I had watched it since I was a child and had been 'hooked' on the relationships and all the happenings and dramas in The Street, it's melancholy wailing theme tune drawing me to the box at 7.30 each Monday and Wednesday evening. Yes, just Monday and Wednesday and I think that was enough! Perhaps part of the demise of the programme, in my opinion, is that it is stretched far too thin and the writers are making it impossibly unbelievable. It is based on a street in Manchester! Can so many things really happen to the residents on one street? Do we the viewing public, really expect and want these impossibly dramatic things to be screened every other night of the week with a break for another "Holiday?Hotel/Wifeswap-from-hell type programme in between screenings?
The train crashes, murders, deaths, funerals, criminal goings on, men becoming women, homosexual relationships....are they really what the viewers want? I remember the scurrilous tongue of Ena Sharples and Dennis Tanner being wrongly accused of stealing from his mum's purse and Len Fairclough's death being high drama and realism enough for me in yesteryear. It was realistic because, if I remember correctly, Len had actually died in real life and so had to be written out of the script!
All of human nature is here, but do we really want to explore the deepest depths that man can sink to in a programme that is screened well before the 9pm 'watershed'? Is there something wrong with me longing for the gentle, largely uneventful tracking of the relationships that develop and mature in a neighbourhood? If I were to write a programme based on Ripley Terrace the closest I would get to murder would be the murderous looks I give to the cats, yet the lives of the people on the terrace,and their inter-relationships are still well worth telling. And yes, there would be moments of drama - births, deaths, accidents...but all part of the tapestry of life as it is really lived. A gentle programme that would enrich my life by watching, would mirror some of my own experiences and enhance me rather than remind me of how terrible life can be.
So, 'Coro' be gone.
I continue to watch Emmerdale. Perhaps because it is more rural and although it has had some sensational storylines I have been more tolerant of them as I thought they were stories worth thinking about. But now...why does the impossible 'kidnap' of Jacob have to be the next storyline? It is going the way of all soaps, or perhaps was always so and I was a bit too biased.
I think the beginning of the end came when they changed the filming of the opening credits. Replacing the aerial shots of the rolling greenery of our beautiful county we now have allusions to dirty dealings and treachery - clothing strewn on the floor and trailing towards the stairs and a woman stroking a man's leg with her foot beneath the table! All far too suggestive for a programme that starts at 7pm. (Even if she does seem to miss the man and stroke the table leg!)
So, Emmerdale, I think your days are numbered!
All part of the process of clearing away the dross. I have a life to live here on the terrace. That'll do for me!
You are right Beverly, all soaps seem to go the same way,don't they? We get enough sensation just watching the news each day although they always seem to concentrate on the bad news rather than the good. Years ago I read about an area in America that rebelled against it all, and only published good news - result was that their very high suicide rate dropped dramatically. Perhaps we should write to the BBC and suggest it????? Love Pam xx
ReplyDeleteI like. Well written and I agree, as God is cleaning away the dross our eyes begin to open and as you say it, we have work to do. We don't need to "meditate" on the state of man's soul, we meditate on the work of God in a man who give's over to Him soul.
ReplyDeleteKeep on writing, I look forward to the next "episode" ;-)