40 Years of Coronation Street was a book published by André Deutsch Ltd under the Granada Media imprint on 16th October 2000 to celebrate that forthcoming landmark anniversary of the programme.
The book, written by the programme's then-archivist Daran Little, was the most ambitious attempt ever to catalogue the history of the programme. The blurb on the dustjacket of the book claims that it documents every storyline ever presented in the programme but such a task would be impossible and minor storylines are often forgotten (e.g. the Street’s second outing to Blackpool in October 1961 goes unmentioned). Nevertheless the storylines (which are, within a given year, not presented chronologically but instead concentrate upon a specific character or set of characters) are complete and comprehensive for all the major events.
Important dates, both within the narrative and for the programme’s production are also given such as major characters’ first appearances as well as births, deaths and weddings. An episode count for the “top twenty” appearances for characters for each year is printed together with cast lists, a “Who’s Lived Where” section and short synopsis for each major character.
Some major errors do appear in the book though, such as the claim that the second episode was transmitted on Monday 12th December (whereas it was Wednesday 14th December) and it is stated in different parts of one page that the programme was fully networked on both 1st March and in May 1961 - the first episode to be truly fully networked was actually Episode 25 (6th March 1961).
Despite these errors the book remains the most comprehensive and accurate history of the programme to be printed and sold enough copies in hardback for a revised and updated paperback version to be issued on 1st October 2001 under the title ‘’The Coronation Street Story’’.