Would you watch it from the start, if you could?

[cobbles]

A vocal minority of Corrie fans on online forums have been spending the last decade or so since the fiftieth calling for the entire show to be released in order to watch. Initially it was a DVD release when they were still a thing, then couldn't they have done the ITV repeats from the very start, then it was 'surely it could all be on Britbox.'

Some of them have even went to the effort of contacting some of the above organisations to make the desire for this known very clearly - once through email but now mainly messaging them on twitter in periodic obsessiveness. After all if they can do it for Doctor Who surely they can do it for Corrie (it's only an extra 9200+ episodes after all.)

Obviously the benefit of such a release goes beyond those who want to watch the show in full, many would pick up from their childhood era of the show or watch the arcs of the big story-lines unfold.

But the question is how many people have such a diehard interest in the show as to work through the back catalogue. I'd probably have enough interest in the show to do having only seen post 2000 episodes from my own childhood, but knowing full well it would take many years to 'get caught up' and probably watching the current show alongside it. Am I bonkers or would others have interested if a service like Britbox did actually release the episodes from the start?

Even if they released a handful of episodes in order from the beginning a day, it would eventually provide a big back catalogue to watch (gently pushing through each era in a similar way to the 80s/90s repeats on Corrie)

I assume this is the kind of thing only likely to happen if the show went off air, which I wouldn't want. So a moot point.

 

[Alexis Colby Carrington]

I'd watch from 1960 to 1986

 

[cobbles]

I'd watch from 1960 to 1986

Is this because you've seen from 1986 or a perceived quality decline?

 

[James from London]

I'd watch the whole thing. I stopped watching Corrie about eight or nine years ago, but I've recently picked up pretty much where I left off, in 2012, and I'm loving it.

 

[cobbles]

I'd watch the whole thing. I stopped watching Corrie about eight or nine years ago, but I've recently picked up pretty much where I left off, in 2012, and I'm loving it.

Oh you've got a lot of good storylines to look forward to. There's a few bits you might want to skip, but other than that you should see some great stuff.

Glad to see other supporting the idea of the show being available from the start. I appreciate that it might have a pretty heavy cost to set up, but to be frank I'd pay a dedicated subscription for it - and I'm sure many others would; perhaps more than ITV actually think would. I've already watched most of the available old stuff on Britbox, I'd did watch some of the Granada stuff on YouTube before it got taking down but I'd watch it all again if it was uncut and in better quality on an official platform.

Sure it's the kind of thing that might happen someday, even if when they get as far as they want to go with the ITV3 re-runs they went all the way back to the start that would be something.

 

[Ome]

Yes, I would definitely watch it from the start and like Alexis, I would probably watch it up to 1986 because that's where we restarted the show back in September 2016 on ITV3


At the time they announced they would be showing the classic episodes from 1986, I knew I was going to sit down and enjoy a trip down memory lane, though at the time I thought I would watch for a few weeks and then slowly drift away from it. Now, we're almost 4 years into this and the classic episodes have reached July 1996. I haven't stopped watching and I've now passed the period where I quit Corrie. I dipped in to see the arrival of the Battersby clan but didn't stick around until they reached the 40th and I that's when I have watched it religiously each week.



There are a lot of old Corrie fans who moan about the current show but don't watch it enough to really see how rich it still can be. Of course, we will always have poor characters, but that's not exclusive, we've had poor characters in the 80s and 90s from what I remember and rewatching them now confirms that for me.

I gave up on Corrie in the 90s because I couldn't enjoy Derek, Mavis, Reg, Curly, Raquel and Percy. Now, as I watch back, I found myself really enjoying these characters.




I will add that when they went to 6 episodes a week I was really against the idea. Now that we've been cut to just three episodes a week, I'm desperate for more corrie.

 

[cobbles]

Great Post - snipped for space,

Indeed Ome, an interesting post. I must admit at want point I was disillusioned with the show a few years (and I'm by no meanings an older Corrie fan, I've watched on an off growing up but I'm less than half the age of Corrie itself - I think my first awareness of the shows was Hillman but I was hardly old enough to be a religious watcher or get it.) It was around the point Daniel was reintroduced in 2016 and Ken was hospitalised that I started watching pretty religiously (I've missed a lot as well though - I think this is where the appeal to rewatch comes, the ability to truly see every episode of the show including bits you've missed from eras you've followed.)

