Series / Coronation Street

"Now the next thing you've got to do is to get a sign-writer in — that thing above the door'll have to be changed."

— First line of the first episode^note not counting some children singing a playground rhyme

Coronation Street (or Corrie) is a British Prime Time Soap on ITV in a Dramatic Half-Hour format that follows the ups and downs in the lives of the residents of a typical working-class street in a Salford, Manchester neighbourhood.

It has been running for a very, very, VERY long time, first airing on 9 December 1960, and will probably keep going until the end of time. It has been running long enough that a character in their eighties may originally have been introduced as a sexy young twentysomething, or one in their mid-fifties may have first appeared as a newborn baby. Many assume (thanks to ITV, who is to blame) that it is the longest-running soap in the world, but The Archers (which began on BBC radio in 1952) would likely say otherwise.

What Coronation Street can claim is that it is the longest-running soap opera on television.^note This record became available in 2017: Guiding Light spent from 1952-2009, 57 years, on television, with Corrie's 2018 being its 58th year. It will not, however, be able to claim to be the "longest-running soap" title until the BBC cancels The Archers. Also viewable in Ireland, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Curious Americans can watch it on Hulu (or the CBC, if they can receive it).

The show is often on about five times a week (as are most British soap operas) and has an omnibus at the end of the week. The series began showing at least two a week, and has gradually increased throughout its run-time. In the summer of 2016, it was announced that their schedule would be increased to six episodes a week in the autumn of 2017, and the television set was going to be extended.

Classic user of the Soap Wheel.

Please Note: As an ongoing soap with no reruns outside of the weekly omnibus, spoilers will not be tagged.

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Coronation Street provides examples of:

Um, well, most of the tropes in The Catalogue by now, given the longevity of the series. More than once, in many cases.

