Happy Birthday Coronation Street.

 Happy Birthday- Coronation Street. 

This would not have been the way they'd have liked to celebrate their special anniversary but sadly the year hasn't really worked out for them in the way they would have chosen. They'd have preferred star-studded parties, celebrations galore, thousands of balloons, even a master of ceremonies to make those celebrated announcements before everybody got down for a boogie and dancing into the wee small hours of the morning. 

This week though Coronation Street marks its 60th birthday. Yes 60 years of arguments, gossip, absurd deaths at times, innumerable weddings, train crashes and pub brawls have spilled out onto the most famous cobbled street in Britain and quite possibly the world, with just a passing nod to melodrama, Shakespeare, Dickens and Alan Bennett, three national treasures and obvious influences. How on earth can we just overlook the 60th birthday party of the one TV programme that has not only stood the test of time but is now renowned for its longevity?

Back in 1960 a young TV scriptwriter by the name of Tony Warren, searching for an idea that would capture the attention of an excited and receptive TV audience, suddenly hit the jackpot. It was one of those Eureka moments that would transform the TV landscape so dramatically that in years to come it would provide a perfect platform for major film stars and celebrities as unfulfilled ambitions came to fruition. Now would be the time to down their tools on their Pinewood or Elstree film studios and wander into the Rovers Return for a swift pint of the amber nectar. 

If somebody had mentioned the possibility of showing just a glimpse into the life of Northern England, with all of its lovely characteristics and mannerisms, they would have been sent away cackling with laughter and told to go away in the politest fashion. None of us could have ever guessed that a brand new pilot series for a potentially long-running soap opera would still be around 60 years later, as fresh as ever, modern at every level, relevant, topical and easily identifiable. We'd have scoffed at the very suggestion, made light of something that would only last for perhaps a month, perhaps six months at the very least. 

But then we were given a picture of this new TV experiment-for experiment it almost certainly was. Imagine if you will the grim, back to back terraced houses of Manchester, smoke pouring profusely from the industrial chimneys. the cobbled streets, the symmetrical roofs, the colourful characters, those gossipy protagonists who would give this new soap opera so much life and vitality. We had to visualise a scene where a young university student would sit down with his parents for dinner and express his commendable ambitions. 

In the grainy black and white days of steam-driven TV, Ken Barlow was a thrusting, wannabe and aspirational student who wanted to be radical, politically active and make a lasting mark on society. His parents told him to keep his feet on the ground and get that elusive teaching job as soon as possible. Ken knew where he was going in life and so too did Coronation Street. 

It is a testament to the acting career of William Roache, aka Ken Barlow, that he is still in the same soap opera, almost a fundamental part of the programme's furniture. Today Ken Barlow is still confronting the complex dynamics of his family with the kind of professionalism, honesty and composure that even he, by his own admission, would never have dreamt he'd still be capable of addressing. 

And yet on an early December evening at the beginning of a decade that we have repeatedly assured, swung, the first scene of Coronation Street flickered into action. It was a quaint and cosy corner shop that sold everything from vegetables to bread, chocolate and cheese, a grocer-cum greengrocer at times. A severe, hair netted woman with a face like a crumpled map from pre-Empire days, walked into the shop and then engaged in the kind of down to earth, animated conversation with another customer that would become a permanent feature of the programme in years to come. 

Ena Sharples was a loud-mouthed, forceful, interfering, doggedly dogmatic and comical character straight from the pages of an Alan Bennett play. Ena Sharples had a sharp tongue, an acid tongue at times, always ready to share her vociferous opinions in a fashion that left none of us in any doubt about what she thought of her neighbours. Ena was confrontational, controversial, launching into one very passionate tirade that must have shaken the foundations of many a house in Coronation Street. 

Throughout the history of the programme, Coronation Street has never shied away from realism, the harsh social issues of the day, a barometer of the way we lived our lives when the curtains twitched and  the couple across the road were arguing over a Cornish pasty or a meat and potato pie. It was there to cover devastating fires, violent punch ups between Len Fairclough and Ken Barlow in the Rovers Return, Hilda Ogden cleaning the pub thoroughly and then telling the whole of her community that husband Stan had the most attractive wallpaper on the cobbled streets. 

There was Elsie Tanner, as explosive and argumentative as Ena but always feeling as though that the men in her life would never be good enough. Elsie Tanner seemed to have a permanent grudge against everybody in the Street for some perceived injustice. She hollered with the best of them, had the needle  with anybody who happened to pass her by and then launched into the kind of incendiary language that only just stopped short of being abusive. 

Meanwhile, that dependable publican landlord and landlady partnership of Annie and Jack Walker would stand proudly by the Rovers bar. Annie Walker was posh, prudish, snooty and puritanical, the stately matriarchal figure who always turned up her nose at the peasants who became her loyal drinkers. Annie was perhaps a frustrated actress, a woman who quite clearly felt the builder who was Len Fairclough was somehow beneath her and that Ken Barlow was much more intellectually suitable for her liking.

But Coronation Street, although dramatic and gritty at times, never lost its social compass because the working-class values have always been highlighted and clearly crystallised. The building yard owned by Len Fairclough and Ray Langton was a clear example of  Coronation Street's stubbornly proletarian roots. The corner shop initially the property of Maggie Clegg followed by the alderman and civic figure of Alf Roberts during the 1970s gave us a revealing insight into the pulsing heartbeat of this timeless soap opera. 

And then there was Minnie Caldwell who, along with Albert Tatlock were those endearing pensioners who were either complaining or simply sipping sweet sherries. Minnie Caldwell always looked extremely content with her life and when she joined company with Ena Sharples and Martha Longhurst, would gently criticise family and friends, passing brief comment on the private lives of her nearest and dearest. Minnie Caldwell always appeared delicate and vulnerable, softly uttering her grievances but never offensive or insulting. 

So there we are. Coronation Street will celebrate its 60th birthday quietly and privately because there can be no Mrs Mills style piano standards, plinkety plonk recitals of old music hall songs and the Rovers will have to remain closed for the time being at least. Somehow we seem to have lost touch with our cherished traditions and institutions, definitive, cultural landmarks, classic TV soap operas that are destined to last until, quite probably the 30th century. We'll miss familiarity if Corrie ever leaves our screen and long may it remain a formidable powerhouse for good. Long live Corrie.