Corrie's Unhappy Father Todd To Be Snared

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Community
Name: Corrie's Unhappy Father Todd to be Snared
Date(s): November 25, 2003 - ca. 2005/2006
Moderator: N/A
Founder: cobaltmale
Type:
Fandom: Coronation Street
URL: Digital Spy forums[2]
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Corrie's Unhappy father Todd to be "snared"[1] was a thread in the Soaps section of the Digital Spy discussion forums that grew into a fannish community that followed the turns of Todd Grimshaw's gay storyline in the British soap Coronation Street in 2003-2004 and kept tabs on the career of the actor who played Todd, Bruno Langley, after he left the soap in September 2004.

The thread got its name from a spoiler article in the Daily Star tabloid newspaper discussing the future turns of Todd's storyline (at the time, November 2003, Todd had kissed Nick, his girlfriend's brother, and would soon find himself a prospective father; the spoiler article talked about a male love interest to come into the picture and tempt Todd away from his girlfriend, later fiancée, in the spring). The thread name was kept when the original thread was closed for forum performance reason after growing too large, and Corrie's Unhappy Father Todd to be Snared Part 2 thread[2] opened in July 2004. Part 3 (January 2005)[3], Part 4 (May 2005)[4] and Part 5 (September 2005)[5] followed during 2005, with by-then mostly inactive but still open Part 5 eventually split into further parts[6][7][8] for performance reasons. As of 18 August 2010, the last post on the split Part 5 (now Part 5 (Part 4)) is from 24 December 2009, following occasional chatter-type posts[9].

Controversy

Digital Spy soaps forum frequently discusses future and current storylines but in 2003-2004 long-standing threads were fairly rare. With the Todd Snared thread growing in the numbers of posts and regular posters, other forum users began to find it cliqueish, and, eventually after Todd's exit in September 2004, threads asking what was the point with it[10], calling it to be closed[11], with similar names,[12] or posing as new parts of it[13][14], started to appear occasionally.

At most serious, the Part 2 thread was closed and temporarily removed from the forum to investigate alleged libel claims in January 2005[15]. Part 3 started its life in the Chatter section of the forums, but after a tense evening with regular contributors trying to stay calm and reassure each other, the thread was moved back[16] to the Soaps section and continued to exist as before.

Community activities

Discussion

At first, the focus was on discussing the initial spoiler about Todd being "snared" and speculating the turns the storyline would take. Spoiler and episode discussions formed an important part of the community activities all the way through the storyline, but after Todd's exit from the show in September 2004, episode discussions didn't die out completely, but became less intense and focused on other characters, such as Eileen, Todd's Mum.

The thread participants also followed the future careers of Bruno Langley (first as Adam in the Doctor Who episode The Long Game (2005)), and Chris Finch, who played Karl, Todd's love interest.

Fanfiction

Fanfiction became a community activity on the thread (when?). Several forum members contributed to a story of over 70 instalments between (time?) and April 2004[17] that was inspired by spoilers but also involved having many of the younger (and good-looking) male characters discovering their gay sides. After Todd and Karl's first kiss (in April 2004), stories started focusing more on the two of them. When the storyline, after dramatic events, was faded out for the time being in June 2004, some authors wrote fix-it stories, or imagined how Todd and Karl's story could continue. Increasingly, fic was posted off-forum to allow depictions of explicit sex. Some stories were collected on "Todd & Karl Fiction Heaven", a site maintained by Ben,[18] but the site does no longer (as of August 2010) exist.

There was a fic contest (when, who won?, not very many entries?)

Notable works

  • "Door pinnin'" by Ben - filling in the blanks, in explicit detail, following the fade-to-black at the end of the episode on (date?). Due to the explicit nature of the story, it was initially circulated through Digital Spy private messages, and was behind a password on Todd & Karl Fiction Heaven.
  • anything else?

Fanart

Anti Static's drawings (are they available anywhere any more?), anyone else?

Fanvids

(several were created, but all have probably all gone)

Impact

On Digital Spy, the thread paved way for later long threads focused on a single storyline or character, such as Hollyoaks threads for John-Paul and Craig.

References

  1. ^ The original Corrie's Unhappy father Todd to be "snared" thread on Digital Spy, as started by cobaltmale on 25 November 2003. Accessed 18 August 2010.
  2. ^ Corrie's Unhappy Father Todd To Be Snared Part 2 thread on Digital Spy forums as started by BrunoSexGod on 23 July 2004. Accessed 18 August 2010.
  3. ^ Corrie's Unhappy Father Todd To Be Snared Part 3 thread on Digital Spy, as started by stevemar on 5 January 2005. Accessed 18 August 2010.
  4. ^ Corrie's Unhappy Father Tood To Be Snared Part 4 thread on Digital Spy, started by EdinburghDavid on 31 May 2005. Accessed 18 August 2010.
  5. ^ Corrie's Unhappy Father Todd To Be Snared Part 5 thread on Digital Spy started by tkthinker, 13 September 2005. Accessed 18 August 2010.
  6. ^ Corrie's Unhappy Father Todd To Be Snared Part 5 (Part 2) thread on Digital Spy. Accessed 18 August 2010.
  7. ^ Corrie's Unhappy Father Todd To Be Snared Part 5 (Part 3) thread on Digital Spy. Accessed 18 August 2010.
  8. ^ Corrie's Unhappy Father Todd To Be Snared Part 5 (Part 4) thread on Digital Spy. Accessed 18 August 2010.
  9. ^ Post by corriander on Corrie's Unhappy Father Todd To Be Snared Part 5 (Part 4) thread on Digital Spy. Accessed 18 August 2010.
  10. ^ What's the point in the "Corrie's Unhappy Father Todd To Be Snared" Thread? thread on Digital Spy, started by davidandgary on 8 April 2005. Accessed 18 August 2010.
  11. ^ Stop The Todd Thread thread on Digital Spy started by enyafreak, 14 May 2005. Accessed 18 August 2010.
  12. ^ Corrie's Happy Father Todd has been "snared" thread on Digital Spy started by rudi, 3 April 2004. Accessed 18 August 2010.
  13. ^ (Fake) Corrie's Unhappy Father Todd To Be Snared Part 3 thread on Digital Spy, started by Andrea Jackson, 6 December 2004. Accessed 18 August 2010.
  14. ^ (Fake) Corrie's Unhappy Father Todd To Be Snared - Part 5 thread on Digital Spy, started by Markjuk on 12 July 2005.[1] Accessed 18 August 2010.
  15. ^ Removed thread and potential libel post on Digital Spy made by Beth Hart (then moderator), 5 January 2005. Accessed 18 August 2010.
  16. ^ Moving back to the Soaps section, 5 January 2005.[dead link] Accessed 18 August 2010.
  17. ^ Post repeating the (at the time) most recent contribution to the collectively written story and pointing to previous instalments on Corrie's Unhappy Father Todd to be "snared" thread on Digital Spy, by Rita's Kabin, 3 April 2004. Accessed 18 August 2010.
  18. ^ Author index page on Todd & Karl Fiction Heaven as archived on Archive.org 7 March 2007. Accessed 24 August 2010.
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