Title sequence

The sweeping views of Weatherfield's terraced streets have made Coronation Street's opening credits instantly recognisable across the globe. With only slight variations to incorporate recent trends, the sequence has been largely unchanged since the series' debut in 1960.

Black and white credits
Coronation Street's original black and white credits was viewers' first glimpse of the show. The architecture of the street was based on Archie Street in Salford, and rather than photograph the series’ indoor set a brief, single shot of the real Archie Street was filmed to serve as the intro to each episode. The resulting opening credits were very short.

Aside from a change in typeface in the Coronation Street logo in 1962, the first change to the sequence came in 1965, when the shot of Archie Street was replaced by a clip of a Salford backstreet, with an unidentified woman in the background doing manual work. This coincided with a storyline in the show which had corner shop owner Lionel Petty move the shop's entrance from the corner of Coronation and Viaduct Street to solely in Coronation Street. This meant the original sequence no longer fit the show.

Colour credits
The advent of colour on UK television saw the need for the title sequence to be reshot in 1969. This new sequence started with an establishing shot of a block of flats before panning over to the rows of terraced houses, zooming down and then finishing with a shot of Coronation Street from the opposite end of the street from the corner shop. Although by this time an outdoor set was in use in the series, another location shot was used. This time the effect was less successful – the street bore only a superficial resemblance to Coronation Street, and upon close inspection many discrepancies can be found, the absence of the viaduct probably being the most obvious example.

In 1971, Archie Street was demolished. The next time Coronation Street changed its opening credits sequence, in 1975, it included for the first time a glimpse of the actual set, along with a series of close ups of chimneys of houses similar to those found in Coronation Street.

The sequence was changed again in 1976 to include fewer chimney close-ups and more establishing shots of streets similar to Coronation Street. Along with being the show’s longest-running sequence, being in use from 1976 to 1990, this was the first to feature a cat which has since become a fixture of Coronation Street's opening credits. Although the presence of the cat was unplanned, it became so popular that when the time came to replace the sequence, in 1990, a competition was held to cast a new cat, to star in the new one. The winner was a cat called Frisky, who was paid a one-off fee of £200 for his services.

With the construction of a new outdoor set for the series in 1982, the final shot of Coronation Street was replaced to reflect this. Aside from looking more realistic, this corrected a fault inherited from use of the original outdoor set, namely the direction of the cobbles, which had previously pointed diagonally instead of perpendicular to the pavement. The sequence used in the 1990s is significant in that it doesn’t feature any shots of Coronation Street. Instead, the final shot was the one with the cat in the backstreets, preceded by various establishing shots of the surrounding area. This was inevitable as in reality by this point there were no streets left in Salford that resembled Coronation Street, and the limitations of the outdoor set made complex establishing shots impossible.

This was also the first sequence to have writer and director credits in the opening titles.

Widescreen credits
In 2002, the series went widescreen, prompting another change in opening credits, and its final one to date. By this point, improving CGI technology allowed establishing shots which included Coronation Street and surrounding streets, which weren't part of the set but instead computer generated. CGI was also used to photograph Viaduct Street. The final shot of this sequence was a return to the traditional side view of Coronation Street from the Rovers Return Inn. Unlike previous title sequences, the Coronation Street logo was displayed at the start, followed by writer and director credits.

It is expected, but not confirmed, that the series will get a new opening credits sequence when the series moves to HD.

End credits
Until recently, Coronation Street's ending credits had changed even less than the opening credits. In the early days, scrolling credits were employed against a backdrop of an establishing shot of the terraced streets, or a closeup of the cobbles. In the 1980s and 1990s, a side view of Coronation Street's rooftops was often used, but it wasn't until 2000 that slides were used instead of scrolling credits, against a purple background.

Advert breaks
As Coronation Street is broadcast on a commercial channel, ITV, it employs commercial breaks. Unlike many others shows, specific cues were made by the channel, which are even found on the DVD releases of the episodes (in context).

Many of these cues reuse shots from the opening or closing credits, although in the 1960s they were specially designed shots of a non-existent wall in Coronation Street displaying the street's name plate. After the 1960s, many advert breaks were preceded by a shot relevant to the scene before it, such as a shot of whatever house the action was taking place in.