Coronavirus will reach Coronation Street but will not 'dominate' it, producer says

The coronavirus pandemic will be included in future episodes of Coronation Street but will be "handled with a light touch", the soap's producer has said.

Iain MacLeod said viewers like the show because it "reflects modern Britain" and so ignoring the pandemic when filming resumes would turn the street into "a parallel fantasy land".

"We took the view that it has to exist in our world," he said.

"However, I am also aware that people tune into Coronation Street for escapism, to some degree, and to see drama and stories that they would never normally experience in their own lives, and stuff they would normally never see in their own living rooms played out on screen.

"While the virus will exist in Coronation Street, we were also keen that it wouldn't dominate every single story and every single scene.

"If your lives are anything like mine, certainly coronavirus is pretty much the only topic of conversation in my house, but people wouldn't want to tune into Coronation Street and see every scene was people talking about coronavirus.

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"It will be there. You will be able to see evidence of it in the way people behave - hand-washing protocols and things like that.

"The way our businesses are run will be tweaked to do more takeaways and the like, as food outlets are doing in the real world.

"But we will still continue telling the same brilliant, dramatic stories with the healthy dollop of comedy that we always do, because to do otherwise would be, again, to turn the show into something the viewers don't recognise.

"It will be there. It will be handled with a light touch. Other than that, our storytelling will be business as usual."

MacLeod added: "People want to watch drama and they want to watch the same hard-hitting stories that Corrie does so well. They don't want suddenly to be watching a different programme."

The ITV show was paused, along with fellow soap Emmerdale, due to the coronavirus pandemic and the social-distancing measures.

The channel is running fewer episodes than usual to make the supply last longer.

Last week, Sky News revealed how Australian soap Neighbours is working within social-distancing restrictions .

The soap seems to be leading the way, with various productions from around the world getting in touch for details on how it is operating, executive producer Jason Herbison said.