Corrie’s Sair: I’m a wreck
Soap’s grim new plotline leaves the cast crying
CORONATION Street fans have been warned more gloomy plots will leave them wrecks.
New producer Iain MacLeod vowed to inject “comedy and character” back into the show after viewers moaned his predecessor made the soap too dark.
But a number of the cast have warned a new “heartbreaking” storyline has left them “weeping”.
Sair Khan, 30, who plays Alya Nazir, said the latest batch of scripts turned many of the show’s stars into “wrecks”.
The actress, who recently appeared on I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here!, said: “We’ve just been reading the most heartbreaking Coronation Street scripts.
“I’ve been weeping like a baby – a lot of us were. We will be wrecks by the end of it.”
And she added: “The viewers are in for one hell of a rollercoaster.''
It is thought that MacLeod is lining up at least one tragic character death for the ITV show.
Some viewers threatened to boycott the programme after former producer Kate Oates oversaw a series of controversial storylines involving a serial killer, a vicar hooked on heroin, sex grooming and male rape.
Scenes of Pat Phelan’s murder rampage were so dark that the TV watchdog Ofcom received 541 complaints.
For The Love Of Dogs presenter Paul O’Grady, 63, claimed there was so much violence in the long-running soap that “it’s like Syria”.
And veteran broadcaster Sir Michael Parkinson, 83, said the once “gentle and funny” programme had become more like a “horror film than a family show”.
Meanwhile, Benidorm star Sherrie Hewson, 68, who played Maureen Webster in Corrie in the 1990s, said its “glory days” were behind it.
Kate moved to the BBC to oversee EastEnders, Casualty and Holby City.
When he took over Corrie’s reins, MacLeod said the soap was “at its best when it’s got comedy in it” to balance “key, heartbreaking poignant stuff ”.