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Coronation Street is Britain's longest-running television soap opera, and the UK's consistently highest-rated show. It was created by Tony Warren and first broadcast on the ITV network on Friday December 9, 1960. The working title of the show was 'Florizel Street', but Agnes, a tea lady at Granada Television, Manchester, (where Coronation Street is produced) remarked that 'Florizel' sounded too much like a disinfectant.

Coronation Street (commonly nicknamed "Corrie", "Coro St" or "The Street") is set in a fictional street in the fictional industrial town of 'Weatherfield' which is based on Salford, now part of Greater Manchester (A Coronation Street does exist in Salford and Macclesfield). Its principal rival soap opera is BBC1's EastEnders.

The show's iconic theme music, a brass-band throwback to the sounds of the 1940s, was written by Eric Spear and has been only slightly modified since the show's beginning.

Coronation Street can be seen in Britain on ITV1 on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 7:30 p.m. There is also an extra episode on Monday night at 8:30 p.m. Repeat episodes (and specials) can be seen on ITV2, with the omnibus usually shown on Sunday afternoons.

Granada and ITV executives, as well as the people in charge of distributing the show overseas, have called (and still call, as of 2006) Coronation Street the world's longest-running soap opera. The Guinness Book of Records recognises American soap opera Guiding Light as the world's longest-running soap opera, with over fifty years on television and an extra fifteen on radio.

Background to Coronation Street

Originally broadcast live, it is now pre-recorded, usually four to six weeks in advance of broadcast. Whereas rival British soap operas are known either for their gritty gloom (EastEnders) or their cutting, sharp one-liners (Emmerdale), Coronation Street is known on occasions for its light, almost camp humour, though it has tackled some controversial topics and storylines (see Most controversial storylines of Coronation Street for details).

The "Street" is based in a terraced row of seven working-class houses (for some years, six, with a garden bench in the place of the seventh) with a public house, or pub, and a corner shop at each end.

According to the storyline, the Street was built in 1902, and named after that year's big national event, the coronation of King Edward VII. The Street is located between Rosamund Street and Viaduct Street. The architecture of the Street was based on Archie Street, Salford, which appeared in the programme's original opening credits. The Street itself was originally a set built inside a studio, with the houses reduced in scale. This was awkward for the actors, who had to walk more slowly than normal to appear in scale with the set.

In 1968, Granada decided to build an outside set. All interactions on the outside street were previously filmed on a soundstage. This new set was built on some old railway sidings near the Granada Studios, and coincided with a storyline of the demolition of Ellison's Raincoat Factory and the Mission Hall and the subsequent building of maisonettes opposite the terrace. To usher in the erection of the new set, a special-effects-laden storyline involving a train wreck was filmed in the studio; the viewers did not know if Ena Sharples was dead under the rubble. In the early 1970s roofs and back yards were added, but the set was still reduced in scale and quite cramped. Also, the famous cobbles were not parallel to the houses. This site later became the New York Street at the now-closed Granada Studios Tour complex in the late 1980s and 1990s.

In 1982 a modern, full-size exterior street was built in the Granada backlot; because it was meant to be permanent the houses were constructed from reclaimed Salford brick, rather than wood and scaffolding. However, the houses had no interior walls — the chimneys had to be made of fibreglass, since there would otherwise be insufficient support. Even now, several Granada towerblocks dominate the skyline over the street, and are usually obscured/'hidden' through careful camera angles. The majority of interior scenes are still shot in the adjoining purpose-built studio. When the Granada Studios Tour was closed in 1999, the exterior set was extended and updated: the derelict Graffiti Club on Rosamund Street was revamped and reopened as a medical centre/surgery (the character Gail Platt is the only major character that works there), a new street, Victoria Street, was built to house three shops (see below) and two houses; parallel to the newly-built street was the side of Rosamund Street and a new builder's yard was placed there (which backs onto the betting shop). To obscure one of the Granada towerblocks, a new viaduct was placed on Rosamund Street (behind the Rovers and parallel to Victoria Street). The 'viaduct' is actually a façade with an optical illusion to make it look complete.

