TV SERIES · 1960– · UK
Coronation Street
88 archived facts 6 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (88)
- #001
As of 2026, only one member of the original cast from the first episode remains: William Roache, who has played Ken Barlow since December 1960. William Roache is the longest-serving actor in television serial history. The previous record holder was Don Hastings, who played Bob Hughes on the American soap opera As the World Turns (1956) from October 1960, and Roache surpassed his achievement by two months. Hastings lost his record when that series ended in September 2010.
- #002
When the opening titles were updated in the mid-1970s, nobody noticed the image of a cat curled up on a roof. It was producer Bill Podmore who spotted it in footage shot for a 1975 update, and he insisted it appear the following year. Every subsequent reshoot now includes a cat.
- #003
The Canadian television station CBKST in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, entered the Guinness Book of World Records in 1971 after buying more than 1,140 episodes of the series. The series aired continuously on the station for around twenty years.
- #004
Only three times has the series allowed celebrities to play themselves: the first was King Charles III (then the Prince of Wales) appearing in the show's 40th anniversary episode (2000), in a scene that also featured legendary ITV presenter Trevor McDonald, and he was seen shaking hands with the character Audrey Roberts. The second involved Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt of the British rock band Status Quo (the band itself being a national institution in the United Kingdom); their drummer Matt Lettley also made a cameo in the episodes. (2005) Appearing across four episodes, Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt call in at the Rovers Return, and Francis Rossi attacks the character Les Battersby, himself a big fan of the band, because Battersby had earlier caused him a serious neck injury. The matter is later resolved and the band agrees to play at his upcoming wedding. Finally, This Morning (1988) presenters Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby appeared as themselves in 2018, seemingly while Rosie Webster, Gemma Winter and Craig Tinker appeared on their daytime magazine show This Morning (1988).
- #005
The series has eighteen writers, and every three weeks they meet for two days. Together they plan fifteen episodes of the series. Each of them writes one episode.
- #006
Sidney Bernstein, co-founder of Granada Television, was an old friend of Alfred Hitchcock (the two had founded the production company Transatlantic Pictures together in the 1940s); thus Hitchcock became the first celebrity visitor to the set during a June 1964 tour of Granada's Studio 2 in Manchester.
- #007
The first swear word heard in the series was "bloody", said by Ken Barlow in January 1961 after an argument with his mother Ida. The second occurred in November 1961, when Elsie Tanner referred to "a certain hair-netted old bitch". The third was "bastard", said by Len Fairclough about Steve Tanner when Elsie returned to the Street in March 1968.
- #008
Famously, creator Tony Warren had to rename the series from its original title "Florizel Street", which was thought to sound like a disinfectant. Denis Forman recalled that at least two members of Granada's board were against the series, considering it a "disagreeable" and "downmarket" concept. The company's co-founder Sidney Bernstein was also reluctant to agree with the idea. His brother Cecil, together with Forman, pushed for it to be given the green light.
- #009
Months after Betty Driver (Betty Turpin/Williams) died in 2011, her photograph was prominently placed on the Rovers film set to honour her memory and her 42 years in the series.
- #010
In 2010 the character Sally Webster was diagnosed with breast cancer, and lead actress Sally Dynevor had a mammogram to understand the experience. This led to Dynevor being diagnosed with breast cancer in real life, and she believes the series saved her life.
- #011
The first overseas location shoot did not happen until 1974, when producer Susi Hush chose to send the Weatherfield women to Majorca for a package holiday. The two-episode shoot was not exactly paradise for the cast: the production crew stayed in a five-star hotel while the actors stayed in a two-star hotel, and there were also real holidaymakers unhappy that director Quentin Lawrence had moved them away from the pool to accommodate the camera crew. Makeup was done at 6 a.m. in a room next to an open sewer. So they were hardly impressed on returning to Manchester, and saw some of the male actors loudly criticising the "ladies' jolly outing".
- #012
The first colour title sequence, used between November 1969 and June 1975, opens with a shot of a modern tower block before moving to the terraced houses to emphasise the changing times. This is the fifteen-storey Grafton Court in the Trafford area of Manchester, which is still in use today. The block remained visible in later title updates.
- #013
The cover of The Jam's 1980 album "Sound Affects" features an off-air photograph from one of the then-current opening titles.
