Corrie hopes for clean sweep at soap awards

Coronation Street is hoping to clean up at tonight’s British Soap Awards. At last year’s ceremony the ITV soap trailed behind its rival EastEnders.

The BBC show won the coveted best soap title and a total of seven awards, while Coronation Street came away with five.

But the past 12 months have seen Corrie go from strength to strength with a string of dramatic storylines.

Katy Harris murdering dad Tommy, Mad Maya wreaking her revenge on Dev and Sunita, Charlie manipulating girlfriend Shelley and Todd revealing he was gay - all have proved ratings winners for the show.

By contrast, the past year has been disastrous for EastEnders.

The troubled soap recorded its lowest ever ratings – just 6.2 million – in September, 2004 and equalled them in March this year.

On both occasions it was beaten by Emmerdale, which could also do well at tonight’s awards ceremony.

Paul O’Grady will host the awards and the cream of Britain’s soap talent will be there to see which show emerges victorious.

Nominees for best actor include Coronation Street stars Simon Gregson (Steve McDonald), Bill Ward (Charlie Stubbs) and Antony Cotton (Sean Tully); EastEnders Nigel Harman (Dennis Rickman), Shane Richie (Alfie Moon) and Perry Fenwick (Billy Mitchell); and Emmerdale’s Ken Farrington (Tom King), Mark Charnock (Marlon Dingle) and Jeff Hordley (Cain Dingle).

Best actress could go to Coronation Street’s Sally Lindsay (Shelley Unwin), Tina O’Brien (Sarah Platt) or Suranne Jones (Karen McDonald); EastEnders’ Jessie Wallace (Kat Moon), Kacey Ainsworth (Little Mo Mitchell) or Michelle Ryan (Zoe Slater); or Emmerdale’s Emma Atkins (Charity Tate), Elizabeth Estensen (Diane Sugden) or Jane Cox (Lisa Dingle).

One of the most eagerly-awaited awards is for soap bitch of the year – a battle between Coronation Street’s Tracy Barlow (actress Kate Ford), Emmerdale glamourpuss Sadie King (Patsy Kensit) and EastEnders’ new bad girl Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner).

:: The awards will be broadcast on ITV1 on Wednesday at 8pm.