• Abortion Fallout Drama: Abortion comes up plenty of times and it's usually done to escalate drama.
  • Tracy, invoking this, pretends she's pregnant and that she aborted the child in order to get sympathy from her boyfriend who wasn't letting her actual daughter live with them. Her mother is at first horrified that she got an abortion, and later horrified that Tracy would fake such a thing.
  • Katy Harris was pregnant at eighteen (while dating a much older man). Her parents didn't approve of the relationship and told her when they suspected he was having an affair. He wasn't but Katy believed them and got an abortion. She's portrayed as a victim this time, and when she finds out she's Driven to Suicide over it.
  • Natasha gets pregnant partly out of The Baby Trap as she suspects her relationship with Nick is failing. They split up briefly - during which Natasha has an abortion. Nick then reconciles with her and Natasha tries to pretend she's still pregnant for a while.
  • David finds his grandmother's old diary and reads a passage where she tuts about Gail going to have an abortion. Gail is his mother, then he does the math and realises she nearly aborted him. This causes much conflict between them.
  • Gail gets to be on the other end when Tina ends up pregnant with David's baby. Gail rules that both are far too young to have a child, and convinces Tina to abort the baby before David even finds out. Tina is presented as mostly sympathetic thanks to her youth.
  • Sinead was pressured into having an abortion during her first pregnancy with Daniel, and when he found out, he pushed Ken down the stairs, similar to what happened with the above example, except as a Whodunnit.
• Adjective Animal Alehouse: Both "Rovers Return Inn" and "The Dog and Gun" are themed around dogs, rover being a common name for a dog.
• Age-Gap Romance: In some occasions but these relationships vary on comfort levels. For example, Stella Price and Jason Grimshaw were a couple despite Jason being 19 years younger than her but they were able to make the relationship work despite the initial public reaction. If it's an older man dating a younger woman, then the relationship is either a sex crime or a very disturbing relationship to see.
• The Alcoholic:
  • Peter Barlow, although he has mostly gotten over it except when he needs to drown his sorrows. Usually over his cheating.
  • Carla Connor, during her and Peter Barlow's marriage (briefly).
• 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.
  • Katy Armstrong, Sarah Platt and Sarah's daughter Bethany all had a fling with Callum Logan even though everyone warned them that he was a dangerous thug who was probably just using them. It was of course, true.
• Alone with the Psycho: Maya, among others.
• Amoral Attorney: Adam Barlow and Maya Sharma.
• Anyone Can Die: Due to this, it's quite common for the producers to film a number of alternate endings/outcomes when a major character is going to die or be murdered in order to keep the show spoiler-free. They also do this quite often in on-screen court cases, filming both 'Guilty' and 'Not Guilty' outcomes and deciding later which one to use.
• Astral Projection: Played for laughs — whilst working at the butcher's, 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 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.
• Back for the Dead:
  • Played with regarding Vera Duckworth: her spirit came back for her beloved husband, Jack, as he died from his battle of leukemia while sitting in the same chair she died in over two years earlier. Considering how characters never come back from being dead here and their popularity with fans, it was considered an Acceptable Break from Reality.
  • Ray Langston, Deirdre's first husband and Tracy's biological father, reappeared on the Street after over two decades away to make amends with both women in 2005. He was suffering from terminal stomach cancer and died a few weeks after whilst sitting besides his daughter at her mother and Ken's wedding reception at the Rovers.
  • Lucy Richards-Barlow, Peter's wife and the mother of Simon who he had shared a bigamous marriage in with his girlfriend Shelley, returned briefly to the Street from Australia to give him back to his father before her death.
  • Susan Barlow, Peter's twin sister, reappeared in 2001 after being absent since the late 1980s. When it was discovered that the child she "aborted" during her short marriage to her father's longtime rival Mike Baldwin did in fact exist, she attempted to run off to Ireland, only to die in a car crash whilst doing so.
• Back from the Dead: Averted — unlike other soaps, when someone dies in Corrie, they usually stay dead.
  • 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.
  • Played Straight with Andy Carver. Not that it did him much good.
  • Also played straight with Gary Windass, though photos of him on set had been uploaded to the internet before the episode in which he "died" had been broadcast.
• Bad Guy Bar: The Dog and Gun.
• Becoming the Mask: Graeme Proctor lets 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. And then he really did cheat on Tina with Xin.
• Better Manhandle the Murder Weapon: Subverted. When Hayley committed suicide via lethal cocktail she told Roy not to touch the glass so he wouldn't be suspected of killing her.
• Big, Screwed-Up Family: The Platts, who are more or less all nuts or screwups in their own way, and frequently enable each other's worst tendencies. Possibly the Barlows as well.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing:
  • Molly Dobbs.
  • Sean Tully.
  • Rosie Webster, although most people called her out on it.
• Birth-Death Juxtaposition: Maria finding out that she was pregnant on the same day that husband 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.
  • Abi having a baby son on what would have been her first child Seb's 21st birthday, who died a year prior.
• Bland-Name Product: Freshco. It's like Tesco but fresh.
  • Now invokedDefictionalized in Canada, though likely a coincidence.
  • Soon to be averted thanks to a licensing deal with Costa Coffee and Co-Op Food.
• Brainless Beauty:
  • Jason Grimshaw. In a subversion, Jason is a skilled construction worker; he's just not particularly bright.
  • Rosie Webster. Arguably her 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 sun specs rather than the special polarised glasses. Like Jason, she does have some smarts — as in she went to a school for the gifted in her teens.
  • Emma to an extent as well, although she was still slightly smarter than the above two.
• Break the Haughty: Sally celebrating her inauguration as mayor of Weatherfield, just in time for bailiffs to show up and repossess her stuff to pay debts her sister Gina had racked up and forged her signature on as co-signer.
• 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 invokedSophie 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 Brevity: Averted. Celebrated its sixtieth anniversary in 2020 and has six episodes 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.
  • Michelle Connor's son Ryan, who was the subject of a baby swap storyline. Was not brought up again after the storyline's conclusion, until 2018 when her 'real' son came back.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Roy who's odd and eccentric but runs his cafe business well and seems to be a good cook. And often knows what to say when someone's going through tough times.
• Bus Crash:
  • Actress Maggie Jones passed away while there was still footage of Blanche Hunt. After the footage ran out, Blanche was said to be on holiday in Portugal. Once they had gotten major storylines out of the way, they killed Blanche off officially.
  • Deidre was written off as dead on the day she was due to return home because her actress had died during her absence.
• Call-Back: Corries loves this trope and characters (particularly the older ones like Rita, Norris, Emily etc who remember them) will frequently talk about their friends and things that happened in the street, sometimes very very far back in time!
  • A notable example was Rita's line invoked"What is it with me and trams?" after being rescued from the rubble of the tram crash in 2010. She was referring to the time Alan Bradley died after being hit by a tram after chasing her in Blackpool in 1989.
  • A second call back came in 2016 when Alan's daughter Jenny visited Blackpool to face her family's demons and saved young Jack Webster (who she had kidnapped a few years earlier) from a similar fate.
• 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.
• Cat Fight: Several times between female characters. While often they start with a heated argument and sometimes a slap, the actual fighting generally doesn't progress beyond hair-pulling until two usually male characters drag the two off each other, usually to the dismay of amused onlookers.
• Celebrity Paradox: Nobody ever watches TV, certainly not at 19:30 every weekday evening.
  • For the same reason, a lot of the magazines in the background (specifically, those that would feature soap stars on the cover) are bland name replacements for the actual publications, even after Product Placement was allowed under UK law; largely because they would either have the characters of Coronation Street on the cover and thus fully invoke this trope, or those of competing soaps which the producers would obviously not want to advertise however subtly on their show.
  • In a 2001 episode, Candice mentions "Kym from Popstars". She's referring to Kym Marsh, who would later go on to play Michelle Connor.
• Characterisation Marches On:
  • As a teenager, David Platt was a Deadpan Snarker Sociopath. By 2012, David's become a more likeable and stable (albeit still snarky) young man with a wife and stepson. However, there are several moments of "relapse", such as trying to kill his brother in a car crash over the paternity of his wife's child.
  • 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.
  • Audrey Potter (later Roberts) is introduced as a flighty, man-hungry woman who had devoted little time to raising her daughter Gail. Via a stint as a comedy snob when married to the local mayor, Alf Roberts, Audrey eventually evolved into a strong-willed matriarch and devoted grandmother. Unlike some characterisation changes, this has been referenced several times by Gail, with Audrey generally acknowledging that she is a better grandmother than she was a mother.
• The Chew Toy:
  • Tyrone Dobbs. One girlfriend cheated on him with a footballer; his first wife had an affair (And child) with his best friend/business partner, before leaving him and telling him the child wasn't his, and eventually dying that same night after the tram crash; then his first girlfriend after Molly's death (And second wife) tried to drive him away from his friends, regularly abused him, briefly walked out on him with their unborn child, before framing him for abusing her.
  • Curly Watts, another unfavored bad-luck magnet.
• Citizenship Marriage: There was one involving Tina's friend Xin and her then boyfriend Graeme. There have been others before though.
  • Maria Connor's marriage to Pablo (which ended in her being jailed briefly for fraud).
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Sophie Webster tended to get extremely jealous and hurt whenever Sian had a laugh with anyone but her. Ironically on the receiving end when Kate's girlfriend Caz thought they were cheating.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Charlie Stubbs, when he thought Tracy was cheating on him.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander:
  • Graeme Proctor
  • Raquel Watts
  • Roy Cropper, to a certain extent
  • Julie Carp — she even gets told this in those exact words by her sister, Eileen.
  • Kirk Sutherland
• Cock Fight
  • Chesney Brown and Daniel Barlow over Sinead Tinker. Overtime Chesney gave up and decided to leave Sinead at the altar for personal reasons outside of the rivalry while Sinead and Daniel eventually got together again through Carla Connor's persuasion.
  • Zeedan Nazir and Kate Connor over Rana Nazir. This isn't as homophobic as it seems, both women had an affair with each other while Rana was married to Zeedan. Zeedan only agreed to a false marriage from Rana's homophobic parents to gain funding for his restaurant as well as try to salvage whatever was left from his broken marriage.
• 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. Possibly the biggest example is the 2011 return of Dennis Tanner, a character last seen on the show in 1968.
• Crapsack World:
  • Blanche Hunt's view of the world.
  • 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 - an echo of a freight rain derailment from the line's railway days in 1967, which trapped longtime character Ena Sharples and killed several unseen characters.
    • Saying that, compared to Walford, Weatherfield is the happiest place on Earth. Also of note is that a study showed that living on Coronation Street is actually safer than living in real-life Salford. Granted, that's one street against an entire city.
• Cringe Comedy: A lot of the comedy in the series comes from characters embarrassing themselves, wearing stupid costumes, or saying things they shouldn't. It's more prevalent in 2017-19 episodes in order to balance out the darker elements.
• Crossover: Happened with rival soap EastEnders in 2010 as a special episode for Children in Need.
• Dark Is Evil: A way to tell if a character is a villain is that the character is dressed in all black.
• Darker and Edgier: The central villains of the series in 2017-2018 have been known for controversy and for having very dark storylines.
  • Pat Phelan became a serial killer who murdered several men.
  • Nathan Curtis ran a prostitution ring that catered teenage girls and young adult women to older men. Neil Clifton was a police officer who was under Nathan's employ and a customer who raped Bethany Platt.
  • In March of 2018, David Platt was drugged and raped by Josh Tucker, a mechanic/fitness instructor who pretended to be his friend and in May 2018, Aiden Connor committed suicide as a result of untreated depression.
  • While racists in the show are usually represented as uninhibited idiots who usually express their views without hesitation and require a united front to stop them. Griff appears to be one of the darker examples so far and actually appears as a legit threat as he's able to manipulate Max into joining his movement and arranges an attack on Daryan.
  • It's been an ongoing trend since the days of the Richard Hillman saga, but these storylines attracted a greater level of attention.
• Dead Guy Junior:
  • Maria's son Liam.
  • Ashley and Claire Peacock renamed their son Freddie, to honour Ashley's recently deceased father Fred.
  • Tyrone and Molly named their son Jack in honour of Jack Duckworth, Tyrone's father figure. Shame Tyrone wasn't the father.
• Deadpan Snarker: David Platt
• Dead Person Conversation: As he dies, Jack Duckworth sees and hears his wife, Vera (who had died two years before) urging him to come with her. They invokedshare one last dance together. When the rest of the family comes home, they find Jack having died in his sleep.
• Diabolus ex Nihilo: Some villains in the show don't always have their backstories explained to the audience or have their histories elaborated on. Some villains have been on the show long enough to have their backstories shown to the audience but some villains, like Geoff Metcalfe and Josh Tucker, for example, don't have that. Some villains are just written to represent a problem and have to be defeated through a united front. They don't explain how they were created, what motivated them to do evil, and how certain aspects of their life have moulded them into the villains they are now.
• Ding-Dong-Ditch Distraction: In an August 2000 episode, a young David Platt tempts Tommy Duckworth to do this to Emily Bishop, but this backfired when Tommy knocked on Ken Barlow's door by mistake and they both end up getting caught by Ken Barlow himself who later on takes them to Vera in Roy's Rolls to report this and gently scold them for trying to do that practical joke on elderly people.
• Domestic Abuse:
  • Tyrone Dobbs and Kirsty Soames.
  • Charlie Stubbs and Shelley Unwin.
  • Faked by Tracy Barlow as part of a plot to kill Charlie Stubbs
• Double Standard: Discussed, in 2021, Dev was forced to make a choice between Aadi and Asha when the car crashed and Dev chose to rescue Asha first before the car exploded. Aadi survived the explosion and is deeply hurt by Dev's choice since Dev didn't even acknowledge him during the rescue and Dev didn't bring it up since then, Aadi quickly assumes that Asha was always the favourite. From the audience standpoint, Aadi is completely justified in his anger but since Aadi only opened up to Dev and Summer; Asha doesn't understand the problem since Aadi insulted for other things, Dev's angry because Aadi keyed his car then blamed Kelly (which could have sent her back to prison), and Summer tries to tell him that Dev saved Asha first because she was unconscious, however, Aadi is too angry to accept it and blames the double standard.
• Double Standard: Abuse, 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 doorways; 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.
• Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: Lampshaded by Sean when he was a victim of such a double standard. Kelly was hoping she could turn him straight and made a pass at him. When he said no, she kept making advances. She eventually got the message but Jason couldn't understand precisely why Sean was so upset.
  "If I was a girl and she was a lad, we'd be calling this attempted rape."
• Driven to Suicide:
  • Memorably Katie Harris, after her mother was falsely convicted of murdering her father. Katie left a note confessing to the murder and committed suicide by eating lots of sugary foods (she was diabetic).
  • Hayley Cropper too, when she found out she had months to live.
  • Natasha attempted this after Gail busted her for lying to Nick about her pregnancy.^note Nick rejected her at first but reconciled with her literally as she was coming home from the abortion clinic, before she could tell him. Thankfully Natasha was saved.
  • Aidan Connor committed suicide as a result of untreated and undiagnosed depression.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • Ivy Tilsley (later Brennan) suffered badly from this. In her earliest appearances (when she only made the occasional appearance as one of the factory girls) her surname was Tyldesley and she said she had a husband called Arthur. As time passed Arthur was briefly renamed Wilf, and then renamed again and became Jack, who actually made two appearances on the show with it being stated the pair were childless despite trying. Several years after her introduction, the producers made the decision to move Ivy onto the street and completely rewrote her backstory. Jack was retconned out of existence and replaced with Bert, and Ivy gained a 20-year old son in the form of Brian.
  • In the early episodes back in 1960 some characters seemingly broke the fourth wall and would look into the camera. When Ena Sharples believed Mr Swindley was trying to get rid of her from the Glad Tidings she went into a rant in the hospital and yelled at the camera. Another example is when a group of kids are singing Christmas Carols in the street they turn to sing at the camera.
• Easily Forgiven:
  • Many families appear to get along with each other, even if they've tried to kill each other over pettiness in the past.
  • 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 Tyrone to even start rebuilding their friendship.
• Empty Bedroom Grieving:
  • After Oliver's life-support system is withdrawn, Leanne goes back into his bedroom and cries her heart out.
  • After the death of his newborn son Jake and the suicide of his wife/Jake's mother Alison, Kevin returns to his son's empty nursery and first lingers in the room, then rips off the peeling wallpaper in his rage and grief before breaking down in tears.
• 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.
• Estranged Soap Family: Seems to change by the week.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • David Platt. He may be a Deadpan Snarker Smug Snake Sociopath, but he once opposed to abortion.
  • Adam Barlow was disgusted that Colin Callen exploited Rita's brain tumor to get his hands on the kabin and went out of his way to help Rita get it back.
  • Ray Crosby is a sleazy business who is known to have sexually harassed women on multiple occasions to the point where he later tried to rape his employee Faye Windass, but even he would not tolerate racism.
  • Pat Phelan may have been a rapist and conman, and even he was repulsed by Bethany Platt being exploited by a grooming gang led by Nathan Curtis.
• Evil Makes You Ugly: One time evil characters aren't exactly attractive when compared to the main cast.
• Family Relationship Switcheroo:
  • Betty Williams with her son Gordon Clegg, who was initially raised as her nephew.
  • Danny Baldwin, who grew up believing Mike was his uncle but then learned he was his father.
• Family-Unfriendly Death: Most on-screen deaths tend to be non-gory ends such as heart attacks, while more gruesome deaths usually receive Gory Discretion Shots.
  • 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.
• The Farmer and the Viper: Hope's childhood psychopathy plot has elements of this because she's the daughter of a serial killer and inherited his psychopathy through genetics. Even though Fiz swears up and down that Hope's not like John and just a normal, bad kid... who enjoys starting fires, abducted a boy, lies constantly, and enjoys the idea of hurting people.
• Mr. Fanservice:
  • Plenty. 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.
  • Jason took on this role in the late 2000s, finding many reasons to be shirtless on-screen.
• Fille Fatale:
  • Rosie Webster. Ironically by the time she turned eighteen, she had grown out of this somewhat.
  • Nathan Curtis tried to turn Bethany Platt into this as part of a child grooming storyline.
• Flanderization:
  • Sally Webster/Metcalfe. She went from being a somewhat pushy wife to an extremely pushy parent to an obsessive snob who looks down her nose on all her neighbours and colleagues. She seems to have grown out of this in more recent years, however, in particular her friendship with Abi.
  • Gail Platt. She's never been too bright but was always a strong-willed matriarchal mother who took charge when her kids were trouble-making teens. In recent years though, she has turned into a spineless buffoon used almost solely for comic relief. There are, however, some moments when the old Gail shines through.
• Forced Out of the Closet: After Zeedan Nazir discovered his wife, Rana Habeeb, was having an affair with Kate Connor, he brought her parents over and told them about it. Resulting in her parents paying him to stay with her and nearly kidnapping her before she was forced to disown them.
• Freudian Excuse: Every character has one, ranging from affairs, crimes of all kinds, a bad upbringing, money problems, the list goes on.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse:
  • A recurring theme in the show is that nobody in the show has an excuse for their actions and if a character tries to deliver vigilante justice, then they'll be liable to prosecution if the authorities catch up to them.
  • When Bethany Platt assaulted a customer who was forced to receive a lapdance from her, Sarah angrily tried to blame the customer and mentioned Bethany's history of being sexually assaulted. While the police officer does give his condolences, he points out that it doesn't excuse anything and presses charges. Stating "A background of abuse does not give someone license to abuse others. This was a very serious assault".
  • This was deconstructed with Aiden Connor, who was driven to suicide when Eva went too far in taking revenge against him for having an affair. She was wracked with guilt and tried to make peace with Aiden's family but to no avail, forcing her to fight for custody over the baby.
• "Friends" Rent Control: Narrowly averted according to this study of soap opera neighbourhoods and their affordability. There would be a lot fewer trips to the Rovers, though.
• Funeral Banishment: Subverted in 2004 with the fallout between Todd and Sarah. Shortly after the death of his newborn son Billy, he (and to a lesser extent, Eileen and Jason) was expected to stay away from the funeral due to feuding with his former fiancée and the child's bereaved mother and her angry family. While he does eventually show up and many of the guests are shocked or grimace in response, David shouts at him to leave and blames him for the death (as he had just came out as gay and was carrying on an affair with another man, which severely stressed Sarah out, albeit the pregnancy was already risky). While his family members broke up the fight, the Grimshaw family was allowed to stay as the other mourners gave them their privacy to say goodbye.
• 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.
• The Gambling Addict: Has become a Running Gag in the last decade, including:
  • Karl Munro
  • Sylvia Goodwin
  • Steve McDonald
  • Carla Connor
  • Robert Preston