- #014
In 2010 a storyline required an advertisement for male escort Lewis Archer to appear in "The Lady" magazine. The publication actually placed the model in a real issue and received numerous complaints from distressed readers about the "incorrect" (fictional) contact details.
- #015
In January 2002, when the series switched to widescreen, CGI was added to the opening titles to make the neighbourhood look larger (in particular the Metrolink Tram passing beside the street on the viaduct).
- #016
In 2011 Philip Lowrie broke the world record for the longest gap between appearances in the same television series; he appeared regularly as Dennis Tanner from the first episode in 1960 until June 1968, then returned to the role in May 2011. In doing so he earned entry into the Guinness Book of World Records (beating Kenneth Cope, a one-time lead actor who did not appear as Jed Stone for forty-two years, between 1966 and 2008).
- #017
Doctor Who (1963) producer John Nathan-Turner wanted to take over as producer of the series and his agent suggested his name be considered, but it came to nothing. Before his death, Nathan-Turner said he had been a particular fan of the series and that not becoming Coronation Street's producer was his greatest unfulfilled passion.
- #018
Graeme Hawley was criticised for his portrayal of John Stape and stated that the character's relationship with a then seventeen-year-old Rosie Webster gave teachers a bad name.
- #019
Sean Wilson revealed during an interview about The Wright Stuff (2000) that he left the series because he did not want to tell a story in which his character had a relationship with a fourteen-year-old girl. Nineteen years later he returned to the series for several episodes.
- #020
Episode 1202 (broadcast on Monday 24 July 1972) is the only transmitted edition no longer held in the series' archives. The original videotape master is believed to have been damaged or lost shortly after transmission, and the missing material (about eight minutes) was quickly re-recorded by Granada to ensure no story content was skipped in overseas sales. The two untransmitted pilot rehearsals from 1960 are also believed to be lost.
- #021
When an ITV strike began on 10 August 1979, the series was taken off air for ten weeks. When it returned on ITV's comeback night of 24 October, Julie Goodyear and Peter Adamson provided a short pre-filmed piece from the cobbles to remind viewers of the "current" storyline. William Roache similarly gave a short on-screen tribute when leading actor Jack Howarth died.
- #022
The series was filmed in high definition for the first time for the special "Siege Week" broadcast in May and June 2010. The story followed villain Tony Gordon (Gray O'Brien) escaping from prison to kidnap his ex-wife Carla Connor (Alison King), who was tied up and gagged with Hayley Cropper (Julie Hesmondhalgh) at the Underworld factory. King filmed most of the "Siege Week" scenes tied to a chair, gagged and sealed with gaffer tape. Following the conclusion of "Siege Week", the series was filmed in high definition from that point on.
- #023
The first location shoot took place on Saturday 13 May 1961 in Blackpool for the Whit Monday bank holiday trip in Episode 46. The material was shot silent, with such an intense piano vamp played over the filmed inserts.
- #024
As of 2022, Steve McDonald has married more than any other character in the series' history, with seven marriages (but only five spouses, since he married both Karen Phillips and Tracy Barlow twice). Gail Rodwell is the series' most-married female character with six marriages - though again she has 'only' five spouses, having married Brian Tilsley twice.
- #025
If you look closely at the pictures on the wall in the Rovers Return bar, you will see all the past owners of the Rovers Return.
- #026
Sir Laurence Olivier was once offered a guest role.
- #027
When TVONE New Zealand broadcast two episodes of the soap in the mid-2000s, Episode 5419 was given a 20:30 slot. It aired half an hour after Episode 5418 because of the shocking scene in which Richard Hillman killed Maxine Peacock with a crowbar after she witnessed him trying to kill Emily Bishop.
- #028
In 2010, a special broadcast marking the series' 50th anniversary showed the 50 greatest moments as voted by fans. The top 5 moments, from 5 to 1, were: Mike Baldwin's Death, Tracy Kills Charlie, Tony Gordon Burns Down Underworld, Richard Hillman's Reign Of Terror, and Peter's Alcoholics Anonymous Meeting. Deirdre, Ken and Mike's love triangle placed 11th, Alma's death 14th, Les and Cilla's bathtub fiasco 6th, Sarah's teenage pregnancy 22nd, and Todd Coming Out 25th.
