Mavis, 91: No fun in the soap Too many characters & shows
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CORONATION Street legend Thelma Barlow says the long-running soap has lost its humour over the years and has too much violence now.
The 91-year-old, who played Mavis Wilton in the ITV soap for 26 years, fears the show has lost the warmth and gentle comedy it had in her day as storylines become ever more gruesome.
She said: “I think the Street when I was in it had this wonderful thing of comedy, the comedy characters.
“I don’t watch it regularly now. I occasionally have a look but I don’t see much to laugh at now. I think it’s a shame.
“We used to get scripts where you’d talk about nothing important at all, nothing to do with the plot, but they could be so real and so funny.
“It was normal conversation without having great meaning and drama to it.”
She said of the move to more dramatic storylines: “[Viewers] have seen people being born on the Street and growing up and then becoming married and then have these terrible things happen which they seem to have to write into the Street, and into all these series.
“I don’t see why they should. I’m sure people would watch without the huge dramas that go on. I’d think, ‘Who wants to buy a house on a street with so many murders?’ I just think it is such a pity.”
Thelma appeared in nearly 2,000 episodes, with Mavis working in The Kabin newsagents alongside boss Rita Sullivan, played by Barbara Knox
She left after her on-screen husband Derek [Peter Baldwin] was killed off. Her final episode was in 1997 when Mavis moved to the Lake District.
She has since appeared in Dinnerladies, Fat Friends, Doctor Who, Doc Martin and Midsomer Murders.
She questioned whether there are now too many episodes of Corrie on every week, and said the cast is too big.
She added: “They had so many more episodes to do and instead of taking it more slowly and filling the gaps they got
As Mavis, right, with boss Rita
THELMA BARLOW SAYS SHOW IS TOO GRISLY NOW
She rules out return
Circled, in 1974 with castmates more and more storylines and more and more characters and you just got confused. I think it was Helen [Worth, who plays Gail Platt] I was talking to or somebody and I said there were only about 25 in the cast when I joined but now there are like 50, 60 or 70.
“So people have to keep track of their lives and what is happening to them.”
And she insists there is no going back. She said: “They’ve asked me back two or three times but I’ve said no because I feel I’ve packed Mavis away in a box now.
“I don’t think I’d know how to do her anyway. Maybe a good script would make me realise how I’d played the part.”
But she has fond memories of fans’ warmth towards the soap.
She told the Distinct Nostalgia podcast: “I can’t think of anyone who said something nasty or unpleasant about it. It was just held close to people’s hearts because I think they got involved with the characters.
“Some people used to come up to you and say, ‘Write your name here’, and a bald head was presented, or an arm. It was extraordinary. They’d hug you and kiss you. It was really familiar as they felt really close. That involvement is what keeps the programme going.”
I’m sure people would watch without the huge dramas that go on