:: wikimiki.org ::
| Mavis Wilton |
Mavis WiltonMavis Wilton, née Mavis Riley, was one of Coronation Street 's most renowned characters between 1971 and 1997.
Mavis, played by Thelma Barlow, arrived on the Street as a dithery spinster, and worked in the Kabin, a newsagent's shop owned by Rita Sullivan. During this period she had several unsuccessful romances, notably a long-running on-off relationship with mother's boy, Derek Wilton. Years later, Derek and Mavis met again, and were to marry, but both chickened out of the wedding at the last minute. Derek then married someone else, but later he was divorced and he and Mavis eventually married.
Derek and Mavis were generally regarded as old-fashioned eccentrics by their neighbours. Derek died suddenly of a heart attack, and shortly afterwards Mavis left the Street. According to the storyline, she is running a bed & breakfast establishment in the Lake District.
Wilton, Mavis
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.
Coronation Street (nicknamed Corrie or the street, or, less commonly, Coro or Corra and even Corruption Street) is set in a fictional street in the fictional industrial town of Weatherfield which is based on Salford, now part of Greater Manchester (a Coronation Street does exist in Salford). Its principal rival soap operas are ITV1's Emmerdale and BBC1's EastEnders.
The show's iconic theme music, a brass-band throwback to the sounds of the 1940s, was written by Eric Spear and has been only slightly modified since the show's beginning.
Coronation Street can be seen on ITV1 on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 7:30 p.m. There is also an extra episode on Monday night at 8:30 p.m.
Granada and ITV executives, as well as the people in charge of distributing the show overseas, have called (and still call, as of 2005) Coronation Street the world's longest-running soap opera. The Guinness Book of Records recognises American soap opera Guiding Light as the world's longest-running soap opera, with over fifty years on television and an extra fifteen on radio.
Background to Coronation Street
Guiding Light
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.
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.
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.
Edward VII
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.
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.
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.
Salford
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.
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 in May 1964, and the 1986 fire, occurred there.
1960s kitchen-sink drama
1986
The serial began on 9 December 1960 and was not initially a critical success. Granada commissioned only 13 episodes and many people inside the company doubted the show would last its planned production run. However it caught the imagination of viewers, not least because of its location in the North of England, which was becoming a highly fashionable and visible centre of 1960s Britain, thanks in part to movies such as Billy Liar and Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, the "kitchen-sink" dramas of the BBC's The Wednesday Play and the rise of Merseybeat and especially the Beatles, from nearby Liverpool. Like kitchen-sink dramas, Coronation Street focused on the plight of "ordinary folk", often making use of Northern English language and dialect. Affectionate local terms like "eh, chuck", "nowt" and others became widely heard on British TV for the first time.
The storylines focus on the experiences of families and their interaction, and on relationships between people of different ages, classes and social structures. In some ways Coronation Street has charted the changes in public attitudes towards religion, politics, community, family breakdown, the gentrification of working class areas, etc.
For example, in the first decade one of the central social points on the street was the 'Glad Tidings' Mission Hall, where religious services were held and social contacts, parties, etc took place. By the start of the 21st century, no religious 'set' exists, with the only particularly religious resident on the street being the 70-year-old widow, Emily Bishop (Eileen Derbyshire). Religion, if it features at all, is mentioned in weddings and funerals, though here too, matching contemporary society, registry office weddings and non-religious funerals are increasingly common.
Eileen Derbyshire and Bet Lynch were witnesses at the registry office ceremony.]]
Early storylines featured self-appointed moral voice Ena Sharples (Violet Carson), and her friends: timid Minnie Caldwell (Margot Bryant) and bespectacled Martha Longhurst (Lynne Carol). When Martha was killed off the programme, Albert Tatlock (Jack Howarth) was allowed to be the unofficial third friend in the group. Ena and Albert had many differences, which they aired regularly, and Albert and Minnie were supposed to be married in the early 1970s. The marriage was eventually called off.
