Why Coronation Street rocks

I started watching Coronation Street back in university when I needed to unplug from the reading. It was my aunt Lia who first introduced me to this unpretentious Brit soap, but I didn't realise I was hooked until 10 years later.

I've had to defend this love of mine many times, as most people think Corrie is only for maiden aunts and tea-cosy collectors. If you ask around though, you'd be amazed how many Corrie fans are under the age of 40 and fully mobile.

(I'll gloss over the part about how I once belonged to a Coronation Street club that met once a month to discuss the latest events. I get ragged on enough as it is for belonging to a book club.)

Here are my top ten reasons for loving Coronation Street:

1. Characters are not impossibly beautiful bimbos who wake up with perfect make-up and unwrinkled silk pajamas. Instead, Corrie characters are impossibly plain of appearance and wake up with ugly t-shirts and pillow marks on their faces. Hello bad teeth!
2. In American soaps, half the characters work in the fashion industry, while the other half work as doctors. Most Coronation Street inhabitants work as seamstresses in the local knicker factory. There are currently no doctors or nurses on the show, but Gail (chinless) Platt does work as a receptionist at the local clinic.
3. As viewers who have been watching Deirdre Barlow get progressively thicker around the waist and increasingly tendon-y around the neck can attest, Corrie actors don't get cosmetic surgery.
4. Kitsch is king. Vera Duckworth's earrings! Liz MacDonald's sequined camouflage top with slit sleeves! Cilla's short skirts! Fiz's scooter! This show is wall-to-wall fun fur, fluorescent yellow, big feathers, lightning-bolt necklaces, and powder blue eyeshadow.
5. Spider Nugent (photo above) is considered by many to be one of Corrie's biggest hearthrobs. His character is described as The Street's first eco-warrior, vegan and didgeridoo owner. Seriously. 
6. No matter the severity, Corrie characters proudly wear their scratches, bumps and bruises for weeks, as their fake wounds must heal at the same pace as the real thing. Also, pregnant women only give birth after nine months, and children do not magically turn into teenagers overnight.
7. Characters order bacon butties all the time. No shame, no calorie counting.
8. Snappy writing, like "I don't know what I ever saw in you, you bunny boiling freak! Cheap sex whinging gob! Legs from heaven, personality from hell."
9. All the accents are real.
10. Even if I read the spoilers and find out what's happening for the next six months, it's still fun to watch. Yes, it's so artfully done that I never have problems willfully suspending my disbelief

Must go catch today's episode now - I think Paul dies today!