Additional surrounding streets have been added in recent years, while the current (introduced 7 January 2002) computer-generated opening credits "locates" Coronation Street in a large urban landscape surrounded by similar small working-class streets. (Previously a montage of similar streets shot in several cities had been used; however, an opening sequence in the early 1970s indicates Coronation Street's proximity to a modern high-rise block of flats.) While one side of the street consists of the early 20th century houses, the other consists of a factory, a shop, a garage and some smart semi-detached houses built in 1989.

As befitting the soap-opera genre, the Street is made up of individual housing units, plus seven communal areas; a newsagent's (the Kabin), a small eaterie (Roy's Rolls — owned by the eccentric Roy Cropper), a general grocery shop (currently owned by the smooth Dev Alahan), a factory (Underworld — owned by the Baldwins), a bakery ("Compton's Bakery" - owned by Diggory Compton), a garage (owned by Kevin Webster), and its permanent feature, a public house called "The Rovers Return Inn", whose landlord or landlady invariably becomes one of Britain's most famous actors (the first manageress, Annie Walker, played by Doris Speed, became a national icon and was employed behind the bar for over two decades). Many of the Street's most famous stories, including the death of Martha Longhurst in May 1964, and the 1986 fire, occurred there. It is still the second home to most of the residents and there is a true sense of community spirit there. Regulars in the Rovers are Les Battersby (Bruce Jones), Ken Barlow (William Roache) and most of the other main characters.

1960s kitchen-sink drama

The serial began on 9 December 1960 and was not initially a critical success. Granada commissioned only 13 episodes and many people inside the company doubted the show would last its planned production run. However it caught the imagination of viewers, not least because of its location in the North of England, which was becoming a highly fashionable and visible centre of 1960s Britain, thanks in part to classics of British new wave cinema such as Billy Liar and Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, the "kitchen-sink" dramas of the BBC's The Wednesday Play and the rise of Merseybeat and especially the Beatles, from nearby Liverpool. Like kitchen-sink dramas, Coronation Street focused on the plight of "ordinary folk", often making use of Northern English language and dialect. Affectionate local terms like "eh, chuck", "nowt" and others became widely heard on British TV for the first time.

The storylines focus on the experiences of families and their interaction, and on relationships between people of different ages, classes and social structures. In some ways Coronation Street has charted the changes in public attitudes towards religion, politics, community, family breakdown, the gentrification of working class areas, etc.

For example, in the first decade one of the central social points on the street was the 'Glad Tidings' Mission Hall, where religious services were held and social contacts, parties, etc took place. By the start of the 21st century, no religious 'set' exists, with the only particularly religious resident on the street being the 70-year-old widow, Emily Bishop (Eileen Derbyshire). Religion, if it features at all, is mentioned in weddings and funerals, though here too, matching contemporary society, registry office weddings and non-religious funerals are increasingly common.

Early storylines featured self-appointed moral voice Ena Sharples (Violet Carson), and her friends: timid Minnie Caldwell (Margot Bryant) and bespectacled Martha Longhurst (Lynne Carol). When Martha was killed off the programme, Albert Tatlock (Jack Howarth) was allowed to be the unofficial third friend in the group. Ena and Albert had many differences, which they aired regularly, and Albert and Minnie were supposed to be married in the early 1970s. The marriage was eventually called off.

Headstrong Ena frequently clashed with Elsie Tanner (Pat Phoenix), whom she believed espoused a rather disgusting set of morals. Elsie believed in the right to let each person live life according to how they see fit, and resented Ena's gossip, which, most of the time, didn't have much of a basis in reality.

Most of the stories in the early days (and, to an extent, still today) addressed how working-class people made a caste system in their own mini-society and excommunicated others they did not wish to associate with. In reality, many of the people deemed too common (like Elsie Tanner, Hilda and Stan Ogden, played by Jean Alexander and Bernard Youens) were of the exact same stock as the people who were judging them.

