Coronation Street
The working title was Florizel Street until allegedly someone in the offices of Granada pointed out that it sounded a bit like a toilet cleaner. Whatever the truth is, with a change of name it certainly didn't go down the pan.

In 1960 Corrie made a brief appearance on regional television to see what the reaction would be to the show. The TV execs were dead against it and the big man with the chequebook was more than a bit doubtful of the appeal of a show about the everyday lives of a group of Northeners.

For the first month the show occupied itself with establishing the characters - the woman who'd run the corner shop for 30 years retired (bad timing), Elsie Tanner's son returned from borstal, her daughter left (and then went back to) her Russian husband Ivan, Ken Barlow embarked on his first ill-starred romance and another character promptly died of a brain haemorrhage.

In 1961 the show went nationwide for the first time under the new title of Coronation Street. It went out twice a week, with Friday's episode being shown live and the following Monday's edition shot straight afterwards. A far cry from the four episodes a week we get today.

Despite the scepticism of the powers-that-be the nation took Ena Sharples, Ken Barlow and Elsie Tanner to their hearts, and tuned in in droves. By the end of the year it was the highest rated show in the country and is now the longest running soap in the world!