Coronation Street Episode 1- Friday 9th December 1960

(rebroadcast on CBC Television on 24 March, 2001)

Disclaimer: This visual update is not sanctioned by Granada Television or CBC Television.

It has been put together in Canada by Martin Seekings for the benefit of other Coronation Street internet fans.

All material is, and remains, copyright property of Granada Television.

	Bill Roache (2001 version) provides the lead-in for Canadians from the preceding "40 Years On Coronation Street" special.
	We hear the now familiar strains of the theme, accompanied by the original Granada logo.......
	.......which dissolves to a grimy back street somewhere in greater Manchester.
	Children play in the darkened street outside the corner shop, where we see the proprietor heading towards the door.

	She glances up at the sign on the door, which reads: "Elsie Lappin, licensed to sell tobacco."
	Elsie tells new owner, Florrie Lindley, that the first thing she has to do is get a signwriter in to change the sign to show her name - in full.
	"Florence Lena Lindley," she muses (in soft focus). "Sounds like an embrocation!"
	As Elsie lectures her about the tactics of the patent medicine salesman, Florrie arranges some thinly-disguised tins of Crosse and Blackwell baked beans. "There's more to it than you think, she observes.

	Florrie talks about her previous job at the Farriers' Arms, but declares she wouldn't want to run her own pub. "No, a little business like this is just up my street."
	Elsie explains her credit policy. "A bit on the slate's not a bad thing. If you didn't let some of 'em have it, they wouldn't spend nearly as much." She then pokes Florrie in the chest and warns her not to let the Tanners at Number 11 go a penny over 10 bob, or she won't see sight nor sound of them from one week's end to the other.
	A young woman enters the shop to buy a quarter of ham, and is introduced as Linda Cheveski, who married a Pole - Linda Tanner that was.
	Down the street at Number 11, blowsy middle-aged Elsie Tanner is accusing her layabout son Dennis of nicking two bob from her purse to buy cigarettes, which he hotly denies. She berates him about not having found a job.

	Dennis reminds her why he's having difficulty getting a job - he got out of prison seven weeks ago. He asks her what he is supposed to do. When she bemoans having a son like him, he responds: "I suppose you'd rather have had me like Kenneth Barlow at Number 3."
	****WARNING! CLEAVAGE ALERT***** She tells him in no uncertain terms that Kenneth Barlow would have no trouble getting a job because "he's got it here, in the upper storey, where it counts." Predictably, Dennis stomps off in high dudgeon.
	Over at Number 3, Ida Barlow is serving tea to her hubby Frank and handsome college-student son Ken.
	She offers Ken some sauce with his food, and is disappointed when he declines. She got it special - he always loved it when he was little. Ken pretends not to remember.

	Frank proceeds to douse his food with the sauce, and accuses Ken of displaying a snooty expression. Ida tries to change the subject, sensing an argument coming.
	Frank figures he and Ida are not good enough for college-boy Ken any more with their working-class ways. "You'd better watch out, Ida, he'll be having you changing into evening gowns with your meals next!"
	Ida changes the subject again, wondering where their other son David has got to. She quizzes Ken about his day, and he tells her he bought a new record in town. She offers to put it on after tea, and mutters about David's chop having gone bone dry.
	Ken mentions that he will be going out later with a girl he has met at college. When Ida asks if she lives nearby, he replies, "Not far away - the other side of town." He will be meeting her in town at the Imperial Hotel.

	Frank rants on at him about squandering his money at a posh hotel, while his mother slaves in the stinking kitchens of the same hotel. Ida tries vainly to defend Ken, but Frank lays down the law and forbids him to go.
	The door opens and in walks David Barlow, to a cool welcome from his mother and a warm one from his father. (We know which side whose bread is buttered on, don't we?) He is late because his old bike has had a puncture. He can't wait until he can afford a motorbike, to which Ida reacts in horror.
	As Ken lights up a cancer stick (!) Frank offers to help David fix his puncture.
	David asks after his older brother's welfare, mussing up his quiff in the process. Ken tells him of the set-to with his Dad about meeting a girl at the Imperial Hotel. David sympathises with him.

	Dierdre-like, Ken gazes thoughtfully off-screen as we fade to......
	For the first time in living memory, CBC sticks to Granada's single commercial break! We don't even get the usual commercials for medicated powder, denture adhesives, incontinence pads and funeral plus insurance, just some car ads and a plug for the dramatic season finale of "Wind At My Back."
	As Part Two begins, we see a dingy but welcoming sight - the entrance to the local hostelry.
	Ken Barlow enters, to be greeted with a simpering smile by the snooty landlady, Mrs. Annie Walker. He asks for two packs of cigarettes.