Headstrong Ena frequently clashed with Elsie Tanner (Pat Phoenix), whom she believed espoused a rather disgusting set of morals. Elsie believed in the right to let each person live life according to how they see fit, and resented Ena's gossip, which, most of the time, didn't have much of a basis in reality.
Most of the stories in the early days (and, to an extent, still today) addressed how working-class people made a caste system in their own mini-society and excommunicated others they did not wish to associate with. In reality, many of the people deemed too common (like Elsie Tanner, Hilda and Stan Ogden, played by Jean Alexander and Bernard Youens) were of the exact same stock as the people who were judging them.
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 a young radical son, the elder of two brothers, 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 nearly 45 years of Coronation Street. For more details of Ken's storylines, see the article devoted to him.
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).
Long-established characters
- Ken Barlow (William Roache) is the only character who has been on the Street since the first episode. His family left one by one: his mother died under the wheels of a bus, his father married a younger woman and left town, and his brother died with his young son in a car accident. He has married three times: to Valerie Tatlock (who died when she was electrocuted by her own hairdryer), Janet Reid (who he divorced and she later committed suicide when he wouldn't take her back), and Deirdre Hunt Langton (who cheated on him, begged him to reconcile, then divorced him when he cheated on her). Ken and Deirdre have since remarried.
- Emily Bishop (formerly Emily Nugent, played by Eileen Derbyshire), who joined the cast in 1961 (One year after it started) as a young woman, working at Gamma Garments. She jilted lay preacher Leonard Swindley in 1964, and stayed a virgin until her 39th year, when she made love with her Hungarian revolutionary boyfriend. She finally married in 1972 Ernest Bishop, and had to cope with his murder in 1978. Emily is now a widow in her seventies, a neighbourhood stalwart respected and liked by all, and the Street's only character to be heavily involved in the religious community. In January 2003, she was badly injured after being hit over the head by Richard Hillman (who minutes later killed Maxine Peacock) but made a full recovery and returned home.
- Betty Williams, (formerly Betty Turpin, played by Betty Driver), was a policeman's wife first brought to the Street as convenient help for her sister Maggie Clegg (Irene Sutcliffe). Since then, she got a job pulling pints at the Rovers and has been a bartender there for over 35 years.
- Rita Sullivan (formerly Rita Littlewood/Fairclough, played by Barbara Knox), one-time nightclub singer, twice-widowed owner of a small newsagent's shop, whose role often is to play the 'straight' part of a comedy double act, the other being the invariably odd-ball co-worker, Mavis or, most recently, Norris.
- Mike Baldwin (Johnny Briggs), London-born businessman who ran the Baldwin's Casuals jeanswear factory before selling to a property developer, who built the houses in which many characters now live. He then established an underwear business further up the street, called Underworld. Married four times — to Susan Barlow, Jackie Ingram and Alma Sedgewick, all of whom divorced him; and Linda Sykes, from whom he is estranged. Has three sons — Mark Redman (from an affair with florist Maggie Redman in the early 80s); Adam Baldwin (by first wife Susan, though Mike always believed Susan had aborted the baby); and Danny Baldwin (by his brother Harry's wife in the 1960s - Mike and Danny weren't told the truth until 2005 when Harry died).
- Deirdre Barlow (formerly Deirdre Hunt/Langton/Rachid, played by Anne Kirkbride) third and current wife of Ken Barlow. Her first husband Ray Langton left her. Ken Barlow was her second. Her third husband, Samir Rachid, died in mysterious circumstances while on his way to donate a kidney to Deirdre's daughter Tracy (he died, so she got both kidneys). Deirdre and Ken reconciled after being divorced for over a decade, and remarried in 2005.
- Gail Platt (formerly Gail Potter/Tilsley/Hillman, played by Helen Worth), thrice-married, twice-divorced and twice-widowed (she remarried her first husband, who was later killed) forty-something who came into the series as a teenage girl in the 1970s, whose third husband, Richard Hillman, was a serial killer. Her oldest son Nicholas (born 1980, played by Adam Rickitt) was involved in several major storylines, including a gay kiss with Todd Grimshaw and a marriage at the age of 17 to Leanne Battersby. Gail's second child and only daughter, Sarah (born 1987), became pregnant at the age of 13. Gail's second son and youngest child, David (born 1990), has been involved in only one major storyline - he was abducted and nearly drowned along with three other family members by step-father Richard Hillman in March 2003. Gail, David, Sarah and Bethany were saved but Richard drowned and his body was recovered hours later from the canal into which he had driven the family car.
