Someone on my Facebook friends list a while ago referred to Kevin Webster and Ken Barlow being paedophiles, and said that she hoped that another character from Coronation Street wasn’t going to be next. I forget who she named, and didn’t recognise the name anyway as I don’t watch it. I don’t usually comment on status updates, as I’m never usually on Facebook for long enough, (even when Facebook had its nearly moment in the sun all that time ago), but saw that ridiculous status and had to say something. I pointed out that as fictional characters in a soap opera; neither Kevin Webster nor Ken Barlow had actually done anything wrong, as they aren’t real. If it should ever come to light that Webster and Barlow are guilty, then the first person to be questioned should be the scriptwriters.

William Roache was in the paper today as he was due in court to answer some charges against him relating to sex crimes, which is what reminded me of the story I opened with about Facebook. William Roache and Michael Le Vell haven’t been seen on Coronation Street for some time now, while they defend themselves. What I want to know is this; why should the characters suffer just because the actors have (maybe) been up to no good? In the theatre they employ an understudy to learn all the lines and directions just in case the main actor is unavailable due to illness or arrest from the 1970s celebrity rapist squad, so why can’t television? Back when Home and Away was in its heyday, I remember the character of Ailsa used to occasionally be played by a different actress.

It is common to see child actors change, I watch Eastenders and Ben Mitchell, Lucy Beale, Peter Beale, and Lauren Branning are all on their second actor. Even Peggy Mitchell wasn’t originally played by Barbra Windsor. Surely it is easier to replace an actor than to explain the absence of a major character?

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