to London rivals, EastEnders.
According to the Sun fuming ITV bosses stormed out of the award ceremony at this point to bitch, rant, rave and stump their feet about loosing the award. A source within ITV is alleged to have said:
""There was no way we were going to sit and clap for a show that's won something that's rightfully ours. EastEnders won after a year when they sank to ratings of just 3.7million. We just walked out into the corridor when EastEnders went up on stage - and cracked open another bottle of bubbly It's just upsetting as EastEnders has a younger audience and they vote by text - while Corrie's audience are a bit older and don't really get to grips with that."
Talk about bad losers but this just proves what many have said for a while now, ITV and Corrie are arrogant and bad losers, they simply expect to win every award going because they misguidedly believe their own hype. This kind of behaviour from the cast of the senior soap, and the executives of ITV, is disgusting, you don't see the casts of Emmerdale, Hollyoaks or The Bill acting in this way. They however, probably understand that its not the winning that matters but all the hard work that went into the soap.
As for the award being rightfully Corrie's, for what may we ask? The senior soap has had a run of appalling storylines lately and is even being criticised by its own cast members, past and present. The current storyline between Frankie, Jamie and Danny Baldwin, supposedly a favourite of producer's Steve Frost, is beyond the realms of good taste while the David Platt storyline has dragged on for far too long. Meanwhile the other characters in the street are rapidly becoming unsympathetic, bland and boring.
After loosing the award to EastEnders the cast of Corrie, those who had travelled down to the awards, snubbed the awards party and went back to their own hotel to have drinks. This isn't the first time such an event has happened, at the SAME award ceremony last year the cast acted exactly the same. And earlier in the year they were fuming after loosing to EastEnders at the National Soap Awards and the Inside Soap awards.
A word of advice for the Corrie cast and ITV executives from all of us at Newzone, grow up and get over yourself. Start making good television because that is what you are paid to do, not to win awards. Put quality over quanity, cut back the amount of episodes each week and stop the spoilt brat routine because that is why you don't win awards, the viewers are simply fed up of you sulking when you don't. When you start to deserve to win the awards again you will.
Daddy Cool?
In a storyline that is sure to cause controversy, and divide opinions, Sean Tully (played by Anthony Cotton) is set to become suggorgate father to Violet and Jamie's child! Violet will discover that she is pregnant but will also find out about Jamie's feelings for Frankie, his step mother. Violet ends their relationship and turns to old pal Sean for support. Sean then agrees to become a father to the child. Sean is also set for some romance when he becomes involved with a friend of the Connor family.
The storyline is sure to cause some press controversy as the conservatives complain about the nature of the storyline, much the same they complain about anything really. However, it will divide opinion amongst Corrie fans. Despite the fact that like to think Sean is a popular character, and really hype him up, many in the Corrie fandom actually dislike the character. They have made their opinions on him very clear in forums, like Digital Spy. This storyline is sure to cause many of them to become even more vocal.
We don't want you back!
Coronation Street fans haven't reacted well to the news that Warren Baldwin (played by Danny Young) and Vernon (played by former EastEnders actor Ian Reddington) are to return to the street. Both characters are tipped to return next month with Warren returning for the Danny/Frankie exit storyline, his return is speculated to be limited to two episodes, while Vernon returns to try and win back Liz MacDonald.
However, on many internet forums fans of the ITV soap have been focal in their dislike of the characters and their returns. This follows on from news last week that Anthony Cotton had signed a two year contract to remain at Coronation Street which also didn't go down too well with some fans. The fans claim that the character of Sean Tully is a poor representative of the gay community and is a walking stereotype, other criticism fall on Anthony Cotton's acting ability.
Another face that is due to return to the Street, and sure to get a mixed reaction one and off screen, is crazy Becky Grainger who is back to cause more trouble. And Craig Charles, who plays Lloyd in the Street, will return after his suspension for drug taking.
