Charlie Lawson says Coronation Street now ‘too woke’ for his tough character Jim McDonald

Because the show is currently too awake, Charlie Lawson has stated that he doesn’t believe Corrie will ever make a comeback.

The Northern Irishman could be characterized as a man of another era after playing tough-talking Jim McDonald for 11 years in 1989. The actor said he wouldn’t be surprised if they killed him off instead when asked if he might ever return from the Australian base where the character lives.

Charlie, 65, revealed: “It wouldn’t shock me if he dies in Australia. I would stand up and pour a pint in his honor, which I believe would be a terrible waste of a character. But I wouldn’t be broken-hearted because I’ve been back seven or eight times, for Christ’s sake, since 2001 that’s pretty damn good as it’s 2024.

” Now I haven’t been back since 2018 but the whole world has changed since then into a crazy woke sort of… it’s all changed. I’m not quite sure how Jim would react to 24 genders in Weatherfield. If the writers had the guts to write that, I believe he would have been right.

The golden rule is to simply say it the way you used to say it: “You don’t know where you’re at and what you can say or whatever.” I confess, I don’t know anybody who has 24 genders, or whatever he may have, or she, or he, she, it or whatever, or identify as a pint of Guinness. I don’t know anyone like that but I would be just as confused, but I wouldn’t be uncomfortable, because I’d find myself saying, ‘ Do you want to explain this a wee bit more? ‘ Do you know what I mean?

” When I find that the SNP, a political party, are coming up endorsing the fact that there are 24 genders, I’m lost. You know,]campaigning ex-swimmer] Sharon Davies, I’m with Sharon, it’s just daft. I believe that the silent majority are starting to whisper and speak and shake their heads, and I believe that people are beginning to realize that this is becoming completely ridiculous.

Charlie’s new autobiography, That’s Life, So It Is, which reveals secrets from the Coronation Street set and his own career will be released next week. He claimed that, in contrast to Bruce Jones being informed last week via email that his character Les Battersby was being killed off, he feels like he managed to leave on good terms.

Charlie said:” I think it was bad. But listen, let’s make one thing clear, actors have been treated like s*** for many, many, many years, not just Bruce. It was bone idle, in my opinion. I think he should have had a phone call and said, ‘ Listen, mate, thanks very much for your service and all the rest of it, you’ve established a great character but look, this is what we’re going to do. That’s what we’re going to do but I’m just telling you on the phone, Bruce, what do you think? ‘ In my opinion, an email is cheap and cruel. I think people will realise that at Granada, they’re not stupid. Someone must have made a mistake, I believe. And I think damn well they know they’ve made an error. “

Charlie said once his on-screen wife, Beverley Callard, who played Liz, made the decision to leave, that things would start to change on the hit soap. He continued, “Bev had left, and they had been writers I’d been enthralled with for years and years.” They were having trouble figuring out what to write about, and I was having trouble with what they were writing. You’ve heard that Gwen, a girl, started ripping him off and burning all kinds of things in the street.

“And I kind of thought, ‘ They’re struggling here, and I’m struggling. ‘ And then they were getting bored, and I was getting bored, so I went upstairs. Said to Jane]Macnaught], if I stay here, you’re gonna kill the character, because that’s a good storyline for Bev, Nick]Nicholas Cochrane] and Simon]Gregson], you know what I mean, the family loses the patriarch or whatever. So I said, If I stay I think I’ll get the bullet. So why don’t we shake hands, and then there’s a way for him to come back.

However, a new regime was established. Corrie was hit by ITV’s extensive reductions. However, it sounded a little insulting. This was like receiving yet another kick in the teeth during the period when I was starting to feel a little dissatisfied with the character and everything else. However, I had been considering that it was around the same time in 1999 that I realized that the writers were becoming disinterested with me. I was getting bored with them, and if I didn’t go this character was going to get run over or something.

“So in the end, it was quite a calm decision, but I knew my agent was looking for other work, and I knew I would go straight into something else, because you always do, if you’re a long-running character, and there had been talk about the West End and stuff. So you know, in the end, it wasn’t a difficult decision although it was difficult to tell my then wife, God, rest her, because I knew what the reaction would be”.

In a previous interview last week to promote his book, Charlie recalled how his ex-wife’s years of physical abuse almost led to his suicide. He was terrified of death and had no idea where to go when he was playing the wife-beater Jim McDonald on the screen. Charlie’s tormentor was Corrie make-up artist Lesley Bond, who he married in 1999 and who died aged 55 in 2010.

Charlie revealed that even their wedding day at idyllic Lucknam Park, Wiltshire, was marred by violence. He recalled that he and another couple were getting married there at the same time. Later, Lesley accused me of flirting with the bride and slapped me so forcefully that I nearly fell. She attacked me with an empty bottle a few weeks later when she got angry at home. I loved her to pieces but she was very, very ill, bless her”. Debbie Stanley, 60, and Charlie are now happily married.

*That’s Life, So It Is by Charlie Lawson is on sale from November 7 by New Generation Publishing.

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Source: Mirror