Violent Corrie’s just not funny, says Mavis
CORONATION Street legend Thelma Barlow says the soap has lost its humour and contains too much violence.
The 91-year-old star, who played Mavis Wilton for 26 years, said it was “such a pity” that the writers went for “huge dramas” rather than the warmth and comedy of the scripts in her day.
She said: “[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 am sure people would watch without the huge dramas that go on. I would think ‘Who wants to buy a house on a street with so many murders?’ It is such a pity.”
Thelma appeared in nearly 2,000 episodes until she left after her on-screen husband Derek, played by Peter Baldwin, was killed off. Her final episode was in 1997 when Mavis moved to the Lake District.
She has since appeared in Victoria Wood’s sitcom Dinner Ladies, as well as Fat Friends, Doctor Who, Doc Martin and Midsomer Murders. Thelma said she rarely watches the soap now as it lacks a sense of humour.
She said: “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 will have a look but I don’t see much to laugh at now.
“We used to get scripts that had non sequiturs where you would talk about nothing important at all, but they could be so real and so funny.
“It was normal conversation without having great meaning and drama to it.”
Thelma also questioned whether there were too many episodes of Corrie on every week, adding that the cast was too big.
She said: “There were only about 25 in the cast when I joined but now there are like 50, 60 or 70. People have to keep track of their lives and what is happening to them.”
Thelma said that although she had been asked back to the Cobbles, she considers that chapter of her life shut.
She told Distinct Nostalgia podcast: “I’ve always said no because I feel I have packed Mavis away in a box.”