Coronation Street Theme Tune Download

[Adrienne Borgman]

CoronationStreet (colloquially referred to as Corrie) is a British television soap opera created by Granada Television and shown on ITV since 9 December 1960.[2] The programme centres on a cobbled, terraced street in the fictional Weatherfield, a town based on inner-city Salford, England.[3]

Originally broadcast twice weekly, the series began airing six times a week in 2017.[4] The programme was conceived by scriptwriter Tony Warren.[5] 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.[6]

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.[7][8] 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.[9] The show currently averages around five million viewers per episode.[10] The show premiered its 10,000th episode on 7 February 2020,[11] and celebrated its 60th anniversary later that year.[12]

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.[13] Granada Television had commissioned only 13 episodes, and some inside the company doubted the show would last beyond its planned production run.[14] Despite the criticism, viewers were immediately drawn into the serial, won over by Coronation Street's ordinary characters.[15] The programme also made use of Northern English language and dialect; affectionate local terms like "eh, chuck?", "nowt" (/naʊt/, from nought, meaning nothing), and "by 'eck!" became widely heard on British television for the first time.[16]

In March 1961, Coronation Street reached number one in the television ratings and remained there for the rest of the year.[20] 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.[21][22] 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.[23] 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."[24]

In 1964, Coronation Street appointed a new producer, Tim Aspinall.[25] Aspinall decided on a new broom policy and the "Bloody Purge" of 1964 began, with nine actors being sacked in total.[25][26] 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.[27] Her sacking was so controversial that fellow actress Violet Carson (Ena Sharples) threatened to quit, but she was eventually persuaded not to.[25] 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.[28] Many, including Coronation Street writer H.V. Kershaw, saw the killing of Martha as a desperate move to boost viewer ratings.[28]

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.[29]

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.[30] Anne Reid quit as Valerie Barlow; her character was killed off in 1971, electrocuting herself with a faulty hairdryer.[31] 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.[32] 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.[32] 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.[33][34] 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.[35]

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've tried to resist it but it is very hard not to play the part all the time, even at home."[36] This was the first sight the public had of a bitter argument between Hancock and Granada Television. Hancock objected to the cast payment system and threatened to quit the show to safeguard his principles.[37] The main dispute was between Hancock and Podmore, with Podmore being nicknamed 'The Godfather' by the British media.[37] The basis of Hancock's argument was that different actors were guaranteed different numbers of episode appearances per year, thus some were paid more than others. Actors from the earliest days of the programme, including Pat Phoenix, Doris Speed and Peter Adamson, were guaranteed payment for every one of the year's episodes, regardless of whether or not they actually appeared.[38]

Podmore was not willing to change what he called a 'complex and well-established system',[38] leading Hancock to stand by his principles and resign. The problem now shifted, and writers had to write Ernie out but save his wife Emily (Eileen Derbyshire). The decision was made for Ernest to be killed off in a bungled robbery at Mike Baldwin's (Johnny Briggs) factory, where he worked in payroll. Ernest was killed by a single gunshot to the stomach on 11 January 1978.[39] It was the first time that violence on such a scale had been shown on Coronation Street and after the episode was aired, Granada's switchboard was jammed by angry viewers. Letters of complaint arrived in their hundreds, and the Lobby Against TV Violence fiercely objected Granada's decision to broadcast the episode.[37] Granada stated that the storyline was not about violence, but that it aimed to show the desolation and loss felt by Ernest's widow, Emily.[40] Coronation Street had little competition within its prime-time slot, and some critics suggested that the programme had grown complacent, moving away from socially viable storylines, and again presenting a dated view of working-class life.[41]

Peter Adamson, who had played Len Fairclough since 1961,[42] was sacked in 1983 for breach of contract. He had been warned by Granada Television for writing unauthorised newspaper articles criticising the show and cast. Coronation Street producer Podmore sacked Adamson when it was revealed he had sold his memoirs after the previous warning.[43] The sacking coincided with allegations of Adamson having indecently assaulted two young girls. In April 1983, a newspaper reported that Adamson had been arrested for indecently assaulting two eight-year-old girls at a swimming pool.[44] The police complaint was that Adamson's hands had strayed while giving the girls swimming lessons. Granada Television gave Adamson financial support through his legal problems, with a Crown Court jury finding him not guilty in July 1983.[43]

Adamson's dispute over his memoirs and newspaper articles was not known to the public and the media reported that Adamson had been dismissed because of the shame indecent assault allegations had brought onto Granada and the Coronation Street brand.[43] Len Fairclough was killed off-screen in a motorway crash on 7 December 1983. To demonise the character, it was revealed that he had been returning home from an affair, cheating on his wife Rita (Barbara Knox).[45] Adamson celebrated the character's death by delivering an obituary on TV-am dressed as an undertaker.[46]

During 1988, actor Christopher Quinten, who had played Brian Tilsley since 27 December 1978,[47] told bosses at Granada that he was going to move to the United States to marry his then-fiance, American talk show host Leeza Gibbons and to build an acting career in Los Angeles.[48] In announcing his resignation, Quinten tried to ensure that his role would be left open for him to return in the event that his stint in America failed. At the time, his character was married to Gail and the story conference called to write Brian out struggled to find a justifiable way to write him out while still leaving enough scope for a possible return. The decision was made that Brian should die.[49] Quinten was in Los Angeles when the storyline was decided, and upon his return to the United Kingdom, he was shocked at Brian's fate and threatened to fly back to America so that scenes could not be filmed.[49] He was talked round by co-star Helen Worth, who pointed out that he might be blacklisted by Equity if he quit the programme abruptly.[49] Brian Tilsley's death was broadcast on 15 February 1989. After the breakdown of his marriage to Gail, Brian started spending his evenings going to discos and meeting up with various women. He tried to protect a young lady from a group of thugs outside a nightclub, but was stabbed in the stomach. He died as a result of his injuries.[50] The stabbing brought massive complaints from viewers and Mary Whitehouse delivered an angry sermon about television violence.[49]

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