• The Ghost: "Fat" Brenda, who works for Street Cars, is often mentioned but never seen. An online spin-off based on the Street Cars employees featured Brenda's daughter; Brenda herself finally appears at the end, but only her feet can be seen.
• Grandparent Favoritism: Notoriously grumpy Blanche was more likely to defend Tracy than she was Deirdre, and went out of her way to provide for her. This becomes apparent in 2003 when Tracy became pregnant via a one-night stand; that Christmas sees Blanche gifting her a flat with money that was to go towards Deirdre's inheritance, in the hope that she kept the grandchild instead of giving it to the Croppers. Needless to say, her daughter was understandably furious.
• Grand Romantic Gesture: Gemma's wealthy boyfriend Henry Newton won her back by buying her the Rovers Return. However this slowly turns into a case of realistic outcomes, since neither of them have any business experience and both are reckless with money. Which results in the Rovers being put back up for sale after Henry was unable to get the money to buy it.
• Happily Married: Although the series usually tends to avert this, there have been a few couple that were straight examples:
  • Stan and Hilda Ogden, in spite of their money woes, strained ties with their children as they became adults (namely due to their "simple" lifestyles) and affairs, were quite happy together for over 40 years at the time of his 1984 death.
  • Jack and Vera Duckworth. They fought plenty of times (usually over trivial things) and had to deal with their ne'er-do-well son Terry and his criminal misdeeds, but remained in love until her death (and so much that she guided his spirit into the afterlife two-and-a-half years later).
  • Gary and Judy Mallet. They didn't last as long on the show as the others (appearing only from 1995-1999), but were one of the younger couples that never had any major rows and even welcomed twins (a boy and a girl) on their last Christmas together in 1998 before her passing the following year.
  • Roy and Hayley Cropper. In spite of their unconventional backgrounds (he being a lonely shopkeeper who never dated and she being born Harold), their relationship was considered one of the strongest on the Street in more modern times, marrying twice—first in 1999 and again in 2010, as the previous one was not legally recognized at the time—before her 2013 demise.
• Hate Sink:
  • Tracy Barlow is the biggest example. Since her 2002 return she has made herself known for her constant bitchiness and gets away with just about everything, including murder. Often, whenever anything criminal occurs on the street, everyone points the finger at her.

