Coronation Street Post Excerpts
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Ken Barlow (Dec. 9/22)
At the Granada Coronation Street Gift Shop in the 1990s, I dithered over souvenir key rings. Which character? I finally chose Ken Barlow. He was a long term character and one I knew well… He began the role in 1960 when the show began. December 9th, 1960…
Royalty on The Street (June 2/22)
Coronation Street has not been on the air as long as Queen Elizabeth II has been on the British throne. On December 9, 1960 when Corrie began, she had been queen for 8 years, 10 months and 3 days. Since then, Queen Elizabeth has walked down the Coronation Street cobbles twice…
Veterans on The Street (Nov. 11/21)
Britain’s wars have been part of Coronation Street throughout its six decades. From the 1960s to 1990s, there were veterans of the World Wars and, in the 2000s, the war in Afghanistan. For the two World War veterans, the actors were informed by their personal experience…
Johnny Briggs (Mar. 1/21)
Johnny Briggs died yesterday, February 28th, at the age of 85. For those who knew him as Mike Baldwin on Coronation Street, the world is a bit darker today. Mike Baldwin died 15 years ago, but knowing that he still lived in Johnny Briggs somehow made all seem as it should…
Corrie Origin Story (Dec. 9/20)
Sixty years ago today, on December 9, 1960, the first episode of Coronation Street aired. Since then, its origin story has been told many times, many ways. Here is the story as told to me by Harry Elton and Tony Warren, the two people who had the idea for a home-grown serial for Northern England television…
Covid Corrie (July 24/20)
Overnight, Covid-19 will hit Weatherfield. People who had been freely walking around Coronation Street without a corona care in the world will be masked and distancing themselves. Tonight in Britain, and soon in Canada, the residents of Coronation Street will be living like we have been…
Corrie 10000 (Feb. 22/20)
I haven’t watched Coronation Street since June 2018. But I watched Thursday and Friday’s episodes. Episode numbers 10000 and 10001. I figured out that I’d watched regularly since about episode 3000. So I couldn’t miss these landmark ones. Some of the people I didn’t know. Happens when you leave a neighbourhood for any length of time. But there are also familiar faces, beloved faces…
Why watch Corrie? (July 4/19)
It’s been just over a year since I stopped watching Coronation Street. I still record it, and read the on-screen synopses as I delete episodes.
Have I been tempted to watch? Yes. Some days when I just feel like flopping on the couch and not checking on the Donald Trump Comedy/Horror Hour…
Weatherfield Brexit (Jan. 24/19)
Are people in Weatherfield stockpiling water, tinned food and toilet tissue? They are in real life Britain, according to news reports. People fear shortages, due to goods tied up at customs when Britain leaves the EU. Entrepreneurs are rising to the challenge. You can buy a Brexit Box, a 30 day supply of freeze-dried food. At £295, they are moving briskly…
Corrie Street and Brexit (Jan. 10/19)
An article written by Canadian Erin MacLeod in Popula. It’s about how the UK wanted by those in favour of Brexit is maybe mirrored in Coronation Street. Also about specificity of place – and time – in Coronation Street and the writings of Mordecai Richler. Good read!
