Episode 1 (9th December 1960)

Plot
Florrie Lindley takes over the Corner Shop from Elsie Lappin, and is anxious about moving to Coronation Street. At No. 11, Elsie Tanner confronts her son, Dennis, about two shillings missing from her purse. Dennis has been struggling to get a job since getting out of prison but Elsie accuses him of not trying hard enough. At No. 3, Frank Barlow argues with his student son Ken about whether or not Ken is allowed to take a girl to the Imperial Hotel where his mother, Ida, works in the kitchens. Frank thinks Ken is ashamed of his working class roots. Elsie's daughter Linda Cheveski tells her that she has left her husband, Ivan, who she lives with in Warrington. Ida finds Ken at Albert Tatlock's house at No.1 to tell him that the girl he is taking out, Susan Cunningham, has turned up unannounced at the Barlow's house.

Regular cast

 * Elsie Tanner - Patricia Phoenix
 * Dennis Tanner - Philip Lowrie
 * Linda Cheveski - Anne Cunningham
 * Frank Barlow - Frank Pemberton
 * Ida Barlow - Noel Dyson
 * Kenneth Barlow - William Roache
 * David Barlow - Alan Rothwell
 * Florrie Lindley - Betty Alberge
 * Ena Sharples - Violet Carson
 * Annie Walker - Doris Speed
 * Albert Tatlock - Jack Howarth

Guest cast

 * Elsie Lappin - Maudie Edwards
 * Susan - Patricia Shakesby

Production

 * Stuart Latham began his stint as the programme's first producer, relinquishing the role with Episode 60 on 10th July 1961.
 * Jennifer Moss, uncredited, provides the voice of Christine Farrar, an off-screen girl who gives cheek to Elsie Tanner when she tells her off for playing in her back yard. The reason for this "appearance" was to give the sixteen-year-old Moss experience of a television studio (and in this instance a live production) before her proper debut in Episode 4 on 21st December. For the same reason, she provides the voice of Sandra Haddon in Episode 2 on 14th December.
 * One of the two young girls seen playing outside the Corner Shop in the very first scene is played by Lyn Paul, later a singer with the group "The New Seekers".

Broadcast

 * The episode was broadcast live from Studio 2 at Granada's Quay Street Studios in Manchester at 7.00pm. Fifteen minutes after the episode went out (i.e. at 7.45pm), Episode 2 was videotaped. This pattern (of a live Friday episode and a videotaped Wednesday episode) would be repeated until 3rd February 1961. The following Friday, an industrial dispute prevented the transmission of a live episode.
 * The programme was broadcast in the following ITV regions - North of England (Granada), London (Associated Rediffusion), Central Scotland (Scottish Television), Wales and West of England (TWW), Southern and South-East England (Southern Television), Northern Ireland (Ulster Television), East of England (Anglia Television). It was not broadcast by Tyne Tees Television in the North-East of England or ATV in the Midlands (Tyne Tees would start broadcasting the programme with Episode 14 on 25th January 1961 and ATV with Episode 25 on 6th March 1961).

Repeats

 * This episode had its first repeat (and its first-ever airing in the regions covered by Tyne Tees Television, ATV, Westward Television, Grampian Television, Border Television and Channel Television) on Monday 4th May 1981 at 10.15pm at the start of a week of repeats celebrating Granada's 25th anniversary. The repeat of this episode in the Granada region contained all the original adverts aired from the 1960 airing, due to the episode originally being transmitted live and the telerecording being made as it broadcast, thus containing footage of those adverts as shown. This repeat was not aired by Ulster Television or Anglia Television. The other episodes repeated in the week were Episode 16 (the 1961 gas leak), Episode 375 (Emily Nugent jilts Leonard Swindley), Episode 668 (the viaduct collapse), Episode 702 (Elsie marries Steve Tanner) and Episode 923 (the coach crash in the Lake District) although these repeats were not screened in all of the ITV regions (see individual episode entries for details).
 * The episode was given a second (and fully networked) repeat on Sunday, 2nd December 1990 at 7.15pm, exactly one week before the one-and-a- half hour, thirtieth anniversary special Happy Birthday Coronation Street. It had a specially recorded introduction by William Roache partially set in Studio 2 of the Granada Television studios where transmission had taken place forty years before
 * The episode was repeated for the third time (and again fully networked) on Friday, 8th December 2000 at 7.00pm as part of the programme's fortieth-anniversary celebrations. This repeat started one hour before transmission of the live anniversary episode.
 * This episode and Episode 702 (Elsie Tanner's 1967 wedding) are the only episodes to have had three repeats on terrestrial television.

Commercial releases
This episode was included on the following commercial releases:
 * The Magic of Coronation Street released by Granada Video on 16th November 1982.
 * Coronation Street 1961 released by Granada and Windsong Video on 5th November 1990.
 * The 1960 disc of the Network DVD collection Coronation Street: The 1960s, released on 31st July 2006.

Notable dialogue
Elsie Lappin: "Now the next thing you've got to do is get a signwriter in. That thing above the door'll have to be changed." (First line spoken in series) --- Elsie Tanner: (looking in mirror) "Ee, Elsie, you're just about ready for the knacker's yard." --- Elsie Tanner: "You're not a kid any more. It's no secret around here why your Dad left me." --- Linda Cheveski: "Ivan nearly went mad when he found a bottle of peroxide I brought in. I wouldn't mind but it were only to take a mark off me front tooth." --- Elsie Tanner: "Yer know, without a word of a lie, yer grandma Tanner were that bandy she couldn't have stopped a pig in an entry." --- Ena Sharples: "What's your place of worship?" Florrie Lindley: "I don't really do much about it" Ena Sharples: "Oh, I know, C of E" Florrie Lindley: "Oh I wouldn't--" Ena Sharples: "Oh, it's like me sister's husband. You know he was made head of the plumbing where they lived and it gave her ideas. She said we're civic dignitaries now, we must head for t'church. Within a week they were received, christened and confirmed and within a fortnight she was sitting up all night sewing surplices. I'll take a packet of baking powder." --- Ida Barlow: "Sauce Kenneth?" Kenneth Barlow: No. No, thank you." Frank Barlow: Whats up?"