Move over Corrie, Love Island's on

Coronation Street scriptwriters are angry at ITV1's decision to move the show from its usual timeslot to prop up the struggling Celebrity Love Island.

On Mondays, the soap is usually shown in two half-hour episodes at 7.30 and 8.30pm. For the past two weeks, however, a single hour-long episode at 8.30pm has been shown instead.

The switch was meant to encourage viewers to stay for the next show - the ailing Celebrity Love Island.

But Coronation Street's scriptwriters believe the changes are undermining ITV1's flagship programme. Ratings have dipped on both Mondays Coronation Street was moved as viewers struggled to find it.

Now the team of 20 writers has demanded a meeting with Nigel Pickard, the channel's director of programmes, over the issue.

'Moving Monday's episode is the straw that broke the camel's back,' writer John Fay told the magazine Broadcast. 'It's madness to hobble a tried-and-tested thoroughbred by tying it to something heading for the knackers' yard.

'Many of us have worked on the show for years. We feel we are the custodians of its future and we feel that it risks being damaged.'

Fellow writer Daran Little said: 'Coronation Street is a national treasure and as such sometimes needs defending from those who undervalue it or are prepared to mortgage it in the short term without a view to the long term.

'Chipping away at a solid structure and then placing more and more demands on that structure is asking for disaster.

'The writers of Corrie have a message for those prepared to listen: don't let any more shows with deceiving titles damage the quality of a show crammed full with real celebrities.'