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About Coronation Street

Coronation Street is a British television soap opera which was first broadcasted on Granada Television in 1960. It was then soon syndicated on other ITV franchises. The show is about the lives of the residents of Coronation Street in the fictional town called Weatherfield which is a fictional town based on Salford. The show centres around its terraced houses, a cafe, corner shop, newsagents, textile factory and also the Rovers Return public house.

The show was devised in 1960 by a local scriptwriter called Tony Warren and the recently formed Granada Television in Manchester. His initial proposal was rejected by the founder of the station Sidney Bernstein but he was then persuaded by the producer Harry Elton to produce the programme for thirteen episodes. The show was first broadcasted on 9th December 1960 and within half a year became the most watched programme on British Television. It has also been on of the most financially lucrative programmes on British commercial television and unpinned the success of Granada Television franchise and the broadcaster ITV.

Coronation Street is made by Granada Television at Granada Studios in Manchester. It is also shown on all ITV regions and also internationally. On September 17th 2010 Coronation Street became the world’s longest-running TV soap opera in production. It is noted for its depiction of a down-to-earth working class community which is combined with light-hearted humour and strong characters.

Jailing of Deirdre Rachid

Peter Adamson

Storylines in Coronation Street

Since the soap started at the beginning end of 1960 there have been a lot of different storylines which have caused some controversy with the British public and also a public outcry from the viewers.

The most popular storylines saw an increase in the viewer-ship of the soap. These include:

• Jailing of Deirdre Rachid (1988)
• The sacking of Peter Adamson (Len Fairclough) {1983}

There are also different storylines which have seen to be controversial by the viewers. For instance the sacking of an actor by the producer.

Storylines in 1960s

The first episode which was broadcasted was not a success. The columnist for the Daily Mirror Ken Irwin thought that the series would last just three weeks. Initially Granada Studios only thought out 13 episodes because some of the employers doubted that it wouldn't last.

Although they received a lot of criticism a lot of viewers were taken by the show and they were won over by the ordinary characters that they has to offer.

Ken Barlow 

The early episodes were about a student called Kenneth Barlow. He won a place at university. Kenneth found that the background that he had which was working class was something of an embarrassment. He was the only character who had seen the outside world rather than what was going on in Coronation Street. Roach was the only original character until Dennis Tanner (Philip Lowrie) came back in May 2011. He is also the longest serving actor in Coronation Street and also in all of the history of soaps worldwide.

Ena Sharples (Victoria Carson) was at the centre of a lot of the early storylines. She was the caretaker of Glad Tidings Mission Hall. Her two friends Minnie Caldwell (Margot Bryant) and Martha Longhurst (Lynne Carol) were always with her. The three of them would sit in the Rovers Return and judged family, neighbours and sometimes even each other. Ena also sometimes classed with Elsie Tanner. She believed that Elsie had little morals. Elsie didn't like that Ena would interfere in her life and gossip about her.

Jed Stone 

Jed Stone first appeared in April 1961 and then returned a year later. He then left again for the second time to only appear 3 years later. He left for the third time only to appear 42 years later in 2008.

There were a lot of storylines which happened during the 60s. The main ones were:

• Elsie Tanner getting a mysterious poison-pen letter.
• Ken Barlow and Valerie Tatlock’s marriage
• Martha Longhurst death
• The Barlow twins being born
• Elsie and Steve Tanner’s wedding
• Steve Tanners death
• Coach crash

Despite of the rising popularity of the viewers, the show was criticised by the media for its non-current portrayal of the working class in an urban area. The representation of the community that was a fantacy.

Despite the criticism that they have faced Granada then decided that they were going to update the programme. They were going to have more issue-driven stories such as:

• Lucille Hewitt facing a drug addiction
• A storyline about homosexuality with Jerry Booth
• Emily Nugent having a child without being married
• A black family.

These were dropped however because they thought that they were going to upset the viewers.

Storylines in the 1980s

During the 80s Coronation Street went under a lot of changes since their launch. By the middle of the decade the only original cast member was Ken Barlow after a lot of the cast members left. The media thought that that Coronation Street was going to end because there wasn't any stars left.

