Coronation Street ‘not worth watching’ anymore, says former star

‘We’ve come to a point where people are getting murdered in knicker factories,’ actor said

A Coronation Street star has hit out at the show saying “it’s not worth watching” anymore, due to its storylines becoming increasingly unbelievable.

Bruce Jones, 71, played fan favourite taxi driver Les Battersby from 1997 to 2007, and revealed that he and his wife no longer watch the programme.

“I watched it from day one but now my wife says it’s not worth watching. You can’t have that many murders on one street,” he told The Guardian.“She’s watched it all her life but she’ll tell you ‘it’s not just me saying it, it’s everyone’.”

Jones is not the only one to share his concerns around the show’s storylines.

Maureen Lipman, who played Evelyn Plummer the grandmother of veteran cast member Tyrone Dobbs, told the Beyond the Title podcast last month: “We’ve come to a point in Corrie now where people are getting murdered in knicker factories. We’re having domestic abuse … anything that ticks the box of social problems in the 21st-century is going to be in [it].”

Jones left Coronation Street in 2007 and said that the departure was voluntary although other reports at the time suggested he had been suspended from work due to drinking. In 2015, he shared he had been forced to live off benefits.

The star made his wrestling debut last month as he paid homage to his onscreen persona at an event hosted by Sovereign Pro Wrestling.

“They don’t call him Batters-by for nothing,” he told the crowd.

Jones played Les Battersby from 1997 to 2007 (Dave Thompson/PA Wire)

He believes that the decreasing popularity of the programme is its failure to stay true to its northern roots in Manchester.

“The writers we had were living Manchester city life. It’s not the actors’ faults – they’re all doing a good job for my money – but it’s the writers that have changed. I actually think we’ve lost that element of what Manchester life is all about.”

Sharing his thoughts on what could rectify the show’s trajectory, he suggested: “Get it back to what Coronation Street was – a community. The comedy was there and the tragedy came after. That’s what it was and the love of the people in the street, that’s gone.”