Celebration For “The Street”

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32384, 25 August 1970, Page 3

Celebration For “The Street”

(By ALAN GRAHAM, N.Z.P.A. i staff correspondent) < LONDON. Ten years ago the tale of a grubby street in a northern city and the working class people who inhabited it was shown on Britain’s new oddity, commercial television. Introduced by a doleful trumpet and a scruffy view across smoky rooftops, the half-hour show was intended to run for just six episodes. But somehow the show was a success, within two months it was in the top 10 ratings. Last week seven million viewers in Great Britain sat down to watch episode number 1000 of “Coronation Street.” The cast of the Granada television series held a champagne party on the film set to record the occasion, and the producer, Miss June Howson, ruefully added up the figures and found she is the thirteenth to hold the post. But on “The Street” it was business as usual. Alan Howard was being pressed by his creditors, Elsie Tanner faced the prospect of marriage yet again and Ena Sharpies, now something of a universal aunt and a far cry from the battleaxe of episode one, tried to launch schoolboy Tony Parsons into a musical career. In those 10 years “The Street” has survived many changes of cast (Mr Swindley, for instance, is now chief of “Dad’s Army”) and it has survived 60 script writers. Or has it? Although the anniversary

episode was written by one of the veteran “Coronation Street” writers, Mr H. V. Kershaw, the success of the street has probably been in its very ability to change with the times. The show gained its initial popularity among Britain's working classes by presenting them substantially as many of them are, and it has maintained its success by faithfully depicting the changes in British society as they occur, while always relating them to a constant the people of Coronation Street. Have those people changed, too? Ena Sharpies certainly has mellowed over the years. Elsie probably looks younger than she did at the start 10 years ago. But essentially the characters have not varied much in 1000 episodes. “Coronation Street” now plays twice a week in Britain on commercial television, and except for occasional programmes like the World Cup or a short running series like “Steptoe and Son," it is usually top of the ratings. Lastl week, Wednesday’s edition was No. 2, Monday’s No. 3. How long can the great soap opera go on? Michael Colbert, writing in the “Yorkshire Post,” says it has lost its old magic and regardless of 7,000,000 viewers has lost its elementary format of sweet-sour relationships. But Ken Irwin, a London journalist who has published today a five shilling paperback about the show and its cast entitled “The Real Coronation Street,” says it should go on for at least three years yet. i That’s 300 more episodes.