Tony Blackburn: Coronation Street is 'not good' at the moment

Tony Blackburn thinks \'Coronation Street\' is "not good at the moment".

The 76-year-old DJ believes the popular ITV soap - which has been running since the 1960s - could be improved by bringing in an influx of "older characters".

Tony is quoted by The Daily Star newspaper as saying: "The show is going through a tetchy time. It is not too good at the moment. They should have more older characters."

And the disc jockey is not the only celebrity who has blasted the soap for its dark storylines in recent months.

Paul O\'Grady previously claimed he preferred \'EastEnders\' to \'Coronation Street\' because there is "too much death and destruction" on the ITV soap.

The 63-year-old TV presenter compared the show to war-torn Syria last year during a time when serial killer character Pat Phelan (Connor McIntyre) was running riot, bumping off Weatherfield residents.

He said: "It was about working class life in a little street, but now it\'s like Syria."

Paul also quipped \'Corrie\' had become more like a Quentin Tarantino-like movie than a soap opera.

He previously said: "There\'s too much death and destruction in \'Corrie\'. It\'s gone a bit Tarantino."

Similarly, Sir Michael Parkinson slammed \'Coronation Street\' bosses for their violent and "gruesome" storylines last year, and he thought the show was better in the past when it was light entertainment.

The TV icon responded to scenes which saw villainous builder Pat orchestrate the murders of Andy Carver (Oliver Farnworth) and Vinny Ashford (Ian Kelsey).

The 84-year-old star previously said: "I never imagined I would recoil from watching \'Coronation Street\', but the storyline of the kidnapping and torture of Andy and Vinny and their brutal murder by Pat Phelan had little to do with that gentle, funny reminder of life in the North Country I discovered and so admired in the early 1960s when I joined Granada Television."