Ex Coronation Street star Charlie Lawson slams ITV soap’s ‘woke’ storylines and claims cast are too scared to speak up about show’s ‘politically acceptable’ plots

Former Coronation Street star Charlie Lawson claims the soap’s cast are too ‘scared’ to speak up about its ‘woke’ storylines.

The actor, 64, who played Jim McDonald between 1989 and 2000, said he believes viewing figures have dropped as fans are ‘fed up’ with its ‘s**te ‘ plots.

Broadcaster ITV’s flagship serial scored around 2.6million viewers at Christmas, meaning it missed out on charting in the 10 most watched shows, coming in 12th place.

A decade ago eight million people would have tuned in while it got an audience of 2.8million at Christmas 2022. The BBC’s EastEnders charted in the top 10 Christmas programmes, with 3.58million viewers.

Charlie told The Sun: ‘Viewers are getting turned off by too many young storylines.

‘In my day, in the Nineties, we didn’t have any woke issues, we didn’t have any political correctness, we had none of that s**te. We were able to tell stories and tell them properly.

‘I suspect now half the meetings that they have upstairs on the sixth floor are about what is politically acceptable, all this stuff that they feel they have to address.

‘And the silent majority of TV viewers are not interested in the slightest by all this c**p.’

Charlie told how when he was working on the soap, cast members Bill Roache, 91, who plays Ken Barlow, Helen Worth, 72, (Gail Platt) and, 59, (Kevin Webster) would communicate with producers if they were not happy with a storyline.

However, he now believes the soap’s stars are nervous about voicing any concerns.

‘Our comments mattered in those days. I think people are very scared nowadays,’ he explained.

‘If we had a meeting, and somebody was not happy about storylines, we were within our rights to call a meeting.’

Charlie previously predicted Corrie may end within 10 years if it continues with its ‘woke’ plots. 

He told the Daily Star: ‘I was there in the 90s for 11 years and we were getting between 16 and 20 million – and 5 million (viewers now) is not a lot.

‘In 10 years who knows if we will have a Coronation Street, we’re all changing our viewing habits as it is already,’ Charlie added of competition from streaming services.’

When asked about a storyline in which Max Turner (played by Paddy Bever) was groomed by far-right extremists, he said: ‘People are getting a little bit gobsmacked and fed up with all this. 

‘Jim wasn’t exactly politically correct, nevermind woke!’