Coronation Street suffered a furious backlash from fans over its April Fool’s Day video for a fake sitcom.
The ITV soap posted a hilarious trailer for a fake sitcom called Victoria Street on its social media pages yesterday, but its reveal that it was an April Fool’s joke confused and then infuriated fans.
Writing on Twitter, the soap said: April Fools! Victoria Street isn’t real… but we bet you wish it was! #Corrie #VictoriaStreet #AprilFoolsDay #GotYou.”
Unfortunately hundreds of fans thought the soap was talking about the actual Victoria Street, the massively expensive set expansion recently revealed to the press.
And all hell broke loose.
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One fan wrote: “Must try harder. Much much harder. This has massively backfired.”
A second added: “So is it real or not ? So no new bistros or tattoo place or police station or CO-OP #confused.”
Another tweeted: “You rotten [expletive]. So not funny.”
The video shows the opening credits for the fake show, using the Corrie set and actors.
The video pans through the streets before showing a title card saying “Victoria Street.”
A few of the Corrie cast show up, scampering around the set in stark contrast to the melodrama of their usual characters.
Julia Goulding frolics around with an umbrella, while Daniel Brocklebank dances up to the camera.
Beverley Callard plays hide and seek, Colson Smith runs up a fire escape, while Bhavna Limbachia tussles with a rubbish bin.
The video was captioned with a dramatic announcement for the fake show.
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“EXCLUSIVE NEWS: @ITV is excited to announce a brand new sitcom based in Weatherfield, featuring well-known faces from the world of Coronation Street!
“#Corrie #VictoriaStreet #CoronationStreet.”
Did you fall for it? Leave us a comment on our Facebook page @EntertainmentDailyFix and let us know what you think!