Gemma Winter is not one to mince her words.
And she certainly didn’t during the week.
Having just split from her boyfriend in the soap earlier this week, Gemma took to the Rovers Return to vent about all things men.
Speaking to Peter Barlow and Toyah Battersby, she said: “Blokes are a total waste of space. We should ban them from the country.”
Peter then suggested that all the men be banished somewhere like California, but Gemma had another idea.
“No,” she said. “Send them somewhere cold and miserable like Skegness.”
Ouch.
Understandably, people from Skegness weren’t all that happy with how their beloved Gemma was speaking about their little town.
They were so unhappy that they actually decided to complain to ITV about, it forcing the channel to address the issue.
In response, Coronation Street producers said that they obviously hadn’t intended to cause any offence by having Gemma say this, but that it was still an accurate statement for her character to make.
They said:
“While it would never be our intention to deliberately offend viewers, we do defend the right of our characters to say things that those characters would say in real life, even if some viewers disagree with their views.
“Gemma is known to be outspoken and her comments sometimes say more about her than they do about what she is commenting on.”
Fair enough, you’d think.
As it turns out though, the good people of Skegness were so pissed off with the comment that the Mayor even had to get involved.
Mayor Danny Brookes said that Corrie often references the town and that it’s not worth getting worked up over because everybody knows it isn’t “cold and miserable” anyway.
Try telling the people who complained, Danny.
