Trivia for
"Coronation Street" (1960) More at IMDbPro »

• As of 2009, only one member of the original cast remains: William Roache, who has played Ken Barlow since 1960. William Roache is the second-longest serving actor in the history of television serials. Only Don Hastings, who has played Bob Hughes on the American soap "As the World Turns" (1956) since October 1960 without a break, has played the same character longer.
  
  
• [1996-2007] Sponsored by Cadbury's chocolate. [2007- ] Sponsored by Harveys The Furniture Store.
  
  
• When the opening titles were re-filmed in the 1970s, no one noticed the cat which wandered across a wall. Now every time they are re-filmed a cat is used.
  
  
• In January 2002, at the same time the show went widescreen, CGI was added to the opening titles to make the neighborhood look bigger (in particular the Metrolink Tram that runs past the street on the viaduct).
  
  
• The Rovers Return exterior is really as small as it looks from the outside, inside. The interior of the set on the street is no bigger than a small bathroom. The actual scenes are filmed behind the street.
  
  
• Betty Driver, who later played Betty Turpin, first auditioned for the role of Hilda Ogden, which was later played by Jean Alexander.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Only twice have any celebrities been allowed to play themselves on Coronation Street: the first 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. The second 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 Lettley, also made a cameo in the episodes. (2005) Appearing in four episodes, Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt call into the Rovers Return, and Francis 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.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• The only time the series' theme tune has been significantly rearranged for transmission was in episode 1170 in April 1972, where Emily Nugent married Ernie Bishop. Steve Race provided a jazz interpretation of Eric Spear's music, which played the episode out over a shot of Albert Tatlock and Minnie Caldwell walking down the Street from the wedding reception. Coronation Street: Viva Las Vegas! (1997) (V), a video-only soap-bubble, featured a suitably transatlantic cover courtesy of Mike Stock and Matt Aitken.
  
  
• Episode 4946, broadcast on Friday 8th December 2000, was a special double-length 40th anniversary one. It followed a rescreening of the very first edition and was similarly transmitted live. As noted above, it incorporated a cameo (seen on a TV) by the Prince of Wales, who was purportedly visiting Weatherfield.
  
  
• An off-air still from the then-current opening titles appears on the cover of The Jam's 1980 album "Sound Affects".
  
  
• Legendarily, creator Tony Warren had to rename the series from its original title "Florizel Street", which was considered to sound like a disinfectant. Denis Forman has recalled that at least two members of Granada's board were dead-set against the show, considering it a "disagreeable" and "downmarket" concept. Company co-founder Sidney Bernstein was also reluctant to commit to the idea. His brother Cecil, with Forman, pushed for the green light.
  
  
• Sidney Bernstein was an old friend of Alfred Hitchcock's (the pair had formed production company Transatlantic Pictures together in the 1940s); as such, Hitch became the first celebrity visitor to the set during a trip to Granada's Studio 2 in Manchester in June 1964.
  
  
• On Friday 8th April 2005, seventeen million viewers watched episode 5,998 in which Ken Barlow remarried ex-wife Deirdre Rachid. This was four million more than had watched the real-life Royal Wedding between the Prince of Wales and Camilla Parker-Bowles earlier that day. The fictional pair had also been the 'other' big wedding event in 1981, the year Charles married his first wife Diana Spencer.
  
  
• The show was off the air for ten weeks when an ITV strike commenced on 10th August 1979. On its return on ITV's comeback night of 24th October, Julie Goodyear and Peter Adamson provided a brief pre-shot catch-up from the cobbles to remind viewers of the 'current' storylines. William Roache similarly gave a short on-screen tribute when co-star Jack Howarth died.
  
  

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