Characters and characterisations

Of the original cast on the first show in 1960, only one character remains today: Ken Barlow, played by William Roache. Barlow entered the storyline as a young radical son, the elder of two brothers, epitomising the youth of 1960s Britain, where figures like the Beatles, the model Twiggy, the Rolling Stones and the Who were reshaping the concept of youthful rebellion. Though the rest of the family were killed off or moved, Ken Barlow has remained the constant link throughout 45 years of Coronation Street. For more details of Ken's storylines, see the article on him.

Barlow's character embodies the clash of perspectives and cultures played out in the soap opera. For decades his arch-foe was Mike Baldwin (Johnny Briggs), a dodgy businessman, who set up a clothes factory on the street. Baldwin and Barlow epitomised two different types of character. Whereas Barlow was an arts-oriented, left-of-centre community-centred man, Baldwin was a cut-and-thrust, capitalist, right-wing businessman, who forever mocked Barlow as a 'waster' who could do 'nothing but talk'. Their lives were complicated in typical soap-opera style by personal links. Barlow's third wife, Deirdre (Anne Kirkbride), had an affair with Baldwin before going back to Barlow. Baldwin then met and married Barlow's daughter, Susan (by an earlier marriage), but broke up with her after she had supposedly had an abortion. A decade later it became apparent that she had not had an abortion, but had borne Baldwin's child. Finally she told her father, who told Deirdre, who told Dev Alahan (Jimmi Harkishin), who told Mike Baldwin, who tried to get access to his son, Adam. In fleeing from him, Susan was killed in a car-crash, leaving Adam's father (Mike Baldwin) and his grandfather (Ken Barlow) fighting over custody. In one of the great soap-opera reconciliations, Baldwin and Barlow, having reconciled their differences, became friends (as are the actors who play them in real life).

