CORONATION Street boss Kate Oates has defended the sinister Pat Phelan storyline, insisting there is a balance in the show.
Kate, who will be leaving the soap soon, has divided fans with her hard-hitting plots but says she would not have done things differently.
Appearing on today’s Lorraine she said: “I still think there’s a balance in the show. The Phelan story is pretty dark and it’s an arc story about a serial killer, so if you’re ever going to tell a story about a killer it’s hard not to be dark, and whether that’s Richard Hillman in classic Corrie from years ago, beating someone to death with a crowbar is pretty dark.
“So I think it’s a different way of showing different story beats within there, but I think that there is balance.”
Kate added: “The best formula for Corrie – you want stories that matter and say something, you want good drama and then you want classic Corrie elements within that as well. That’s the Holy Trinity of what makes Corrie really, really strong.”
And as Lorraine admitted she wants comedy but doesn’t want Carry on Corrie Kate continued: “We’re six episodes a week now. What’s great is there’s more Corrie, but the ratings are higher. So, although I understand that people say this is dark and maybe this isn’t for me, actually people aren’t turning off, more people are turning on and I can’t fail but be happy about that. I think the team have done a good job.”
Kate promised there’s “some great comedy coming up”.
Shayne Ward is about to exit the show in a storyline which will see his character Aidan Connor take his own life and Kate was keen to emphasise how vital this plot will be.
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She said: ““That’s why it’s important to talk about it because it affects so many people. When we were discussing this storyline and whether or not we wanted to tackle it, initially we were quite reticent and anxious. The more we talked about it, it became apparent that everybody around that table had been affected by suicide in one way or another. It’s touched all of us on such a personal level, shouldn’t we be talking about this?”
She added: “Once you start conversations, the power of talking is phenomenal.”
“There’s a lot of positivity to come out of this story.”