One of the biggest stories to hit news headlines this week has been the abduction of three-year-old Madeline McCann from her parents’ apartment while on a family holiday in Portugal. What has followed is the decision by the producers of Coronation Street to re-write an already filmed storyline involving the kidnap of baby Freddie Peacock, out of the fear of causing upset to the McCann family.
The storyline, which was due to take place over the coming weeks, was to feature Freddie Peacock disappearing in “mysterious circumstances” after a house fire. Scenes have already been filmed for the storyline, which according to ITV was due to run for several months, but now several scenes have been cut and will now have to be re-written because they bare many similarities with Madeline’s disappearance.
Is it right that soap operas should re-write, or even axe storylines because they are too similar to real- life events? Should producers feel that they have to make changes in order to escape criticism or controversy as a result of real-life events that they cannot control? Or is it just the right thing to do? Opinions on the subject are divided. Matthew James Breese, a first year Journalism student at Cardiff said: “While what has happened to Madeline is terrible, soaps don’t axe other storylines involving rape or domestic violence, and these kinds of things happen to people everyday, and seeing these events repeated on screen can be just as distressing. The producers just want to take the moral high-ground because of how high-profile the story is.”
It is true that soap operas feature storylines that can be close to viewers’ own lives, but sometimes this can be a benefit. Many episodes often end with a helpline that viewers can call if they have been affected by the storylines featured, not only raising awareness of certain issues but also making viewers aware that there are ways for them to get help. On the other hand, for other people, repeated scenes of violence and abuse can cause upset, which is the last thing they look for when they are watching soaps.
However, when an event that has become a national concern in the way that Madeline’s abduction has, the right thing to do seems to be to remove material that would be considered ‘inappropriate’ or upsetting to those concerned, out of fear of causing more pain to the family. Anna Klimach, a second year Medicine student at Cardiff University agrees: “The family has been through enough stress and heartache already, surely screening a storyline like this now would do nothing but cause more upset as it would be a constant reminder of what is going on. Surely there must be some other storylines they could come up with instead”. Many feel that changing the storyline is the respectable thing to do, and with the wealth of ideas out there for other storylines, the soap won’t suffer by making changes or creating a new plotline.”
When events like this happen, it is difficult to know what course of action to take but the producers of Coronation Street feel that they have done the right thing by deciding to change the storyline, and many agree. Perhaps the drama and tragedy is best left on the news, so that when we do need to escape from the real world, there’s always a gripping affair we can lose ourselves in, without being reminded of what’s going on in the world outside.