Long-established characters

  • Ken Barlow (William Roache) is the only character who has been on the Street since the first episode. His family left one by one: his mother died under the wheels of a bus, his father left town following a Premium Bond win, and his brother died with his young son in a car accident. He has been married three times: to Valerie Tatlock (who died when she was electrocuted by her own hairdryer), Janet Reid (who left him and later committed suicide when he wouldn't take her back) and Deirdre Hunt Langton, who cheated on him with Mike Baldwin, begged Ken to forgive her, and then divorced him when he cheated on her. Ken and Deirdre remarried in April 2005.
  • Emily Bishop (formerly Emily Nugent, played by Eileen Derbyshire), who joined the cast on January 17 1961, just a few weeks into the show's run, began as a young woman working at Gamma Garments. She jilted lay preacher Leonard Swindley in 1964, and stayed a virgin until her 39th year, when she made love with her Hungarian revolutionary boyfriend. She finally married in 1972, to photographer Ernest Bishop. His murder in 1978 (during a confrontation with two youths) was a testing time to Emily, who later married Arnold Swain in 1981. After finding out he was a bigamist, she divorced him. She is now a widow in her seventies, a neighbourhood stalwart respected and liked by all, and the Street's only character to be heavily involved in the religious community. In January 2003, she was badly injured after being hit over the head by Richard Hillman (who minutes later killed Maxine Peacock) but made a full recovery and returned home. In 2006, Ernest's murderer returned to the street to seek forgiveness from Emily, who was badly shaken by the experience.
  • Betty Williams, (formerly Betty Turpin, played by Betty Driver), began as a policeman's wife first brought to the Street as convenient help for her sister Maggie Clegg (Irene Sutcliffe). Since then, she has been pulling pints and making her legendary Lancashire Hotpot at the Rovers for over 35 years.
  • Rita Sullivan (formerly Rita Littlewood/Fairclough, played by Barbara Knox), one-time nightclub singer, twice-widowed owner of a small newsagent's shop, whose role often is to play the 'straight' part of a comedy double act, the other being the invariably odd-ball co-worker, Mavis or, most recently, Norris.
  • Mike Baldwin (Johnny Briggs), London-born businessman who ran the jeanswear factory 'Baldwin's Casuals' before selling it to a property developer, who built the houses in which many characters now live. He then established an underwear business further up the street, called 'Underworld'. Mike married four times — to Susan Barlow, Jackie Ingram and Alma Sedgewick, all of whom divorced him; and Linda Sykes, from whom he was estranged. Mike also had three sons — Mark Redman (from an affair with florist Maggie Redman in 1981); Adam Baldwin (by first wife Susan, though Mike always believed Susan had aborted the baby); and Danny Baldwin (by his brother Harry's wife Viv in the 1960s - Mike and Danny weren't told the truth until 2005 when Harry died). Mike showed signs of forgetfulness in the latter part of 2005 and early 2006, and a stroke whilst on holiday worsened his condition; he was soon diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Mike was later found on a street bench and admitted to hospital with pneumonia. Mike discharged himself; however, on April 7, 2006, Mike suffered a heart attack and died in the arms of his former arch-rival, Ken Barlow, outside of his factory.
  • Deirdre Barlow (formerly Deirdre Hunt/Langton/Rachid, played by Anne Kirkbride) third and current wife of Ken Barlow. Ray Langton, her first husband, left her to live in Amsterdam. Ken Barlow was her second husband; her third, Samir Rachid, died in mysterious circumstances while on his way to donate a kidney to Deirdre's daughter Tracy (he died, so she got both kidneys). Deirdre and Ken reconciled after being divorced for over a decade, and remarried in 2005.
  • Gail Platt (formerly Gail Potter/Tilsley/Hillman, played by Helen Worth), thrice-married, twice-divorced and twice-widowed (she remarried her first husband, who was later killed) forty-something who came into the series as a teenage girl in the 1970s, and whose third husband, Richard Hillman, was a serial killer.
  • Audrey Roberts (formerly Audrey Potter, played by Sue Nicholls), widow of former Weatherfield mayor Alf Roberts, owner of the local hair salon, mother of Gail and near-victim of Richard Hillman;
  • Vera and Jack Duckworth (Liz Dawn and William Tarmey) — the street's most legendary comedy duo, the perennial losers, with a villain son who returns to visit and rip them off occasionally. Having inherited a large sum, they lost it to Richard Hillman. Vera initially appeared without Jack, who was mentioned for five years before appearing onscreen. They are famous for their stone cladding and Vera often claims she is related to royalty. They live with lodger Tyrone Dobbs.

Other well-known actors

Actors and actresses who began or spent part of their career in Coronation Street include:

Regular appearances

Short-term appearances

Laurence Olivier once offered to take part in a scene on the Street, acting alongside Jean Alexander, whom he admitted was his favourite actress on the programme. However, scheduling conflicts between the Street and the film Marathon Man denied him the chance to act on his favourite TV programme. Michael Crawford and Robbie Williams have both appeared as extras, drinking in the bar of the Rovers.

On 8 December 2000, the show celebrated its fortieth year by broadcasting an hour long edition of the show, its first episode to be broadcast live in decades. Guest of honour in the show was the Prince of Wales, heir-apparent to the British Throne, who featured in a pre-recorded segment, a 'news bulletin report' of his being welcomed to Weatherfield by then-mayor Audrey Roberts, which was being shown on the TV in the Rovers Return at one point on the evening. (His mother, Queen Elizabeth II, has visited the Coronation Street set and met the cast on a number of occasions, even taking a drink with the cast in the Rovers Return.)

