TV Preview: The Road to Coronation Street

BBC Four’s season on ‘The North’ continues tonight with the story of the birth of Coronation Street; the Manchester based soap that has dominated television since 1960 when it launched with mixed reviews.

The Road to Coronation Street: BBC Four/BBC HD Channel at 9pm

BBC Four’s season on ‘The North’ (that ‘frightful’ land anywhere beyond the boundaries of the M25 to us Londoners) continues tonight as the channel tells the story of Coronation Street. This one-off drama

not only ties in with the BBC’s season on ‘The North’ but also with the 50th anniversary of the soap itself in a few months time. So its fitting that in its 50th year on-air the story of how it was created and brought to our screens is told…by the BBC. It does seem odd that the BBC are telling this story and not ITV themselves but that’s television for you. In 1960s England television was very much dominated by the tastes of the middle classes and was very London-centric. There had been very few soaps and those that had been made up to that point only lasted a few years before broadcasters pulled the plug. In fact most television producers were only interested in producing ‘prestigious’ dramas such as Shakespeare adaptations rather than popular drama. Television was still in its early days relatively speaking and drama on the box was treated very much as an extension of the theatre – often performed live by actors in the very traditional style of theatre.

However, one man wanted to produce a very different kind of drama – a drama about the lives of ordinary men and women of the working classes. A drama that explored the every day lives of normal,

ordinary people. What’s more the setting wasn’t London or anywhere in the south but Manchester – to some at the time the idea probably seemed mad. However, Tony Warren found some support at Granada and a soap legend was born – Coronation Street. Though it’s worth pointing out that actually Coronation Street wasn’t a soap for many years but instead referred to as a ‘Drama Serial’ by Granada Television. The term soap was considered cheap, tacky and looked down upon with a shocking level of snobbery – ATV’s Crossroads, which launched in 1964, was a soap but Coronation Street was a ‘Drama Serial’. Such foolish snobbery has long since been banished and Corrie now embraces the soap label.

As the story of Coronation Street’s road to air unfolds we meet some of the infamous actors of the early days who shaped its fortunes – the actors brought to life by a wonderful cast. We suspect that The Road to Coronation Street will be a real treat for any long-term fan of Corrie especially those who can remember all the way back to those early days!

The Road to Coronation Street stars David Dawson, Jane Horrocks, Lynda Baron, Celia Imrie, Jessie Wallace, Sophia Di Martino, Christian McKay, Steven Berkoff, Henry Goodman, Michelle Holmes and James Road. Written by Daran Little.