- Audrey Roberts (formerly Audrey Potter, played by Sue Nicholls), widow of former Weatherfield mayor Alf Roberts, owner of the local hair salon, mother of Gail and near-victim of Richard Hillman;
- Vera and Jack Duckworth (Liz Dawn and William Tarmey) — the street's most legendary comedy duo, the perennial losers, with a villain son who returns to visit and rip them off occasionally. Having inherited a large sum, they lost it to Richard Hillman. Vera initially appeared without Jack, who was mentioned for two years before appearing onscreen.
Other well-known actors
Actors and actresses who began or spent part of their career in Coronation Street include:
Regular appearances
- Amanda Barrie, who played Alma Baldwin, one-time wife of Mike Baldwin, was an early star of the Carry On series of British films.
- Chris Bisson as Vikram Desai, later the star of East is East and a recurring star in Shameless.
- Craig Charles, star of Red Dwarf as cab-driver Lloyd.
- Ex-Boyzone star Keith Duffy played Ciaran McCarthy, a Rovers Return barman.
- Peter Duncan, who went on to present Blue Peter and become the UK's chief scout, played Christopher Cullen in the mid-1970;s.
- Roy Hudd played Audrey Robert's close friend - and professional undertaker - Archie Shuttleworth in 2002-2003, who assisted Audrey in trying to bring down the Street's serial killer, Richard Hillman.
- Ben Kingsley, who portrayed Mahatma Gandhi in Richard Attenborough's biographical film, Gandhi.
- Linus Roache, son of Bill Roache (Ken Barlow) who played Peter Barlow and went on to star in the film Priest.
- William Russell, regular companion in Doctor Who as Rita's second husband Ted Sullivan in 1992.
- Michael Sheard who played Mr. Bronson in Grange Hill appeared as Arthur Dabner in 1989.
- Elisabeth Sladen, who went on to genre fame as Sarah-Jane Smith in Doctor Who, played Anita Reynolds in 1970.
- Debra Stephenson, star of ITV prison drama Bad Girls as Frankie Baldwin.
- Bradley Walsh, comedian, once half of a comedy duo with Joe Pasquale , who has become Danny Baldwin, Mike's "nephew" who later found out he was his son.
Short-term appearances
- Honor Blackman played an ageing wife-swapper who wanted to swap with Norris and Rita.
- Music star Cliff Richard appeared in a scene, but he had his back to the camera. The main characteristics of him in the scene, which was shot in the Rovers, was that he had a black hair, and a jumper which had the words, 'Rock and Roll', across it
- Graham Fellowes, the comedian-pop star who created the fictional personas Jilted John and John Shuttleworth, had a cameo role in one episode and later returned as truck driver Les Charlton, a regular at Gail's cafe.
- Davy Jones of The Monkees made an appearance before he became famous in 1961 as Ena Sharples's grandson Colin Lomax.
- Bolton comedian Peter Kay played a shopfitter in 1997 and made a cameo appearance over two episodes in January 2004.
- Arthur Lowe, who starred as Captain Mainwaring in Dad's Army
- Joanna Lumley of Absolutely Fabulous and The New Avengers
- Sir Ian McKellen starred in 10 episodes in 2005 as dodgy novelist Melvin Hutchwright
- Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits
- Status Quo, the legendary rock band, appeared as themselves on Friday 23rd September 2005, when they assaulted Les for an incident which involved him 20 years previous. They appeared again on October 31, 2005 to play at Les and Cilla's wedding.
- The Prince of Wales, who played himself in a walk-on part (see below).