Backstage staff

  • Bill Podmore was the show's longest serving producer. By the time he stepped down in 1988 he had completed 13 years at the production helm. Nicknamed the "godfather" by the tabloid press, he was renowned for his tough, uncompromising style and was feared by both crew and cast alike. He is probably most famous for sacking Peter Adamson, the show's Len Fairclough, in 1983.
  • Paul Abbott was a script editor on the programme in the 1980s, the youngest ever person to hold such a position on the show at the time, and in 1989 began writing episodes. He left in 1993 to produce Cracker, for which he later wrote, before creating his own highly-acclaimed dramas such as Touching Evil, Clocking Off, State of Play and Shameless.
  • Russell T. Davies was briefly a storyliner on the programme in the mid-1990s, also writing the script for one of the direct-to-video specials. He, too, has become a noted writer of his own high-profile television drama programmes, including Queer as Folk, The Second Coming, Casanova and the 2005 revival of Doctor Who.

Scheduling

The programme is currently shown in five episodes on four evenings a week on British television: on Mondays at 19.30 and 20.30 (with the current affairs programme Tonight with Trevor MacDonald in between the two episodes), and at 19.30 on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, when the BBC1 soap EastEnders goes out at 19.30, the "Corrie slot" on ITV is filled by regional programmes. EastEnders is broadcast four times a week on the BBC (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday).The soaps clashed in August 2001 however and EastEnders won the tussle, since then the two soaps have had no further clashes and ITV has agreed with the BBC that the shows will not clash again. In 1981, over 24 million people in the United Kingdom watched Ken Barlow marry Deirdre Langton — more than the number of people who (just two days later) saw The Prince of Wales marry Lady Diana Spencer. Since then, viewing figures have declined: Ken and Deirdre's remarriage in 2005 attracted 12.9 million viewers. * However, this still beat the 8.7 million who watched coverage of the wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles the next day. Partly due to the addition of new terrestrial and satellite channels and thus new rival programming, it still remains ITV's most-watched programme, with audiences in excess of 10 million. The show's omnibus is shown on ITV2 on Saturday and is repeated on Sunday. It consists of the latest five episodes starting from the previous Sunday's. Classic Corrie episodes aired on Granada Plus until that channel was closed in November 2004 starting from April 1976, and had reached January 1994 by the time of the channel's closure.

The special Christmas Day episode remains as central to many viewers' Christmas day celebration as the Queen's Speech. The Christmas Day episode that aired in 1987 was one of the most-watched episodes of all time; in the episode, Hilda Ogden left the Street to be a char to her doctor in the country. Nearly 27 million viewers tuned in.

Other countries

Coronation Street is also shown in many countries worldwide, being the centre of the TV schedule of Ireland's independent television station, TV3 Ireland (part-owned by Granada), which simulcasts it with ITV.

In Canada, it moved from a daytime slot on CBC Television to primetime in 2004. In 2005, CBC briefly broadcast eight episodes a week in order to reduce the gap, and during a subsequent labour dispute, CBC broadcast nine (and soon ten) episodes each week. CBC has also, before and during the labour dispute, aired the "Coronation Street Specials". CBC Country Canada, a digital television service operated by CBC, broadcasts older episodes as Corrie Classics. The 2002 edition of the Guinness Book of Records recognizes the 1,144 episodes sold to CBC-owned Saskatoon, Saskatchewan TV station CBKST by Granada TV on 31 May 1971 to be the largest number of TV shows ever purchased in one transaction.

The programme is shown in Australia by the cable and satellite station UK.TV; the episodes are about 18 months behind the UK. This gap is comparable to that for the episodes currently showing in New Zealand on Television New Zealand's TV One. In New Zealand the show consistently rates in the top ten programmes nationally. Channel Nine Perth (Australia) ran episodes of the program from October 2005 until May 2006. The series was aired in the crucial slot of 5.30pm, before the evening news. Low ratings eventually led to the series being moved to earlier in the afternoon, until it was taken off completely on 8 May 2006.

