Omnibus repeats of Coronation Street

For almost the first three decades of Coronation Street’s existence, it held its place at or near the top of the viewing charts with only one transmission for each episode. Restricted viewing hours and a reluctance on the part of network schedulers meant that either individual repeats, or a weekend edition of the past week’s episodes collated into the form of an Omnibus was ruled out by ITV. Coronation Street wasn’t alone in this - other serials such as Crossroads, Emmerdale Farm, and on the BBC, programmes like The Newcomers were also only transmitted the once.

On radio, The Archers had begun an omnibus edition in the late 1950s although this was not a new concept with that medium with programmes such as Dick Barton, Special Agent having a similar repeat as far back as the 1940s. On television, the BBC’s Compact was the first soap to have a regular, though short-lived, omnibus in 1964, but it would be 1982 before the concept was tried again with Brookside when it began in November 1982. This extra Saturday showing was an essential component in the programme’s success and when in 1985 the BBC began EastEnders, its scheduling-savvy controller Michael Grade insisted that a Sunday afternoon omnibus edition be introduced in the scheduling pattern. Throughout the year, the programme shot up the charts helped considerably by this extra edition. BARB allowed the numbers who watched the omnibus to be added to the overall viewing figures, making no allowance for people watching the episodes twice and publishing one overall figure to the press. This allowed EastEnders to replace Coronation Street at the top of the charts, aided and abetted by a London-based press who delighted to publish incorrect stories about the decline of the Northern soap.

Many individuals at Granada Television were annoyed about this state of affairs, being ignored by the press when they tried to point out that first showings of the Street almost always beat EastEnders. The ITV network controllers looked upon Coronation Street as a major weapon in grabbing viewers to the channel in the early evenings on Monday and Wednesday and didn’t want to dilute that effect by giving them the chance to see the episodes again at the weekend. The situation became even more embarrassing for ITV though in 1986 when the BBC began broadcasting the Australian import Neighbours at dinnertime and Michael Grade, noticing its popularity with his daughter and her friends, arranged for a late afternoon repeat. This meant that Neighbours was also near the top of the charts and ITV controller Steve Morrison at last decided that their major serial should also have a second showing.

The first omnibus edition, comprising of Episode 2901 (16th January 1989) and Episode 2902 (18th January 1989), was shown on the afternoon of Sunday 22nd January 1989. Right from the start though there was a split in the ranks with nine of the ITV stations, including Granada, opting for a 5.35pm timeslot, four stations led by London Weekend Television opting for 2.00pm and Scottish Television going-it alone with a 4.00pm transmission. The introduction of the repeat showing was publicised by a special trailer which showed an apparently empty street caused by people supposedly being indoors to watch the omnibus, while Alf Roberts hung a sign on the Corner Shop door stating “Now open on Sundays” and, in the Rovers, Alec and Bet Gilroy spoke to camera to welcome their new weekend customers. The effect of the omnibus was instant with the programme immediately regaining first and second place in the charts and leapfrogging its BBC rival.

When the third weekly episode began in October 1989 no station chose to extend the omnibus to an hour and a half and instead arranged for a mid-day repeat during the week while retaining the omnibus at the weekends for the other two episodes. Although there was more harmony between the stations regarding when this extra transmission should be, Television South West chose to step outside the convention agreed by the other stations and had its timeslot on a different day of the week.

As early as September 1990 a large number of the ITV stations dropped the repeats altogether and by 1992 only Granada and Ulster Television were showing a weekend omnibus with no other station repeating the programme at all. The situation was reversed again in September 1993 when all stations at last agreed to a country-wide showing of the three episodes, as individual repeats, at 12.55pm on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. This situation lasted for less than three months before Granada and Ulster reverted back to a weekend transmission of two of the episodes in omnibus format. As the mid and late 1990s wore on, stations dropped the repeats, either for periods of several months or altogether while some others pushed them into the graveyard slot of a 5.00am transmission. When ITV2 started in 1998, viewers were given an alternative station to watch repeats of episodes and in far greater number than previously allowed with several showings a day. Nevertheless, some stations such as Anglia continued their early morning transmissions well into 2000.

Note: For periods of time in the 2000s and 2010s, one of the ITV2 omnibus’s has been shown on the main ITV channel at the weekend. Details of these can be found on the ITV2 repeat pages and are not included with the details below. Also, with the fractured transmissions of repeats from 1989 onwards, it is not possible to post the data onto one table. The details have therefore been split into the different ITV regions.

Granada Television
1989 1990 1991 1992 1993

To be completed