	Her expression changes dramatically a few moments later when leather-jacketed Dennis Tanner saunters in and orders a half of mild.
	Dennis passes the time of day with Ken, asking if the local genius has won any scholarships lately, as he hasn't seen his name in the paper. Ken ignores this taunt and asks what Dennis has been up to.
	Before he can answer, Mrs. Walker returns with Ken's coffin nails and Dennis's mild. Dennis asks for cigarettes too, but can only pay for the beer right now.
	Mrs. Walker frostily refuses him credit, insisting that it's not because she doesn't trust him, it's the rule of the 'ouse.

	As Annie goes for change, Ken slips Dennis one of the cigarette packets. Caught by surprise, Dennis actually manages to say, "Ta," followed by, "Well, it's t'goverment's money, innit?" as he leaves the establishment.
	Annie returns with Ken's change, and criticises him for wasting sympathy on the likes of Dennis. "It's Elsie I'm sorry for," she says. "Ooh, some mothers do 'ave 'em!" LOL!!
	Down the street, the aforementioned Mrs. Tanner examines her reflection and pronounces herself just about ready for the knacker's yard.
	As Elsie applies her mascara (after spitting in it first - eeewww), Linda reveals that she borrowed two bob to buy the ham for her at the corner shop. Elsie realises she has wrongfully accused Linda's little brother of theft. Linda explains she had no change and didn't like to ask for credit from the new woman.

	Elsie turns on some nondescript music on the wireless, and the two of them discuss Dennis's predicament. Linda asks if he has been near the Prisoners' Aid yet. Elsie says three can't manage on what she earns.
	Linda says it's not three as she's only there for the week, but under further questioning admits she has left her husband Ivan - she didn't like being called Mrs. Cheveski. She adds that they had a bust-up, one of many, and he was moody. "Well, foreigners are," replies non-PC Elsie.
	Elsie, aware of her own reputation, wonders if Linda has been seeing someone else. Linda insists it is she who left Ivan. She is afraid to go back to him because of what he might do to her. (See those plaster ducks behind Elsie? Look familiar?)
	After a few moments' thought, Elsie reassures a tearful Linda she is welcome to stay. Linda asks if there are any jobs going at Elsie's place. Elsie offers to look into it tomorrow.

	Feeling brighter, Linda asks Elsie if she thinks she should go blonde. They discuss Ivan's reaction to finding a bottle of peroxide (for bleaching a stain out of her tooth) and his general narrow-mindedness. She has even had to shorten her skirts inch by inch so he wouldn't notice - he wouldn't want other men looking at her legs.
	Elsie remarks that she has probably inherited the Tanner legs. "Without a word of a lie, your Grandma Tanner were so bandy she couldn't stop a pig in an entry!" Linda hoists her skirt to knee level to check if this is true.
	Linda says, "You think I'll go back to him, don't you?" to which Elsie replies, "Well, you've been back to him before. We have been all through this before, you know." "It's different this time," she insists. She starts to say something else, then declines to continue.
	Back in the corner shop, the two women are discussing Elsie Lappin's architect-designed retirement home in Knott End*. Florrie says she wouldn't like a bungalow, it wouldn't seem right not going upstairs to bed. (LOL, I know what she means.) (* Across the River Wyre from Fleetwood.)

	As Elsie goes off to put the kettle on for a tea break, a stern-looking sixtyish woman, not wearing a hair net, enters the shop.
	She wastes no time in introducing herself as a neighbour from the Glad Tidings Mission, Mrs. Sharples, and proceeds to quiz Florrie as to her marital status and religious affiliation . In between asking for grocery items, she rattles on about choice between Church and Chapel, place of burial and selection of funeral music. She insists, "Andantino or no Andantino, I'm rollin' away to Crimond."
	Pausing briefly for breath, she enquires as to the freshness of the fancies. "I'll take half a dozen, and no eeclairs," she says.
	Mrs. Sharples, who knows everything that goes on within a five-mile radius, recognises Florrie from Esmerelda Street (very bay-window down there) and the bar of the Farrier. "Got any kids? Aw, you're better off without 'em - bottle of bleach - they're more trouble than they're worth." She goes on to warn Florrie about "some very funny people on this street," especially Mrs. Tanner. "You wanna watch 'er, she's a bad 'un."