- #029
After becoming producer in 1964, Tim Aspinall axed ten characters/families he considered unnecessary in what became known at Granada as the Great Purge. In most cases the victims, who returned only occasionally if at all, were Lynne Carol (Martha Longhurst; killing her off in the first episode of Aspinall's short five-month tenure was widely considered a largely short-sighted mistake), Ivan Beavis and Doreen Keogh (Harry and Concepta Hewitt), Frank Pemberton (Frank Barlow), Betty Alberge (Florrie Lindley), and Graham Haberfield and Susan Jameson (Jerry and Myra Booth). The actors who survived his axe were Jennifer Moss (Lucille Hewitt), Anne Reid (Val Barlow) and especially William Roache (Ken Barlow). However, Aspinall's actions led to his introducing the Ogdens to the Street. He later contributed three scripts to the series in 1975.
- #030
When Mike Baldwin's factory was demolished in 1989 due to redevelopment, the Bettabuy supermarket was introduced as a new workplace for many characters. Filming took place at a real branch of the Morrisons supermarket in Eccles on Sundays, when the store was closed. When UK Sunday trading laws changed in 1994, allowing larger stores to open on Sundays, Bettabuy was written out and Firman's Freezers later replaced it as a regular workplace. The latter was noticeably smaller than Bettabuy, given that it was a studio set rather than a real supermarket. Firman's was later replaced by Freshco, which as of 2023 is still referred to as the local supermarket, but which ironically has not appeared as a regular workplace since 2000 due to the establishment of Mike Baldwin's new factory, Underworld.
- #031
The character Reg Holdsworth, introduced in 1989, was meant to be short-term, and Curly Watts quickly replaced him as Bettabuy's manager. However, he soon proved popular with viewers, and after fulfilling his commitment to the sitcom 'Allo 'Allo! (1982), actor Ken Morley joined as a full-time cast member. Reg was the first character to cross over to another soap, in the video soap Emmerdale: Don't Look Now! - The Dingles in Venice (1999), after leaving the cobbles in 1995.
- #032
In 2008, Harvey Virdi and Ayesha Dharker, who play mother and daughter Nina and Tara Mandal, are less than four years apart in age.
- #033
Blanche Hunt, originally played by Patricia Cutts, had to be recast after only two episodes when Cutts died by suicide. Maggie Jones, who had initially lost the role because she was considered too well known, took over and would eventually play her occasionally for 36 years.
- #034
Episode 4946, broadcast on Friday 8 December 2000, was a special double-length 40th anniversary edition. It followed a re-scan of the first edition and was similarly broadcast live. As noted above, it included a (televised) cameo by King Charles III (then Prince Charles), who was said to have visited Weatherfield. Ten years later, sixty-five actors and a three-hundred-strong crew produced the hour-long 50th anniversary edition (Episode 7487) on 9 December 2010, which was again broadcast live to an audience of fourteen million viewers.
- #035
Betty Driver, who later played Betty Turpin, first auditioned for the role of Hilda Ogden, which Jean Alexander would later play. Driver was considered too buxom for the role of Hilda, whom producer Tim Aspinall envisioned as skinny.
- #036
Shortly after an episode of Coronation Street aired on 17 September 1986, Granada and William Roache paid tribute to Pat Phoenix, who had died of lung cancer in the early hours of that morning.
- #037
The first producer, Derek Granger, decided in the 1960s to raise the level of the stories from more ordinary everyday plots, drawing inspiration from High Noon (1952) and the literary works of Dickens and Dostoyevsky.
- #038
In 1972, Barbara Mullaney, now known as Barbara Knox, was offered the short-term role of Mrs Bates, the mother of a child taught by Ken Barlow, after having previously played the exotic dancer Rita Littlewood in 1964. Producers immediately spotted Mullaney's potential and thought her character would be a good love interest for Len Fairclough. To make this possible, the writers established that Rita and Mrs Bates were one and the same person, that Rita was not married to Harry Bates but merely living with him, and that the children were not his but hers. The Bates family was later written out, and Rita is still in the series as of 2026. She is currently the second longest-serving actor in the series.
- #039
The character Martha Longhurst was supposed to be 64, but Lynne Carol was only 46 when she took the role. Her relative youth was hidden with thick glasses and ill-fitting, worn-out clothing, including a hat Carol found in a jumble sale.
