Oh, for those uplifting Corrie murders of yore

Good old days department, writes Peter Rhodes.

In an impassioned column on the death of Coronation Street stalwart Betty Driver, Roy Hattersley thunders: "The standards which once made the programme positively uplifting have disappeared."

Oh, really? And would those uplifting standards include the casual murder of Ernie Bishop, the bed-hopping of Elsie Tanner and poor Valerie Barlow being taken hostage by a convicted rapist?

From 1960 onwards, Coronation Street has delivered endless shocking storylines and provided a good living for generations of hand-wringing reviewers, like Hattersley, eager to sell the myth of a golden age when things were better.