Coronation Street is an award-winning British soap opera. It is the longest-running television soap opera in the United Kingdom, first broadcast on Friday, 9 December, 1960 made by Granada and broadcast in all but two of the regions of ITV as it existed at the time. The programme is consistently one of the highest-rated programme on British television.

The show was created by Tony Warren and is still produced by Granada Television, holder of the ITV franchise for the northwest of England, and was shown by most of the ITV stations then operating (See Scheduling details below). It became fully networked on 6 March 1961, when ATV, the only remaining franchise then still not broadcasting the programme, began airing it. Little. (2000) p.10. Note: both Kershaw and Little make errors in relating the early transmission of the programme. The information here is taken from broadcast details in contemporary editions of The Times and TV Times.

Coronation Street (commonly nicknamed and written as Corrie or the Street) is set in a fictional street in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester. The programme focuses on the experiences and driving forces behind the residents of Coronation Street, and examines families and individuals within the community who are of different ages, classes, and social structures. Little. (1995) p.8.

Coronation Street itself consists of a row of seven early 20th century terraced houses on its northern side with a public house, the Rovers Return Inn, at one end, and a corner shop at the other. The southern side of the street consists of a factory, two shop units, a garage and three houses, all constructed in the late 1980s. The programme also incorporates the residents of neighbouring streets, including Rosamund Street, Victoria Street and Viaduct Street.

The working title of the show was Florizel Street, but a tea lady named Agnes remarked that "Florizel" sounded like a brand of disinfectant so the name was changed. The choice of new name was between Jubilee Street and Coronation Street, with Granada executives Harry Latham, Harry Elton and H. V. Kershaw deciding on the latter.

As of January 2008, Coronation Street is broadcast in the United Kingdom at 19.30 and 20.30 on Mondays and Fridays, and at 19.30 Wednesdays on terrestrial network ITV. In the Republic of Ireland, Coronation Street is simulcast on TV3. Repeat episodes and specials can be seen on ITV's main digital channel, ITV2, with an omnibus edition shown on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. ITV2 has offered this sort of catchup since the channel began broadcasting Coronation Street in December 1998. Since January 2008, the omnibus has moved back to the main ITV channel where it had last aired in December 2004.

As of 2007, only one member of the original cast remains: William Roache, who has played Ken Barlow since 1960. William Roache is the second-longest serving actor in the history of television serials. Only Don Hastings (I), who has played Bob Hughes on the American soap "As the World Turns" (1956) since October 1960 without a break, has played the same character longer.

Sponsored by Cadbury's chocolate.

When the opening titles were re-filmed in the 1970s, no one noticed the cat which wandered across a wall. Now every time they are re-filmed a cat is used.

In January 2002, at the same time the show went widescreen, CGI was added to the opening titles to make the neighborhood look bigger (in particular the Metrolink Tram that runs past the street on the viaduct).

The Rovers Return exterior is really as small as it looks from the outside, inside. The interior of the set on the street is no bigger than a small bathroom. The actual scenes are filmed behind the street.

Betty Driver, who later played Betty Turpin, first auditioned for the role of Hilda Ogden, which was later played by Jean Alexander (I).

The first swear word heard on the soap was "bloody", said by Ken Barlow in January 1961 following an argument with his mother Ida. The second swear word was "bastard", spoken by Len Fairclough about Steve Tanner when Elsie returned to the Street in March 1968.

Between 1989 and 1999, the Granada Studios Tour allowed members of the public the opportunity to take a stroll down the cobbles of Coronation Street. During this period, the "set" remained closed to the public on Mondays since this was the day when exterior scenes for the series were filmed.

Only twice have any celebrities been allowed to play themselves on Coronation Street: the first occasion was when HRH Prince Charles made an appearance on the show's 40th Anniversary episode (2000), and was seen shaking hands with character Audrey Roberts. The second occasion featured Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt of the British rock band Status Quo (the band itself also being a national institution). The band's drummer, Matt Lettley, also made a cameo in the episodes. (2005) Appearing in four episodes, Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt call into the Rovers Return, and Francis Rossi attacks character Les Battersby (who is played by actor Bruce Jones (I), himself a massive fan of the group), as Battersby had previously caused him a grievous neck injury. The matter later gets resolved, and the band agree to play at Battersby's upcoming wedding.

Canadian TV station CBKST in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, made the Guinness Book of World Records in 1971 when it bought more than 1,140 episodes of this series. The show ran continuously on the station for about 20 years.

The only time the series' theme tune has been significantly rearranged for transmission was in an April 1972 edition where Emily Nugent married Ernie Bishop. Steve Race (I) provided a jazz interpretation of Eric Spear's music, which played the episode out over a shot of Albert Tatlock and Minnie Caldwell walking down the Street from the wedding reception. Coronation Street: Viva Las Vegas! (1997) (V), a video-only soap-bubble, featured a suitably transatlantic cover courtesy of Mike Stock (II) and Matt Aitken (II).

The episode broadcast on Friday 8th December 2000 was a special double-length 40th anniversary one. It followed a rescreening of the very first edition and was similarly transmitted live. As noted above, it incorporated a cameo (seen on a TV) by the Prince of Wales, who was purportedly visiting Weatherfield.