Talk:Top 100 appearances

A big thanks to John,Karen and the others who've contributed to the stats on this topic. Makes for fascinating reading.

However,it's rather sad to see so many of the legendary characters slipping down the list- Ena doesn't even make the Top 40!- while the current cast,many of whom I still regard as relative newcomers,continue to climb the list at an alarming rate. At least,Annie and Len are still in the Top 20.

70s Fan (talk) 18:26, November 7, 2012 (UTC)
 * You've reached much the same conclusion as I did but it's inevitable with so many episodes per week now that the old favourites will slip down the list. It must be read in conjunction with the List of longest running characters to get a proper perspective on who were/are the mainstays of the show. The exercise wasn't totally original. ITV issued a press pack two years ago for the 50th anniversary which detailed the top 50 and I thought this was an interesting exercise for us to maintain on this site - we just needed to do the main "full list of appearances" pages to get there. I'd like to increase it to top 100 or even further but there is some data gathering standing in our way at the moment, such as the lack of credits for Bethany Platt in 2002 and early 2003. As a matter of interest ITV's list (copied straight as published) was as follows:

HOW MANY EPISODES? 50 ACTORS WHO’VE CLOCKED UP THE MOST

Up to episode 7,432 – 24th September 2010

1. William Roache (Ken Barlow) – 3,927

2. Helen Worth (Gail Potter/Tilsley/Platt/Hillman/McIntyre) – 3,391

3. Barbara Knox (Rita Littlewood/Fairclough/Sullivan) – 3,150

4. Eileen Derbyshire (Emily Nugent/Swain/Bishop) – 3,134

5. Anne Kirkbride (Deirdre Hunt/Langton/Rachid/Barlow) – 3,078

6. Elizabeth Dawn (Vera Duckworth) – 3,011 *

7. Betty Driver (Betty Turpin/Williams) – 2,819

8. Sue Nicholls (Audrey Potter/Roberts) – 2,501

9. Michael Le Vell (Kevin Webster) – 2,395

10. Johnny Briggs (Mike Baldwin) – 2,383 *

11. Sally Dynevor (Sally Seddon/Webster) – 2,317

12. Simon Gregson (Steve McDonald) – 2,196

13. William Tarmey (Jack Duckworth) – 2,084

14. Julie Goodyear (Bet Lynch/Gilroy) – 2,017 *

15. Bryan Mosley (Alf Roberts) – 1,863 *

16. Peter Adamson (Len Fairclough) – 1,797 *

17. Thelma Barlow (Mavis Riley/Wilton) – 1,769 *

18. Doris Speed (Annie Walker) – 1,746 *

19. Beverley Callard (Liz McDonald) – 1,701

20. Sean Wilson (Martin Platt) – 1,664 *

21. Jean Alexander (Hilda Ogden) – 1,647 *

22. Patricia Phoenix (Elsie Tanner/Howard) – 1,641 *

23. Kevin Kennedy (Curly Watts) – 1,584 *

24. Vicky Entwistle (Janice Battersby) – 1,451

25. Jack Howarth (Albert Tatlock) – 1,309 *

26. David Neilson (Roy Cropper) – 1,291

27. Steven Arnold (Ashley Peacock) – 1,268

28. Bernard Youens (Stan Ogden) – 1,230 *

29. Jennie McAlpine (Fiz Brown/Stape) – 1,222

30. Lynne Perrie (Ivy Tilsley/Brennan) – 1,204 *

31. Violet Carson (Ena Sharples) – 1,150 *

32. Julie Hesmondhalgh (Hayley Patterson/Cropper) – 1,135

33. Amanda Barrie (Alma Sedgewick/Baldwin/Halliwell) – 1,125 *

34. Charles Lawson (Jim McDonald) – 1,097

35. Jack P. Shepherd (David Platt) – 1,089

36. Sue Cleaver (Eileen Grimshaw) – 1,085

37. Alan Halsall (Tyrone Dobbs) – 1,077

38. John Savident (Fred Elliott) – 1,062 *

39. Tina O’Brien (Sarah Platt/Grimshaw) – 1,049 *

40. Jane Danson (Leanne Battersby) – 1,041

41. Bruce Jones (Les Battersby) – 1,038 *

42. Malcolm Hebden (Norris Cole) – 1,030

43. Jimmi Harkishin (Dev Alahan) – 1,013

44. Bill Waddington (Percy Sugden) – 1,008 *

45. Ryan Thomas (Jason Grimshaw) – 1,001

46. Margot Bryant (Minnie Caldwell) – 986 *

47. Samia Smith (Maria Sutherland/Connor) – 933

48. Roy Barraclough (Alec Gilroy) – 846 *

49. Maggie Jones (Blanche Hunt) – 838 *

50. Neville Buswell (Ray Langton) – 805 *

--Jtomlin1uk (talk) 10:28, November 8, 2012 (UTC)
 * Denotes the fact this actor no longer appears in Coronation Street

Thanks John. I've never seen that ITV list. They seem to have made an inexplicable error with Liz Dawn's figure. Any idea what happpened there?

70s Fan (talk) 18:16, November 8, 2012 (UTC) Not the foggiest, I'm afraid. We agree pretty closely until the 2000s when their numbers suddenly go haywire!!--Jtomlin1uk (talk) 15:54, November 9, 2012 (UTC)

1000 episodes
I've added notes to the individual pages when characters/actors reach 1000, 2000, etc appearances in the programme. For ease for finding in the future, the episode numbers for each entry are as follows:

Additional entries have been created for Jack P Shepherd (Ep 7328), Kate Ford (Ep 8449), Tina O'Brien (Ep 6707), Chris Gascoyne (Ep 8335) and Brooke Vincent (Ep 9132) where they have played their roles for 1000 episodes, even though their characters have been in the show longer.--Jtomlin1uk (talk) 10:25, July 21, 2016 (UTC)


 * Thanks for all your time working out all of these entries and making the notes on the bottom of the relevant episode pages, John. I was just wondering whether this information warrants a page of its own? Something maybe along the lines of Milestone episodes? Karen2310 (talk) 14:11, July 21, 2016 (UTC)
 * Good idea! Do you see it being combined with other info (1st ep to get to No 1 in the charts, highest rated ep ever, etc), or just the above?--Jtomlin1uk (talk) 21:34, July 21, 2016 (UTC)
 * To be honest, I hadn't even thought outside of the box (above) - pardon the pun! Either creating one page for the character milestones, and another for episode milestones, or - combining the two sets of info.... all of it would be a handy source of reference. I've just noticed, there'll be a few more character milestones reached in the not too distant future! Karen2310 (talk) 21:46, July 21, 2016 (UTC)

I've noted where actors took the lead as the most prolific actors in Coronation Street. Backwards from the present day: Doris Speed had held the record since 1967 and in the mid-1960s Speed, Arthur Leslie and Pat Phoenix had very close episode counts so probably swapped top position frequently and the specifics are less notable IMO so I haven't looked closer. David (talk) 11:17, July 22, 2016 (UTC)
 * William Roache with 2742
 * Peter Adamson with 1626
 * Doris Speed with 1612
 * Peter Adamson with 1604

Great new feature. So,Doris Speed was the most prolific from 1967 to May 1976 without interruption?70s Fan (talk) 20:40, July 23, 2016 (UTC)


 * Yes, I will take a closer look at some point. David (talk) 10:21, July 24, 2016 (UTC)

Thank you David. It's very interesting- particularly in the two episode a week era. 70s Fan (talk) 11:10, July 24, 2016 (UTC)