- Norman Wisdom, comedian, played fitness fanatic Ernie Crabbe in one episode in 2004
Laurence Olivier once offered to take part in a scene on the Street, acting alongside Jean Alexander, whom he admitted was his favourite actress on the programme. However, scheduling conflicts between the Street and the film Marathon Man denied him the chance to act on his favourite TV programme. Michael Crawford and Robbie Williams have both appeared as extras, drinking in the bar of the Rovers.
On 8th December 2000, the show celebrated its fortieth year by broadcasting an hour long edition of the show, its first episode to be broadcast live in decades. Guest of honour in the show was the Prince of Wales, heir-apparent to the British Throne, who featured in a pre-recorded segment, a 'news bulletin report' of his being welcomed to Weatherfield by then-mayor Audrey Roberts, which was being shown on the TV in the Rovers Return at one point on the evening. (His mother, Queen Elizabeth II, has visited the Coronation Street set and met the cast on a number of occasions, even taking a drink with the cast in the Rovers Return.)
Humour
Since its launch, Coronation Street has become famous for its humorous storylines. These include the notoriously prissy, reserved and plain Mavis Riley (Thelma Barlow) having not one but two suitors throwing themselves at her, while she in true Mavis-mood cannot make her mind up between them, saying her catchphrase, "oooh, I don't knooooow". When she finally decides to pick one, she ends up being named as the 'other woman' in a divorce case! When she and Derek finally agree to marry, both fail to turn up at the church, where hundreds of their friends are waiting. When Derek is offered a company car by his new company, which manufactures stationery, it is a lime green car with the company logo on the side and a large plastic paper clip on top. They fill their garden with kitsch decorations, only to have someone "kidnap" their garden gnome and send letters demanding payment of a ransom. They then receive photographs of their kidnapped gnome photographed at famous world monuments.
Another comic creation from the early 1990s, Reg Holdsworth (Ken Morley), who was rapidly balding, tried to look more virile by getting an appalling toupée, which he thought would "draw the ladies".
In 2002, one of the comedy storylines involved a notoriously homophobic loudmouth character, Les Battersby (Bruce Jones), whose wife has left him, taking in a male lodger, only to be informed by the local council (who owns his house) that in taking in a lodger he has broken his tenancy agreement and must move. To hold on, he and his dimwitted teenage lodger decide to pose as a gay couple, with what they imagine a gay couple's home would be, with hilarious results, all the more so when his estranged wife Janice (Vicky Entwistle), worried that he might lose his house, returns to pose as his happily married wife. She walks in on a house turned into a shrine to Judy Garland and Liberace, to be asked by the Council official "was it when your husband 'came out' that the marriage broke up?" She blows her husband's totally unconvincing scam by erupting into laughter. "Les. Gay? LES? Les is not gay. Les?"
Another storyline involved efforts by locals to stop Council plans to turn an open space (the "Red Rec", red indicating the amount of blood spilt there during a battle in the English Civil War, according to the storyline) into a housing development and stadium complex. The normally reserved Emily Bishop, spurred on by her environmentalist nephew, Spider Nugent (Martin Hancock), ends up staging a sit-in up a tree alongside other youthful environmentalists, aided by local "conscience" Ken Barlow and local history expert Roy Cropper (David Neilson).
In recent years a running gag has developed on the show involving Fred Elliot's tendency to propose marriage to any lady that he gets involved with, usually under the most bizarre circumstances and having disastrous consequences for Fred. This long-running gag began in 1996 when Fred proposed to Rita Sullivan, who turned him down. Since then Fred has proposed to:
- Maureen Holdsworth (former wife of another comic character, Reg), who actually married him only to leave him ten days later for another man;
- Audrey Roberts, whom he proposed to while in France, only to have her turn him down;
- Eve Sykes, who also married him, only to turn out to be a bigamist;
- Doreen Heavey, the mother of Fred's daughter-in-law Maxine, whom Fred proposed to while they were both drunk;
- Penny King, who was having an affair with Fred's best friend Mike Baldwin.
A storyline from May 2004 saw Fred order a bride from Thailand through an acquaintance, only to learn that she was a con artist.
