On December 9, Coronation Street will celebrate its 50th birthday – making it the longest running drama serial in Irish or British history. To mark the occasion, the soap is gearing up for a week of special programming – including a live episode – featuring a much publicised tram crash which promises to change the lives of the residents forever.
The RTÉ Guide’s Suzanne Byrne shares 50 things every fan should know about the show!
1 Coronation Street began at 7pm on Friday, December 9, 1960. The first episode was transmitted live. Nearly 7,500 episodes later, Coronation Street continues to be a ratings success, with audiences in Ireland, the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Morocco, Taiwan, South Africa, Estonia and Poland.
2 A young scriptwriter called Tony Warren created the series, originally titled Florizel Street. The first episode was penned within 24 hours, 13 episodes were commissioned.
3 The theme tune was written by Eric Spear, who died in 1966.
4 Viewers were given their first glimpse of Coronation Street in full colour when the first colour episode was transmitted on November 3, 1969.
5 A live episode was broadcast to mark the series’ 40th anniversary in December 2000 – the first time the show had been broadcast live since 1960 and 1961.
6 William Tarmey and Elizabeth Dawn both appeared as background artists for several years before making their debuts as Jack and Vera Duckworth.
7 Rita Littlewood first appeared on screen on December 2, 1964.
8 Betty Turpin made her first appearance on June 2, 1969.
9 The 1,000th episode was transmitted on August 24, 1970.
10 Roy Barraclough played three different characters during the 1960s, before first appearing as Alec Gilroy on June 26, 1972.
11 After 13 years, Patricia Phoenix (Elsie Tanner) left the programme on October 8, 1973. She returned in 1976 and remained for eight more years, appearing in 1,641 episodes.
12 Mike Baldwin made his first appearance on October 11, 1976 and bowed out 30 years later on April 7, 2006 after 2,383 episodes.
13 Violet Carson made her last appearance as Ena Sharples after 1,150 episodes on April 4, 1980.
14 Jean Alexander made her last appearance as Hilda Ogden on December 25, 1987 – an episode watched by 26 million people. In 1988, she became the first soap opera performer to be nominated for a BAFTA award.
15 As of December 9, 2010, there have been 39 births, 114 deaths and 88 weddings.
16 The first death was the original resident of No.13, May Hardman, in Episode 7 on December 31, 1960.
17 Out of 114 deaths, there have been 14 murders and seven suicides.
18 The first birth was Elsie Tanner’s grandson Paul Cheveski on June 12, 1961, and the latest was Jack Dobbs on September 6, 2010.
19 The first Street wedding was that of Jack and Annie Walker’s daughter Joan to Gordon Davies on March 8, 1961. The most recent was Roy and Hayley Cropper’s eventful ceremony on August 30, 2010.
20 Gail McIntyre is the most-married character, having walked down the aisle five times.
21 On August 4, 1962, Ken Barlow married for the first time, having sold his scooter to fund the wedding. Valerie Tatlock became bride number one when she walked up the aisle at St Mary’s.
22 Five couples have married each other twice: Brian & Gail Tilsley; Jim & Liz McDonald; Kevin & Sally Webster; Steve & Karen McDonald; Ken & Deirdre Barlow.
23 The most enduring marriage on the Street was that of Jack and Vera Duckworth, who celebrated their golden wedding anniversary just months before Vera’s death in January 2008.
24 The shortest marriage was that of Mike Baldwin and Jackie Ingram, whose union lasted only seven days in 1991.
25 51 barmaids have served behind the bar of the Rovers Return since 1960.
26 Ken Barlow has been involved with 25 women, including his three wives, over the last 50 years.
27 Kenneth Cope holds the record for the cast member with the longest time elapsed between appearances. There was a 42-year gap in his stint as Jed Stone between 1966 and 2008.
28 Ben Price is third actor to portray Nick Tilsley, following Adam Rickitt (1997-2004) and Warren Jackson (1981-1996).
29 Peter Barlow is the character to have been played by the most actors. Chris Gascoyne (2000-present) is the seventh incarnation, following David Lonsdale (1986); Joseph McKenna (1977-1978); Linus Roache (1973-1975); Christopher Dormer (1970-1971); Mark Duncan (1970-1971); John Heanneau (1965-1969).
