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Coronation Street is Britain's longest-running television soap opera. It was created by Tony Warren and first broadcast on December 9, 1960. The working title of the show was Florizel Street, but Agnes, a tea lady at Granada Television (where Coronation Street is produced) remarked that "Florizel" sounded too much like a disinfectant. Coronation Street (nicknamed Corrie, or, less commonly, Corro or Corra) is set in a fictional street in the fictional industrial town of Weatherfield which is based on Salford, now part of Greater Manchester. It is the central television programme on the ITV network. Its principal rival soap opera is the BBC's EastEnders.
1 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 gloom ( EastEnders) or their sharp one-liners ( Emmerdale), Coronation Street is known on occasions for its humour, though it has tackled some controversial storylines.
The "Street" is based in a row of seven working class houses with a public house and corner shop at either end, built according to the storyline in 1902, and named after that year's big national event, the coronation of King Edward VII, hence Coronation Street. The Street is located between Rosamund Street and Viaduct Street. The architecture of the Street was based on Archie Street, Salford, which also 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.
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 quite cramped. This location later became the New York Street at the now-closed Granada Studio Tours complex in the '90s.
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 bricks and mortar rather than wood and scaffolding. However, the houses had no interior walls — the chimneys had to be made of fibre-glass, since there would be no support for them otherwise. The majority of interior scenes are still shot in the adjoining purpose-built studio nearby. An additional number of surrounding streets were added in recent years, while a new 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 apartment building.) While one side of the street consists of the early 20th century19th century 20th century 21st century more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901- 2000 in the sense of the Gre houses, the other consists of a factory, a shop, a garage and some late- 1980sMillennia: 1st millennium 2nd millennium 3rd millennium Centuries: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s 2030s Years: 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 Events and trends semi-detached houses.
As befitting the soap opera genre, the Street is made up of individual housing units, plus five communal areas; a newsagents (the Kabin), a small eaterie (Roy's Rolls — owned by Roy Cropper), a general grocery shop (owned by Dev Alahan), a factory ("Underworld" — owned by Mike Baldwin) and its permanent feature, a public house called "The Rover's Return", whose landlord or landlady invariably becomes one of Britain's most famous actors. Many of the Street's most famous stories, including the death of Martha Longhurst (played by Lynne Carol from the show's inception until MayThis article is about the month of May. For other uses, see May (disambiguation). May is the fifth month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 31 days. It may have been named for the Roman goddess Maia or more likely for the Roman goddess of fertili 1964Events January January 1 Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. January 3 Senator Barry Goldwater announces that he will seek the Republican nomination for President. January 5 In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Ort), occurred there.
