Television: Writing out Deirdre needs some thought

Lin Ferguson

The shock news of the death of British actor Anne Kirkbride, Deirdre Barlow in the epic British soap Coronation Street this week, set me thinking about the extraordinary success Coro has had since it debuted in 1960 ... in black and white.

Deirdre had been a stalwart cast member for more than 40 years so had more than earned her acting chops.

Viewers adored "our Deirdre" who had ploughed through four marriages, given birth to meanspirited daughter Tracey Barlow still dishing venom on the show and giving long-suffering hubby Ken Barlow some right old dressing downs.

But Deirdre was a great girl. She was myopic with giant specs, a rasping throaty voice, a neck that had a ropey life all of its own when she needed to emphasise a point ... she was unique and will be much missed.

The director and his team are faced with how they will explain there's no Deirdre any more.

I've always thought what an amazing job it would be to be a script writer on Coro. The scripts, along with the acting, are solid with meaty dialogue ... admittedly some of the plot lines over the past few years have been slightly warped and hard to swallow but the soap keeps on keeping, earning big fat ratings.

I don't think our Deirdre can be replaced ... they wouldn't dare ... would they?

This is not your usual phase-out of a character who has decided to swan off and live on the Costa del Sol, shove off to a new life in the Outer Hebrides or just pull out and go home and have a nice life so it will take some very serious thought.

The characters of Coronation Street are very ordinary, very working-class people all with a well-developed passion for local gossip ... The script writers must have a field day some weeks with the dozens of sneaky vicious asides they manage to write in for their characters.

Gossip rules in Coro.

Tragedies are dissected at length especially over a pint or a wine in the Rovers Return at the end of the street where most of characters' lives have been assassinated at length and empathy is often missing.

Deirdre was on our screens in 1439 episodes of the show ... give her a red wine and she was right there in most of the verbal bar-room frays with forceful comments about the rights and wrongs of it all.

This why Coro continues ... people adore the foibles of others... Coro will always be a winner in that respect. And it doesn't just appeal to woman viewers - men love it as well.

The distinctive intro and outro music is now etched into the souls of thousands of diehard fans so singing or humming the first few bars is commonplace.

In fact, it was hummed in honour of Deirdre in this newsroom when news of her death came through ... rightly so ... she was legend.