30 There have been only two episodes broadcast featuring only two characters. In January 2000, Curly and Raquel Watts were reunited in a Millennium special. In 2007, Tracy Barlow confessed to murder to her mother Deirdre in a tense two-hander.
31 The series originally aired twice a week. A third weekly episode was introduced in 1989, and a fourth in 1996. Coronation Street has broadcast five times a week since 2002.
32 The production team has travelled abroad to film at foreign locations on seven occasions: Majorca (1974); Torremolinos (1987); Normandy (1994); Amsterdam (1998); Paris (2000 and 2006); Malta (2007).
33 The Rovers would serve on average 720 pints of beer a week. Including lager, it would serve around 1,440 pints each week. Since the soap started in 1961, the Rovers has served over 2 million pints of beer. Including lager, it has dished up over 3.5 million pints!
34 The Rovers would serve on average 100 G and Ts a week. Since the soap started in Dec 1960, the Rovers will have served over 250,000 G and Ts!
35 On average Betty serves up 12 hotpots a day (84 a week) to hungry customers at the Rovers. Yearly, she serves up over 4,300 and since the show started in 1961 over 200,000 hot pots have been passed over the bar to ravenous punters!
36 The Rovers Return has had 13 landlords and landladies, 12 temporary managers, 51 barmaids, 4 barmen, 17 potmen and 10 cleaners.
37 The drinks in the Rovers are not real. The beer used is very weak shandy, watered down with lemonade! Gin and tonic is made with water with a very tiny splash of lime juice to make it look oily and more like the consistency of gin!
38 Roy gets through 168 rolls a week – nearly 9,000 rolls a year! Customers at Roy’s Rolls glug their way through 40 cups of tea a day and 80 cups of coffee. That’s 280 cups of tea a week, and 560 cups of coffee. In a year customers will sup more than 14,000 cups of tea and 29,000 cups of coffee.
39 There are more than 11,000 cobbles on Coronation Street!
40 It takes 66 hours to make five episodes of Coronation Street – that’s six days a week, 52 weeks of the year.
41 More than 5,000 characters have appeared in Coronation Street.
42 Only one of the original cast, Ken Barlow, played by William Roache, is still a cast member today, gaining him a place in the Guinness Book of World Records. Eileen Derbyshire has also been in the show for nearly 50 years. She’ll celebrate her 50th anniversary on January 27, 2011.
43 In the Green Room, cast and production crew drink their way through 600 cups of tea and 600 cups of coffee a week. And since the show started they have drunk 1.5 million cups of tea while waiting to go on set!
44 7,432 episodes have been produced up until September 24, 2010. On December 9, 2010, episode 7,487 will be screened.
45 The show’s first words were: “Now the next thing you’ve got to do is get a signwriter in”, spoken to corner-shop owner Elsie Lappin as she handed the shop over to Florrie Lindley.
46 It fell to Ken Barlow to utter the show’s first expletive. His use of the word ‘bloody’ in 1961 brought 83 complaints.
47 In one month alone, the Corrie cast go through: 50 boxes of tissues, 20 packs of make-up wipes, 10 lipsticks, 5 lipliners, 4 eyeliners, 5 powders, 6 eyeliners, 4 blushers, 15 bases, 6 eye shadows and 15 large hairsprays.
48 Many of the cast bring pieces into costume. The shopping bag Roy carries actually belonged to David Neilson’s mum.
49 Famous fans include: Anthony Hopkins, Michael Parkinson, Julie Walters, Cliff Richard, Victoria Wood, Cilla Black, Cheryl Cole, Snoop Dogg.
50 Famous faces who have walked on the Weatherfield cobbles include: Joanna Lumley, Ben Kingsley, Ian McKellen, Stephanie Beacham, Patricia Routledge, Patrick Stewart, Martin Shaw, June Whitfield, Anna Friel, Nigel Havers.
From more from the cast click here
Suzanne Byrne