• The 2016 minor character Lauren who made her presence known as the school bully targeting specifically Bethany Platt. Even though many of her actions were worthy of at least a criminal record, she seemed to get away with it until a threat from David and a school expulsion seemed to chase her off for good.

• Tyler Jefferies and his mother Vicky Jefferies. He corrupted Simon, is a gang leader, tried to abduct Simon for reporting his crime, put glass in his food, robbed and assaulted an old woman. He also poisoned Eccles, got Amy pregnant and threatened to hurt her if she or Simon ever spoke about it.
  • Vicky refuses to believe Tyler's crimes and openly insults everybody who looks at her. She also got into a fight with Sinead, who was a pregnant cancer patient. (Granted, Vikki didn't know that).
• Nick Tilsley during the 2019 money laundering storyline. He stole from his grieving grandmother, blackmailed his brother and manipulated Leanne. When the police caught onto his activities, he attempted to pass the blame to David and blame his own activities on brain damage, claiming that David manipulated a man with brain damage. Even though he admitted his wrongdoings in court, he still got off scot-free while David got sent to jail.
• Geoff Metcalfe was Yasmeen Nazir's husband and grew into one of the show's most hated characters for his abusive and controlling behaviour. This peaked when he killed Yasmeen's pet chicken, Charlotte, and tricked Yasmeen into eating her because she didn't make dinner for him.

• Henpecked Husband:
  • Nearly every male character that's married. It's obvious it's the women who really rule the roost in Weatherfield. Aversions have a tendency to end up six feet under.
  • Steve McDonald wins this hands down, having dated and gotten married over six times 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.
• Holiday Volunteering: Sophie drags Sally to a shelter on Christmas 2013. Only for Sophie to get into a fight with one homeless girl who shoved one of their faces into a dessert. Her purse gets stolen soon after and of course she blames it on the girl.
• 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."
    • When the affair is exposed, she's furious at Kevin ... despite having an affair years ago with Ian Davenport that she never got caught for.
  • After Peter Barlow publicly humiliated Leanne at their wedding for her affair with Nick Tilsley and Carla Connor for her attraction to the engaged Peter, who would he soon cheat on Leanne with and marry after their divorce?
  • 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.
  • David, who falls in love with the mother of the thug that killed his wife, snaps that "the apple doesn't rot far from the tree". The woman immediately points out the hypocrisy by listing all his crimes that she's heard about.
  • Tracy Barlow, who has killed a lover in absolute cold blood, and manipulated everyone so that she appeared the victim, acted like Daniel's attempted murder of Ken, when the former was unstable due to being abandoned by both his parents, AND the latter had caused the termination of the former's baby was unforgivable. She later has used this behaviour towards Bethany Platt as well.
  • Maria, who had an affair with Aidan while he was engaged to Eva, comes across this way towards Alina with her affair with Tyrone.
  • Gary Windass, who has killed multiple few people, acts like he has any right to look down on Max's behaviour after the latter was groomed by a racist organisation.
  • Daisy Midgeley chastising Daniel Osborn and a returning Bethany Platt for hooking up so soon after the end of her engagement with Daniel; as lampshaded by Daniel, Daisy has no room to comment considering she had recently had an affair with Ryan Connor and that was the reason for their break-up.
• Improbable Food Budget: Everyone is able to make daily trips to the Rovers. Sometimes more than once a day.

• Internal Reveal:
  • Tina's McIntyre's murder and the person who committed it (Rob Donovan) are shown to the viewers without any attempt to conceal it. However, apart from the two of them involved, no one else knew and Peter Barlow was wrongly imprisoned and tried for the crime.
  • This was subverted though in the case of Frank Foster's murder. The murder itself and who was responsible weren't shown and remained a mystery until Anne Foster (Frank's mother) confessed to it months later.
• Intimate Open Shirt: The soap loves this one.
  • While Mike is over at Penny's, he starts off fully suited up. Next time we see him, the jacket is gone and the tie loosened. The third time, his tie is gone and shirt opened by a couple of buttons - as a clear indicator they've done the deed.
  • Ashley while staying with Claire for a romantic weekend away. He begins with his shirt buttoned up, but more buttons come undone as he gets drunker. Too bad Claire passes out before they can do anything.
  • Gail barges in on Nick and Natasha, clearly about to do the deed - if Nick's shirt is anything to go by.
  • Sexual tension between Dev and Sunita (while he's still engaged to Maya) is illustrated by Dev's shirt being like this when she walks in on him drunk.
• Jerkass: Everybody falls into this at least once.
• Karma Houdini:
  • Leanne Battersby, who has dodged prison at least twice.
  • Owen Armstrong is quickly becoming one. (Working for Pat Phelan quickly put an end to it, though.)
  • 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 a 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.
  • Grace Piper, Faye's one-time friend. Despite her young age, she was very manipulative and loved causing trouble just to see how people would react with some of her nastiest behavior including driving brain-damaged Nick into having a public breakdown, throwing rocks at Mary's mobile home and holding down Simon (with Faye's help) and recording him as she forcefully put makeup on him and then put the video online. The latter offense was illegal and although she eventually received an Offscreen Karma for her actions, it still feels like this trope since her behavior was never directly called out by anyone.
  • Sarah and David Platt when they got away with hiding the body of Callum Logan under their house after David's wife Kylie murdered him (though to be fair, she killed him in self defence). Kylie was also a member of this trope until she herself was murdered less than a year later.
  • Pat Phelan currently. Extortion, fraud, theft, murder. Whether it will come back to bite him remains to be seen.
    • It did. Pat Phelan met his end being stabbed by Anna Windass, the woman he'd raped and framed to get sent to prison. She, on the other hand, got away with his killing, as Michelle Connor, who witnessed the stabbing after Phelan had taken her hostage and later shot her, vowed to testify to the police that it was self-defense. (Which, given the aforementioned shooting and hostage-taking, wasn't much of a stretch).
  • Kinda when it concerns Terry Duckworth. Whilst he has been sent packing after his many schemes, he still never faced any proper comeuppance for breaking his parents' hearts for many years, and didn't even get into any trouble for manslaughter when his dodgy car led to somebody's death in 1999 (aside from his the dead woman's husband punching Terry out). Even in his final appearance in 2012 he gets away with everything when he gets his hands on his late father's inheritance money and leaves his son Tommy behind to face a loan shark that Terry brought into his life.
• Large Ham:
  • Fred Elliott, who never seemed to have No Indoor Voice.
  • invoked Dev Alahan. Many of his outbursts became memes on Harry Hill's TV Burp.

