VHS and DVD releases of Coronation Street

There have been numerous episodes of Coronation Street and its spin-offs released on the VHS and DVD home video formats.

The Magic Of Coronation Street
On 16th November 1982 Granada released a VHS video entitled The Magic Of Coronation Street - Distant Memories 1960-1964. Running at 172 minutes, it featured six episodes of the programme, along with specially-filmed sequences featuring Annie Walker, Len Fairclough and Elsie Tanner.

In 1985, The Magic Of Coronation Street was reissued as two seperate videos, each featuring three episodes, by Vestron Video.

The episodes on the tapes are:
 * Episode 1 (9th December 1960) - the programme's first episode.
 * Episode 16 (1st February 1961) - the residents are evacuated to the Mission following a gas leak.
 * Episode 108 (25th December 1961) - Christmas Day on the street
 * Episode 165 (11th July 1962) - Elsie Tanner loses Bill Gregory and Ken and Val become enagaged.
 * Episode 317 (25th December 1963) - Dennis Tanner pulls a This Is Your Life surprise on Annie Walker
 * Episode 421 (23rd December 1964) - the residents put on pantomime for local children.

The Jubilee Years
On 30th August 1985, Vestron Video marked the programme's 25th anniversary by releasing two VHS tapes entitled The Jubilee Years - Part One and The Jubilee Years - Part Two. These featured a previously unseen character named Alice Hughes revisiting Coronation Street, remembering old characters, and catching up with current Street residents Ken Barlow, Deirdre Barlow, Hilda Ogden and Betty Turpin. The video was launched at the Vidtel retail traders conference with a special party hosted by Bill Podmore, Johnny Briggs and Christopher Quinten.

The Lives And Loves Of Elsie Tanner
This video tape was released in 1987, and featured the characters Linda Cheveski (Elsie's daughter), Emily Bishop and Mike Baldwin recalling Elsie's time on the Street. The production hints that Elsie has died, despite this being an event that has never been referred to in the actual series. Patricia Phoenix, who played Elsie, had passed away the previous year.

30th Anniversary Set
On 5th November 1990, ten VHS tapes were released by Windsong Video Productions to mark the show's 30th anniversary. Each tape featured four episodes from a specific year and was introduced by a character who was heavily featured in the stories of that year (for example, Cyril Turpin died in 1974, therefore Betty Driver, who played his wife Betty Turpin, introduced the 1974 tape). Originally only a UK release, these tapes were reissued on the NTSC VHS format a year later for viewing in North America.

Time Life Releases
Mail-order company Time Life Distribution produced numerous VHS tapes in the 1990s for UK release. Each tape consisted of a compilation of footage of a certain character. These videos were never released in North America.



The Women of Coronation Street
Released on 26th October 1998, this Granada media video saw the return of Jean Alexander playing the part of Hilda Ogden with scenes set in her Derbyshire cottage as Betty Williams came for a visit and the two women reminisced over past events on the programme with many clips to illustrate their trip down memory lane.



The Rover Returns
This omnibus edition of the spin-off "soap bubble" Coronation Street - After Hours as released on Monday 15th November 1999, just two days after the last of the six episodes had been transmitted. New captions for both the titles and end credits were used to substitute for the original episodic credits although an error meant that the opening writer caption for Episode 1 was retained (crediting Peter Whalley) and the other remaining writers, Phil Ford, Tom Elliott and David Lane, received no credit on the tape, although they were named on the casing. The video included a special fifteen minute "making of" documentary which featured interviews with Julie Goodyear, Simon Gregson and Mary McMurray and behind the scenes footage of the cast and crew in Brighton.

Coronation Street - The Early Days
On 7th May 2001 Granada Video released Coronation Street - The Early Days, a double pack VHS set containing the first twelve episodes of the programme. All the episodes were unedited with the exceptions of the "End of Part One", "Part Two" and "Next Episode" captions with the closing credit sequences slowed down to prevent the theme music having to be redubbed to accommodate the missing seconds. Each episode had a superimposed caption added over the opening moments of the action which stated the episode number.

This Is Coronation Street
On 10th June 2003, a 2-disc DVD titled This Is Coronation Street was released for the Region 1 market (North America). It featured the fortieth anniversary documentary Forty Years on Coronation Street which was narrated by John Mills and featured many interviews with cast members, past and present, production crew and many clips from the archives. This documentary, transmitted on ITV on 28th November 2000 has never been released on DVD in the UK. The set also featured on the second disc the first five episodes of the programme from 1960, three years before their eventual release on DVD in the UK.

Network DVD Box-Sets
Network DVD have released a series of DVD box-sets that cover the first three decades of the programme. Each box-set contains ten discs, which in turn feature eight of the most memorable episodes from each year of the decade. The 1970s DVDs can be purchased seperately.


 * Coronation Street: The 1960s (DVD) - released 31st July, 2006
 * Coronation Street: The 1970s (DVD) - released 25th July, 2005
 * Coronation Street: The 1980s (DVD) - released 14th November, 2005

Pardon the Expression
The first season of the spin-off series Pardon the Expression was released on DVD by Network on 4th May containing all twelve episodes of the series with broadcast dates on the casing reflecting the original Granada transmissions. Season two was released on 24th August 2009 with all twenty-four episodes and the bonus of an episode thought to have been made for transmission either at Christmas 1965 or as the first episode of the new season but never broadcast (the original artwork issued for the release in June 2009 claimed that it would only contain twenty-one episodes but this was later amended).

Spin-Offs and Straight To Video/DVD Releases
Granada have released a number of straight-to-video spin-off episodes and specials, the first two of which ended up being screened on television after having been available in shops. The first straight-to-video episode was released on 24th November 1995 and featured a storyline set aboard the QE2. The television broadcast on Sunday 24th March 1996 (at 8.00pm in a slightly-edited version titled Coronation Street - The Cruise) courted controversy as Granada had previously claimed that this episode would never be seen on ITV and the tapes carried a sticker saying "Only on Video". The Times of 12th March 1997 reported that a Mr. Allan Kelley obtained a refund of £13.99 plus £2 expenses following court action. They claimed that more than 600,000 copies of the video had been sold making a profit for Granada of £700,000. Granada were not represented in court and it was stated that 263 people had complained to the Independent Television Commission (ITC) and a further 3000 to Granada direct. The ITC insisted that letter of apology be sent with a free paperback book to each complainant as a sign of goodwill but Mr. Kelley had refused to let the matter drop on point of principle. Subsequent home video releases included a carefully-worded disclaimer pertaining to future television broadcast.

The first of these was a special set in Las Vegas which was released on 1st September 1997, called Viva Las Vegas! Written by Coronation Street fan Russell T. Davies, it featured a cameo appearance from actor Neville Buswell, who had given up his long-time role in the programme as Ray Langton twenty-one years earlier. Joan Collins was the major guest star. The special was shown on television on Sunday 2nd July 2000 at 5.00pm.

A third, Out of Africa, was released straight to DVD on 10th November 2008. This special was shot in South Africa and featured the return of Wendi Peters as Cilla Battersby-Brown to the programme. Other regular characters who featured were Fiz Brown, Chesney Battersby-Brown and Kirk Sutherland.