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

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Directors:

Neil Alderton
Michael Apted

Writers:

Cyril Abraham (writer)
Jim Allen (writer)

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:

Working Class | Soap | Manchester England | Street In Title | Soap Opera

Awards:

86 wins & 104 nominations

Cast

Helen Worth	...	Gail Platt / ... (873 episodes, 1974-2009)
Simon Gregson	...	Steve McDonald (842 episodes, 1989-2009)
William Roache	...	Ken Barlow / ... (818 episodes, 1960-2009)
Beverley Callard	...	Liz McDonald (743 episodes, 1989-2009)
Barbara Knox	...	Rita Sullivan / ... (740 episodes, 1964-2009)
Anne Kirkbride	...	Deirdre Barlow / ... (739 episodes, 1972-2009)
Sue Nicholls	...	Audrey Roberts / ... (719 episodes, 1979-2009)
Sally Whittaker	...	Sally Webster / ... (698 episodes, 1986-2009)
Michael Le Vell	...	Kevin Webster / ... (631 episodes, 1981-2009)
Eileen Derbyshire	...	Emily Bishop / ... (613 episodes, 1961-2009)
Jennie McAlpine	...	Fiz Brown (556 episodes, 2001-2009)
Antony Cotton	...	Sean Tully (541 episodes, 2003-2009)
William Tarmey	...	Jack Duckworth / ... (520 episodes, 1977-2009)
Ryan Thomas	...	Jason Grimshaw (496 episodes, 2000-2009)
Samia Smith	...	Maria Sutherland / ... (493 episodes, 2000-2009)
Sue Cleaver	...	Eileen Grimshaw (489 episodes, 2000-2009)
Jack P. Shepherd	...	David Platt (488 episodes, 2000-2009)
Elizabeth Dawn	...	Vera Duckworth / ... (455 episodes, 1972-2008)
Betty Driver	...	Betty Turpin / ... (428 episodes, 1969-2009)
Malcolm Hebden	...	Norris Cole / ... (427 episodes, 1974-2009)
Kym Marsh	...	Michelle Connor (421 episodes, 2006-2009)
Jane Danson	...	Leanne Battersby / ... (412 episodes, 1997-2009)
Vicky Entwistle	...	Janice Battersby (406 episodes, 1997-2009)
David Neilson	...	Roy Cropper (391 episodes, 1995-2009)
Maggie Jones	...	Blanche Hunt / ... (370 episodes, 1967-2009)
Johnny Briggs	...	Mike Baldwin / ... (369 episodes, 1974-2006)
Tupele Dorgu	...	Kelly Crabtree (366 episodes, 2004-2009)
Alan Halsall	...	Tyrone Dobbs (363 episodes, 1998-2009)
Jenny Platt	...	Violet Wilson (363 episodes, 2004-2008)
Steven Arnold	...	Ashley Peacock (360 episodes, 1995-2009)
Katherine Kelly	...	Becky Granger (357 episodes, 2006-2009)

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:PG | Canada:PG | UK:PG | USA:TV-PG

Filming Locations:

Granada Studios, Manchester, Greater Manchester, England, UK

Company:

Granada Television

Trivia:

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.

Goofs:

Continuity: The night before Steve and Karen's wedding after Steve decides to let his mum invite Ken and Deidre, she walks out the front door, straight past the Barlows. Then, after they finish their dialog about Tracy, she comes out of the toilet.

Quotes:

[Marvin and Ashley square up ahead of their big fight]
Marvin Maddocks: When the bell starts ringing and the trainer says "Go", I'm telling you, girlie, there's something you ought to know. Your knees are going to tremble, your feet will turn to lead. I'm going to smack your nose into the back of your head.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in An Audience with Coronation Street (2006) (TV)

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.