• Letterbox Arson: In one episode Loan Shark Rick Neelan shoves a burning newspaper through someone's letterbox: a scene that evoked complaints, claiming that the scene encouraged crime.
• Laser-Guided Karma: When villains don't receive immediate justice. Then karma lays her hand on them.
• Limited Wardrobe: Kevin Webster has a greyish-purple bomber jacket that he has owned since the 1980s and still wears as of 2023.
  • Since his 2016 return to the show, Peter Barlow typically always wears a fitted black T-shirt (coupled with his leather jacket for outdoor scenes).
  • Abi Webster is rarely seen without her tatty blue hoodie.
• 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.
  • There have been several since the milestones, leading to accusations of Ratings Stunt by audiences and critics.
• Loophole Abuse: In a poker showdown between Mike Baldwin and Fred Elliot, Fred goes all-in, only for Mike to surprise him with a further raise; his underwear factory against Fred's butcher shop. Mike justifies this by pointing out that they are, after all, playing the no-limit rule. However, the no-limit rule only means that there is no upper-limit on what a player can wager from their chip stack during a round of betting. It does not allow participants to bet assets that are outside of play. Given that the consequences of Fred losing the hand was stretched out over multiple episodes with no-one pointing this out, most likely this was a case of Artistic License.
• Lysistrata Gambit: Played Straight and inverted as Michelle (firstly) and Steve (secondly) did it to one another. Michelle demanded that Steve get a vasectomy after her pregnancy scare and he refused to get one, leading to this. It didn't last long.
• Mid-Life Crisis Car: Steve McDonald's midlife crisis dune buggy. Wife Michelle is not impressed. Not at all. Also The Alleged Car, as it broke down within a day and needed expensive repairs.

