Coronation Street slammed by fans for ‘climate propaganda’ during Emmerdale crossover

In a bid to highlight the climate crisis, Coronation Street teamed up with their Yorkshire counterparts Emmerdale.

Coronation Street planted the seed for this crossover many weeks ago, as they have had a storyline where cars were beginning to sit idle on the street whilst owners popped into the shops, sparking fury and outrage from the residents of Coronation Street. This storyline saw Maria Windass’ son Liam be diagnosed with asthma, and his diagnosis was attributed to fumes from the cars.

The crossover comes at a time where world leaders are meting in Glasgow to discuss the current climate crisis at the COP26 conference.

In Monday’s double bill, husband and wife, Gary and Maria Windass were both watching a video that went viral, starring Emmerdale’s Liam Cavanagh dancing on an allotment.

Gary was viewing the video on his phone and turned the wife Maria to explain: “There’s a doctor in a village in Yorkshire, he’s growing veg for the community.”

In Emmerdale, the community allotment is in memory of Liam’s daughter, who passed away in emotional storylines earlier this year. Amelia, a friend of Liam, suggested that he made the video to highlight sustainability.

And the video made its way on to the cobbles, but viewers were not left impressed.

Clearly viewers wanted some light viewing, but were instead alerted to real world issues, and took to Twitter the voice their anger.

“Leave the climate change propaganda to daytime TV” one angry viewer tweeted.

“#Corrie Tune in for a bit of light relief from COP26. Big mistake!!” complained another dissatisfied viewer.

Another seems to be going to extreme lengths as the show highlighted the climate crisis as they tweeted: "Well that’s Corrie off my list for the foreseeable, prattling on about climate change!”

“Now we are being brainwashed by the soaps. Suddenly Maria in Corrie (whose main concern in her latest hairstyle) is up in arms about the save the planet!! Give a rest Corrie, media influencing society getting beyond a joke...#Corrie,” one in a long line of furious tweets.

Not all negative, however, as some fans welcomed the crossover.

“Nice one @ITV on combining the two main soaps tonight” said one viewer.

Another viewer also praised the acting, saying it was a light-hearted portrayal, but still managed to convey an important message, and said: “Liam was great, it was nice to have a mix of the soaps in one episode”