Corrie: 50 great years..by Tony Warren
IN his own words it was the "show that no one wanted".
Now, 50 years on, Coronation Street creator Tony Warren has had the last laugh.
The serial is officially the longest-running soap opera in the WORLD, with the Guinness World Records plaque to show for it, and on its anniversary on December 9 it will have notched up 7,487 episodes.
It seems ridiculous now to think that, back in 1960, young Tony Warren struggled to sell his idea for a programme revolving around working-class people on an ordinary northern street - then was reluctantly granted a run of just 13 episodes.
"I was 23. I wasn't even thinking about the next year. You never think about 50 years.
"Nobody wanted it. The BBC turned it down twice. Even when we did a dry run for Granada Television, the powers that be didn't think people would be able to understand the accents. They said they might have to have subtitles."
Fortunately for Corrie's ten million regular viewers, Tony would not be deterred.
A former child actor, he had previously made regular appearances on BBC Radio's Children's Hour. From there he had become Britain's youngest TV scriptwriter when he was commissioned to pen a few episodes of the 1950s private eye series Shadow Squad.
Bottom
He was then given a contract at Granada as a writer, earning £30 a week. But he soon decided he wanted to do something new.
He says: "In that role I rebelled against the conventional shows I was meant to be writing and came up with something called Florizel Street."
Tony hastily wrote the first episode overnight on his bedroom floor in Swinton, Manchester, the amalgamation of two scripts he had already done.
The name would be changed to Coronation Street - Tony explains that a tea lady said that Florizel sounded like a disinfectant - but first there was the challenge of finding the cast of 20 actors.
The character of Ena Sharples was a problem, particularly because the bosses at Granada disliked her.
Tony says: "They thought she was straight from the music hall - and we were having our own problems finding an actress to play the part.
"I was even told I might have to get rid of her altogether.
"Fortunately I thought of Violet Carson, the formidable dowager who had once threatened to smack my bottom in a BBC radio studio during a break in a Children's Hour rehearsal.
"Even when we found her, one of the most powerful executives of all was heard to say, 'But Harry, what are we going to do about that face?'"
The other strong female character was Elsie Tanner - a role given to actress Pat Phoenix.
Tony recalls: "As Pat started to read the script for us something extraordinary was happening.
"I was hearing the lines delivered in exactly the same way they had sounded in my head when I was writing them. I had found my actress and she had found her author."
Finally, on Friday, December 9, 1960, the first black and white episode hit the screens, heralded by Eric Spear's now instantly recognisable theme tune.
The show's first words were spoken by corner shop owner Elsie Lappin as she handed the shop over to Florrie Lindley: "Now the next thing you've got to do is get a sign-writer in."
The 50th anniversary will be celebrated with a dramatic live episode, as was the 40th. Live episodes were part of the norm for Coronation Street until March 1961. Back then, the Friday episode - one of two - was broadcast live and the Wednesday one was recorded straight afterwards, often leading to mishaps.
Tony says: "There's an edge to it that you only get with live.
"If you go back to the earlier episodes you can tell that it hasn't quite got the tension or edge in that pre-record. It was always like that during the first year - one, two, one, two - none of the even numbers were ever quite as sharp.
"After one live episode an actress forgot she was needed for the second one and went off to the local YMCA.
"She had gone swimming stark naked. Someone had to go and fish her out for the recording. If you look at that episode you'll see she's got wet hair."
After just one month, the Corrie cobbles - which were initially painted on a studio floor - had already played host to a police alert, an unexpected pregnancy, a stroke, a robbery, a runaway and an untimely death.
Despite the initial concerns, Coronation Street quickly became a success and, by the end of 1961, it was top of the ratings. Between 1960 and 1976 Tony wrote 76 Corrie scripts and to this day he remains very much involved in what happens to his screen baby.
He says: "Whenever I get into taxis the drivers only ever have two questions - the first is, 'Do you still get money from it?' I've learned how to answer. I say, 'That's a very personal question, how would you feel if I asked you about your sex life?'
Lovers
"The answer is yes, I do get money from it. The second question is, 'Do you still have anything to do with it?' always in a voice that hopes I don't.
"I say yes, then I explain that I watch DVDs and clips, I'm sometimes involved in casting and I watch the show on air just like any viewer, because there's something quite different about watching it on air than just watching a pre-recording.
"Once a month I go out to lunch with the producer to somewhere where the tables are very far apart and we put our heads close together and whisper.
"People have been known to wonder whether we're lovers or international spies."
Over the 50 years Corrie's residents have seen train crashes, lorry accidents, a fire at the Rovers Return, death by Blackpool tram, 39 births, 114 deaths and 88 sceduled weddings - although typically, plenty of those didn't actually result in marriage.
And through it all, just one actor has survived from the very start - William Roache, who plays Ken Barlow.
He is now holder of the Guinness World Record for the world's longest-serving soap actor. Tony says the programme's enduring appeal is because the storylines and the characters go right to our hearts.
He says: "I think it's possible to belong to Coronation Street when you can't belong to anywhere else. People often form a big affection for it at times like a divorce or major illness.
"They may not stay with it then but it stays warm. So when they return to it it's that old friend, and that's often when people become lifetime viewers."
But don't try to get Tony to list his favourite characters - that's just something a "parent" won't do.
He says: "It's dangerous to start on that. Please, I have 5,000 children."
Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...#ixzz16k9l8SOs
Royal Mint commemorates Coronation Street's 50th anniversary with specialedition coin
The Royal Mint has for the first time immortalised soap characters into a commemorative coin.
Six special-edition medals featuring the five 'Queens' of Coronation Street have been made to mark Coronation Street's 50th anniversary.
The sixth coin features the Street's famous watering hole, The Rovers Return, with the unmistakable cobbled streets outside.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz...#ixzz16vrNfcWJ