• Miscarriage of Justice: More frequently than actual justice being played straight, it seems.
  • Subverted with Tracy's murder trial in 2007. While she had intricately planned and set up the murder of Charlie Stubbs — making it seem like he was physically abusive to her and convincing her family and friends of this — and probably fully expected to be found innocent, the jury at her trial were not fooled and found her guilty. She played this straight in 2010, taking full advantage of that the forensic evidence expert that had handled her case falsified his qualifications, which sees her retried and released.
  • Averted with Gail's trial for the murder of her husband, Joe in 2010. She is found not guilty (Joe had drowned to death on his boat in a lake in the Lake District.
  • Tyrone was on trial for physically abusing Kirsty and probably would have been found guilty had Kirsty herself not burst into his trial and admitted to everyone there that she was the one abusing him.
  • Peter Barlow, who was sentenced to life in prison for murdering Tina and who only got out once real killer Rob was caught.
  • Most recently Anna Windass, framed by Pat Phelan for assaulting Seb by pushing his ladder over. (Really he just fell.)
• Mistaken for Racist: Paul Kershaw is mistaken for a racist when he utters the phrase "play the white man" to Steve McDonald during a game of darts; Lloyd Mullaney and daughter Jenna overhear him. Paul is reluctant to apologise to Lloyd since he doesn't believe the phrase is offensive, and him feeling that if he did apologise it would confirm Lloyd's accusation of racism.
• 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 usually ethnically English. 100% Christian, too. Whilst there was one token Jewish character for a short while (Manchester has Britain's second-largest Jewish community).
  • A few attempts were made. Lucille Soong played Billy Walker's Chinese girlfriend who was spurned by his racist mother, Annie. Ben Kingsley played a possibly intended-as-white character, there were a few black regular extras, and Angela Bruce played Ray Langton's mistress.
  • Not much was done to remedy this until well into The '90s. When the producers remedied this by having the Desai family take over the corner shop. However they mostly failed to click with audiences or the rest of the cast and were soon replaced with their cousin Dev Alahan who has been with the show ever since. Later joined by the Nazirs, who run the community centre or work at the factory, bistro, or medical centre.
• Ms. Fanservice:
  • Rosie Webster, who's more of a clueless one. It led to a story arc of being catcalled by builders.
  • Tracy Barlow. Both when Dawn Acton and Kate Ford played her.
  • Tina McIntyre (played by Michelle Keegan), having been voted Sexiest Female for four years in a row.
  • Although Kylie Platt (Paula Lane) has now pushed them firmly out the spotlight.
• My Beloved Smother: Gail Platt. It's probably why her children are spoiled brats.
  • She once rang Social Services after Bethany got an electric shock in Sarah and Todd's apartment — and when the social worker decided that the environment was still pretty stable for Bethany, Gail lied to say Sarah and Todd frequently left her alone in the apartment. Around the same time this was happening, a potential employer of Nick's rang the house about a job in Canada — and Gail also lied to say Nick didn't want the job, to stop him from moving.
  • In some instances, the children have gotten away with crimes because Gail couldn't bear to have any of her kids away from her. For example, when David went to confess an attempted murder on his brother, Gail was adamant that the rest of the family tried to stop him.
• My Local: The Rovers Return.
• 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.
  • It's thought that the producers were also considering offing Rita Fairclough in the live episode, but ultimately decided against it and 'killed off' the extra to make sure the tagline was still accurate.
• Never My Fault- Bernie goes behind Gemma's back, and confronts her former aggressor, who appears to be remorseful, and then when Gemma finds out, Bernie blames it on Chesney for telling her.
• 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.
• Nietzsche Wannabe: All very much female examples of the trope.
  • Rosie Webster
  • Sophie Webster
  • Hayley Cropper
• No Accounting for Taste: Anyone Les Battersby hooked up with, arguably.
• 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. What's more is that after the break-up, Todd admitted that he did still love Sarah.
  • 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.
    • This was Doubly Subverted, as he slept with Todd Grimshaw in 2013/2014 and this he can only ever be 'gay' again.
  • The first time a bisexual character appeared (dating Michelle), he was revealed to be a former partner of Sean's - and immediately resumed sleeping with him. When Steve witnessed them kissing, he told Michelle that Sonny was 'gay' instead of bi.
  • Almost averted with Rana Habeeb/Nazir, sort of. When discussing her daughter-in-law's affair, Yasmeen concedes that Rana could be bisexual instead of lesbian. Rana has not yet claimed to be bisexual.
  • Finally subverted with solicitor Paula Martin. She described herself as bisexual with a former long marriage to a man before she started a casual relationship with Sophie.
  • Also subverted with Asha, who has had relationships with both men (Corey) and women (Nina). Nina herself, who dated both Asha and Seb.
• Noodle Incident: What Tracy Barlow did behind bars involving chocolate and £50.
• Northern Irish and Nasty: Expat Northern Irelander Jim McDonald committed bank robbery and murder, ending up in prison where he soon became the King Rat of his wing, dominating the other cons and running the alcohol racket.
• Not Quite Dead: John Stape. He falls off a hospital rooftop, lands on concrete, and looks pretty dead after he's hit the ground. A few minutes later, the police report that he's disappeared, indicating that he came round and was well enough to get up and run away.
• Offing the Offspring: Anne Foster, who killed her son Frank by hitting him over the head with a whiskey bottle.
• Oop North: the Manchester setting and most of the characters, give or take the occasional displaced cockney or Emmerdale / EastEnders refugee.
• Outliving One's Offspring: Steve McDonald to a ridiculous degree:
  • His first wife Vicky suffered a miscarriage.
  • His second wife Karen also suffered a miscarriage.
  • His third wife Becky had a miscarriage and he caused their adoptive son/Kylie's son Max to be removed from their custody and given back to his Mom.
  • When engaged to Tracy, she miscarried twins and then tried to blame Becky for what happened. When he learned the truth at their wedding reception, he immediately divorced her.
  • His fifth wife Michelle did give birth to their son, but he was premature and did not survive.
  • At the same time, he got Leanne pregnant (which upon discovering it, led to Michelle divorcing him) and she had Oliver. Unfortunately, he developed a rare mitochondrial disorder that eventually killed him at the age of three.
• Parental Favoritism: The Webster family.
• Perky Goth: Nina Lucas is a goth character who stands up for Asha by punching one of her bullies.
• Pet the Dog: Charlie Stubbs sticking up for Roy Cropper in the bullying plotline.
  • Ray has been shown to be a Benevolent Boss to Ed Bailey for his work at the bistro and after Ed stood up to Don for his racist joke, Ray later fires Don and apologizes to the Baileys for Don's racist behaviour.
• Plucky Comic Relief:
  • Les Battersby.
  • Kirk Sutherland.
  • Jack and Vera Duckworth.
  • Cilla Battersby.
  • Norris Cole.
  • Graeme Proctor.
• Poor Communication Kills: A lot of problems in the series could have been resolved if characters actually explained their problems or explained what happened. Instead, the situation goes downhill or results in Cringe Comedy.
• Promotion to Parent: Fiz had to act as mother to her younger brother Chesney after their mum Cilla abandoned them.
• Protagonist-Centered Morality: During love triangle storylines, it's hard to sympathise with certain characters when analysing their own history of instigating affairs.
• Psycho Lesbian: Caz Hammond. After her straight love interest Maria turned her down. She stole money from her, let a homeless man break into her house then framed Maria for Caz's own murder.
• 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"
  • 'Prima Doner', a kebab shop that plays on "prima donna"
  • 'Speed Dahl', a Middle Eastern themed restaurant which puns on "speed dial".
• Put on a Bus:
  • Kevin Webster, whose actor was facing sexual offence charges and a trial in real life, is said to be visiting his father Bill in Germany, who is sick. He was found not guilty and came back in early 2014.
  • Ken Barlow, for similar reasons to Kevin, was out of the show visiting family in Canada while his actor was investigated. He was later found not guilty.
  • Ryan Connor. Notable in that his mother scarcely mentioned him from his most recent departure in 2013 to his return in 2018
  • The Bus Came Back: Occasionally, often for weddings/funerals.
• Rape as Drama: Toyah Battersby's rape storyline in 2001. Bethany Platt's child grooming storyline in 2016-2017. David's rape by Josh.
• Rebuilt Set: Several times over the show's history.
  • Most recently and most notably, in late 2013. The facilities were moved from the long-standing Quay Street site to a new one in Trafford Wharf. Doing this meant that they could make the street life-sized (as opposed to the three quarters size that it had been before). It also meant they could add new interiors to some of the buildings which had been previously been filmed in studio sets, such as Carla's factory and Streetcars. The new set was first seen in the episode airing on 10 March 2014.
• Regional Speciality: Mary Taylor is well trained in a variety of different cuisines of different cultures (French, Greek, Moroccan, Russian, Spanish etc) and has put on themed nights in Roy's Rolls and The Bistro, before she got fired.
• 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 longtime 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.
  • Ivy Tilsley's an interesting case. Introduced as a secondary factory girl with the identically pronounced surname Tyldesley, she variously referred to her husband as Wilf, or Alfred, or Jack, and claimed to have been unable to bear a child. Then, Jack was brought briefly in as a character. A few years later, her friend Vera's husband also named Jack was introduced, initially off-screen, and Ivy, now given a twenty-year-old son named Brian, was blessed with a new husband - Bert, whom she was allegedly married to for twenty-odd years. The showrunner, Bill Podmore joked that Ivy was a bigamist. Though considering the character, she may have been such a tart in her youth.
  • It was made clear that Susan Barlow had an abortion in 1987 because she wasn't ready to have children. She left the show a few weeks later but in 2001 it was revealed she had never actually aborted and now had a son called Adam. Worth noting that her father visited her numerous times over the years but never seemed to meet or even hear of his grandson.
  • 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 storyline 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!
    • Eventually averted when Michelle's biological son arrived on the street for a 2018 storyline.