Same Old Story
According to The Daily Star the cast of Coronation Street and Emmerdale are up in arms after EastEnders won a string of awards. The London soap also won "Best Soap" for the 10th year running which, according to the paper, prompted angry responses from Corrie and Emmerdale members. An apparent insider said, "It just doesn't make sense. Every year we attract more and more viewers but they still keep winning, who is voting for them?" Another inside, apparently from Corrie, said similar things.
Every time and award ceremony happens and EastEnders does well the papers usually print such a story, but can we trust it? In the past high profile cast members of Coronation Street have been vocal is their anger at EastEnders winning awards and ITV do love to hype their soaps. Just watching an awards ceremony on television is confirmation enough, every time EastEnders wins just watch the faces of SOME of the Corrie cast, not all, just some.
The only problem is here that these insiders, if they indeed exist, have their facts WRONG, hardly surprising. EastEnders nearly always beats Emmerdale by some two million viewers and Coronation Street only just beats EastEnders in the ratings, often or not it's down to slim margins. On several occasions EastEnders have beaten Coronation Street, so the argument that Emmerdale/Corrie do better in the ratings isn't correct. Furthermore what storylines have Coronation Street had this year that are worthy of awards? The only one is Mike Baldwin's demise all the others have fallen well below par.
What's more EastEnders fans care about their soap and they vote where as Emmerdale and Corrie fans just assume that their soaps will win, just like members of their casts. The "insiders" asked who voted for the awards. The answer is the fans and it's the fans that clearly think that EastEnders deserves to win and Corrie/Emmerdale doesn't.
And as a final point you never really read about Hollyoaks or Doctors cast members moaning that they haven't won, do you? Maybe Corrie and Emmerdale cast members just shut up and take a leaf out of their junior's books!
Filed:25/09/06 By Douglas Lambert
Related Facts: ITV always hype it up over winning with Emmerdale in the ratings when both Emmerdale and EastEnders air head-to-head. What ITV fail to point out of course, is the fact EastEnders has a mainstream omnibus for their soap, which Emmerdale has not. (It has repeats on digital, but not on the main channel) so when all the mainstream ratings are added up, EastEnders always wins. A simple case of people watching Emmerdale on the night, and catching up with EastEnders at the weekend.
Paul O'Grady calls Corrie Producer 'Unprofessional'
Steve Frost the producer of Coronation Street - known mainly for turning Emmerdale into a soap full of has-been soap stars and faded sitcom actors - was branded 'unprofessional' by presenter Paul O'Grady live on Channel 4 today.
It follows remarks Frost said to a newspaper about rival soap, EastEnders and one of their storylines involving Downs Syndrome. Paul had spent a number of years before his rise to fame working for social services, and commented that he felt EastEnders had got the story 'spot on.'
Steve Frost's childish and petty comments don't do Coronation Street any favours. It's already been looked upon as a soap out of touch with the real world, his cartoon style of producing isn't going to help matters and trying to divert attention away from the numerous amounts of bad press his show is getting for off-screen debortuary has backfired badly - with viewers and professionals taking a hard look at all the failings of 'ITV's flagship programme'.
You know a programme is in trouble, when even stars still in the series raise concerns about it's quality. Especially those who have been there during its golden years of the 1960s such as William Roache.
Steve Frost and his opinions on other soaps are best kept quiet, especially when his own is in a far worse state storyline and acting talent wise than EastEnders.
Comments from the public include: "I don't think Corrie will have the same credibility whilst he has the helm." "I'm pleased Paul had a go at Steve Frost" "He compared the downs story to Jamie and Frankie in Corrie, how out of touch with the real world is this man?" "Steve Frost hires fallen reality stars and brings us below par storylines, he needs to spend more time watching Coronation St than its rivals.This once mighty soap is fast becoming a laughing stock." and " Where has the quality gone from The Street? Actors like Anthony Cotton (I use the word actor loosely) and that has-been reality star make the show appauling. Steve needs to sort his own show out before calling anyone else."
Filed:25/09/06 By Mike Garrett
I WON'T be back
Sally Lindsey has turned down an offer to return to Coronation Street next year. Her character, Shelley, returns this week for her mother's marriage to Fred Elliot. However, this will be the last time we see her, apparently. Sally Lindsey has decided not to return to the Street, again, for the time being.