A storyline in 2005 saw Les Battersby marrying Cilla Brown. With a stolen church, fake priest, borrowed wedding dress, smash n grab flowers, a stolen wedding cake, Cilla with 666 devil's curls and a body tanned so much that it could be a local radiation warning, half the street attended this shambles wedding. At the ceremony, viewers saw the real vicar return early, and the rushed vows resulted in best man, bride, groom, bridesmaids, and about 20 other people, packing hurriedly into a stretch limo, to arrive at their reception. Status Quo played at the reception, but the party was ruined, partly by the fact that the Quo ate all of the party food, partly by the fact that sly Diggory, master baker, had slipped a cardboard cake into his shop window, knowing that Les was going to half-inch it, and partly by the fact that Les wrecked all of their wedding presents, which was what they got married for in the first place, thinking it was the Quo's dressing room. All of this added up to a hilarious 2 Monday night episodes that no-one will forget for a long time!
Major events on the Street
Coronation Street has seen more than its fair share of major events. Since 1960 to 2005, there have been over ninety deaths, including (but not limited to) road incidents, murders, and various other mishaps. Some of the more memorable are:
- In 1960, May Hardman died in the hallway from a brain tumor.
- In 1961. Ida Barlow was struck and killed by a bus.
- In 1964, stalwart Martha Longhurst died of a heart attack in the Rovers - this was the first major onscreen death in the show.
- In 1967, Harry Hewitt had originally planned to return to Weatherfield for a wedding, but never made as his van broke down. The jack slipped when he was trying to mend it, and he was crushed when it fell on top of him.
- On January 27, 1971, Valerie Barlow was electrocuted in her home by a faulty hair dryer.
- A warehouse was gutted by a fire that killed Edna Gee, although another person involved was rescued by Ken Barlow. The fire, aired in 1975, marked Coronation Street's 15th anniversary.
- Ernie Bishop was shot in a failed wages robbery at Baldwin's factory on January 11, 1978.
- Len Fairclough died in a car crash on December 7, 1983. It was later revealed that he was cheating on his wife Rita.
- The Rovers is also notorious for its share of disasters: March 7, 1979 saw a lorry crash into it, and a fire, which was the result of a fuse box explosion burned it down on June 18, 1986.
- Brian Tilsley was stabbed to death at the back of a nightclub whilst trying to save a woman from a street gang on February 15 1989.
- Alan Bradley was hit and killed by a Blackpool tram on December 8, 1989, holding the record for the highest rated Coronation Street episode ever (26.93 million viewers).
- On February 12, 1993, Lisa Duckworth was hit and killed by a car.
- Don Brennan burnt down the garage in March 1997. He would later die in a car crash, and be burnt to death when the vehicle in question caught fire.
- Dougie Ferguson died after taking a fall from a four-storey bannister.
- Richard Hillman murdered ex-Patricia with a shovel in 2002. He set fire to his mother-in-law's house, murdered Maxine Peacock with a crowbar in 2003, and died in a car incident on the same year.
- Martin Platt crashed his car, and was pulled out just in time before the vehicle exploded in a fireball just before Christmas 2003.
- On 8 March 2004, Janice Battersby's cigarette habit nearly killed her when she started a stockroom blaze.
- On November 24, 2004, the corner shop on Coronation Street was blown up after Maya Sharma set fire to it.
- In 2005, Tommy Harris was murdered by his 18-year-old diabetic daughter, who later died of a self-induced sugar overdose.
Backstage staff
- Bill Podmore was the show's longest serving producer. By the time he stepped down in 1988 he had completed 13 years at the production helm. Nicknamed the "godfather" by the tabloid press, he was renowned for his tough, uncompromising style and was feared by both crew and cast alike. He is probably most famous for sacking Peter Adamson, the show's Len Fairclough, in 1983.
- Paul Abbott was a script editor on the programme in the 1980s, the youngest ever person to hold such a position on the show at the time, and in 1989 began writing episodes. He left in 1993 to produce Cracker, for which he later wrote before creating his own highly-acclaimed dramas such as Touching Evil, Clocking Off, State of Play and Shameless.
