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.

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 the young radical son of a large family, 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 40 years of Coronation Street. For more details of Ken's storylines, see the article devoted to him.

Related Topics:
Cast - Ken Barlow - William Roache - Twiggy - The Rolling Stones - The Who

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

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 Cockney 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).

Related Topics:
Johnny Briggs - Cockney - Capitalist - Anne Kirkbride - Jimmi Harkishin

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~