Coronation Street and Emmerdale promote diversity in the writing crew

• Aparna Sreevalsan
• 20 September, 2023

WITH A renewed initiative to attract writers from diverse backgrounds, the UK’s longest-running soap opera is searching for new writers.

In order to remove obstacles in the industry and welcome people from underrepresented backgrounds, Coronation Street is collaborating with its Yorkshire neighbour, Emmerdale.

The Original Voices project used to alternate between Coronation Street and Emmerdale, but this year the selected candidates will be working across both – creating more opportunities for emerging writers to get their first television experience.

Iain MacLeod, series producer at ITV says: “If you’ve only got one type of person in a room trying to come up with storylines, they are at risk of coming up with only one type of story.

“We want to have a broad viewer base, we want to represent a broad range of experiences and Britain is a brilliantly diverse place with a range of different voices and perspectives.

“We need to make sure we are that both on and off screen and that originates with the writing.”

In addition to having the opportunity to create a shadow script and receiving a year of coaching after the programme concludes, successful applicants will be at the hub of ITV Studios’ Continuing Drama production.

MacLeod added: “A good sense of humour, I think uniquely among the continuing dramas Coronation Street is a really funny show, I think the sense of humour of it has been baked into its DNA right, from its inception in 1960.

“You need to be funny, you need to be collaborative…what we’re looking for is having a particular voice or a unique background or unique life experience you can bring to an already quite diverse writing team.

“You need to be able to work quickly, you need to not be too precious about what you’ve done because it’s a big machine and there’s lots of collaboration and interaction between editors and the writers. So you need to be a good team player.

“But overall, we just want somebody that’s got something to say and that’s sitting at home thinking my voice isn’t on the television, but would fit right in on Coronation Street.”

The scheme closes on 24 September.