- Russell T. Davies was briefly a storyliner on the programme in the mid-1990s, also writing the script for one of the direct-to-video specials. He too has become a noted writer of his own high-profile television drama programmes, including Queer as Folk, The Second Coming, Casanova and the 2005 revival of Doctor Who.
Scheduling
The programme is currently shown in five episodes on four evenings a week on British television: on Mondays at 19.30 and 20.30 (with the current affairs programme Tonight with Trevor MacDonald in between the two episodes), and at 19.30 on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, when the BBC1 soap EastEnders goes out at 19.30, the "Corrie slot" on ITV is filled by regional programmes. EastEnders is broadcast four times a week on the BBC (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday). When the two programmes were scheduled opposite each other in 1994, Corrie had millions more tuning in as the writers revealed that Emily Bishop's wedding was to be called off. Since then, the BBC has made sure EastEnders does not clash with Corrie anywhere on the schedule.
In 1981, over 24 million people in the United Kingdom watched Ken Barlow' marry Deirdre Langton — more than the number of people who watched The Prince of Wales marry Lady Diana Spencer. Though viewing figures have declined (Ken and Deirdre's remarriage in 2005 attracted 12.9 million viewers [http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=15387803&method=full&siteid=89488&headline=ken-and-deirdre-are-ratings-winners-name_page.html], which still beat the 8.7 million who watched Prince Charles marry Camilla Parker-Bowles), partly due to the addition of new terrestrial and satellite channels and thus new rival programming, it still remains ITV's most-watched programme with audiences in excess of 10 million. The show's omnibus is shown on ITV2. Classic Corrie episodes aired on Granada Plus until that channel was closed in November 2004.
The special Christmas Day episode remains as central to many viewers' Christmas day celebration as the Queen's Speech. The Christmas Day episode that aired in 1987 was one of the most-watched episodes of all time; in the episode, Hilda Ogden left the Street to be a char to her doctor in the country. Nearly 27 million viewers tuned in.
Other countries
Coronation Street is also shown in many countries worldwide, being the centre of the TV schedule of Ireland's independent television station, TV3 Ireland (part-owned by Granada), which simulcasts it with ITV.
In Canada, it moved from a daytime slot on CBC Television to primetime in 2004. Currently, the show is about eight months behind the episodes seen in Britain, but this gap varies. In 2005, CBC briefly broadcast eight episodes a week in order to reduce the gap, and during a subsequent labour dispute, CBC broadcast nine (and soon ten) episodes each week. CBC has also, before and during the labour dispute, aired the "Coronation Street Specials". Country Canada, a digital television service operated by CBC, broadcasts older episodes as Corrie Classics. The 2002 edition of the Guinness Book of Records recognizes the 1,144 episodes sold to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan TV station CBKST by Granada TV on 31 May 1971 to be the largest number of TV shows ever purchased in one transaction.
The programme is shown in Australia by the cable and satellite station UK.TV; the episodes are currently two years behind Britain. This gap is comparable to that for the episodes currently showing in New Zealand on Television New Zealand's TV One. It is also exclusively shown only in Perth on Channel Nine's Perth affiliate at 5:30pm Weeknights since October 2005. This has come with a massive advertising blitz and has proved to be quite popular thanks to the high percentage of British people living in Perth. The episodes shown are about 18 months behind Britain. This is the first time Coronation Street has been broadcast on Free to Air TV in Australia since a brief daytime run on Channel Nine in the mid 1990s.
Coronation Street is, or has been, broadcast in almost every English-speaking country and territory around the world. The lone holdout is the United States. The Trio channel aired a few episodes of the serial as a part of special-interest programming project, but a concerted effort to air it in the American market has never materialized. A two-disc DVD compilation was released in America, however, provoking some optimism that a cable channel might be interested in showing the soap, and in the early 1970s some episodes were shown on WGBH Channel 2, the public television station in Boston, Massachusetts.