Meanwhile Anthony Cotton has agreed to stay on the show until December 2007 in what the tabloids claim is a £200,000 a year contract! They also claim that the character Sean is set to be at the centre of an upcoming explosive plot. More details we get them.
And the street has been rocked by the weekend papers once again. Last week the tabloids claimed that Debra Stephenson and Bradley Walsh (Frankie and Danny Baldwin on the soap) were having a secret affair. This week the papers claim that Rupert Hill and Jenny Platt (Jamie Baldwin and Violet Wilson) are also having an affair. Meanwhile Bradley Walsh appears yet again, this time after being caught in a brothel. See our What the Papers Say section for further details.
Filed:23/09/06 By Douglas Lambert
Update: I might be back, actually
Sally Lindsey told Paul O'Grady today (28/09/06) that she hasn't said she will never return to Coronation Street, however she just wants to take a long break from it. She declined to return next year, but commented that she may come back "sometime, just hopefully not for a while."
Coronation Street Latest News
There have been several Corrie stories over the past few days we haven't reported on as yet so here they are:
Alison King, best known for her role in cult drama Dream Team (Sky One), is set to appear on the street. Alison, who played fan favourite Linda Block in Dream Team, will play the wife of Paul Connor (Sean Gallagher). According to producers she'll be a WAG style character that will cause plenty of drama. Expect to see Alison King on screen from Christmas.
Meanwhile the revelation that Debra Stevenson and Bradley Walsh are having a relationship has had knock on affects for producers. According to the tabloids on Sunday, neither turned up for recording on Monday, with several key scenes due to be filmed.
More importantly however, their departure storyline may have to be re-written. According to the tabloids it was planned for their characters to leave together for Spain but now producers fear the storyline will mirror real life and rewrites could be ordered.
And finally the tabloids reported that Anthony Cotton (Sean Tully in the soap) was demanding a payrise of £15,000 a year to stay with the soap. However, sources close to Anthony have denied this saying his contract is under negotiation at the moment but no such demands have been made.
Filed:20/09/06 By Douglas Lambert
Corrie Producer 'slams' EastEnders
According to the Sun newspaper Corrie boss, Steve Frost, has attacked the standards of acting on EastEnders. He has blasted Emma Barton and Perry Fenwick for their acting in the current Down's syndrome storyline.
Now I haven't seen any of the storyline so I can't comment on that but I can comment on the standard, of lack of, of acting on Coronation Street. The show is currently in a bit of a pickle. The stars are threatening to go on strike because of pay cuts, the busy schedule isn't going down well and the is about to lose so many of its 'popular' faces so maybe Steve Frost should be concentrating on his own show rather than attacking others?
Before we comment on acting on Corrie lets start with storylines. We have the on going saga of David Platt's transformation into devil-boy Damien. The gullabity of Gail is being quite frankly unbelievable. I just don't think she'd believe all the rubbish that David spouts. Then there's the equally boring Marie/Charlie storyline that see's Charlie become even more of a pantomime villain. There's the possibility of Danny and Frankie getting back together, boring and unoriginal! They've done that with Sally and Kevin so why bother doing it again? Currently the producers are trying to make us believe that Jamie Baldwin may be gay, well he's not. He fancies his stepmother, Frankie. In a couple of weeks they even snog, you may want to avoid that scene. All these storylines are hardly reverting stuff and then there's the acting.
Bradley Walsh is wooden and his performance is just totally unbelievable. Anthony Cotton doesn't act on the show at all - he just plays himself. Bill Ward doesn't cut the mustard as Charlie, though that may be due to poor scripts and there are many more who are just rubbish but there to make up the numbers such as Andy Whyment as Kirk, Jimmi Harkishin as Dev and talentless but pretty looking, Sam Robertson as Adam.
So Steve Frost isn't in the position to comment on other soap's acting, especially as he came from Emmerdale, a show he nearly turned into a sitcom.
Filed:20/09/06 By Douglas Lambert