- #040
When Bill Podmore introduced the Websters in 1984, he intended them to be a long-term family, so Peter Armitage's decision to leave the role of Bill Webster less than a year later infuriated him. However, Bill's son Kevin was 'saved' by remaining on the street as Emily Bishop's lodger and has stayed in the series since; he has had three wives and four children, meaning the Websters did indeed become a genuinely long-term family, albeit in a different way than intended. Bill Webster returned to the series twice more as a regular character, and his daughter Debbie returned in 2020 after a 35-year absence.
- #041
When the character Richard Hillman, one of the series' most notorious villains, was introduced in 2001, he claimed to be the cousin of the late Alma Haliwell. There was much speculation in the press and among fans that this was a lie and that he was trying to deprive Audrey Roberts of Alma's inheritance. When Audrey discovered Richard's true nature a year later, she guessed that Richard might not really have been Alma's cousin. However, before Richard's death the mystery was never resolved either way.
- #042
Jack Howarth, who played Albert Tatlock for 24 years, wore a false moustache throughout his time in the role.
- #043
Over the course of the series, four actors have played more than one member of the same family. Linus Roache played Peter Barlow between 1973 and 1975, then returned in 2010 to play Peter's half-brother Lawrence Cunningham — both characters being sons of Ken Barlow, played by Roache's real-life father William. Linus Roache appearing in scenes with Chris Gasgoyne, who has played Peter since 2010, was the only time an actor has appeared playing two of the characters present in a Coronation Street scene. In addition, Indira Joshi played Dev Alahan's aunt Maya Desai in 2000, then returned between 2010 and 2011 as Grishma, the aunt of Dev's wife; Joan Kempson played Edna Miller between 1998 and 2001 before appearing as Edna's sister Iris at Edna's funeral; and Jamila Massey played both Dev's mother Urmila (2004) and his wife's aunt Upma (2010–11).
- #044
In 1993, Louise Duprey, who played the character Amy Nelson, suffered a nervous breakdown when the pressure of her sudden fame became too much. Plans for the series' first mixed-race marriage had to be abandoned, with the scene in which Amy told her fiancé Andy McDonald that she had to visit Trinidad for a while being written quickly. In the scene, set in a dark room with the camera focused on Nicholas Cochrane (Andy), Amy was played by the extra Melanie Brown, who went on to take the role of Mel B in the Spice Girls. Amy was said to have reunited with an old boyfriend in Trinidad, and Duprey never returned to the series. In 2000 she was found dead from a suspected drug overdose.
- #045
Between 1989 and 1999, the Granada Studios Tour gave the public the chance to walk along Coronation Street's cobbles. During this period the set remained closed to the public on Mondays, as that was the day the series' exterior scenes were filmed.
- #046
The series began broadcasting in high definition on Monday 31 May 2010, which required a new opening title sequence (the first in eight years) and a new arrangement of the theme tune.
- #047
Anne Reid, who played Valerie Barlow between 1961 and 1971, and Thelma Barlow, who played Mavis Wilton between 1971 and 1997, shared the lead in Victoria Wood's comedy Dinnerladies (1998–2000). Shobna Gulati, Andrew Dunn, Maxine Peake and Sue Cleaver appeared alongside them in the latter, and all of them would go on to appear in this series.
- #048
The series has had various sponsors: Cadbury's Chocolate (1996–2007), Harveys The Furniture Store (2007–2012), Comparethemarket.com (2012–2020) and Nectar points at Argos (2021–present). From 2017, Costa Coffee cups began appearing on screen, and a branch opened on Victoria Street the following year. The retailer Co-op also struck a product placement deal with the series, resulting in a Weatherfield store and prominently displayed shopping bags, while the online estate agent Purple Bricks was prominently seen handling the sale of the Rovers Return in 2021.
- #049
One of the biggest hits of the 1960s and 70s, it occupied the number two spot whenever it was not at number one. The only other programme to knock it off was Crossroads (1964).
- #050
Ken Barlow was absent from the series from 29 April 2013 while Bill Roache fought charges of rape and indecent assault, and was fully acquitted on 5 February 2014. To cover his absence, it was said that Ken's grandson Adam, who was living in Canada at the time, had injured himself and that Ken had gone there to look after him. Roache returned to filming in June 2014, and Ken returned to Coronation Street on 4 August 2014.
