Coronation Street is Britain's longest-running television
soap opera, and the UK's consistently highest-rated show.
It was created by Tony Warren and first broadcast on the
ITV network on Friday December 9, 1960. The working title
of the show was Florizel Street, but Agnes, a tea lady
at Granada Television, Manchester, (where Coronation Street
is produced) remarked that "Florizel" sounded
too much like a disinfectant. Coronation Street (nicknamed
Corrie, or, less commonly, Coro or Corra) is set in a
fictional street in the fictional industrial town of Weatherfield
which is based on Salford, now part of Greater Manchester
(a Coronation Street does exist in Salford). Its principal
rival soap operas are ITV1's Emmerdale and BBC1's EastEnders.
The show's iconic theme music, a brass-band throwback
to the sounds of the 1940s, was written by Eric Spear
and has only been slightly modified since the show's beginning.
|
