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Coronation Street (colloquially referred to as Corrie) is a British television soap opera created by Granada Television and shown on ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres on a cobbled, terraced street in the fictional Weatherfield, a town based on inner-city Salford, England. Originally broadcast twice weekly, the series began airing six times a week in 2017. The programme was conceived by scriptwriter Tony Warren. Warren's initial proposal was rejected by the station's founder Sidney Bernstein, but he was persuaded by producer Harry Elton to produce the programme for 13 pilot episodes. The show has since become a significant part of British culture. Coronation Street is currently produced by Granada's successor, ITV Studios, at MediaCityUK and shown in all ITV regions, as well as internationally. In 2010, upon its 50th anniversary, the series was recognised by Guinness World Records as the world's longest-running television soap opera. Initially influenced by the conventions of kitchen-sink realism, Coronation Street is noted for its depiction of a down-to-earth, working-class community, combined with light-hearted humour and strong characters. The show currently averages around five million viewers per episode. The show premiered its 10,000th episode on 7 February 2020, and celebrated its 60th anniversary later that year. History 1960s The first episode was aired on 9 December 1960 at 7 pm, and was not initially a critical success; Daily Mirror columnist Ken Irwin predicted the series would only last three weeks. Granada Television had commissioned only 13 episodes, and some inside the company doubted the show would last beyond its planned production run. Despite the criticism, viewers were immediately drawn into the serial, won over by Coronation Street's ordinary characters. The programme also made use of Northern English language and dialect; affectionate local terms like "eh, chuck?", "nowt" (, from nought, meaning nothing), and "by 'eck!" became widely heard on British television for the first time. Early episodes told the story of student Ken Barlow (William Roache), who had won a place at university, so found his working-class background—as well as his younger brother David (Alan Rothwell) and his parents, Frank (Frank Pemberton) and Ida (Noel Dyson)—something of an embarrassment. The character was one of the few to have experienced much of life outside of Coronation Street. In some ways, this predicts the growth of globalisation. In an episode from 1961, Barlow declares: "You can't go on just thinking about your own street these days. We're living with people on the other side of the world. There's more to worry about than Elsie Tanner (Pat Phoenix) and her boyfriends." Roache is the only remaining member of the original cast, which makes him the longest-serving actor in Coronation Street, and in British and global soap history. In March 1961, Coronation Street reached number one in the television ratings and remained there for the rest of the year. Earlier in 1961, a television audience measurement (TAM) showed that 75% of available viewers (15 million) tuned into Corrie, and by 1964, the programme had over 20 million regular viewers, with ratings peaking on 2 December 1964, at 21.36 million viewers. In spite of rising popularity with viewers, Coronation Street was criticised by some for its outdated portrayal of the urban working class, and its representation of a community that was a nostalgic fantasy. After the first episode in 1960, the Daily Mirror printed: "The programme is doomed from the outset ... For there is little reality in this new serial, which apparently, we have to suffer twice a week." In 1964, Coronation Street appointed a new producer, Tim Aspinall. Aspinall decided on a new broom policy and the "Bloody Purge" of 1964 began, with nine actors being sacked in total. The first cast member to be written out was Lynne Carol, who had played Martha Longhurst since episode two and the preview of the programme. Her sacking was so controversial that fellow actress Violet Carson (Ena Sharples) threatened to quit, but she was eventually persuaded not to. The media reported extensively on the storyline, and when Lynne Carol took a private trip to the Daily Mail Ideal Home Exhibition in London, she was mobbed by fans and asked to leave on the grounds of public safety. Many, including Coronation Street writer H.V. Kershaw, saw the killing of Martha as a desperate move to boost viewer ratings. By 1968, critics were suggesting that the programme no longer reflected life in 1960s Britain, a decade that had seen significant economic and social change in the nation. Granada hurried to update the programme, with the hope of introducing more issue-driven stories, including Lucille Hewitt (Jennifer Moss) becoming addicted to drugs, Jerry Booth (Graham Haberfield) being in a storyline about homosexuality, Emily Nugent (Eileen Derbyshire) having an out-of-wedlock child, and introducing a black family, but all of these ideas were dropped for fear of upsetting viewers. 1970s The show's production team was tested when many core cast members left the programme in the early 1970s. When Arthur Leslie died suddenly in 1970, his character, Rovers landlord Jack Walker, died off screen shortly afterwards. Anne Reid quit as Valerie Barlow; her character was killed off in 1971, electrocuting herself with a faulty hairdryer. Ratings reached a low of eight million in February 1973, when Pat Phoenix quit as Elsie Tanner and Doris Speed (Annie Walker) took two months' leave due to bereavement. The audience of ITV's other flagship soap opera Crossroads increased markedly at this time, as its established cast, such as Meg Richardson (Noele Gordon), grew in popularity. These sudden departures forced the writing team to quickly develop characters who had previously stood in the background. The roles of mostly younger characters including Bet Lynch (Julie Goodyear), Deirdre Hunt (Anne Kirkbride), Rita Littlewood (Barbara Knox), Mavis Riley (Thelma Barlow) and Ivy Tyldesley (Lynne Perrie) were built up between 1972 and 1973 (with Perrie's character being renamed to the better-known "Tilsley"), and characters such as Gail Potter (Helen Worth), Blanche Hunt (Patricia Cutts/Maggie Jones), and Vera Duckworth (Liz Dawn) first appearing in 1974. These characters would remain at the centre of the programme for many years, with Gail still being in the show nearly half a century after her first appearance. Comic storylines had been popular in the series in the 1960s but had become sparse during the early 1970s. These were re-introduced by new producer Bill Podmore who joined the series in 1976. He had worked on Granada comedy productions prior to his appointment. In September 1977, the News of the World quoted actor Stephen Hancock (Ernest Bishop) as saying "The Street kills an actor. I'm just doing a job, not acting. The scriptwriters have turned me into Ernie Bishop. I'.... Discover the Glenda Young popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Glenda Young books.