- #051
Tracy Barlow's seduction of Roy Cropper for a bet was heavily influenced by Cruel Intentions (1999).
- #052
Yorkshire-born session musician Ronnie Hunt performed the solo in the theme music. He was paid six pounds. After many takes, composer Eric Spear was unhappy with the recorded takes. Ronnie Hunt asked him what the music was for and where the programme was set. After learning this, he created the sound by using a mute in his trumpet to produce a "Northern" brass band cornet sound.
- #053
Joanne Froggatt was only 16 when she first began playing Zoe Tattersall in the series in 1997. She spent a total of 18 months in the series.
- #054
In October 2021, it was announced that the soaps Coronation Street, Emmerdale Farm (1972), EastEnders (1985) and Hollyoaks (1995) would take part in the UK's first soap crossover, alongside the medical dramas Casualty (1986) and Doctors (2000), to highlight climate change ahead of the COP26 conference. A month later, in November 2021, scenes featuring certain characters from one series would appear in a different series, with storylines and references to the climate crisis. To mark the crossover, a special First Dates (2013) sketch was created featuring EastEnders and Coronation Street characters.
- #055
In the late 1960s, plans were made to introduce the series' first black family and to make Jerry Booth the series' first gay character. These plans were cancelled for fear of alienating more traditional viewers. The series did not get its first gay character until 2003, with the arrival of Todd Grimshaw, and did not have a black family until 2012, when Lloyd Mullaney was reunited with his old flame Mandy and discovered the existence of their daughter Jenna.
- #056
Several couples on the show divorced and remarried, including Ken and Deirdre Barlow, Brian and Gail Tilsley, Kevin and Sally Webster, Jim and Liz McDonald, Nick and Leanne Tilsley, Steve and Karen McDonald, Steve and Tracy McDonald, and Peter and Carla Barlow. Kevin and Sally, Jim and Liz, Nick and Leanne, and Steve and Karen later divorced a second time, but as of September 2022 Nick and Leanne were engaged to marry for the third time.
- #057
When Patricia Phoenix returned as Elsie Tanner in 1976 after a three-year absence, the show's new producer, Bill Podmore, set certain conditions because of Phoenix's troubled behaviour in the past. One condition was that Phoenix should not try to bring her own expensive clothes into working-class Elsie's wardrobe as she had done before. Phoenix broke this on her first day by insisting on wearing an expensive raincoat in her opening scenes (filmed at a location where Podmore was not present). When she was told the producer would not let her wear the coat on screen again, Phoenix said she would have to; because while Elsie was unlikely to be able to afford such a coat, it was even less likely that she would buy it and wear it only once.
- #058
The Kabin newsagent's shop stood on Rosamund Street, on the corner of Coronation Street, between 1976 and 1990 before moving to Coronation Street. In the story this was so that its owner, Rita Fairclough, could leave behind bad memories of her relationship with Alan Bradley. In reality it was so that directors could regularly show the exterior without needing location work, since a real street was used for the Rosamund Street scenes. For the same reason, Roy's Rolls café moved to Victoria Street in 1999 when the show's set was expanded, with the explanation that its owners had sold their original building to the neighbouring motorcycle shop for expansion. Another Weatherfield location, Weatherfield Quays, was removed 17 years later in 2006 to eliminate the need for location scenes (the real-life Salford Quays was used as a backdrop), and the Victoria Court apartment development on Victoria Street replaced it as the normal home for wealthier characters.
- #059
Until 1983, Coronation Street had at least four original cast members throughout its entire history. Then, in October 1983, within a span of only about three months, Doris Speed went on sick leave and was never well enough to return; Patricia Phoenix, who played Elsie Tanner, left the show; and Jack Howarth, who played Albert Tatlock, fell ill, made his final appearance and never returned to filming before his death in May of that year.
- #060
In 1994, during a filming break, Lynne Perrie (Ivy Brennan) had collagen implants put in her lips, which caused a very noticeable and unexplained change in Ivy's appearance. Perrie was dismissed shortly afterwards. Both she and Executive Producer Carolyn Reynolds denied that the surgery was a factor in the decision; the official reason was that the writers were struggling to find new stories for Ivy. However, a clause banning cosmetic surgery was later added to all cast members' contracts.
