Coronation Street

 Click on picture for the Official ITV Coronation Street website. 

Coronation Street ..

Coronation Street is shown on ITV1 in five weekly installments, at 19:30 and 20:30 on Mondays and Fridays, and at 20:30 on Thursdays. 

   Coronation Street, otherwise known as ‘Corrie’, is the longest running and most watched UK soap.  It is set and produced in Manchester by Tony Warren and first broadcast on 9 December 1960. It is set in an area of terraced housing with communal areas such as a newsagent, a factory, a cafe and most famously a pub, The Rovers Return Inn which is the main meeting place for characters.

   The original cast of Coronation Street involved 3 ladies as the central figures who remained with the show for 20 years or more, becoming stereotypes for other soap operas. For example ‘Ena’ the busybody and the one who thinks they know best, ‘Elsie’ who was desperate for true love but constantly hurt by men  and ‘Annie’ the pub landlady with saw themselves as better than the other residents. These strong women became household names and very successful for Coronation street which therefore meant that these independent women became a tradition for the show with henpecked husbands and women in control. A lot of the newer cast of Coronation Street have now been based on these legendary cast members with the character of Blanche Hunt taking on the busybody role, Sally Webster as the local snob and a number of characters being unsuccessful in love.

   Other recurring stereotypes throughout the years include the war veteran, the bumbling retailer and the loser. However scriptwriter Daran Little says to not class the show as reusing old characters, "Rather, remember that Elsie, Ena and Co. were the first of their kind ever seen on British television. If later characters are stereotypes, it's because they are from the same original mould. It is the hundreds of programmes that have followed which have copied Coronation Street.” The only character to remain from the original episodes is Ken Barlow who entered as a young rebellious teen reflecting the youth at that time and has grown over the time with the show becoming a constant link throughout the series.

 Settings...

There are many businesses and meeting places in Coronation Street, most famously the pub which is common in most soaps but also small local businesses are used alot.
Rovers Return Inn (Owned by Steve McDonald, run by Steve and Liz McDonald)
The Corner Shop  (Owned by Dev Alahan, run by Dev and Molly Dobbs)
The Kabin  (Owned and run by Norris Cole)                                                                                                                Websters Auto Centre  (Owned and run by Kevin Webster and Tyrone Dobbs)
Underworld  (Owned and managed by Tony Gordon and Carla Gordan)
Audrey's Salon  (Owned and run by Audrey Roberts)
Streetcars  (Owned and run by Steve McDonald and Lloyd Mullaney)
Barlows Bookies (Owned and run by Peter Barlow)
Prima Doner' (Owned by Dev Alahan)
Roy's Rolls (Owned and run by Roy and Hayley Cropper)
Elliot and Son Butchers (Owned and run by Ashley Peacock and Graeme Proctor)
The Builders Yard (Owned and run by Bill Webster and Jason Grimshaw)

Cast and Characters...  

Here are a few characters and the actors that play them as described by the producers...