A conspicuous holdout amongst English-language television markets is the United States. The Trio channel aired a few episodes of the serial as a part of special-interest programming project, but a concerted effort to air it in the American market has never materialized. A two-disc DVD compilation was released in America, however, provoking some optimism that a cable channel might be interested in showing the soap. In the early 1970s some episodes were shown on WGBH Channel 2, the public television station in Boston, Massachusetts; while in the early-1980s, USA Network aired Corrie on weekends, but only briefly.

American viewers in the parts of the northern U.S. can view CBC's Coronation Street telecasts. In particular, cable TV subscribers in places including Seattle, Buffalo, parts of Michigan and Plattsburgh are able to view the programme on CBC affiliates. Other Americans near the Canadian border can view the program via over-the-air reception from nearby CBC transmitters.

Dutch broadcaster VARA showed 428 sub-titled episodes on Netherlands TV between 1967 and 1975.

In 2006 the small network Vitaya started broadcasting Coronation Street for viewers in Belgium.

VHS and DVD releases

Many selected episodes, and specially-produced episodes have been released on video and DVD.

Trivia

  • The show's most famous fan is Queen Elizabeth II. Other famous fans include Prince Charles, Sir Ian McKellen (who have guested in the series), the late Laurence Olivier (who was supposed to have a guest appearance but scheduling problems got in the way), and numerous prime ministers.
  • Frasier star Jane Leeves (Daphne Moon) once commented that the only downside of living in the United States was that she was unable to see Coronation Street.
  • Between 1989 and 1999, the Granada Studios Tour allowed members of the public the opportunity to take a stroll down the cobbles of Coronation Street. During this period, the "set" remained closed to the public on Mondays since this was the day when exterior scenes for the series were filmed.
  • The first swear word heard on the soap was "bloody", said by Ken Barlow in January 1961 following an argument with his mother Ida. The second swear word was "Bastard", spoken by Len Fairclough about Steve Tanner when Elsie returned to the Street in March 1968.
  • In an episode of Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights, wheelchair-bound Brian Potter is seen pushing himself down a Blackpool street. He passes a sign "in memory of Alan", commemorating the time when the character Alan Bradley was killed by a Blackpool tram.
  • Occasionally celebrities have been allowed to play themselves on Coronation Street: one such occasion was when HRH Prince Charles made an appearance on the show's 40th Anniversary episode (2000), and was seen shaking hands with character Audrey Roberts. A more recent occasion featured Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt of the British rock band Status Quo (the band itself also being a national institution). The band's drummer, Matt Letley, also made a cameo in the episodes. (2005) Appearing in four episodes, Rossi and Parfitt call into the Rovers Return, and Rossi attacks character Les Battersby (who is played by actor Bruce Jones, himself a massive fan of the group), as Battersby had previously caused him a grievous neck injury. The matter later gets resolved, and the band agree to play at Battersby's upcoming wedding. In the 1960s, real-life wrestler Iain Campbell appeared in a bout with Stan Ogden, and in the 1970s, Ena Sharples encountered the Duke of Bedford when on a trip to Woburn Abbey.
  • The music video for the rock band Queen's song I Want to Break Free was a direct reference to this show.
  • The set of the show can be seen from Beetham Tower in Manchester City Centre.

See also

References

Print references

  • Collier, Katherine. Coronation Street: The Epic Novel. London: Carlton, 2003. (ISBN 0233050973)
  • Little, Daran. 40 Years of Coronation Street. London: Andre Deutsch Ltd, 2000. (ISBN 0233998063)
  • Little, Daran. Who's Who on Coronation Street. London: Andre Deutsch Ltd, 2002. (ISBN 0233999949)

Video references

  • This Is Coronation Street. Dir. John Black. DVD. Acorn Media Publishing, 2003.
  • Coronation Street: Secrets. Dir. John Black. DVD. Morningstar Entertainment, 2004.
  • Coronation Street: Early Days. Video. Granada Media Group, 2001.

Further reading

External links

ITV television programmes | Soap operas | British cultural icons | CBC network shows | Coronation Street | BAFTA winners (television series) | Fictional streets and roads

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Coronation Street".

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