  • Apparently, David Platt tried to 'kill' his brother Nick — yes, he did try to grab the wheel off him to stop him going home to reveal everything to Kylie and Leanne but the accident itself was caused by a truck driver who didn't stop in time and ploughed into the stopped car in the middle of the road. Everyone was acting as if David purposely caused that truck to appear or something! The fact that David himself is not denying his alleged murder attempt is not doing him any favors either.
• Right Behind Me: Bill Webster does this to Jason Grimshaw when is talking about how he really runs the Builder's Yard is too old to work. After catching him out, Jason tries to explain that it was only a joke, but falls through the loose railings of the balcony and right onto the pavement.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: When David starts acting irrationally and with hostility. Gary puts the pieces together and realises that something has horrified him into a frenzy. Gary was right that David was terrified out of his mind but it was actually Josh that set him off in the first place.
• 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.
  • Another followed when he planned to fill a junker car with petrol tanks and drive it into the prison van carrying Clayton, Kylie's murderer, at the courthouse. Instead he swerved out of the way of someone in the street and rolled it, pinning two people underneath and inflicting serious burns on Anna Windass.
  • September 2017 saw Eva Price and Adam Barlow team up on one. After finding out Aidan Connor had been unfaithful with Maria, Eva both pretended to be pregnant and went into bridezilla mode, demanding a lavish wedding (organized by a reluctant Maria) with the intent of squeezing Aidan dry. Adam, ostensibly to support Maria but really as part of a revenge plan for not getting a share of the factory that he believed himself entitled to, arranged for the factory to be emptied of machinery, stock, and furniture while the street was at the wedding - going so far as to take the roof.
• Running Gag:
  • Fred proposing to just about every woman he fancied.
  • A recent trend the writers have started is a one or two episode long running gag, usually on the nights when there are two episodes. Examples include:
    • In September 2014, the bedroom lamp in the skip, and many of the street's male residents recognising it but unable to say where it came from. It was Tracy Barlow's, and every man who recognised it was someone she had slept with at some stage.
    • From May 2015, the whole story about whether it was brown, blue or black bin day and who was right or wrong.
  • Since Richard Hillman's reign of terror in the early 2000s, barely a year passes by without a minor criminal turned serial killer terrorizing the street.
• A Simple Plan: Just about anything attempted by Les Battersby.
• Scarpia Ultimatum: Pat Phelan blackmails Anna Windass into sleeping him in exchange for him giving Owen and Gary their money back and not reporting Gary for trying to kill him.
• Serial Spouse: It would be quicker to list the aversions to this trope.
• 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.
• Self-Made Orphan: Katy Harris, who killed her father Tommy by hitting him with a wrench over the head.
• Sitting on the Roof: A recent (2014) storyline strands two characters on the roof for widely different reasons. Sally Webster's current bloke goes up to fix the TV aerial but is left stranded when Andrea's stalker-ex steals his ladders, so as to make a cry-for-help suicide bid from the roof of the Rovers. This lampshades British associations with the concept of roof-sitting: nobody ever goes up there for fun or relaxation. It's either necessary work, a suicide bid, or something criminal.
• Small Name, Big Ego:
  • The whole Webster family.
  • Norris Cole, who often refuses to hear anyone else's opinion.
• Small Town, Big Hell: Weatherfield is a fictional suburb of Manchester, England, as far away as you can get from anywhere exotic, glamorous, sunny and Spanish: but it has a serious crime rate that must make it the murder capital of Britain. Weatherfield is seething with intrigue, jealousy, secrets, etc, and is packed with nosy people who make it their business to dig out other peoples' secrets.
• Smoking Is Cool: Deirdre Barlow. Five packs of Marlboros a day altered her voice from "girly" to "gravelly" forever.
• Smug Snake: David Platt and Tracy Barlow.
• Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome: There have been numerous occasions when actors have looked noticeably older than the characters they portray but like most other British soaps, SORAS only happens rarely and when it does, the character only ages a year or two.
  • Sophie Webster inexplicably started secondary school at the age of ten but has always remained the same age.
  • Twins Peter and Susan Barlow (born 1965) were aged up a year in 1978 to tie in with a storyline where Peter wanted to join the navy. They had returned to their original ages by 1986.
  • Twins Aadi and Asha Alahan, similar to the examples above, were born in 2006 but celebrated their tenth birthday in 2015 and started secondary school in 2016 when they should have been in their final year of primary school.
  • Although the characters were officially the correct age in accordance to their birth date, David Platt, Simon Barlow and a few other boys' voices started breaking at unusually young ages.
  • In one notable case, two kids went upstairs to wash their hands and reappeared about five years older in the next episode.
• Soap Wheel
• Social Climber:
  • Vera Duckworth, who was thrilled to find out she was a distant relative of the Queen, albeit illegitimately
  • Sally Webster/Metcalfe, whose aspirations led her all the way to the office of mayor of Weatherfield
• Soundtrack Dissonance: Richard Hillman tried to drown the Platts in his car to the upbeat "You & Me Song" by the Wannadies on repeat.
• Spoiled Brat:
  • Most of Gail's children.
  • The Webster kids.
  • Tracy Barlow is often seen as an adult version of this. The other Barlow kids aren't much better.
• Stage Mom: Sally Webster briefly, when she was convinced that Rosie would be attending stage school. Right before the audition Rosie revealed she didn't want to go through with it and got slapped. Sally then got obsessed with sending Rosie to a posh private school - but Rosie ended up liking it there, so there was no more conflict.
• Strictly Formula: The stories can become a bit repetitive but the only difference being that the problem is held by a different character but there is some noticeable repetitiveness.
  • The pub or factory is always set on fire or destroyed whenever there is a new owner.
  • Someone always has an affair, often coincides with a sudden self-discovery or admission of their sexuality. Bonus points, if the new relationship ends because the adulterer has another affair during their relationship.
  • Even if a situation appears to be certain death or certain doom for the villain, they always manage to survive by pure luck or escape justice just so they can cause more misery and drama for the heroes.
  • If an arc villain doesn't face the consequences of their actions, they either die or leave the street.
  • A new character is introduced and is eventually revealed to be related to another character. Either as a half-sibling or as a biological parent.
  • A dark plot is balanced out with cringe comedy.
  • There is an unplanned and unwanted pregnancy, often as a result of a one-night stand..
  • A character is bullied for one reason or another.
  • A character struggles with an addiction or has money problems.
  • Homophobes and racists are uninhibited and make remarks despite being outnumbered and outmatched, with their racism being solely directed at black people, not other ethnicities. On that note, it's usually a white person who targets black people. In a similar vein, it's more often a white character defending a victim of racism ^note  Aiden defending Alya from racists, Toyah helping Alya stand up to Griff, Maria helping Daryan, David Platt and Josh Tucker catching a racist, and Paul redeeming himself by defending Lloyd from racists.
  • Addressing gender-based crimes and the sexual harassment of women^note  sexual assault, sexual extortion, and stalking to a few .
  • Even the famed tram crash for the 50th anniversary was a rehash of a freight train derailment in 1967 that killed Sonia Peters and a family who lived on Viaduct Street and trapped Ena Sharples.
• Stuff Blowing Up: As to be expected given Corrie's genre, quite a few major storylines or incidents culminate with impressive explosions.
• 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.
  • Every racist villain in the show is incredibly uninhibited with their remarks towards black people and will make these comments in public view, regardless of the consequences.
    • Don makes a racist joke during a party, he says it so loud that all the partygoers can hear him over the music. Unsurprisingly, Don gets fired after Ed makes a passionate speech in response to the joke.
    • A pair of racist clients immediately make derogatory comments about Alya as soon as Aiden turns his back.
    • Subverted with Paul Kershaw, who said "Play the white" without noticing Lloyd and Jenna had just entered the pub. He didn't think the phrase was racist and thought that if he apologised then it would be taken admission of guilt and a confirmation that he was racist. In reality, the phrase is considered racist because it portrays white people as having moral superiority.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute:
  • The men who own Underworld tend to have dark hair, frequently wear 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.
  • Beth Tinker/Sutherland displays many of the same mannerisms as Cilla Battersby-Brown, albeit in an arguably more likeable character.
• Switched at Birth: Michelle's son. It was then completely forgotten for ten years.
• Sympathetic Adulterer: Rana was torn between Zeedan Nazir and Kate Connor, Zeedan was finally convinced to quit trying to salvage their broken marriage.
• Talking Is a Free Action: Characters are very happy with trash-talking each other but there are times where they need to keep their mouth shut or gloat elsewhere.
  • Tina McIntyre was a tragic example as she chose to die defiantly than be quiet so she has a better chance of survival.
  • Other examples are Johnny Connor gloating about calling social services after Susie rolled off the sofa^why  it wasn't clarified until Eva figured out Liz told him and even Jenny points out the stupidity of his gloating.
  • Shona Ramsey chooses to admit David's rape to his rapist Josh Tucker, giving him time to prepare an alibi, flee the street before being arrested as well as put her on his radar.
• Taped-Over Turmoil: One episode has Claire distressed to learn that she had accidentally taped over a recording of Ashley's slain first wife Maxine and him at a party with a tape of Joshua playing on a ride along toy. Although initially upset by the turn of events, he soon forgives her, realizing that it was an accident and viewed it as a sign to move on with his life.
• Teen Pregnancy:
  • Sarah Louise Platt. Twice (though the second didn't end well).
  • Katie Armstrong.
  • Faye Windass.
  • Amy Barlow, although she had an abortion.
• There Are No Therapists: Zig-zagged, therapists are only involved in certain plots. Most of the time though, characters are just too stubborn to go to therapy or just aren't aware of the state of their mental health.
• Three-Month-Old Newborn: This has been the case for most newborns since the early 2000s. It is most likely because the casting team insist on always using identical twins to play babies, which makes it difficult to find ones that are small enough to pass as newborns.
