Isolation Street OLDIES ‘STAY IN CORRIE BY VIDEO
KEN Barlow using Facetime to chat to daughter Tracy? Audrey Roberts joining the Platt family for a Zoom quiz?
This could be the new look Coronation Street presents to fans in the wake of the coronavirus lockdown.
Bosses are looking at how to keep golden oldies such as Bill Roache, 88, and Sue Nicholls, 76, on screen when filming restarts.
The pair, who play Ken and Audrey in the ITV soap, will be banned from the set along with Barbara Knox, 86, who plays Rita Sullivan, David Neilson, 71, who stars as Roy Cropper and Maureen
Lipman, 74, whose character is Evelyn Plummer. With Emmerdale stars already back in front of the camera, Corrie is set to follow suit soon.
But ITV head Kevin Lygo has banned older actors from returning to the set until social distancing measures have eased – which may not be for months.
Show chiefs are working hard behind the scenes to figure out how to keep them actively involved in storylines.
Iain Macleod, in charge of the ITV soap, has confirmed it will include references to the pandemic when the cast resume filming next month.
And sources say they have been looking at different ways to use senior cast members while they self-isolate at home.
One told us: “Bosses know just how important these characters are to their millions of fans.
“And who wouldn’t love seeing the likes of Ken, Evelyn and Roy taking part in a Zoom quiz night, or Tracy calling her dad and telling him how much she misses him. “There are good ways to do it, and that’s what they’re looking into
at the moment.” Some of the Street’s biggest and most popular stars will be affected by the rules when filming starts next month.
Maureen told how she urged bosses not to get rid of the “oldies”.
She said: “I had a word with the producer online and I said, ‘Don’t ditch the oldies because the oldies are what Corrie is about. Otherwise we might as well call ourselves Hollyoaks’.
“They said, ‘We’ve no intention of doing that’, so I said, ‘Why don’t you just let me and Roy sit in a garden somewhere and have a conversation about Donald Trump’s hair?’”