"Coronation Street" (1960) TV series 1960-????

Directors:

Neil Alderton
Darrol Blake

Writers:

Cyril Abraham (writer)
Martin Allen (1997)

Seasons:

1 | unknown

Release Date:

9 December 1960 (UK)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

The UK's longest-running TV soap, Coronation Street focuses on the everyday lives of working class people in Manchester, England.

Plot Keywords:

Soap | Working Class | Manchester England | Famous Opening Theme | Gray

Awards:

88 wins & 104 nominations

Cast

Helen Worth	...	Gail Platt / ... (939 episodes, 1974-2009)
Simon Gregson	...	Steve McDonald (909 episodes, 1989-2009)
William Roache	...	Ken Barlow / ... (886 episodes, 1960-2009)
Anne Kirkbride	...	Deirdre Barlow / ... (806 episodes, 1972-2009)
Beverley Callard	...	Liz McDonald (795 episodes, 1989-2009)
Sally Whittaker	...	Sally Webster / ... (779 episodes, 1986-2009)
Barbara Knox	...	Rita Sullivan / ... (775 episodes, 1964-2009)
Sue Nicholls	...	Audrey Roberts / ... (767 episodes, 1979-2009)
Michael Le Vell	...	Kevin Webster / ... (718 episodes, 1981-2009)
Eileen Derbyshire	...	Emily Bishop / ... (677 episodes, 1961-2009)
Jennie McAlpine	...	Fiz Brown / ... (615 episodes, 2001-2009)
Antony Cotton	...	Sean Tully (598 episodes, 2003-2009)
Samia Smith	...	Maria Sutherland / ... (565 episodes, 2000-2009)
William Tarmey	...	Jack Duckworth / ... (558 episodes, 1977-2009)
Sue Cleaver	...	Eileen Grimshaw / ... (544 episodes, 1994-2009)
Ryan Thomas	...	Jason Grimshaw (538 episodes, 2000-2009)
Jack P. Shepherd	...	David Platt (535 episodes, 2000-2009)
Malcolm Hebden	...	Norris Cole / ... (494 episodes, 1974-2009)
Elizabeth Dawn	...	Vera Duckworth / ... (472 episodes, 1972-2008)
Kym Marsh	...	Michelle Connor (470 episodes, 2006-2009)
Betty Driver	...	Betty Turpin / ... (466 episodes, 1969-2009)
Vicky Entwistle	...	Janice Battersby (460 episodes, 1997-2009)
Jane Danson	...	Leanne Battersby / ... (456 episodes, 1997-2009)
David Neilson	...	Roy Cropper (445 episodes, 1995-2009)
Alan Halsall	...	Tyrone Dobbs (438 episodes, 1998-2009)
Steven Arnold	...	Ashley Peacock (411 episodes, 1995-2009)
Maggie Jones	...	Blanche Hunt / ... (409 episodes, 1967-2009)
Katherine Kelly	...	Becky Granger / ... (405 episodes, 2006-2009)
Tupele Dorgu	...	Kelly Crabtree (405 episodes, 2004-2009)
Julia Haworth	...	Claire Peacock / ... (396 episodes, 2003-2009)
Johnny Briggs	...	Mike Baldwin / ... (395 episodes, 1974-2006)
Helen Flanagan	...	Rosie Webster (383 episodes, 2000-2009)
Craig Charles	...	Lloyd Mullaney (378 episodes, 2005-2009)

Also Known As:

Corrie (UK) (informal title)
Florizel Street (UK) (working title)
The Street (UK) (informal title)
Where No Bird Sings (UK) (working title)

Runtime:

30 min (including commercials)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White (1960-1969 and 1970-1971) | Color (1969-1970 and 1971-)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (1960-1989) | Stereo (1990-)

Certification:

Australia:M (some episodes) | Australia:PG (some episodes) | Canada:PG | UK:PG | USA:TV-PG

Filming Locations:

Granada Studios, Manchester, Greater Manchester, England, UK

Company:

Granada Television

Trivia:

Canadian TV station CBKST in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, made the Guinness Book of World Records in 1971 when it bought more than 1,140 episodes of this series. The show ran continuously on the station for about 20 years.

