Coronation Street

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. Jubilee Street was another option considered.

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.

Related Topics:
EastEnders - Emmerdale - Most controversial storylines of Coronation Street

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

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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.

Related Topics:
1902 - Edward VII

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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.

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To usher in the erection of the new set, a special-effects-laden storyline involving a train wreck was filmed; 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.

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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, and the majority of interior scenes are still shot in the adjoining purpose-built studio.

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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.

Related Topics:
7 January - 2002 - Computer-generated - 20th-century - 1989

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As befitting the soap-opera genre, the Street is made up of individual housing units, plus five 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 Cockney rogue Mike Baldwin) and its permanent feature, a public house called "The Rovers Return", 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 (played by Lynne Carol from the show's inception until May 1964) and the 1986 fire, occurred there.

Related Topics:
Rovers Return - Doris Speed - Lynne Carol - May - 1964 - 1986

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