Simpsons are known for their eerie ability to ‘predict’ the future – from Trump’s presidency to the horse meat scandal – but Coronation Street writers also managed the same feat last year.
Executive Producer Iain MacLeod has revealed that one of the storylines pitched for the 60th anniversary included a global pandemic started by Tyrone’s pigeons… but that they had deemed it “too far-fetched”.
Speaking ahead of the ITV soap’s 60th anniversary, Iain told the Mirror Online and other news outlets as he responded to how the pandemic had changed their filming for the big week.
He said: “You say that nobody could have written this but a year ago when we were talking about what we could do for the 60th anniversary two of my writers pitched a story for a global pandemic, would you believe.
(Image: ITV)
“It originated in Tyrone’s pigeon loft – he’s taking care of racing pigeons in homage to Jack [Duckworth] and it became some sort of bird flu and spread around the street.
“And the consensus around the writing ring was, ‘No, it’s just too far-fetched, no one’s going to buy that.’ And then fast forward to now and it all looks horribly prescient.”
(Image: PA Archive/PA Images)
(Image: ITV)
Iain revealed that the ITV soap had had to pull out stunts because they had been unable to build them.
However, he said that the storylines were essentially the same.
“We had to strip away some of the stunts – we were going to build some stuff, without putting too fine a point on it,” he explained. “But we couldn’t physically get enough chippies and design personnel into schedule to make the things we wanted to make.
“But in terms of the stories we were telling, the stories we are telling, they’re fairly much the same thing.”
*Coronation Street’s 60th anniversary week begins airing Monday 7th December on ITV
Originally from https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/corrie-writers-predicted-pandemic-last-23078702