• Too Many Babies: Gemma and Chesney's quadruplets.
• 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.
  • Kirk Sutherland began life as a ducker and diver whose schemes usually failed - but he was at least bright enough to devise the schemes in the first place. Over the years, he has become so stupid as to barely be functional, with his new boss, Johnny Connor, asking in 2016 if he had been employed as “part of some kind of quota”.
• Took a Level in Jerkass:
  • Whilst he was still a bit of a rogue in his earlier years, Terry Duckworth was nowhere as bad as his later appearances in the show. Overtime he grew increasingly worse with each visit to the street, such as selling his son Tommy to his other grandparents, selling a dodgy car which led to someone's death, not donating a kidney to his other son, and leaving a now older Tommy to deal with a loan shark that Terry had got in debt with.
  • In his early appearances Jim McDonald was a far more well meaning hardworking family man who loved his wife and two sons. In the mid-1990s he showed a more aggressive side when he assaulted Liz after finding out she had cheated on him with an army buddy twenty years prior when he was away fighting. Despite this he was still an ordinary character, but with his guest returns (especially in later years) he has grown into a far more nastier and antagonistic person, such as tormenting Peter Barlow in prison (where Jim is running a crime racket smuggling in alcohol), then setting up a scam in 2018 in which he made out to Liz that their dead baby daughter Katy was still alive due to a mix up at the hospital, although in reality the grown up "Katy" as actually his lover Hannah. All this was to get revenge on his family for "abandoning" him when he was in prison, and he was rightfully sent packing when exposed.
• True Art Is Incomprehensible: Played with in an episode. Toyah Battersby, an art student, tries to pass off her slovenly stepfather Les' chair, covered in debris such as empty beer cans and old cigarette stubs, as her art project to her tutor. He tells her about an occasion where he had a student who tried to pass off a pile of bricks as his art project, which the tutor didn't buy, and he failed him. He then asks Toyah to explain how her "project" is anything other than a ratty chair covered in rubbish. She improvises a pretentious explanation about how it represents the British working class, which the tutor doesn't buy, until he sees Les for himself, and agrees it is an accurate representation of him, which causes him to not only give her a high grade, but also recommend her project for an exhibit. It's particularly funny because Toyah literally threw the whole thing together at the last minute using the first things that came to hand, because she had neglected her project until only moments before the tutor turned up at her house. invoked
• Twisted Christmas
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Very common around the area. In many instances, an adulterous wife usually cheats on said ugly husband with a younger-looking and much handsomer stranger, but the ones that stay behind claim that it's worth it (such as Kirk's wife, who implied that Kirk is Good in Bed, as well as nice and caring).
• Undignified Death: Quite rare on the Street, as illnesses and car crashes are usually the way a character dies, but a few do stand out:
  • Curly Watts rival Anne Malone tries to frame him at their place of employment, the Bettabuys market, and ends up dying after getting locked in a cold freezer with no one to let her out.
  • Resident Big Bad (and close friend of Steve MacDonald) Jez Quigley has Steve beaten up, gets himself assaulted by Steve's Dad Jim, then dies of a punctured lung as a hospital patient whilst trying to smother his still also hospitalized rival.
  • Possibly the most embarrassing death was Lesley Kershaw's, the Alzheimer's-affected wife of fireman Paul. While trying to fix herself toast for breakfast, she accidentally electrocutes herself on the old toaster. Made worse is how he had specifically not intended to leave her alone, in fear of something like that happening in the first place.
• The Un-Favorite:
  • Sophie Webster.
  • David and Sarah Louise Platt, in comparison to Nick, their elder brother adored by Gail. Sarah and David would both argue that they are this to the family in general.
    • The 2013 storyline for David Platt played this horrifyingly straight. Nick slept with David's wife Kylie only for her to discover she was pregnant a short time later. The rest of the family outright plotted to keep this a secret from David and never did anything more than give Nick a cross word. All this, only for the entire family to ostracise David after they learn he found out about the cheating and was behind the recent hate campaign against Nick. Nick's wife Leanne instantly forgave Nick for cheating on her, whilst the entire family treated David as some horrible monster for nearly killing Nick in a traffic accident — conveniently ignoring the fact David was in the van with Nick at the time and it truly was an accident.
  • Peter Barlow frequently claims to be this.
  • In 2021, Asha, Aadi, and Dev are in a car crash and Asha falls unconscious from the crash while Aadi is trapped because his seatbelt won't open. In a heartbeat, Dev saves the unconscious Asha and doesn't even try to help Aadi or even speak to him as Aadi struggles to get out. After getting Asha to a safe distance, the car explodes and both Dev and Asha assume the worst. Not only does Aadi survive this but he fully remembers how his own dad abandoned him in favour of his sister, leading a heartbroken Aadi to assume that Asha was always Dev's favourite.
• The Unfair Sex:
  • Sally Webster has a nerve to be upset about her husband cheating on her when she herself cheated on him years ago. And got away with it, lying to say said man had made it all up. When he brought it up in a Continuity Nod, Sally just remarked "I never slept with him" and it was dropped. And then there's Rosie who actually knew about the affair, strangely keeping quiet about that.
  • With the same plotline, Molly is the one Kevin cheated with. She was in fact worse than Kevin because he called off the affair when Sally revealed her cancer diagnosis - and Molly couldn't seem to understand why he was staying with her. As her boyfriend Tyrone doesn't find out until after she dies in a freak accident, she receives no comeuppance, and Kevin takes all the blame.
  • Fred discovers his friend Mike is sleeping with Penny King, whom he'd proposed to. When he calls them on it, he doesn't hold that much ill will towards Penny (admittedly with some old school sexism because as a woman, he should expect that from her) and directs all his hate to Mike.
  • Averted with Tracey and Steve in regards to their parenting of their daughter Amy. For a period, he refused to see or even contribute financially to her but is depicted sympathetically because his wife insists on it (albeit due to Tracey's terrible behavior announcing he is the father on their wedding day but that isn't Amy's fault) but when she stops seeing her daughter because her boyfriend wants it, she is depicted as the mother from hell. Although considering that Tracey is clearly a manipulative self-centred sociopath who has selfishly upset and ruined Steve's life more than once, it's not incredibly difficult to sympathise with Steve on this one, to some degree at least. Although Steve and Tracey eventually did get together and the issue was eventually dropped, this was after Tracey took several levels in kindness.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: On Christmas Eve 2004, Tracy and Karen got into a knock-down, dragged-out fight after the former falsely accused the latter of killing her daughter, Amy (although the baby was safe with The Croppers, not that Tracy knew or cared). While fighting on the rooftop of Underworld in the rain and knocking down all the elaborate Christmas decorations during it, factory owner Danny Baldwin appeared amidst the fight and his first and only concern was over who would pay for the damages done to the factory (which ended up being Steve) and then leaving as quickly as he came.
• Verbal Tic:
  • Fred Elliott. Fred had a couple, I say, Fred had a couple.
  • Jim McDonald also had one, so he did.
    • Two, technically: he never referred to characters by abbreviated names. Liz was always Elizabeth, Steve was always Steven, etc.
    • Interestingly, the above is also found in Moira, manager of the medical centre.
• Very Loosely Based on a True Story: Seb Franklin's murder was actually based on the tragic death of Sophie Lancaster, who was murdered in a hate crime by teenage boys for being a goth. Sophie's boyfriend, Robert Maltby, survived his injuries after being in a 3-day coma with internal bleeding but suffered memory loss after the attack. In the series, Nina (a goth woman) is the one who survives the attack with internal bleeding and memory loss, while her boyfriend, Seb Franklin, was the one who died from the assault. In real life, the boys were arrested and found guilty. In the show, Corey and his gang escaped justice by using Kelly Neelan as a scapegoat, who had no real-life equivalent in the story.
• Weight Woe:
  • Happens to both Sarah Platt and Faye Windass when they are in their early teens. They soon discover that their recent weight gain is because they are pregnant.
  • Sarah's daughter Bethany goes through this after enduring relentless bullying and starts taking illegal diet pills and exercising to the point of exhaustion.
• 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.
  • Jed Stone was last seen in February 2009 when threatened by Tony Gordon's henchman Jimmy Dockerson, and at the end of the episode Emily Bishop reveals Jed suffered a heart attack and ended up back in hospital. The character is never directly mentioned again, and his fate is left unknown to the viewer. This is despite Jed being a somewhat classic character dating back to 1961.
• Who's Your Daddy?:
  • Molly Dobbs and her son, Jack. It was eventually confirmed that Kevin Webster was the father.
  • Kylie Platt and her daughter, Lily. Nick or David were the possible father. A DNA test confirms she is David's daughter.
• Worst Wedding Ever: It wouldn't be Coronation Street without these, now would it?:
  • At Steve and Karen wedding in 2004, Tracy revealed that Steve was the father of her newborn daughter, Amy, which prompted Roy and Hayley, who she had sold her daughter to and who named the little girl Patience, to leave in a hurry with her and for Karen to belt her in the face, leaving her with a black eye. She still had that black eye when it came time for Amy's Christening some days later.
  • Karma would bite the usually invincible Tracy in the ass years later at both of her weddings to Steve. The first one had his ex-wife, Becky, who was unjustly blamed for pushing her down a flight of stairs and causing her to miscarry their twin boys, reveal that she fell down the stairs and had already miscarried the twins long beforehand, prompting a disgusted Steve to annul the marriage. The second had her learning through a misunderstanding from Leanne that Steve was the father of Oliver. Having already given Steve a bloody nose in the aftermath, at the reception Tracy tells Oliver and their guests how rotten his parents are and brings up how every guy Leanne ends up with either leaving, dead or sleeping with her sister, which causes Leanne to flip out and smush the cake in her face and they engage in a catfight. As Steve cries for help breaking them up, Tim just joyfully records the mayhem.