Anne Cunningham ( Linda Cheveski nee Tanner 1960-1968, 1984 ): Everyone spoke standard English in television plays in those days, but Granada was ahead of its time and there was this sort of northern vogue. Antony Cotton (Sean Tully 2003-present ): My part didn’t exist until I wrote to the then producer Tony Wood. I found a blank card with a picture of a dog with sunglasses on it, and wrote: “Dear Tony, if you ever fancy having a homosexual skipping down the cobbles of Coronation Street, I’m your man. I’ve got my house, my own car, I don’t do drugs and best of all I’m cheap. Come on Tony, you know you want it.” Coronation Street celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2010 with a live episode featuring a devastating tram crash. The pandemic has forced a return to the show’s more modest origins, without parties or big stunts. Existing storylines will instead come to a head, including Yasmeen Metcalfe’s trial for attempted murder . Bill Roache will also star in tonight’s pre-recorded anniversary episode, which he plans to watch at home with his children. Sally Ann Matthews: This whole year has proved how important Coronation Street still is. I’m a huge telly addict and love to binge, but this year we’ve all been at home so much, with so much choice, and in such a stressful world it’s reassuring to turn on the TV and know that Corrie is still there.

Abbott, who declines to name the leak, was a wide-eyed 24-year-old when he got a script-editing job on the Street, years before he created Touching Evil, State of Play and Shameless. Philip Lowrie: We all became very good friends. I remember Margot Bryant [who played Minnie Caldwell] sitting in the rehearsal rooms doing a bit of knitting. She had a mouth on her – she was one of the rudest women and could tell a story like nobody. Her sister Joan had danced with Fred Astaire. My happiest memory was the first day when through the double doors came the most beautiful girl I think I ever saw. It was Anne, who played my sister Linda. Meanwhile, in 2001, a homicidal businessman delivered Weatherfield’s next dose of stop-everything drama. Richard Hillman ’s two-year reign of terror ended with the abduction of his wife Gail Platt (one of Platt’s six marriages on the Street) and her children in the family car. Almost 20 million people watched as Hillman drove into a canal in a murder-suicide attempt (the family escaped; Hillman died). If fans can't choose which business they like the best, there will also be items containing multiple references such as a statement dress and shirt for the die-hard Corrie fans among us. Katy Roberts, Head of Merch and Shops Delivery at Coronation Street, expressed excitement over the "retro" inspired range: "We are thrilled to be collaborating with Joanie on this retro Coronation Street clothing collection.In the first episode, Elsie Tanner (Pat Phoenix) tells her son Dennis to get a job and is rude about her daughter Linda’s legs: “I’m afraid you’ve got the Tanner side of the family to thank for that. Yer know, without a word of a lie, yer grandma Tanner were that bandy she couldn’t have stopped a pig in an entry.” William Roache (Ken Barlow 1960-present): I absolutely didn’t want to do it. I’d grown up in Derbyshire, but I was a young actor on stage in London. I had a flat in Primrose Hill and my career was about to take off. And in those days ITV was broken up into regions so it was like doing local radio. My agent said: “Look at this way, it’s only going to run for a few weeks.” Paul Abbott (script editor/writer 1985-1996): I remember at one point I was getting the blame for all these leaks so I wrote different versions of letters with fake information and left them in the booking table where all the actors got their dates. In one letter it said we were going to film in Barbados and it was in the Manchester Evening News by 5pm. I’d got the greedy little shit!

Alastair Campbell ( Downing Street press secretary 1997-2000): The papers were just going crazy with “Free Deirdre” and I thought: “Sod it, let’s get on this.”Iain MacLeod: We don’t have Netflix budgets and nor should we. We should carry on focusing on character and story and being relevant to what’s going on outside people’s front windows. Audiences loved it, swiftly winning the show further episodes. Within months Coronation Street was broadcast across the regions and became the most-watched show in Britain. Soon a publicity manager, Norman Frisby , was working hard to manage interviews and charity events. Warren, who at first had a strained relationship with Granada, also struggled with drink and drugs. He would often run away, spending some time in a commune in San Francisco. He returned to the Street in the 1980s as a consultant and beloved oracle. He sat in on storyline meetings until not long before his death in 2016, aged 79. Nigel Havers (Lewis Archer 2009-2019) : Snobbery has always been there, but I think the key to Corrie’s magic is that it has irony and that great sense of humour. It’s never afraid to send itself up, but treats its audience as grownups. In my career, it’s right up there with Chariots of Fire and the National Theatre.

Noreen Kershaw (Tracy Spencer 1975; director 1996-2001): Tony and I used to speak on the phone every day. He’d tell me stories of how hard it was as a young gay man in Manchester in the early days, so I know that for him to be able to place characters like this into normal life on the show made him so proud. William Roache: The fact there isn’t a tight community on the Street today reflects the fact you don’t get streets like that any more. This t-shirt is everything you've dreamed of and more. It feels soft and lightweight, with the right amount of stretch. It's comfortable and flattering for all. Sally Ann Matthews: In the 80s we were all friends and had all the time in the world. Now there are characters you just never see if your days don’t coincide. Helen Worth (Gail Platt 1974-present) : It was a time of change. When I joined, the greats were all there and it was still practically broadcast live. I remember sitting in Violet Carson’s [who played Ena Sharples] chair and she came into the room and just took one look at me and I scampered out of it.

Daran Little: It took me two years to convince a largely straight, male writing team to bring in openly gay characters. I think it was just the fear of the unknown.