Is Coronation Street the right place to air the issue of assisted suicide?

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/19/coronation-street-hayley-cropper-assisted-suicide

Version 0 of 1.

Barbara Ellen, Observer columnist

As a TV critic, you must realise that it's not only appropriate, it's crucial, for soaps to deal with issues such as assisted suicides. In particular with Coronation Street, any accusations of sensationalism or exploitation would be unfair – it's more than earned its reputation for sensitive writing and excellent acting, this time from Julie Hesmondhalgh as Hayley and David Neilson as her husband, Roy.

Far from being crass and simplistic, soaps are a great fit for the Big Stuff of life and death. In most films, terminal illness usually leads to tedious "bucket-list"-type escapades – soap has the luxury of exploring deeper without time constraints or gimmickry. The Corrie storyline has been evenly handled, outlining both Hayley's anxiety and determination, and Roy's deep opposition and pain. Yes, it's all getting a bit grim with ailing Hayley, the dingy bedspreads, and her (rather overplayed) yen for strawberries, but nobody said terminal illness was rib-tickling.

Soap popularity lends unique turbo-power to important debates – who could object to that? Surely some criticism could be put down to misplaced cultural snobbery, and general lack of faith in the genre, and what it can achieve.

Jim Shelley, TV critic and columnist

More and more I find myself hankering after the days when soaps were about Entertainment rather than Issues. I'm not sure when we first saw the coda: "If you have been affected by this storyline…" Probably 10-15 years ago. But the problem with the decision to embrace issues with an appetite bordering on gluttony is that it has put soaps in that dubious position of "reflecting Real Life" – or trying to. This is an implicit contradiction for something as ludicrous as EastEnders, which has long been obsessed with issues at the expense of, say, being a decent drama. So a girl like Lauren can't simply struggle with the throes of adolescence, as soap kids have for decades. She has to be a teenage alcoholic. Danny Dyer's son is, inevitably, coming to terms with the trauma of secretly being gay.

As for Roy and Hayley (née Harold), they were pretty much everyone's favourite characters on the Street and brought it increasingly rare light relief of the type that traditionally made Corrie appealing. Giving her/him cancer was one thing. Adding an assisted suicide storyline has killed what was good about the character.

BE I share your dislike of issue-overkill. Some of the most sublime Corrie moments come from watching the likes of Steve, Lloyd and Eileen idly bitch about biscuits in the cab office. Tacked-on sociological labels are dreary – who could forget the dark days of "Mary", the single mum punk from EastEnders? However, "continuing dramas" can't all be about shagging and hotpot (brilliant though that sounds). Maybe it's not soaps "doing issues" that is so grating but soaps not taking enough care to do them properly.

Are characters ruined by issue-led plot twists, or is it all about staying in that character? In real life, Hesmondhalgh is a humanist, but, as an actor, she would have been aware that Hayley must react purely as Hayley. Ergo, it's not an "issue" you are watching, it's Hayley.

The assisted suicide issues rose organically from the terminal illness storyline. How you die, how much control you have, would be of pressing concern to a terminally ill person. Those bleak conversations with loved ones really would happen. So, if it happens in life, why can't it happen in soaps? Who says you've got to corral human suffering into one serious documentary every six months?

JS Shagging and hotpot does not sound brilliant. It conjures images of Betty Turpin that may take weeks to shake. But yes, a good dose of adultery has always been soap's juiciest staple ingredient – from Dirty Den and Sexy Cindy to our old friend Steve McDonald. Phil Mitchell was far more compelling when he was knocking off his bruvver Grant's wife Sharon than his ill-advised adventure advertising the perils of taking crack.

The soaps' claims to provide a social service are mostly bogus. They tick off issues like teenage gangs and bullying, but you're right, they don't tackle them properly. Lauren's alcoholism hasn't helped any viewers in a similar position. It advocated counselling – where she met a married alcoholic and started having a miserable affair. Great! Young Ben Mitchell dealt with being gay by murdering Heather.

Assisted suicide may be consistent with Hayley's character but surely the point of Roy and Hayley's rather interminable discussions is precisely to raise the issue as a choice we should all have but don't. There were fewer than 30 assisted suicides in the UK last year. Sadly, making it so unrealistic, means Hayley's death will not be as moving as, say, Vera Duckworth's, because the assisted suicide angle has actually detracted from the more important "issue" of dealing with cancer.

BE Apologies for the "shagging and hotpot" imagery. We're agreed that the emotional integrity of a character is infinitely more important than any storyline, however juicy and timely. This is where EastEnders in particular needs to reset, and stop being the soap-vortex where a character can't have a Babycham without being instantly addicted to crack, or be gay without someone in the family being a macho cartoon homophobe. As Frank Butcher would have said, sort it aht!

Corrie's genius is in its sense of pace, building up characters and relationships, filling in light and shade, so that each character can cope equally credibly with drama and comedy. Working at this level of characterisation, they're entitled to tackle a few (gasp) "issues". They've earned it. Some viewers might appreciate such a totem of popular culture shining a torch into the dark corner of assisted suicide. For those who are not so keen, the entertainment will be back soon enough. My guess is Mary emerging from her Winnebago with indecent haste to give grieving Roy the "glad eye" over the cream horns. Or is that another image I should be apologising for? Sorry!

JS Perhaps it's not Coronation Street itself that is inappropriate for a debate on the issue of assisted suicide but Hayley. There are plenty of other characters whose demise I would happily assist with. Peter Barlow's son, Our Simon, is particularly irksome, and Faye, who has been used to address the issue of bullying, has it coming.

It's the fact that it's Hayley that has polarised Corrie fans like ourselves. You wonder if the producers have thought through the ramifications. Hayley will be remembered for this controversy rather than the trailblazing, tender-hearted transgender cross between Peter Beardsley and the red-coated dwarf in Don't Look Now. And Roy will never be funny again.

Sadly, Corrie has abandoned the emphasis on humour and characterisation that was its USP and become intent on matching EastEnders for relentless misery, while Emmerdale has become a disaster zone and the crime capital of Europe. Plots like this, based around issues, are not about the characters but ratings. It all goes back to Brookside and Beth Jordache's lesbian kiss and the domestic abuse suffered by her mother resulting in Trevor being buried under the patio.

So, not for the first time, my conclusion is: I blame Phil Redmond.

Hayley's final scenes will be shown tomorrow on ITV at 7.30pm and 8.30pm

Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning.