Long, long, longrunning British prime time soap (first airing 9 December 1960) — long enough that a character in her fifties was originally introduced as a sexy young twentysomething. It's prone to pronouncing itself the longest-running soap in the world on its anniversaries, something fans of The Archers — which began on The BBC (on radio) in 1952 — and especially Guiding Light (which predates both of them) would argue with. And win. Also viewable in Ireland, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Corrie (as it's known to its addicts) follows the lives of the residents of a typical working-class street in a ManchesterSalford neighbourhood.Classic user of the Soap Wheel.Please Note: As an on-going soap with no re-runs outside of the weekly omnibus, spoilers will not be tagged unless they refer to events that have yet to happen on-screen.
Provides examples of:
Abuse Is Okay When It's Female on Male: Very strongly averted with Kirsty Soames's treatment of Tyrone Dobbs. She violently attacked and scarred him — hitting him, forcing him against walls, slamming his fingers in doors; cut him off from friends, destroyed his sentimental possessions such as photographs, and he stayed with her mostly because he was afraid she would take their daughter Ruby away if he reported her. None of this was played for laughs and Kirsty was portrayed as being a very dangerously violent and unhinged person to the viewer because of it, though most of the other characters had no idea.
It managed to subvert this as uber-bitch Tracy was constantly manipulating Steve to get money out of him for their daughter and sometimes just for the hell of it. One episode saw Steve get his own back where he insulted Tracy in the pub and compared her to his ex-wife. This pissed Tracy off and she punched him in the face. Steve immediately phoned the police and Tracy ended up spending the night in jail for assault.
Played with when it came to Dev and Tara. Tara found out Dev had cheated on her when they had broken up briefly and plotted to get revenge. She ended up plastering a nude photo of Dev on a billboard in the street with "Liar" written in an obvious place (in addition to rejecting his proposal in public). While Tara wasn't portrayed as being in the right (Dev's daughter Amber chewed her out for it), the whole thing had a slight comedic tone to it which wouldn't have been the case if Dev had put up a picture of Tara.
The Alcoholic: Peter Barlow, although he got over it.
Carla Connor.
All Girls Want Bad Boys: Charlie Stubbs, who, if not quite as sociopathic, was nonetheless a thoroughly obvious nasty piece of work whom women seemed to find irresistible. Unluckily for him, he ended up with Tracy Barlow, who was a full-blown sociopath.
Astral Projection: Played for laughs — Whilst working at the Butchers, Graeme Proctor started wearing Fred Elliott's trademark straw hat and speaking with Fred's Verbal Tic and some of his signature mannerisms. As Fred had died several years before Graeme arrived on the street, his son Ashley began wondering if he really was being possessed. Turns out it was just a joke Graeme was playing on Ashley, after Ashley's wife told him about Fred.
Attention Whore: David Platt's usual motivation for all his dirty deeds (the other reason being that he's usually just bored. He has changed considerably, though, since he married Kylie.
His sister Sarah also revelled in attention.
Rosie and Sophie Webster too — in Sophie's case, it was more to do with her parents spending so much time fussing over Rosie or their own squabbling to pay as much attention to her.
Teased, in the case of Richard Hillman, when his widow Gail started to receive cards from her deceased serial killer husband. Turns out it was her son David, playing a sick joke.
Rosie Webster, although most people call her out on it.
Birth/Death Juxtaposition: Maria finding out that she was pregnant on the same day that Liam was killed off.
Fiz going into premature labour and giving birth to baby Hope. This was on the same night as the explosion in the joinery and tram crash which killed Ashley Peacock, Molly Dobbs and Charlotte Hoyle — who died of injuries suffered at the hands of John Stape.
Rosie's finest moment was when she went to see a 3-D film and complained afterwards that the picture had been too dark and the effects literally flat. It turned out she had been wearing an ordinary pair of sunspecs rather than the special polarised glasses.
Brick Joke: Jason Grimshaw being voted 'Mr Gay Weatherfield' in 2009 is already pretty funny since Jason is straight. When Rosie Webster enlisted him to help bring sister Sophie and her partner Sian back to Weatherfield as they struggle with coming out and Sophie questions why Rosie brought Jason since he won't understand what they're going through, he replies with "Excuse me, I'm Mr Gay Weatherfield."
British Accents: Generally thick and Northern, with the occasional Londoner dropping by.
Most of them are accurate Manchester accents, but as The Other Wiki points out, Claire Peacock and Hayley Cropper have more of a Yorkshire accent.
David Platt, for some reason, has a Leeds accent.
British Brevity: Averted. Celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 2010 and is on five times a week.
Brought Home The Wrong Kid: Rosie Webster took her baby brother Jack to be in a photo shoot and ended up bringing home a baby girl instead.
Carrying a Cake: Played with, where a family were carrying a homemade wedding cake to the reception, while a scooter wove its way around them. The cake actually did make it to its intended destination, only to then be destroyed by the drugs squad in search of evidence.
Celebrity Paradox: Nobody ever watches TV. Certainly not at 7:30 every weekday evening. None of the magazine titles in Norris's newsagents are those of recognisable publications in this world.
Nobody in the street seems to have noticed a sudden infestation of meerkats, a species native to South Africa, and are asking whether this merits intervention by the zoo, the RSPCA, or Rentokil (An insurance company using anthropomorphic meerkats as mascots is "sponsoring" the show, with commercials at the start and finish of each segment.These feature the lovable animals drinking in the Rovers, dining in Roy's café, and doing other cute meerkat things.
When she was younger, Rosie Webster was reasonably intelligent. However, before she left the show, she had repeatedly Taken A Level In Dumbass and became increasingly vapid and self-absorbed.
The Chew Toy: The luckless Tyrone. His first girlfriend cheated on him with a footballer. His second girlfriend was having an affair with his boss and carrying his boss's baby. She died in a train smash. His third girlfriend battered the crap out of him and walked out with their unborn child.
Before Tyrone there was Curly Watts, another unfavoured bad-luck magnet.
Citizenship Marriage: There was one involving Tina's friend Xin and her then boyfriend Graeme. There have been others before though.
Clingy Jealous Girl: Sophie Webster tended to get extremely jealous and hurt whenever Sian had a laugh with anyone but her.
Crazy Jealous Guy: Charlie Stubbs, when he thought Tracy was cheating on him.
Continuity Nod: One of the highlights of the show is that it still features regular references and callbacks to older characters and storylines, often from decades ago. Hardly an episode goes by without a nod, whether it be to something two months old or twenty years old.
Frankly, Weatherfield itself, considering the amount of deaths/accidents/general misery present over the years. It's a wonder people still move to the street, considering pretty much every house/building has had multiple deaths in them (including a number of murders). Taken Up to Eleven with the Fiftieth Anniversary special, with a freak tram accident demolishing one end of the street and killing/seriously wounding a number of residents.
Saying that, compared to Walford, Weatherfield is the happiest place on Earth.
The Danza: Betty Driver as Betty Williams (née Turpin).
Dueling Shows: Eastenders. Although they don't broadcast opposite each other, in the UK you're either a fan of one or the other. Or both.
Easily Forgiven: Averted with Kevin Webster, and his affair with Molly Dobbs. It was several months before his wife Sally forgave him, and even then they didn't get back together. It took over a year for Molly's husband and Kevin's best friend Tyronne to even start rebuilding their friendship.
Enormous Engagement Ring: The hyper-jealous Eileen has seen her fireman boyfriend Paul out with an attractive firewoman from his station. Suspecting he is cheating, Eileen and her dozy friend Julie embarrass themselves — and him — by breaking into the station. Angry and disgruntled, Paul produces a large ornate engagement ring and says this is the reason he was out with his colleague. Her family own a jewellers' store and she was helping him choose a ring. She's the right person to find the best and most beautiful ring, and she also gets a discount on it for him, so it is larger and better than what he might have been able to afford in normal circumstances. Eileen is sick twice over on seeing the ring. One, because it is big and ornate, and visibly so; two, because her insane and irrational jealousy has made him contemplate breaking the whole thing off and taking it back to the shop for a refund.
Danny Baldwin, who grew up believing Mike was his uncle but then learnt he was his father.
Fake Irish: A borderline example with the Connor family. While Michelle, Liam and Paul were presumably reared in England, they were born to Irish parents and seem to have kept close contact with Ireland (their parents returned to Dublin to live). Of the three, only the actor playing Paul had any known Irish ancestry and even his parents were English-born.
However, some deaths unexpectedly avert this, such as Charlie Stubbs, who was quite explicitly smashed over the head with a statue by Tracy Barlow and fatally wounded.
Though probably the best example was Adam Rickitt, the second actor to play Nick Tilsley. Perhaps a touch of Viewers Are Morons as well, since Nick's original actor, Warren Jackson was sacked and replaced by Rickitt simply for not being sexy enough, despite the widespread opinion that Jackson was a much better actor than Rickitt.
Funny Background Event: As Stella is yelling at Carl for cheating on her with Sunita and throwing his personal items out of the window, a taxi pulls up behind Carl (who is standing in the middle of the street) and begins to honk. Stella continues to throw stuff out of the window, Carl doesn't move, and the taxi continues to honk. After a couple of seconds, the taxi simply reverses and goes down another street.
Henpecked Husband: Nearly every male characters. It's obvious it's the women who really rule the roost in Weatherfield.
Steve McDonald wins this hands down, having dated and gotten married to an increasingly long line of dominating women.
Heroic Sacrifice: Ashley Peacock, during the aftermath of the Joinery explosion. He held up part of the ceiling to stop it collapsing on Peter Barlow and Nick Tilsley, knowing full well he wouldn't be able to get out when it came down.
Hypocrite: Sally Webster, because of her insistence that Fiz was involved with John Stape's crimes. Her justification was that Fiz must have known what her husband was doing, because the idea of her not realising was preposterous. Cue practically every other character responding with "You didn't realise what Kevin was doing."
Brian Packham, giving David and Kylie Platt stick over what they give Max for his school dinners, whilst stuffing down a bag of chips and being in no physical shape to criticise anyone's eating habits. He even goes so far as to say that all teachers at the school are going to be checking what students bring to eat from home. Lampshaded by David and Kylie.
Jerk Ass: Everybody falls into this at least once.
Jerkass Façade: Graham Proctor let people think that he two timed Tina for Xin, so they think that she's a victim and he's a jerk who cheated on her. It was really Tina's plan to get Xin a Citizenship Marriage.
Karma Houdini: Leanne Battersby, who has dodged prison at least twice.
Owen Armstrong is quickly becoming one.
David Platt was becoming this, before he had a Heel Realization and deliberately went on a rampage through the street, attacking several residents for the sole purpose of getting himself arrested because his mother refused to report him the police for pushing her down the stairs after he found she had his girlfriend abort the child he wasn't aware of. To hammer the point home, after he was charged he apologised to the people he attacked.
Tracy Barlow, she was found guilty of murder and is still out on the streets due to mistake by the forensic investigator who's work convicted her making a mistake on another case. That being said, it made Becky's dose of Laser-Guided Karma all the sweeter.
Live Episode: Between 9 December 1960 and 3 February 1961, all of the Friday episodes were broadcast live.
As part of the Fortieth and Fiftieth Anniversary celebrations, the 9 December episodes were also broadcast live.
Long Runner: Coronation Street started in December 1960 - As of 17 September 2010, it is THELong Runner, as it became the world's longest-running TV soap opera currently in production.
William Roache, who has played Ken Barlow for that entire period.
Betty Driver, who played Betty Williams from 1969 until her death in 2011. Both will probably end up as cases of The Character Died with Him, as Roache has no intention of retiring and Driver's death aged 91 meant that her character had to be Killed Off for Real.
Monochrome Casting: Despite the show being set in Manchester, a city with substantial minority populations and a growing number of immigrants, Coronation Street resolutely ignored this for the best part of forty years and its inhabitants were 100% Caucasian and ethnically English. 100% Christian, too. Whilst there was one token Jewish character for a short while (Manchester has Britain's second-largest Jewish community). Not much was done to remedy this until well into the 90s. Dev and Sunita and their families (Indian, Hindu) were the first, followed by Lloyd (along with his West Indian girlfriend who took over the hotpot-making role in the Rovers after the death of Betty Driver) and Mixed-race Kirsty Soames.