- #061
In 2002, while the show was struggling in the ratings against its main rival EastEnders (1985), producers persuaded Julie Goodyear to return as Bet Lynch after seven years away from the main show and reluctantly dismissed Eve Elliott to create a vacant position as Rovers Return landlady. However, Goodyear struggled with the increased workload compared with her previous stint on the show; the series, which had aired three episodes a week when she left, now regularly broadcast five episodes a week. After only 17 days of filming covering eight episodes, Goodyear took sick leave due to nervous exhaustion and ultimately never returned full-time (though she was persuaded to film a brief guest appearance in 2003). In the end, the Richard Hillman storyline that dominated the second half of 2002 proved so popular that the Weatherfield series regained the ratings lead anyway.
- #062
When Jacqueline Chadwick had problems during her 2001 pregnancy, she took early maternity leave from the role of Linda Baldwin by a few days and refused to return for her final scenes. Because the cast had reached the halfway point of filming the wedding of Linda's mother, Evelyn Sykes, it was not possible to remove Linda from the scenes entirely, so a stand-in performer with her face hidden was used along with archive recordings of Chadwick's voice. Viewers last saw Chadwick's Linda entering a hotel toilet, after which she appeared in the episode played by a non-starring actress.
- #063
Although as of 2023 the character Ken Barlow has been in the series for 63 years (since the first episode), he has faced the axe many times. The first was as early as 1964, when new producer Tim Aspinall wanted to kill off both Ken and his wife Valerie, but Granada, which wanted to build a young family around the couple, rejected the idea. When Valerie was killed in 1971, producers considered having the devastated Ken carry out the original plan of emigrating to Jamaica, but ultimately decided that the struggle of a single father would make an interesting story. In 1982, after actor Bill Roache complained that the character had become boring, the writers once again considered getting rid of him, until the idea emerged of Ken's wife Deirdre having an affair with Mike Baldwin. This became one of the most popular storylines of the 1980s, revived interest in the Barlow family and put Ken back at the centre of the show.
- #064
Laurence Olivier was such a fan of Jean Alexander's portrayal of Hilda Ogden that he wanted to make a cameo appearance in the series on the condition that he appear alongside Alexander. Producers created the role of a homeless man with whom Hilda would chat while queuing for a shop sale. In the end a scheduling conflict meant Olivier could not film the role, and an unknown actor was cast in his place.
- #065
In a 1982 poll, the character Hilda Ogden ranked as the fourth most recognised woman in Britain, behind only HM Queen Elizabeth II, Princess Diana and Princess Anne, despite being fictional.
- #066
The character Richard Hillman was the first serial killer in Coronation Street, but certainly not the last.
- #067
When Brooke Vincent took over the role of Sophie Webster in 2004, producers asked her to cut her long, single-length hair into a fringed bob to imitate the appearance of Emma Woodward, who had played the role previously. However, Vincent immediately began growing her hair out again, and producers later decided she had settled into the role of Sophie well enough to keep the longer style.
- #068
When Tracy Langton was christened in 1977, Ken Barlow was her godfather. After Tracy's parents divorced, Ken married Tracy's mother, Deirdre, in 1981 and eventually adopted Tracy in 1986, making him both her father and her godfather.
- #069
In her 1998 exit storyline, Zoe Tattersall joined a religious cult called the Children of Nirab. Although it was presented on screen as a serious story, much of the plot was a joke by the writers; the portrait of Nirab actually depicted outgoing producer Brian Park — "Nirab" was an anagram of "Brian".
- #070
Creator Tony Warren took the character surnames Tanner, Sharples, Tatlock and Barlow from gravestones in a Manchester cemetery.
- #071
Claire Sweeney and Alan Halsall play mother and son Cassie Plummer and Tyrone Dobbs, despite there being only 11 years between them.
- #072
Geoffrey Lancashire, the father of Sarah Lancashire (Raquel Watts), wrote 76 episodes of the series between September 1964 and April 1971 and made a one-off return in January 1981.
- #073
In 1974, producer Susi Hush wanted the series to reflect the modern North West by introducing an Asian family who bought Maggie Clegg's corner shop. The writers rejected this, noting that it would inevitably mean characters such as Stan Ogden and Len Fairclough displaying unpalatable racist views; instead the largely unpopular and short-lived Hopkins was introduced as the manager. It was not until 1999 that the Desai family began running No. 15, and their relative Devendra Alahan, who built a retail empire, soon took control.
