Title sequence

The title sequence opens every episode of Coronation Street. It is a short sequence containing various shots of Weatherfield, played against the show's theme music. Until 1999, the title sequence carried no credits, and ended with the Coronation Street logo, but since then the sequence has started with the logo and contained the writer and director credits for the episode.

With only slight variations to incorporate recent trends, the sequence has been largely unchanged since the series' debut in 1960.

Background
Coronation Street's first set of black and white titles was viewers' first glimpse of the show in 1960. The architecture of the street was based on Archie Street in Salford, and rather than photograph the series' street set, which was studio-based, a brief tilting shot of Archie Street was recorded to serve as the introduction to each episode. The simple sequence, preceded by the Granada television ident, was very short.

Aside from a change in typeface in the logo in early 1961, the sequence stayed the same until 1964, when the shot of Archie Street was replaced by a a clip of the rows of terraced houses from above and a Salford ginnel, presumably behind Coronation Street, with a woman scrubbing the path in the background. Occasionally in the 1960s when the first scene of an episode was in the street, the sequence would be cut short and the logo and music would play over the start of the scene instead. Many times in the decade some or all of the title sequence would be dispensed with if the Street set had been erected in the studio for the episodes in question (Episode 95 (8th November 1961) and Episode 108 (25th December 1961) being examples) and on occasion in the middle of the decade the title caption would be displayed over the opening scene of the episode, irrespective of where it took place.

Development
In 1969, the show started being recorded in colour, which necessitated a new title sequence. 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 ground-level shot of Coronation Street. By this time, the series was using an outdoor set on Grape Street behind the Granada studios, but the set was not purpose-built so another location was used to stand in for Coronation Street again. 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. The location of the opening shot is not confirmed but a prime candidate must the Grafton Court tower block on Clayton Close in Trafford, Manchester with the camera situated on the next door Clifford Court. The empty land in the distance to the right of Grafton Court as the sequence opens is Hulme and Moss Side, whose streets had just been demolished in 1969, the industrial buildings immediately to the left of Grafton Court are on Cornbrook Street (some of which are still there today) and the vast number of houses further left as the shot pans along are in the since demolished area between Cornbrook Street, Shrewsbury Street and Stretford Road although the terraced streets further on beyond Shrewsbury Street and in the foggy distance are still extant.

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 shot of the actual Grape Street set, along with a series of close ups of chimneys of houses similar to those found in Coronation Street. Letters written to the Manchester Evening News in 1982 identified several of the streets shown as being Duke Street and Ascension Street in the Lower Broughton area of Salford and the block of flats as being on Sussex Street in the same district.

This large number of shots within the limited time-frame of the sequence (see gallery below) annoyed new producer Bill Podmore when he took over the programme in 1976 as he related in his 1990 memoir Coronation Street - The Inside Story:


 * "The quick-changing views over the slated rooftops of Salford...seemed to be out of time with the slow, haunting refrains of Eric Spear's signature tune.
 * "I asked to see all the sequence film, shot years before in the back streets of Old Trafford and Lower Broughton. Although much of it lay on the cutting room floor, it was reassembled into a continuous film. Suddenly, on walked that wonderful cat. When it curled up in the spring sunshine I knew I had found the perfect clip. It looked exactly as though it had contentedly sat down to watch the programme, and from that the day the Coronation Street cat became almost as famous as any character on the show. It provided us with an enduring mystery, too. Any number of people, imposters all, insisted they were the owners, but its true identity was never discovered."

Under Podmore's direction the sequence was revamped to slow its pace down by removing most of the chimney shots, and in this modified form it remained the same (except for one shot) until 1990, making this the longest-running title sequence. It was also the last to include the Granada television logo at the start.

With the construction of a new outdoor set for the series in 1982, the final shot of the Street was replaced to reflect this, a change which occurred from Episode 2210 (7th June 1982) onwards.

Making its debut with Episode 3134 (15th October 1990), the title sequence received its first major revamp since the mid-1970s. In accordance with the show itself, the sequence was recorded on videotape rather than film as it had been before. 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, so some variations of this sequence did not include any shots of the street. In the early 1990s, the sequence ended with a typical shot of the Rovers end of the street, although this shot was left out from the mid-1990s onwards. From Episode 4704 (24th October 1999), the title sequence began including writer and director credits, and the Coronation Street logo was moved to the start of the sequence rather than the end.

The current title sequence was introduced from Episode 5191 (7th January 2002) when Coronation Street started being broadcast in 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio. Improvements in CGI (computer generated image) technology allowed establishing shots which included Coronation Street and previously unseen surrounding streets, which weren't part of the set but instead computer generated, such as Viaduct Street and Mawdsley Street, as well as a glimpse of one of Greater Manchester's Metrolink trams passing over the viaduct.

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

Cat
Today, the cat is seen as essential an ingredient in Coronation Street's opening title sequence as anything else. The 1976 sequence was the first to include a cat, and it became so popular that when the time came to replace the sequence, in 1990, a competition was held to cast a cat to star in the new sequence. The winner was Frisky, who was paid a one-off fee of £200 for his services. From the mid-1990s to 2001, the shot that included Frisky was the last shot of the sequence.

A different cat can be seen briefly in the current sequence.

End credits
The end credit sequence plays after the last scene of every episode, and is a list of all actors and key production personnel who worked on the episode, with actors listed in order of appearance.

Until recently, Coronation Street's ending credits had changed even less than the opening credits. In the early days, scrolling credits were used against an image of the street. Since 2000, many ITV show end credit sequences have been standardised, including those of Coronation Street.

Advert breaks
Since Coronation Street is broadcast on a commercial channel, ITV, every episode has an advert break. The break is preceded and followed by a linking screenshot.

In many episodes, especially in the 1970s and 1980s, the 'End of Part One' caption and the music would play over the end of the scene before the break instead. Similarly for 'Part Two' after the break.