Name's the Same: David Platt. If you don't get it, just google it.
Never Trust a Trailer: Deliberately invoked during the promotion of the show's Fiftieth Anniversary week, which was given the tagline "Four Funerals and a Wedding," implying that four major characters would bite the dust. As it turned out, three major characters actually did die, namely Ashley Peacock, Molly Dobbs and Charlotte Hoyle. The fourth casualty was a nameless background extra, who got mentioned in passing by a firefighter during the live episode.
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: After fatally beating Charlotte Hoyle to death shortly before the tram crash, John Stape later decided to place her body near the crash site, hoping to make it look as if she had been struck and killed by debris during the crash. A policewoman found him, and he claimed to have dragged her out of the debris — whereupon the policewoman examined her body and found that she wasn't actually dead. In a subversion of the trope, it turned out she had massive brain damage and would only have lived on in a vegetative state, resulting in her family deciding to pull the plug on her.
No Bisexuals: Todd Grimshaw, after a loving relationship with a girl, discovers he is also attracted to males. Apparently this means he will only ever be attracted to males in future.
When Marcus Dent decided to enter into a heterosexual relationship with Maria, various characters (and fans, at that) expressed their derision and believed he was lying to himself by pretending he was straight. Apparently, it's impossible to be attracted to both men and women and once you become gay you can never be attracted to women again! The only person to even mention the possibility that he might be bisexual is Gail McIntyre and it is never seriously considered beyond an aside comment she made in the Rovers.
Noodle Incident: What Tracy Barlow did behind bars involving chocolate and £50.
The Other Darrin: Tracy Barlow. Played by various actors, with Dawn Acton and Kate Ford being one of the best-known.
Tracy's step-brother Peter has been played by six different actors. One even reappeared recently as a completely different character (Kirsty's father).
Most of the characters introduced as children.
Nick Tilsley. Twice, and both times as an adult.
Averted by Chesney — Sam Aston has played the character from a child to an adult.
Promotion to Parent: Fiz had to act as mother to her younger brother Chesney, after their mum Cilla abandoned them.
Pun-Based Title: In shop names, not in the name of the series itself.
'Underworld' — an underwear factory.
'Roy's Rolls', a café which puns on "Rolls Royce"
Put on a Bus: Kevin Webster, whose actor is facing sexual offence charges and a trial in real life, is said to be visiting his father Bill in Germany, who is sick.
Ken Barlow, for similar reasons to Kevin, is out of the show pending investigations.
Reality Subtext: Sally Webster was scripted to reveal to her husband Kevin that she had cancer on Christmas Day, 2009. The storyline prompted Sally Dynevor, the actress playing her, to see a doctor and undergo tests for the disease in order to research the role. Sally found out she had cancer hours after filming the scene where she told Kevin about the cancer, so when they shot the scenes where they told their on-screen daughters, the tears were real. The storyline was rewritten so that the actress was off-screen for six months whilst she was undergoing chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Remember the New Guy: Xin Chiang was first introduced in February 2011, for the purpose of a storyline involving Graeme marrying her so that she could stay in the UK. You wouldn't have realised this if you weren't already watching the show, since Tina kept remarking that Xin was her best friend and she already had existing relationships with the likes of Graeme Proctor and David Platt, despite never having been mentioned once in the previous two and a half years Tina had been on the show.
Kelly Crabtree —- the first time we ever saw her, she had just left her supposedly long time job at the factory that half the other characters work at.
Retcon: Surprisingly rare, but Mike Baldwin's nephew Danny (and his family) being introduced was certainly one, as Mike had previously been stated to be an only child.
Canon Discontinuity: Seems to be in effect in regards to the storyline relating to Michelle Connor discovering her son was switched at birth. After the storyline ended in 2008, it has never been mentioned again!