The writers then thought about having characters who were similar to the ones which had left. These include:

• Phyllis Pearce (Jill Summers) as the ‘new’ Ena Sharples
• The Duckworths moving into No. 9 replacing the Ogdens
• Percy Sugden (Bill Waddington) taking over the grumpy old man from Albert Tatlock.

Bet Lynch

After Annie Walker’s exit the main question was who would take over the pub. After two years this role was taken by Bet Lynch who was similar to Elsie Tanner. She was now the new landlady.

Coronation Street also had their first major black character called Shirley Armitage who was a machinist at Baldwin’s Casuals.

More than 24 million people watched Ken Barlow and Deirdre Langton’s wedding which was more than the people who viewed the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana which happened two days after.

During the 1980s there were also relationships established from the characters. These include:

• Alf Roberts (Bryan Mosley) marriage to Audrey Potter (Sue Nicholls)
• Kevin Webster (Michael Le Vell) marriage to Sally Seddon (Sally Dynevor)
• Alec Gilroy marriage to Bet Lynch
• Don Brendan marriage to Ivy Tilsley
• Derek Wilton marriage to Mavis Riley

Brookside logo

Coronation Street also received competition from Channel 4 about their new soap called Brookside. It was different from Coronation Street who had a very desirous view of the working class life. Brookside on the other hand brought together working and middle class in a more modern environment.

The dialogue sometimes included swearing and the they were storylines that they had were more hard-hitting. The stories in Coronation Street included things such as family affairs, etc. Brookside on the other hand focused on stories which such as: industrial action, unemployment and the black market.

The BBC also started a new soap opera called EastEnders which started in 1985. Just like Brookside, EastEnders had a lot more promise than Coronation Street. EastEnders tended to steer clear of bad language and political stories.

Although the ratings for Coronation Street remained consistent throughout the 80s, EastEnders got higher viewers. Coronation Street was seen to be old fashioned when they introduced the Clayton which was a huge failure because they lost viewers.

In the later part of the decade there were different aspects of the show which were modernised. There was a new exterior set which was built in 1982 and 7 years later it was then redeveloped so that it now included new houses and shops.

The production techniques they had were also changed because they had a new studio built so that they can include more location filming in their shots. They had also moved from shooting on film to shooting on video tape. They were also facing different pressures so the audience saw an introduction of a third weekly episode which was shown on Friday.

During the 1980s the show saw some of the most prominent storylines in the history of the programme. These include:

• Deirdre Barlow's affair with Mike Baldwin. (This was the shows first storyline which attracted a lot of attention from the media.)
• The Rovers Return fire
• Alan Bradley abusing Rita Fairclough and then his death soon afterwards.
• Nicky Tilsley’s birth
• Elsie Tanner leaving
• Stan OGden’s funeral
• Sarah-Louise Tilsley’s birth
• Brian Tilsley's murder

They were also new characters which were introduced in the soap. These include:

• Terry Duckworth (Nigel Pivaro)
• Curly Watts (Kevin Kennedy)
• Steve McDonald (Simon Gregson)

Storylines in the 2000s

The show celebrated their 40th year in 2000 by having a live broadcasted episode for an hour. On the ITV news bulletin The Prince of Wales appeared as himself.  One of the main storyline in this decade was when 13 yr old Sarah-Louise Platt became pregnant and gave birth to a baby girl call Bethany.

Mike Baldwin and Linda Sykes

Another main storyline was when Mike Baldwin married Linda Sykes. Shortly afterwards however when his son was drunk he confessed she was cheating on him. This storylines attracted over 16.8 million viewers and also it won Best Storyline at the British Soap Awards.

This decade also saw a lot of issue driven storylines. These include:

• Toyah Battersby’s rape
• Roy and Hayley Cropper adopting a foster child
• Sarah Platt’s internet chat room abduction
• Alma Halliwell’s death due to cervical cancer

These storylines were unpopular with the viewers and the ratings dropped. When this happened their executive producer was soon moved to another department and someone new took over. When this happened Corrie still struggled in the ratings and Eastenders started some of their strongest stories.

