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Coronation Street narrowly survived the threat of closure in 1968. The writing deteriorated in the early 1970s and the show risked becoming an anachronism or, worse, a joke. Rescue came with Bill “the Godfather” Podmore , an RAF pilot turned director who took over as producer in 1976. Feared yet respected, Podmore restored Warren’s brand of humour, reviving the Ogdens as a comedic act. A new golden era lasted into the 1980s, when audiences would often top 20 million. 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. 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. Hayley Cropper (nee Patterson) arrived on the street in 1998 as a rare trans character in a popular drama. Soon, Tony Warren, together with the writer Daran Little , guided the Street’s belated embrace of gay characters, 40 years after gay men had tacitly inspired his scripts.

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. 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.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.” 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. William Roache: The love triangle had a colossal impact. Suddenly newspapers had reporters dedicated to soaps and all the soap magazines and awards were starting. They even flashed it up at Manchester United! 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. Iain MacLeod (researcher, writer 2006-2013; series producer 2018-present) : It was a very frank debate, and has been a catalyst for meaningful and fairly sizeable shifts that will be coming soon. I sometimes get letters from people saying: “Everyone on my street is white – why can’t Coronation Street be white?” But I think we have a duty to almost over-represent so we reflect every corner of the British experience.

Part of that experience has been dealing with the Covid pandemic. Last week, the MP Tracy Brabin , who played Tricia Armstrong on the Street in the 1990s , led an hour-long adjournment debate in tribute to Coronation Street and its impact – and the work to keep it on screen under social-distancing rules. “It is a real shame that at the end of this debate, we cannot have that haunting melody of Coronation Street playing,” the deputy speaker, Nigel Evans , said in his closing remarks. From the very beginning, the class snobbery that Warren fought against in 1960 has hung over the mythical squares, closes and streets of Britain’s soaps. In 1964 , a producer called Tim Aspinall shattered the golden age by killing off several big characters, but also introducing the Street legends Stan and Hilda Ogden . It was the first of many off-screen upheavals. 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. He passed the card to Tony Warren at a long-term story conference. He said: ‘What do you think of having this gay character?’ And Warren – and I’m not making this up – said: ‘Well, if we do there’s only one queen I want to play him and it’s Antony Cotton.” Then he opened the card. He’d seen me in Queer as Folk.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.”

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. Archie Street, which Warren had used as the visual inspiration for Coronation Street, was demolished in 1971 as part of the postwar urban clearances in Salford.The Battersbys had been trailed as “the family from hell”, with Danson cast as a wild child. Audiences hated them so much that 97% of people in a Teletext poll voted to have them evicted. Coronation Street has been working on Ryan's storyline with guidance from The Katie Piper Foundation and Acid Survivors Trust International (ASTI) , which both offer help and support to real-life survivors.