In fact, during the 2012 stoyline when Tracy Barlow dated Ryan Connor, simply to spite Steve McDonald for rekindling his relationship with Michelle, he was explicitly referred to as her only son. Likewise, when Tracy revealed that she was pregnant with his child and that Steve tried to pay her off to have an abortion, she claimed Michelle wouldn't have done it when she was pregnant with Ryan ... with everyone seemingly forgetting that he is not actually her biological son!
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: David Platt had one after a massive Trauma Conga Line drove him over the edge, smashing every single thing he could find in the street with a piece of scaffolding pipe. Subverted, in that David didn't do it out of revenge, but because his mother refused to press charges for him pushing her down a flight of stairs.
Romance on the Set: Tina O'Brien (Sarah Louise Platt) dated Bruno Langley (Todd Grimshaw), the couple splitting up before their characters began dating.
She then began dating Ryan Thomas, who plays Jason Grimshaw, Todd's brother and Sarah Louise's future husband.
Running Gag: Fred proposing to just about every woman he fancied.
A Simple Plan: Just about anything attempted by Les Battersby.
Shout Out: The story where Craig Tinker's pet rat escaped and ended up several doors down the Street in the Rovers Return — on the very day the public health inspector, who had criticised the pub's standards before, came around to do his annual inspection. Shenanigans and hilarity ensue as the staff desperately try to stop him spotting the said Siberian Bald-Tailed Hamster.
Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome: In one notable case, two kids went upstairs to wash their hands and reappeared about five years older in the next episode.
Tracy Barlow is often seen as an adult version of this.
Stupid Evil: At least post-prison, Tracy Barlow is almost incapable of carrying on a conversation without insulting the person she is talking to, even if she is hoping to manipulate them.
Suddenly Sexuality: Both of the show's coming out stories. With Todd Grimshaw and Sophie Webster respectively, their realization that they were attracted to the same sex came rather out of nowhere, as both had been in healthy heterosexual relationships without any hint they might be gay before this. However, their actual storylines of coming out were handled fairly well, apart from their very sudden start.
Sophie's storyline was planned out two years before it started, with Sacha Parkinson being hired specifically for her eventual role as Sophie's girlfriend. She appeared for more than a year on the show as a build-up to Sophie's coming out with the groundwork for it definitely being present. A great deal of it was non-verbal by both actors, but there were clear flare-ups of jealousy and possessiveness on both sides.
Suspiciously Similar Substitute: The men who own Underworld tend to have dark hair, frequently wears suits and get romantically involved with Carla, before trying to kill her. This has happened so many times, it's practically become a Running Gag.
Teen Pregnancy: Sarah Louise Platt. Twice (though the second didn't end well).
Katie Armstrong, more recently.
Took a Level in Dumbass: Rosie Webster who seemed to shed a dozen IQ points every year. As a teen she was a good student but as she got older she turned vapid and shallow eventually ending up a Brainless Beauty who thought Plato was a woman.
Transgender: Hayley Cropper, in one of the better fictional portrayals.
The Unfair Sex: The unwritten rule of Weatherfield seems to be that if a women has been unfaithful, the men must forgive and forget! But if it's the man who's been unfaithful, they must never hear the end of it!
Verbal Tic: Fred Elliott. Fred had a couple, I say Fred had a couple.
Wham Episode: Countless examples over the years, usually as the climax of a major story. However, the Fiftieth Anniversary tram crash may be the best example.
What Happened to the Mouse?: Done rather egregiously with Les Battersby. After his actor was suspended following a scandal, the character was temporarily Put on a Bus, supposedly going on tour as a roadie for a Status Quo tribute band. However, his actor ended up being fired while suspended, so viewers expected a Bus Crash to explain why he wasn't coming back from tour. Instead ... nothing. He was never mentioned again. This meant he vanished from the face of the earth, leaving his wife, adopted son and also an ex-wife (and two daughters who came and went) never speaking of him again or wondering where he went.
Finally averted in 2011, five years after he'd vanished, by Les now being mentioned (and things like cards from him or photos of him being around) as normal, when appropriate. Predictably, they are treating it as though they had never stopped mentioning him, and don't explain where he is or why he vanished.
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