I'm fed up with soap misery - ​bring back Corrie’s dramas of love and every day living

​I have recently found myself asking rather unfashionable questions: whatever happened to ordinary life on television? And what exactly do we need in today’s troubled times?

Take soaps. There was a time when they offered a gentle glimpse into the everyday. Nothing earth-shattering necessarily happened in an episode of Coronation Street, Emmerdale or EastEnders. Someone quarrelled with a neighbour over a fence. A romance blossomed slowly. A character worried about paying the bills or fretted over an embarrassing secret.

Think of Ken Barlow and Mike Baldwin and their rivalry over Deirdre. Or Alfie and Kat, forever falling out and finding their way back to one another. Or Dirty Den and Angie Watts, whose fiery rows had Britain postponing cups of tea until the credits rolled. It was drama that felt recognisable and comforting because it resembled our own lives.

Those quieter storylines mattered because they reminded us that life is not solely composed of crises. Most of our days are filled with smaller things: sharing a cup of tea, arguing over trivial matters, celebrating birthdays, making mistakes and carrying on regardless.

That, too, is drama. There is immense beauty in the ordinary.

Some of the happiest memories people have of television are not grand tragedies but programmes that made us smile. Think of The Liver Birds, with its warmth, wit and wonderfully ordinary characters trying to make sense of life. Think of Butterflies, where Ria Parkinson wrestled not with serial killers or kidnappers but with the quiet disappointments and humour of family life. Think too of Bread, where the Boswell family faced hardship with irrepressible humour and resilience.

And then there was Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?, where Bob and Terry’s conversations about work, friendship and the changing world captured the everyday experiences of millions.

These programmes understood something many modern dramas seem to have forgotten: everyday life is full of comedy, longing, misunderstandings, hopes, regrets and moments of unexpected joy. Their stories centred on recognisable people muddling through life with humour, dignity and affection. So let’s have characters likes Benny, Sinbad, Hilda and Dot. And bring back light hearted storylines that made us chuckle, cry a little and recognise ourselves.

Because, today, turning on a soap often feels like opening a catalogue of human misery. Hardly a week passes without someone being kidnapped, diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, becoming addicted to drugs, confronting trauma or surviving violence.

I do not suggest these subjects should never be portrayed. Many deserve public attention and can be handled with great sensitivity.

Television can educate as well as entertain.

But must it all be so relentlessly bleak?

There are evenings when I simply do not have the emotional energy to witness yet another tragedy unfolding on screen. After an hour of news filled with wars, political instability, terrorism and economic uncertainty, I yearn for something lighter.

Something that allows me, just for a moment, to forget the troubles of the world. But then perhaps soaps are merely reflecting the times in which we live. Modern society is undeniably more complicated than the world many of us grew up in. We inhabit an age of rapid social change, fractured communities, social media outrage and an endless stream of bad news delivered directly into our pockets.

I don’t think entertainment must always mirror our anxieties. Might it not also provide a refuge from them? I would like to see simpler plots once again: stories rich in the small details that make up most of our lives. Show me people getting up for work, grumbling about the boss, worrying about the mortgage, chatting over a cup of tea or pursuing hobbies and pastimes. Let us watch people falling in love, preparing nervously for a first date or simply navigating the joys and frustrations of family life.

At present, our news is serious, our politics is serious and increasingly our entertainment is serious too. It can all become rather exhausting – all this seriousness.

So here is my modest plea to the writers and producers of our beloved soaps: give us a little more joy. Let people fall in love without disaster lurking around the corner.

Let neighbours squabble over hedges instead of surviving kidnappings. Let someone make a fool of themselves at a village fête.

Please, make us laugh again. Because sometimes the most radical thing television can offer in troubled times is not another crisis. It is a smile.