EXCLUSIVE: Two former Coronation Street extras have spoken out on what the soap is really like.

Helen Worth’s exit as Gail Platt was watched by just 2.5million (Image: ITV)

Two Coronation Street extras have spoken out about what the soap is really like when the cameras aren’t rolling.

The ITV soap has been under scrutiny in recent months after seeing a huge drop in viewing figures and a number of cast members leave the soap.

Just 2.47m people tuned in to watch Helen Worth, who played the iconic Gail Platt for 50 years, make her exit, a tiny number in comparison to the 12m people who watched the final episode of Gavin and Stacey live on the same day. And this stark drop in popularity is just one of the issues facing Coronation Street, as it suffers a cast exodus and losing an episode a week from next year.

It was announced earlier this month that both Coronation Street and Emmerdale would move to a new scheduling pattern on ITV1, which includes a “soaps power hour” from Monday to Friday.

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This means both soaps will lose one episode, or a half-hour, of drama a week under the new schedule, sparking concerns about ITV’s financial situation, as well as the future of remaining cast and crew.

Matthew Davidge was an extra on on Corrie for 30 years (Image: ITV)

Speaking about Corrie’s current issues, former extra Matthew Davidge, who was on the show for 30 years before he got sacked in 2022 for taking a picture with Andi Peters, remarked on the lack of background actors as a sign of financial trouble.

“There aren’t any extras in the background anymore because they can’t afford it,” he explains. “I did it for 30 years. Many moons ago, the Rovers used to be packed. And now you only probably see one or two extras in the background. I don’t know what’s going on with ITV at the moment, it’s ridiculous.”

Reflecting on the atmosphere on set he said: “Before I left, the atmosphere was really, really bad because people just weren’t talking to each other. You could tell people weren’t happy.

“Normally when they do a scene, you stand around, but what seems to happen is they just went back to the dressing rooms and they just kept to themselves.So the atmosphere actually on the set has gone really, really downhill.”

“But the thing is now, you’ll see one or twoextras in the background. Whereas before, many, many years ago, there used to be like 20-30 people in the background, so you’d really feel like you were in the pub,” adding he thought viewers were not happy with the lack of atmosphere on the soap.

Matthew revealed that once he’d paid travel and agent expenses, he would only receive £70 for each day of work on the show, which could sometimes go up to 12 hours.

Yet it is not all gloom for the show.

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Matthew Davidge has spoken about his time behind the scenes on the soap (Image: ITV)

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It was recently named Best Continuing Drama by judges at the recent Broadcast Awards for its handling of motor neurone disease in a recent storyline, which the judges labelled “deeply moving”. They also won the Best Soap Performance at the recent TV Choice awards when Peter Ash was awarded for his performance as Paul Foreman.

And another actor who recently worked on the show disagrees with the reports of a negative atmosphere on set, describing the cast as “welcoming” and like a “family.”

“Everyone was just so welcoming,” he told the Express. “The people that I was going to be involved with the storylines, you know, chatting to them prior to everything, you know, it didn’t take long for me to feel just at home.

“I’ve seen a lot of talk online about how they’re struggling or whatever, and I don’t think that’s actually the case… I think it’s just a case of they need to innovate and change with the times.”