Fans of the popular ITV soap opera Coronation Street have complained the show is "not the same" anymore, arguing that classic episodes were better.

Taking to Reddit, one disgruntled fan said: "Corrie is not Corrie anymore," adding: "I hate to be negative. I love Corrie. I really do. It's part of my family, and I've been watching it since I was a little kid back in the days of Ray Langton and Len Fairclough."

However, they wrote that over the years, the show has lost its way, telling others: "Now? Coronation Street is simply not the same show. Yes, I know shows change, and so do the times, but literally every storyline now involves the law, prison, murder, fatal disease, or fraud of some kind.

"Those things have their place, but they shouldn't be the ENTIRE SHOW."

ITV viewers say Coronation Street is 'not the same show anymore'

To test their theory that the show is different, the Reddit user watched a classic and a modern episode side-by-side.

They found that the older installations of the programme featured fewer arrests and deaths, making for a "breath of fresh air".

Concluding their rant, they said: "I know some people will say I'm overreacting and it's no longer for me... But this show is very rooted in my genetic makeup, and it's very hard to see it slipping away.

"It just needs to ease up on the whole darker aspects of the street. I'm not saying it shouldn't be there... but it's ALL there is now"

Other Coronation Street fans agreed, with one ITV viewer writing: "I agree, every story always requires the police to get involved, someone needs to call the police, threaten to call the police, be arrested or be otherwise reprimanded."

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Another added: "I feel the same way. I've watched since the early 1970s and I've seen loads of 60s episodes online. Sadly, it's become a habit rather than a pleasure. I'm sure many enjoy it still, but the ratings are a shadow of what they once were."

A third person simply penned: "Not enough comedy!!! I’m so sick of prisons and cancer on this show."

A fourth person claimed the show isn't a soap to producers nowadays and only a "vehicle for ideas they can't realise elsewhere."