Kieran Roberts was appointed as the new producer in 2002 and he aimed to re-introduce “gentle storylines and humour”, after he decided that Coronation Street should not try and compete with other soaps.

Storylines which happened in this decade include:

• Gail Platt married Richard Hillman (Brian Capron)

Richard Hillman

Hillman is a financial adviser who would go on to have a lot of different storylines in the soap. These include:

• Leave Duggie Ferguson to die
• Kill his ex-wife Patricia
• Attempt to kill his mother in law Audrey Roberts
• Kill Maxine Peacock
• Attempt to kill Emily Bishop

After he confessed to the murder of Maxine and his ex-wife, he then attempted to kill Gail and her children Sarah and David as well as Sarah’s daughter Bethany. He tried to do this by driving them into a canal.

This storyline got a lot of attention from the press and the viewing figures started to pick up again. Hillman was then dubbed a serial killer by the press.

• Todd Grimshaw became the soaps first gay character and also in 2003 there was another gay character called Sean Tully (Anthony Cotton).
• Karen McDonald (Suranne Jones) was developed and she had a fiery marriage with Steve and a fight with Tracy Barlow.
• The Baldwin family returned when Mike’s nephew Danny and his wife moved from Essex with their sons Jamie and Warren.
• Peter Barlow became addicted to alcohol.
• Maya Sharma’s revenge on her former lover Devendra Alahan
• Charlie Stubbs abusing Shelley Unwin
• Mike Baldwin, Vera Duckworth and Fred Elliott dying
• Tracy Baldwin killing Charlie Stubbs in self defence
• Leanne Battersby becoming a prostitute
• Corrie’s first bi-sexual love triangle

The main family who were at the centre of all the storylines. These include:

• An accidental death of a Polish worker
• Michelle discovering that her two brothers Paul and Liam were the person involved in her husband’s death
• Paul using an escort service
• Paul kidnapping Leanne and then his death

After 34 years of the show Vera Duckworth (Elizabeth Dawn) left because of ill health in 2007. There was a conversation with Dawn and the producers Kieran Roberts and Steve Frost they made a decision to kill her off which they did in the beginning of January 2008.

Tina O'Brien told to the British press that she was going to leave Coronation Street. O’Brien was involved in some of the most controversial stories in the decade and left in December 2007.

Michelle learnt in 2008 that Ryan wasn’t her real son and that he was switched at birth with Alex Neeson. Carla Connor turned to Liam for comfort and then started to develop feelings for him. Despite knowing about her feeling Liam decided to marry someone else. When Liam discovered that his son was stillborn in April. Liam and Maria then became estranged when their baby died. Liam then had a one night stand with Carla which helped in his departure story.

David Platt (Jack P. Shepard) pushed his mother Gail down the stairs. David then vandalised the street and was then sent to a young offenders’ facility because he was annoyed that his mother refused to press charges.

During 2008 Gail finally met her father Ted Page. A year later her boyfriend Joe McIntyre had an addiction to painkillers. This first started when he broke into the medical centre.

In August of the same year Jed Stone returned after 42 years.

Liam Connor and Carla Connor (his ex-sister-in-law) started an affair after giving into their feelings. Her fiance Tony found out about the affair and then had Liam killed in a hit and run. After struggling to come to terms with Liam’s death she decided that she was still in love with Tony and then eventually married him.

It was revealed in 2009 that Eileen Grimshaw’s father Colin slept with her classmate Paula Carp while they were still in school and that Paula’s daughter Julie was also Colin’s daughter.

Also in the same year Norris Cole saw someone from the past when his estranged brother Ramsay Clegg (Andrew Sachs) who wanted to talk to him.

Peter Barlow was still battling against alcoholism.

After his dog Eccles fell into a canal Ken Barlow started an affair with the actress Martha Fraser.

Also in the same year Maria gave birth to Liam’s son and her relationship with Liam’s killer Tony.

Steve McDonald and Becky Granger got married.

Kevin Webster and Molly Dobbs started an affair and on Christmas day Sally told her husband Kevin that she had breast cancer at the same time he was going to leave her for Molly.