Coronation Street
1 9 6 0 - Current (UK)
Millions x 30 minute episodes
 The
most successful soap opera in the history of British television is set
in a gloomy street in Weatherfield (a fictitious town in the north of
England).
The twice weekly (three times a week from 1989) series of continuing
stories in the lives of the working class residents of Coronation
Street, began in 1960 as a thirteen episode series originally called
Florizel Street by the show's creator, Tony Warren.
The first episode was transmitted live at 7PM on Friday 9 December,
but was not nationally networked until the following spring when the
transmission days were changed from Wednesdays and Fridays to Mondays
and Wednesdays.
With the rise of interest in northern-based drama during the early
1960's (due to the success of films like Saturday Night and Sunday
Morning) the earthy characters and gritty setting of Coronation
Street became an instant hit.
The original cast line-up included Violet Carson as the acerbic Ena
Sharples, Doris Speed as the matriarch of the Rovers Return public
house, Annie Walker; Arthur Leslie as her husband Jack Walker, Pat
Phoenix as Elsie Tanner, Margot Bryant as Minnie Caldwell , Peter
Adamson as Len Fairclough, William Roache as Ken Barlow and Jack Howarth
as the dour Albert Tatlock.
Violet Carson (pictured below) was 61 when she went for the part of
Ena. She thought it was just a one-off play and didn't bother much. When
the producer hinted that Ena might be difficult to play, she retorted
"Don't be ridiculous. I have lived with this woman all my life.
There is one in every street in the north of England".
 Sour-faced Ena Sharples - with her hairnet and line in
sharp patter - is an enduring icon of Coronation Street from its
earliest days almost half a century ago. Ena famously sat in judgement
in the snug of the Rovers Return with her cohorts and was at the heart
of local gossip.
Ena's plain talking left her alone and indulging in a
long-running spat with Street siren Elsie Tanner, while she never
possessed a solid family home.
Viewers followed Coronation Street in such
enormous numbers that when Elsie Tanner married US Army sergeant Steve
Tanner in 1967, over 20 million viewers were glued to the box - the sort
of audience only a royal wedding would normally command.
Later came characters such as Bet Lynch, Betty Turpin,
Eddie Yeats and Jean Alexander's whining and cadging cleaning lady Hilda
Ogden and her hen-pecked, skiving husband, Stan.
 Annie Walker
(pictured at right) was Coronation Street's first landlady of the
Rovers Return pub, which she ran with husband Jack until his death in
1970, then solo for another 13 years.
While Annie effortlessly henpecked Jack, she became best known for
her haughtiness and true belief that she was a cut above her working
class customers in the back street Weatherfield watering hole.
A stint
as Lady Mayor did everything to reinforce her idea that she was a woman
of substance.
Annie was a pivotal figure in the early years of the street, later
presiding over a classic line-up at the Rovers which included Bet Lynch
- the brassy barmaid who would later take on Mrs Walker's mantle as
landlady.
Harold Wilson gave the cast a sherry party at 10 Downing Street, and
Jim Callaghan dubbed Pat Phoenix 'the sexiest woman on TV'. Other famous
fans ranged from Lord Olivier to Sir John Betjeman, the Poet Laureate,
who likened the series to Dickens's Pickwick Papers and declared
"At 7.30 PM on Mondays and Wednesdays, I am in heaven".
 And
Russell Harty wrote "There was life before Coronation Street
- but it didn't add up to much". Betjeman, Harty, Michael Parkinson
and playwright Willis Hall later formed the British League of Hilda
Ogden.
In the 70s, the original line-up began to disintegrate. Jack Walker
disappeared when Arthur Leslie died suddenly in 1970. Violet Carson,
then in her 70s, took a whole year out to rest.
Anne Reid asked to leave the series in 1971, and her character
Valerie Barlow was duly electrocuted by a faulty hairdryer. Neville
Buswell (Ray Langton) asked to be released from his contract.
In 1973, Pat Phoenix and Alan Browning left to join a 43 week theatre
tour. Graham Haberfield (Jerry Booth) died suddenly in 1975. Peter
Adamson (Len Fairclough) was suspended from the show for 3 months to
sort out his problems with alcoholism.
Ernie Bishop was killed off with a shotgun blast in a wages robbery
after actor Stephen Hancock staged a one-man pay dispute.
The 1980s were littered with anniversaries, from the 2000th episode
and the 21st birthday, to a Silver Jubilee champagne celebration and a
visit from the Queen.
But more famous faces were disappearing. The death of Violet Carson,
Jack Howarth, Bernard Youens and Patricia Phoenix left William Roache
(Ken Barlow) as the sole survivor from episode 1.
The success of the 'Street' was in stark contrast to the fate of its
creator. Tony Warren fell out with Granada and turned to drink and
drugs. He snubbed the soap's 500th episode party and told reporters that
he had burned all his scripts and disowned the series, and said it bore
no relation to his original idea.
 Finally,
after nearly dying three times from alcohol, he stopped drinking
completely. He made his peace with Granada and became the show's
consultant.
The program was finally toppled from its lofty perch by BBCs
EastEnders in 1985. The nosy, noisy cockneys beat the cozy Northerners.
But its audiences remain loyal. The series has now crossed four decades
and shows no sign of slowing down.
Although still immensely popular, the series was undoubtedly at its
peak in its first decade. Tony Warren agrees; "Yes, the stories
were harder and grittier then because life was harder. Coronation
Street didn't go soft - life did".
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