Coronation Street boss Kate Oates: Weatherfield is getting new shops!

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Coronation Street producer Kate Oates has revealed that the soap’s fictional setting of Weatherfield is going to get raft of new shops next year, along with a park

Coronation Street producer Kate Oates has revealed that the soap’s fictional setting of Weatherfield is going to get raft of new shops next year, along with a park.

The new sets are being built to help the show cope with the demands of a new sixth weekly episode. Bosses announced this week that the extra episode will transmit on Wednesdays at 8.30pm, with the first airing on 20th September.

Construction is currently under way, with work due to be completed in Spring 2018.

Kate revealed to us: ‘There will be a couple of new businesses and we’re going to have a little park area, so not everything will happen at the Red Rec. Sometimes we say in the story office that if Maxine hadn’t died, where would people go to think, because it’s Maxine’s bench where people have their pensive moments – so they’ll have somewhere else for a pensive moment. It’s all going to go beyond Victoria Court.

"You want precincts where people can gather. There may be another eatery with a different kind vibe – we’ve already got the café and the bistro."

Kate added: "It’s nice to see a community feel, and it does well for social dynamics if you’ve got people who were friends who are now colleagues or someone is someone’s boss. It always adds a nice energy."

Alison Slade
Alison Slade
Soaps Editor
Alison Slade has over 20 years of experience as a TV journalist and has spent the vast majority of that time as Soap Editor of TV Times magazine.  She is passionate about the ability of soaps to change the world by presenting important, issue-based stories about real people in a relatable way. There are few soap actors that she hasn’t interviewed over the years, and her expertise in the genre means she has been called upon as a judge numerous times for The British Soap Awards and the BAFTA TV Awards.

When she is not writing about soaps, watching soaps, or interviewing people who are in soaps, she loves going to the theatre, taking a long walk or pottering about at home, obsessing over Farrow and Ball paint.