I haven't been able to keep up with the ITV3 reruns to be honest, not really got the time to watch 16 episodes a week (again where a streaming service would be helpful to go at own pace) but have occasionally snipped into watch the odd episode, the current version of the show takes priority. As much as I'm interested - it's just too much to reasonably watch at that pace. I'd probably manage a slightly slower pace more easily.

Re old Corrie fans 'it was better in my day' is not a sentiment restricted to Corrie, a music site I use was having a similar discussion recently about declining standards. The reality of course is what Corrie is has changed unimaginably from what it was in 1960, that doesn't make it any better or any worse overall. Yes, there's always things we as fans will criticise but that's life. With Corrie still getting 6-7m viewers in August (although the pandemic obviously influences this) and topping the weekly viewing charts it's obvious that there's a strong market for the show even now. Of course it's never going to draw in the kind of viewers it once did, and many will have dropped off - but many who've done so might not have watched it if they'd had more TV variety/the internet back then anyway.

 

[emm1978]

They've never repeated the entire run as far as I know. Granada Plus (late 90s/early 2000s) rerun it from 1976 onwards and more recently, ITV3 from 1986 onwards.

Why do they start the reruns in such a non-specific place, like that's some kind of special "starting point" for a repeat run?

Coronation Street has only ever had "one" starting point in it's entire run - 9th December 1960, and has continued ever since. The only real difference being that it now focuses on different characters to what it did in 1960, and is set in a completely different time in history (2020 - the Digital Age).

The same with Emmerdale too - I'd love to watch the nearly 9000 episodes of that from the beginning to present too.

 

[cobbles]

They've never repeated the entire run as far as I know. Granada Plus (late 90s/early 2000s) rerun it from 1976 onwards and more recently, ITV3 from 1986 onwards.

Why do they start the reruns in such a non-specific place, like that's some kind of special "starting point" for a repeat run?

Coronation Street has only ever had "one" starting point in it's entire run - 9th December 1960, and has continued ever since. The only real difference being that it now focuses on different characters to what it did in 1960, and is set in a completely different time in history (2020 - the Digital Age).

The same with Emmerdale too - I'd love to watch the nearly 9000 episodes of that from the beginning to present too.

The April 1976 start date on Granada was started from when Bill Podmore took over (presumably the powers that be at Granada deemed that eras as the best at the time, so didn't bother with anything up to it - most have commented early 70s was a decline in quality.)

The 1986 episode they started on was the first appearance of Alan Bradley in the show, presumably ITV3 decided the Alan Bradley/Rita storyline was a good place for people to jump in on for that era and most interesting place to go and most likely to be watched by high numbers of viewers to justify the slot.

But as you say it would be nice if they just accepted they might as well show the dross with the good.

I'd imagine if ITV3 repeats stopped and they went back to start again in 30-40 years, someone might pick the tram crash storyline as the starting point for 'repeats.'

Unless they start from the very beginning there always going to annoy some of us though.

 

[Barbara Fan]

I think I would be dead if i had to watch every epiosde of Corrie from the start
I would like to see more of it from 1970s and 80s when it had a great cast and storylines and still had Northern wit, drama, pathos and more characters you cared about.
Great Corrie double acts and stalwarts like Hilda and Stan, Jack and Vera, Ena, Elsie, Rita and Mavis etc

ie no Chesneys, Gemmas, Marias, et al

I see there is a classic Corrie page on FB and I recently watched "the Girls" go to Majorca which was fun, Mavis clicked with a local and Blanche seemed to be holding the fort back at the Rovers - lots of old characters, Ernie Bishop, Jerry Yates, Len Fairclough etc who are long gone

I also remember having to watch Crossroads when I visited my Nan down South and i did quite like it, so wouldnt mind seeing some of the Highlights"

Id also give Knots Landing a 2nd chance as it didnt do it for me when i was young and i gave up when Sid died.

