CORRIE BLASTED IN ‘SCOUSE LAGS’ ROW

Fury at TV roll call of Liverpool crooks

ANGRY viewers have branded Coronation Street “Scousist” for repeatedly featuring villains with Liverpool accents.

They lashed out after a drug dealer with a Merseyside twang told jailed mum Abi Franklin, played by Sally Carman, that she could get her “something that will make us feel better”.

Viewers pointed out that the dealer was not the first of the soap’s villains to be a Scouser. Serial killer Pat Phelan, played by actor Liverpoolborn Connor McIntyre, had a Scouse drawl.

Michael Rodwell, played by Merseyside comic Les Dennis, was also a petty criminal who first appeared on the show breaking into homes on the Street.

When Abi’s new cellmate spoke Scouse on Friday night’s show, soap fans tore into Corrie’s producers.

One angry viewer tweeted: “Oh look, the prison drug dealer on Corrie has a very obviously put-on Scouse accent.”

Another said: “Oh FFS! We’ve got to have someone in prison in Corrie so we’ve cast a Scouser. Lazy, lazy casting.”

A third asked: “Why does Abbie’s cellmate have to be a Scouser?” Yet this is not the first time Liverpudlians have complained they have had a raw deal on TV.

In 2015 actress Tina Malone blasted Downton Abbey bosses over a blackmailing chambermaid.

Miss Bevan, who tried to extort money from Lady Mary after an illicit weekend at Liverpool’s Adelphi Hotel, was played by Nichola Burley, who Tina said had a pronounced Scouse accent.

And earlier this year Merseysiders complained about a Scouse burglar in an advert for online security firm Ring.com.

Coronation Street last night declined to comment.