Third Generation (Sept. 14/18)
“The Queen came to Coronation Street and she stood and chatted to me. I really couldn’t believe it. Because they’d just rebuilt the set. And I was standing there after she’d gone. I thought: how many writers wake up one morning and they think, well, I’ll write a show. I’ll have a pub at one end of the street and I’ll have a corner shop at the other…
Leaving The Street (June 17/18)
This week I only watched Monday’s double episode. I decided at the end of it that I’m leaving the Street. Not forever – I hope. But for now, until something changes that makes it enjoyable for me to watch again…
Diane of Bluenose Corrie (Apr. 30/18)
My condolences to the family and friends of Diane Johnson Williams. Diane passed away in Dartmouth NS on March 28th. Many of us knew Diane as Tvor and author of Bluenose Corrie Blog…
Corrie the Soap (Jan. 10/18)
When did Corrie become a soap opera? Here I mean that in the derogatory sense of the phrase, denoting melodramatic, formulaic and often illogical storytelling. About four months ago. That’s when Coronation Street went to six episodes per week…
Talking with our Vera (Oct. 6/17)
(Interview, 1992) “My name’s Liz Dawn. I play Vera Duckworth. I bet all your listeners will recognize this voice! What’s Vera like? Well, actually, Jack and Vera, they’re the best – most happily married couple in Coronation Street. Really! Because every time they have an argument, well, it’s a form of endearment!…
Coronation Street Library (July 28/16)
Seeing that a Coronation Street adult colouring book will soon be released made me think about how big the Coronation Street library is. Reams of paper about the fictional town of Weatherfield and its residents. There is merchandise galore…
Tony Warren (Mar. 2/16)
My hanging out in Manchester buddy died yesterday. Tony Warren, creator of Coronation Street and my accidental tour guide, died at the age of 79. One day, a long time ago, Tony Warren and I walked from Granada Studios to the city centre of Manchester…
Our Deirdre (Jan. 19/15)
Anne Kirkbride has died. Tonight, after a short illness, says the UK’s Mirror Online. We know her best as Deirdre Barlow. We last saw her flinging a trifle that didn’t set properly against the wall…
Hayley Patterson Cropper (Jan. 23/14)
Hayley became a cornerstone of Coronation Street in her 16-year tenure. She was brought on as a side story, maybe a funny story: Roy, resident odd duck, finds a ladylove, and turns out the lady is a man. A quirky tale for a quirky character. But Hayley caught viewers’ attention and affection and the powers that be had the good sense to run with it…
Spoilers (July 31/13)
I hate spoilers. It’s like walking into a movie as someone walks out of the previous screening and says “I would have never guessed it was the good guy that did it.”… So I only read Canadian timeline sites said to be “spoiler-free.” So imagine my disappointment when I learn something I didn’t want to know…
Corrie Catch-Up (Sept. 5/12)
CBC’s Coronation Street is now only two weeks behind the UK. Wow! We’ve never been that close before. In an RCI interview with Carmel Kilkenny, CBC Executive Director of Content Planning Christine Wilson said that we had got nine months behind…
Corrie Stars in London Ont. (Apr. 3/12)
Last Friday, the Corrie stars at Althouse Auditorium at UWO. I’ve never been at a meet and greet so didn’t know what to expect… The ‘VIP’ meet & greet tickets were $96 and included the $10 brochure; general admission tickets were $50…
Schmeichel, the Greatest Dane (Mar. 15/12)
The name Schmeichel is well-known to two groups of people, soccer fans and Coronation Street fans. Peter Schmeichel is a great Danish goalkeeper who played for Manchester United. It was in his honour that young Chesney Brown named his Great Dane puppy. Schmeichel the dog has been on Coronation Street since 2003. We watched him grow up…
Tales from The Street (Mar. 15/12)
The big Corrie bus has rolled into Canada: McDonald father and son and the Peacocks. Charles Lawson (Jim McDonald), Nicholas Cochrane (Andy McDonald), Stephen Arnold (Ashley Peacock) and Julia Howarth (Claire Peacock) come to my area – Southwestern Ontario – at the end of March. Yippee!..
Coronation Street 50th (Sept. 21st, 2011)
Coronation Street began due to a government mandate for home-grown television programming. A Canadian producer at Granada, the late Harry Elton, knew the popularity and longevity of American soaps and their production cost-effectiveness. He met a young writer at Granada, Tony Warren, who knew the stories and people of the North…
Meeting Jack Duckworth (Aug. 31, 2011)
In 1992 I went to Salford to research Coronation Street for a CBC Radio Ideas documentary… When I was told the names of two actors I was about to meet, I was struck dumb with awe and terror – Bill Tarmey and Elizabeth Dawn aka Jack and Vera Duckworth…
A (cat) star is born! (Mar. 27, 2011)
Wednesday we saw the new title sequence, done in honour of the show’s 50th anniversary and the move to high-definition. There’s a new cat, a new rendition of the theme music, new introductory scene shots…
A defence of John Stape (Feb. 9 2011)
Ok, I know John Stape is a lying weasel who spends way too much time feeling sorry for himself and plotting nasty schemes. But, at heart, he is a high school teacher who loves to teach…
Scene of the Week (Oct. 29, 2010)
I’m starting a new Coronation Street feature this week. It’s an assignment I gave students when I taught about soaps.Pick a scene that’s particularly moving and explain why, in terms of the storyline and the emotions or situation it evokes for you. They only had to do one scene for the entire semester whereas I will be doing this every week. So maybe sometimes I won’t find one and sometimes I’ll find more than one. My picks may not be yours, so feel free to tell me what yours is.