Goofs:

Continuity: In the episode, 22/11/2004, (where Dev's corner shops are blown up by Maya) Dev drives his Saab to the shop which is about to be blown up, he parks the car directly outside the shop. Also parked directly outside the shop is another car. As the shop blows up, the camera changes angle to show the blast and Dev's car has somehow disappeared, just leaving the other car in shot.

Quotes:

Gail Potter: [to Richard Hillman] You're Norman Bates with a briefcase.

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in "The Day Today: The First (#1.1)" (1994)

Soundtrack:

I am, I feel

Corrie on regardless

TV is a fickle business and never more so than in one of its dramatic mainstays - the humble soap.

Getting the balance between comedy and drama can be a tricky affair, not to mention having (and keeping) a cast of likeable characters who make you want to tune in for more week after week.

While Eldorado and Albion Market failed to capture the imagination of the nation, there are others that manage to shrug off the birth pangs, cope with a difficult adolesence and settle down while seizing the heart of the nation.

In case you didn't know it, Corrie is 40 this year and as one of the world's longest running soaps it has earned its place in the record books.

It began not with a bang but with a whimper.

The opening scenes are still etched in the mind of creator Tony Warren, who developed the show while still a mere slip of a lad. Mrs Lappin slipped a coin into a bubblegum machine outside her corner shop, and Ena Sharples, scowling like a bulldog beneath THAT hairnet, demanded: "Are those fancies today's? I'll take half a dozen - and no eclairs. NO eclairs."

Lest we forget, the show gave rise to some of the best actors and writers in the business, including Joanna Lumley, Ben Kingsley and The Royle Family's much loved mate, Twiggy (Geoffrey Hughes).

Scriptwriters like Jack Rosenthal (Yentl, London's Burning) and Frank Cottrell Boyce (Jude, Hillary and Jackie) gave us dialogue and scenes that went above and beyond the realms of most shows while it enlivened many a dull night's TV by its very presence alone.

Over the years, we have relished the clashes between Ena (Violet Carson) and Elsie (Pat Phoenix), thrown soft furnishings at the TV while dithery Derek (Peter Baldwin) and Mavis (Thelma Barlow) tested the patience of saints and wept buckets as Judy Mallett (Gaynor Faye), Des Barnes (Phil Middlemiss) and most of Ken Barlow's (William Roache) wives became another statistic in the suspiciously high list of Weatherfield residents who met their maker far too early.

This year has been as unmissable as any in its four decade history with the Tony Horrocks murder and the 'Martn' (Sean Wilson) and Rebecca (Jill Halfpenny) affair coming to a head, not to mention Jez (the excellent Lee Boardman) and Alison (Naomi Radcliffe) reaching a sticky end as polar opposite characters both cut short by some brutal scripting.

The Street has become so ingrained in people's hearts that, over the years, many have lost sight of that thin line between fact and fiction.

When Elsie Tanner was lying unidentified in a London hospital after being knocked down by a taxi, viewers wrote to her husband to tell him where she was.

Dozens of women took up their knitting needles to make dustman Eddie Yates a new woolly hat when his own was shredded in the washing machine, and when Ena lost her post as secretary of the Glad Tidings mission, the job offers flooded in.

People have even tried to book Christmas parties at the Rovers Return and rent the houses which become vacant in Britain's most celebrated terraced street. Former producer Bill Podmore once said: 'All over the country, old terraces like Coronation Street are disappearing, but a change in the Street could destroy the roots of the programme, because the architecture is as much a part of its character as the people.'

But it was regular script writer Harry Kershaw who summed up it's enduring popularity and extraordinary success both at home and abroad. 'Coronation Street is about life,' he said, 'and life has its universal situations, its problems and laughter; therefore it has an international appeal.'

We have laughed, cried and run screaming by the sight of hamster-faced Gail (Helen Worth) and the haircut from Hell, poodle-haired Liz (Beverley Callard) dressing like a woman half her age and Mike Baldwin (Johnny Briggs) working his way through the Street's female residents. How long can all this go on?

Well, as long as Granada keep hiring some of the best cast and crew in the business while putting a fresh spin on age old stories of love, lust, infidelity and, in Fred Elliott's case, fine meat products, let's hope it never ends.