- #074
Simon Barlow bullies Leanne Battersby and her cousin Amy McDonald, attacks Audrey Roberts, blackmails Toyah Battersby and physically assaults a child during a football match. Simon Barlow may possibly suffer from psychological problems such as Antisocial Personality Disorder. Antisocial Personality Disorder is a mental illness in which a person disregards right and wrong and does not feel for others; people with antisocial personality disorder tend to be hostile, manipulative and act toward others with a harsh or callous indifference, and show no guilt or remorse for their behaviour.
- #075
Keith Duffy (Ciaran McCarthy) and Ray Fearon (Nathan Cooper) worked together on Death in Paradise (2011), in Season 1, Episode 7 (2011), playing Eddie and Curtis respectively.
- #076
Veda Pierce, the main antagonist of James M. Cain's 1941 novel "Mildred Pierce", is considered a possible influence behind Rosie Webster.
- #077
The series' production team travelled abroad seven times: Majorca (1974), Torremolinos (1987), Normandy (1994), Amsterdam (1998), Paris (2000 and 2006) and Malta (2007).
- #078
Granada TV continuity announcer Colin Weston was an extra. His continuity colleague Andrew Brittain played a waiter in 1986.
- #079
Dawn Acton appeared on the 1991 Christmas special of Family Fortunes (1980). Les Dennis (Michael Rodwell) hosted Family Fortunes (1980) from 1987 to 2002.
- #080
Sue Cleaver, Michelle Collins and Ann Mitchell all appeared in EastEnders (1985).
- #081
Cherylee Houston, who plays Izzy Armstrong, is 12 years older than her character and only nine years younger than Jacqueline Leonard, who plays her mother Linda.
- #082
Len Fairclough, who first appeared in Episode 18, was introduced as a sidekick to then-lead character Harry Hewitt. Len was quickly established, and while Harry was written out in 1964 (before ultimately being killed off in 1967), Len remained a cornerstone of the series until 1983. Similarly, Gail Potter was introduced in 1974 so that Tricia Hopkins would have someone her own age to interact with. Tricia was written out in 1976, while Gail remains in the series as of 2023 — roughly 47 years after Tricia's final appearance — with actress Helen Worth second only to William Roache in terms of appearances.
- #083
As of 2024, apart from William Roache, who remains in the series, Anne Cunningham, who played Linda Tanner, is the only surviving original cast member whose character is also still alive, and Linda is said to live in Canada. Cunningham has stated she will never return to the series because she believes her on-screen brother Dennis, played by Phillip Lowrie, was mistreated when he returned in 2011.
- #084
Suranne Jones first auditioned for the role of Geena Gregory but lost out to Jennifer James before winning the role of Karen Phillips. Eve Steele missed out on the role of Maxine Heavey but later took on the role of Anne Malone. When Sally Carman auditioned for the role of Shona Ramsey she was deemed too old for the part, but the casting team was impressed by her performance and invited her back a few months later to play Abi Franklin.
- #085
When Thelma Barlow left the role of Mavis Wilton in 1997 after 26 years, it was widely reported in the press that she did so in protest at the writing out of her on-screen husband Derek (played by Peter Baldwin). In reality, Barlow had resigned before Baldwin was written out. Producers believed they could get a valuable final major story for the characters by killing off Derek and letting Mavis make a fresh start.
- #086
Kevin and Sally Webster, played by Michael Le Vell and Sally Dynevor, divorced, after which Kevin married Abi Franklin (Sally Carman) and Sally married Tim Metcalfe (Joe Duttine). In 2022 Carman and Duttine married in real life, meaning Joe Duttine is now married to Michael Le Vell's on-screen first wife and his on-screen third wife.
- #087
During this series in the United Kingdom, up to June 2026, there were two monarchs: Queen Elizabeth II and King Charles III.
- #088
The original 1960 recording of the title music was made at IBC Studios in London. A dedicated ensemble of session musicians recorded it under the direction of composer Eric Spear.
Continue through the archive
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
Sources for the entries on this page
- IMDb IMDb kaydı
Information from external sources is independently selected, consolidated and edited by Arka Evren. Sources are listed for verification and further reading. Encyclopedia text is used under its licence (CC BY-SA). How we work