My Introduction to “The Stories”
Every soap fan has a story about how they started watching. Some watched as kids with their mom or grandma. Others started watching during an illness when they had nothing to do but watch tv. Some began in university where watching was a communal experience in a dorm or student lounge.

I started watching while doing my first stint of anthropology field work. In the village I was in, people talked about Mac and Rachel and Iris and other people I didn’t know. But I was new in town and didn’t know all the residents yet. I figured Mac and Rachel Corey were people I hadn’t met yet. But when something hideous happened – an accident or attack or something like that – I was upset. Were they all right? Could we help? Before I got too panicked, someone realized I didn’t know these were tv characters. The world of the NBC soap Another World was explained to me. I had realized that there was a time mid-afternoon when going to people’s houses to interview them was not a good idea. Everyone had the television on and did not want to be interrupted. I was welcome if I sat quietly and watched the show.
I recognized it as a soap, but I didn’t watch soaps. Never had, never planned to. But it became necessary to know who was who in Another World‘s Bay City, so I watched and asked questions about its residents as well as the residents of the village I was living in. When I left, I quit watching.
The next summer, new fieldwork in another small town in a different province. But Mac and Rachel were on the tv screens every day there too. So I picked it up again, and the other local favourite General Hospital. I got hooked. Back at university, I planned my day around Another World and General Hospital. Friends were surprised, a little incredulous and, yes, some disgusted. Some, though, said quietly that they “used” to watch and then would talk about the story with surprisingly current knowledge of story lines for people who “used” to watch.
Add Coronation Street to US soaps
Somewhere along the line, I started watching England’s Coronation Street on CBC. I had met it years before. When I lived in New Zealand, my boyfriend’s mother religiously followed Coronation Street. She was an ex-pat from the north of England. NZBC’s broadcasts were over two years behind the UK broadcasts. She had subscriptions to English women’s magazines, so she knew “spoilers” from them. I watched with her but never got thoroughly hooked. But finding it again many years later, I started watching and I still am. Religiously.
My own watching of American soaps and Coronation Street and talking with other people about them got me interested in the audiences of continuing serials and their creation. So I did a two part documentary on them for CBC Radio. It was called Other Worlds. Then I turned that material into a book, Other Worlds: Society seen through soap opera, for Broadview Press.
I was teaching part-time then in the Anthropology Department at Memorial University of Newfoundland. At the suggestion of the Department Head, I added other aspects of television, entertainment and news consumption to soaps and created a course on Media and Popular Culture. I taught it on-campus and as a distance education course. I had a lot of fun. My students did too, at least most of them. Some complained that “watching the stories is a lot easier than analyzing them.” That is true, but you miss a lot. Most soap fans, I believe, actually spend more time analyzing the stories, their construction and their industry underpinnings than do consumers of other tv entertainment and news programming.
Frances Brandback
5 Feb 2018I just finished reading a book called Coronation Street Christmas and it was during the war and Elsie Tanner had a daughter named Linda but it doesn’t tell what happened to her. Elsie lived at No. 11 Coronation Street. Can you help?
Dorothy
6 Feb 2018Hi Frances, Linda was in the first episode of Corrie along with her mother and brother Dennis. She was married to Ivan Cheveski with whom she had two sons. They emigrated to Montreal, but returned to Weatherfield several times. Played by Anne Cunningham, she was on the show on and off until 1984. In her final appearance, she had returned to sell her mother’s house after Elsie moved to Portugal. Bill Webster, Kevin’s father, bought it so presumably that’s how the Websters came to be on the Street. In 2011, Linda’s brother Dennis returned to the Street. He said that Elsie had died in a car crash in Portugal with her husband a few years before. I don’t think he said anything about Linda’s whereabouts. Thanks for the reminder of the wonderful Tanner family!