American viewers in the parts of the northern U.S. can view CBC's Coronation Street telecasts. In particular, cable TV subscribers in places including Seattle, Buffalo, parts of Michigan and New Hampshire are able to view the programme on CBC affiliates. Other Americans near the Canadian border can view the program via over-the-air reception from nearby CBC transmitters.
Dutch broadcaster VARA showed 428 sub-titled episodes on Netherlands TV between 1967 and 1975.
VHS and DVD releases
In 1985, to celebrate the serial's 25th anniversary, two video tapes were released, entitled "The Jubilee Years - Part One" and "The Jubilee Years - Part Two". These featured a previously unseen character Alice Hughes revisit the Street to recall upon characters like Ena and Elsie and catch up on 'current happenings'.
In 1990, as a celebration for the serial's 30th anniversary, ten video tapes were released, each featuring four episodes from a specific year, introduced by someone who was close to the stories that year. (For example, Betty Turpin's husband Cyril died in 1974, therefore Betty Driver hosted the 1974 tape). These tapes were distributed by Granada Video for viewing in the UK. Also, many VHS tapes were made in the 1990s for the British market, from mail-order company Time-Life Distribution, with each tape consisting of edits for a particular character (for example, edits for Gail, or Rita, or the Duckworths). As they were made in PAL format, they were not distributed in the United States or Canada.
In 2003, a special DVD set called This is Coronation Street was released on Region 1 DVD. On the two-disc set is the 40 Years on Coronation Street one-off special as well as the first five episodes of the programme. In 2004, a Coronation Street: Secrets DVD box set of televised specials was released in both the United Kingdom and Canada, but not in the United States, despite a Region 1 release in Canada.
Granada has also produced a number of straight-to-video spin-off productions, which were screened on television only after having been available in shops for some time, as an incentive to buyers. The first "exclusive" tape, released in 1995 featuring a storyline aboard the QE2, caused a legal controversy when it was later broadcast. Subsequent releases have included carefully worded statements concerning future television broadcasting.
Further releases have included a crossover with Emmerdale, and a United States-set special, Viva Las Vegas!, released on VHS in 1999 and screened on ITV the following year. Written by Russell T. Davies (Queer as Folk, The Second Coming, Doctor Who), the special featured a guest cameo from actor Neville Buswell, who was then living in America, briefly reprising his role as Ray Langton.
In 2005, Network DVD released a box set of 10 DVDs, each featuring eight episodes from each year of 1970s. A matching box set dedicated to the 1980s was released in October.
Trivia
- The show's most famous fan is Queen Elizabeth II. Other famous fans include Prince Charles, Ian McKellen (who have guested in the series), the late Laurence Olivier (who was supposed to have a guest appearance but scheduling problems got in the way), and numerous prime ministers.
- Frasier star Jane Leeves (Daphne Moon) once commented that the only downside of living in the United States was that she was unable to see Coronation Street.
- 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.
- 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(s) heard was "Oh God", again spoken by the same character when his wife Val died in 1971.
- In an episode of Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights, main character Brian Potter is seen pushing himself (he is wheelchair bound) down a Blackpool street. He passes a sign "in memory of Alan", commemorating the time when the character Alan was killed by a Blackpool tram
- 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 Letley, also made a cameo in the episodes. (2005) Appearing in four episodes, Rossi and Parfitt call into the Rovers Return and 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.
References
Print references
- Collier, Katherine. Coronation Street: The Epic Novel. London: Carlton, 2003. (ISBN 0233050973)
- Little, Daran. 40 Years of Coronation Street. London: Andre Deutsch Ltd, 2000. (ISBN 0233998063)
- Little, Daran. Who's Who on Coronation Street. London: Andre Deutsch Ltd, 2002. (ISBN 0233999949)
Video references
- This Is Coronation Street. Dir. John Black. DVD. Acorn Media Publishing, 2003.
- Coronation Street: Secrets. Dir. John Black. DVD. Morningstar Entertainment, 2004.
- Coronation Street: Early Days. Video. Granada Media Group, 2001.
δ
Further reading
- Coronation Street: The War Years, a fictional account of the Street during World War II, written by Daran Little and British author Christine Green
External links | | |
