In the 60 years since the first episode was aired, the soap has gone from kitchen-sink serial to cultural institution. Its stars, writers and producers tell us the secrets of Britain’s best loved street
In the winter of 1960, John F Kennedy had just been elected, a young rock band had changed its name to the Beatles, and – at 7pm on Friday 9 December – a mournful cornet was heard in homes across the north of England.
The Coronation Street theme tune signalled the then unpromising start of a new TV series. Granada Television had commissioned 13 black-and-white episodes, assembling a cast of little-known stage actors in Weatherfield, a fictional town inspired by the working-class terraces of Salford.