	As Elsie re-enters the shop, Ena accuses her of selling her a rotten egg - it was too smelly to bring back. Elsie reluctantly hands over another egg. Florrie asks Ena for 3s 4d and is told to put it on the slate, and not to worry as she's not planning to run away.
	As Ena barges out of the shop, Elsie and Florrie look at each other and giggle. "Isn't she morbid!" remarks Florrie.
	Back at Number 3, Frank Barlow is wrestling with David's bicycle wheel in the middle of the living room carpet as David looks on.
	David fetches 2 spoons to use as tyre levers. Frank asks if Ken has told him of his plans for the evening. David replies that it's his own life. Frank good-naturedly accuses his sons of ganging up on him, as per usual. David goes off to a neighbour's in search of a pump.

	Enter Ida, who picks her way over to the armchair beside the telly and takes out her knitting.
	She tells Frank that Ken is next door with Mr. Tatlock, to which Frank complains that he spends more time at Mr. Tatlock's than at home. He wants to give in to Ken without being made to look a proper fool. "That lad should learn to live in his own class. Silk ties at 16s a time, you can't tell me that comes out of his grant." Ida informs him she bought the tie - she just wants to give him the best chance in life.
	"Eh, we sure raised a rum 'un," muses Frank as he clenches his pipe between his teeth.
	The scene moves next door to Number 1, where Ken and his reflection are talking to Mr. Albert Tatlock, who is sitting in front of a large, ornate sideboard inspecting and cleaning his coin collection. Albert says that if it weren't for his collection and the choral society there'd be nowt for him but to go down to the library reading room with all the other old ruins, snuffling and turning pages over.
	Albert remarks that Ken is very quiet, and asks him if it is anything to do with the business at the Imperial Hotel, which it turns out he has found out about from Ida. Ken says he has to keep the date, as it is too late to phone Susan and cancel.
	After quizzing Ken further about the nature of his relationship with Susan, Albert tentatively suggests that Ken pick her up in town and bring her back to Coronation Street, which would please his mother. Ken insists he couldn't possibly do that, for reasons Albert wouldn't understand. He's never denied being from Coronation Street, but he doesn't fancy the idea of her actually seeing it.
	Albert says, "Well, it has its good points. I mean, take Ena Sharples. Now I reckon your friend 'd lap her up!" Ken grins and puts on his best Ena Sharples impression: "My place of worship is the Rovers Return, and I'd swap brown ale for me 'ymn book any day."
	As Ken again expresses reluctance at bringing Susan home, Albert tells him, "Y' know, I never thowt the day 'd come when I'd have to say this, but I reckon that that college has turned you into a proper stuck-up little snob."
	Ken tries to protest, but there is a knock on the door and Albert lets Ida in. She tells Ken excitedly that a young lady has come for him, that Susan Cunningham he was supposed to meet in town. Ken rushes off as Albert laughs with Ida.
	At Number 3, a well-dressed Barbie, sorry, Susan Cunningham perches nervously on the couch while Frank and David continue to wrestle with the bicycle tyre.

	She offers to help and is given the pump to hold while David dusts the repair with French chalk.
	David asks if Susan knows his boss, who lives in her part of town. When she answers, "Do I not!" they shake hands. David apologises for the oil on his hands - he didn't have a chance to wash them because his Mam was doing the pots. (No inside bathrooms in the dark days of 1960!) Ida bustles in with Ken in tow, apologising for the mess in the living room
	"Hello Barbie, sorry, Susan."
	"Hello, Ken." To be continued . . . . . .
	The almost-unreadable and slightly crooked credits are cranked by.
	Copyright MCMLX (XL years to MM)
	21st-Century Ken/Bill raises his glass of fizzy apple juice to another 40 years of Corrie in Canada!! We are treated to Barbara Knox's rendition of "My Dear Old Dutch" as the credits of the two-hour special roll.

The first episode had to do a lot of scene-setting and role-establishing, so we only got to see inside three houses, plus the corner shop and the Rovers. Of course, it was done live and on a tight budget, but there were next to no noticeable slip-ups. Besides the kids at the beginning, we saw only three NSEs in the pub - a darts player and two old ladies in the Snug. Jack Walker and Concepta Riley were not seen until later episodes. The individual scenes were much longer than we see nowadays, where there are so many plots and characters to cover. So much has been said about the inception of Corrie and its influence on the TV-watching habits of millions of viewers, that there is nothing more I can add!

I hope you enjoyed this little effort; it would take me a long time to get as proficient as Mike Plowman! (still doing daily updates for itv.com in 2008)

Click here for a written update of Episode 1 by Diane Johnston (tvor)

Please visit the rest of my website, which contains photos from a number of Corrie pings.

Last updated 4 October 2008