 

[cobbles]

I think I would be dead if i had to watch every epiosde of Corrie from the start
I would like to see more of it from 1970s and 80s when it had a great cast and storylines and still had Northern wit, drama, pathos and more characters you cared about.
Great Corrie double acts and stalwarts like Hilda and Stan, Jack and Vera, Ena, Elsie, Rita and Mavis etc

ie no Chesneys, Gemmas, Marias, et al

I see there is a classic Corrie page on FB and I recently watched "the Girls" go to Majorca which was fun, Mavis clicked with a local and Blanche seemed to be holding the fort back at the Rovers - lots of old characters, Ernie Bishop, Jerry Yates, Len Fairclough etc who are long gone

I also remember having to watch Crossroads when I visited my Nan down South and i did quite like it, so wouldnt mind seeing some of the Highlights"

Id also give Knots Landing a 2nd chance as it didnt do it for me when i was young and i gave up when Sid died.

If it was a streaming service, I don't think anyone would have to watch it from the start (some of us would) were more interested in it being available to watch from the start. Obviously if it was a TV rebroadcast it could take some time (a quick calculation suggest if 10 episodes were broadcast a week starting at the beginning it would take 20 years to rebroadcast them up to the current episode and then obviously have another 20 years of episodes to tack on to then-(or 12 years of rebroadcasts at 10 week leaving another 12 years to tack onto the end and so on until you eventually catch up with yourself) hence why a streaming service would be a much better avenue, with new episodes added - then if you had time to watch 20 episodes in a week you could, if you could only watch 1 you could and you could dip in and out as you pleased.

What your talking about is especially the kind of thing this would be useful, how nice would it be if you could log onto ITVHub+ or Britbox and watch the 1970s and 1980s episodes you're on about and say somebody who loved the 2000s could watch through that era. It seems unlikely to happen but it would be nice to have.

I'd argue Corrie still has fans you care about, but I grew up watching most of the characters that are still in it, so I'm biased.

Re Crossroads - Network Distributing have released 20 archive episodes of Crossroads - but only 1700 of the 4,510 episodes actually exist so many highlights will be lost forever - unfortunately the most recent release from that seems to be 2009 so wouldn't hold your breath for Vol 21.

As a final point on your thing about no Chesneys/Marias etc - I've actually seen some of the seventies episodes and characters like Martin Cheveski come to mind. There was some really awful characters in the old days, perhaps if the episodes were probably available I could bring to mind more examples (

 

[Ome]

I must admit at want point I was disillusioned with the show a few years

When you look at the show that has been going for years and years, I think it's impossible to never have periods where a viewer isn't happy with the direction and if some viewers never experience that, then they are very lucky. I don't watch the other soaps, but I do think it applies to all of them.

It was around the point Daniel was reintroduced in 2016 and Ken was hospitalised that I started watching pretty religiously

That was a great time to join in with the fun of the show. They had a new producer in Kate Oates who brought back the Barlows and made them central again, she also injected some great drama too as you will have seen. If @James from London carries on with his restart, he really is in for a treat come 2016.

I haven't been able to keep up with the ITV3 reruns to be honest, not really got the time to watch 16 episodes a week

Now I'm retired, I can do these if. If I was still working the hours in which I used to do, I would never have been able to keep up with them.

again where a streaming service would be helpful to go at own pace

Oh yes, absolutely. It would be incredibly amazing if all episodes were available on a streaming site. I don't have BritBox, I have enough with Netflix, Disney+ Prime Video and Sky which is already overwhelming. But... If they released all of Corrie on BritBox, I think that would be the push I need to get it.

Re old Corrie fans 'it was better in my day' is not a sentiment restricted to Corrie, a music site I use was having a similar discussion recently about declining standards.

Agreed.

You should join in with some of the threads ion the music forum, we have quite a diverse group of members loving music from various genres.

 

[Canon]

I would love to see all of the 60s and 70s in full. Preferably a rerun on tv so I can record and keep.