Good old Corrie!

 

I understand that the United Kingdom is celebrating 60 years of Coronation Street. It’s quite an achievement, to keep so many people entertained for so long. It’s great, too, that it has reflected life in a Northern town, through a time of what many call a North-South divide, although maybe a little stereotyping is present too. For example, the brass band theme music is very effective but brass bands aren’t just for Up North.

I must come clean, I haven’t actually watched it for decades. I gather that Mike Baldwin is no longer strutting the street and even Dierdre and her spectacles are no longer there, nor Bet at the bar in the Rover’s Return. My husband says it hasn’t been the same since Ena Sharples died.

A long-running series like that makes me realise just how much our lives and communities change over the years. I noticed that there was even a bomb at the bistro (what bistro??) a few years ago, and over the years a train crash and a tram derailment. And the people have gradually changed with children growing up, others moving away, new people arriving.

The Street may well be dramatized, it needs to be to keep weekly interest alive, but it seems to have presented good, human characters with all their imperfections and good intentions. I am glad it has lasted so long as a soap opera which feels generally true to life in Britain, and therefore our lives, rather than some of the over-egged confections which come to our screens. For much of our human growing, our changing communities and our nation’s development are reflected there and in its long-term portrayal of ordinary people it is something of a national treasure.

Lord, thinking back makes us realise how life keeps changing. The smoky chimneys of the 1960’s terraced houses are rare these days and the pace of life has increased with our improved ways of communication. People and families develop and move on. The constant mix of good and ill remains. When I look back, help me to rejoice in the good times and as I carry with me the faith which you have instilled within me, grant that I may look forward to my future episodes of serving and loving you. Amen