It
has been on our TV sets for forty years and it don't seem a day to long.
Coronation Street has been the corner stone of British TV. It's realistic mix of humour and powerful drama have continued to have audiences riveted in the same way that the same way as the the bard himself did back in Stratford - only this modern day lot do it much better.
During the next four decades the lives of everyday folk in the fictional district of Weatherfield has captured the imagination of fans the world over and has always featured tin the top four of the UK TV ratings.
The story lines such as the Ken, Deirdre, Mike love triangle have brought the national to a grinding halt featuring on New bulletins and more recently, the Weatherfield Field One saga has prompted questions in Parliament.
Originally, it was the show that no one wanted but as TV became more regionalized and thanks to the persistence of former boy actor and Britain's then youngest scriptwriter, 23 year old Tony Warren, Granada TV Bosses finally persuaded him to come off the top of the office filing cabinet to write about life in the North of England.
Named Florizell Street, the show was commissioned for 16 weeks as a means of filling a gap in the schedules, but when the tea lady suggested to Warren that the title of his new show sounded like a disinfectant, it was changed to Coronation Street and on Dec 8th 1960 an institution was born.
Last week, over 20 million Brits saw the Corrie cast of 2000 create another piece of TV history with the first ever live episode for almost 20 years and now fans can relive the show's golden era with a new video celebration of the world's most famous street.
40 years of Coronation Street - takes you on a journey through TV heaven tells you everything you wanted to know about the world's longest TV serial but were afraid to ask or would have forgotten about.
This video celebration sees life long Corrie fan, Dale Winton helps relive memorable moments from the past four decades, featuring much loved characters from the shows that have come and gone including the programme's first sex symbol Elsie Tanner, the legendary battle axes, Ena Sharples and Hilda Ogden.
As well as classic comic memories like Bet Lynch dropped on a cow platt by Fred Gee, Stan Ogden as a wrestler and the Blonde Bombshell, Raquel being taught French by Ken Barlow, fans can relive the dramatic moments that brought the nation to stand still, including the Ken, Deirdre, Mike love triangle and more recently, the wedding saga of Mike Baldwin and the scheming Linda Sykes.
Even though there have been accusations of overkill during the build up to the recent live episode, thankfully they have fallen on deaf ears.
With television channels forever on the increase, Coronation Street continues to re write television history and is ore than entitled to shout from the tops. Here is to the next forty years
