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Coronation Street is a British soap opera which chronicles the lives of the residents of a backstreet terrace in Weatherfield, a fictional town in the north of England. Created by Tony Warren and produced by Granada Television and then ITV plc for the country's main commercial network, it was first transmitted on 9th December 1960 and is the world's longest-running television drama series.

EPISODES

Read about every episode from 1960 to the present day

CHARACTERS

Full biographies of your favourite characters

CAST AND CREW

Learn more about the people who bring Coronation Street to our screens

PLACES

Explore the world of Coronation Street

~ 2006 ~

Ken Mike — Mike Baldwin dies in Ken Barlow's arms

Departing producer Tony Wood's final episode aired on 12th February. Wood's biggest storyline was two years in the making and concluded in April, after Wood had left. At a long-term conference in 2004, writer John Fay pitched a story where Mike Baldwin developed Alzheimer's and died in the arms of his longstanding enemy Ken Barlow. Fay's idea was taken up by the writing team and Johnny Briggs was effectively fired from the programme after 30 years.

As Mike was a standalone character with no family around, writers built up a Baldwin dynasty by re-introducing Adam and revealing Danny to secretly be Mike's son, setting up a battle over Mike's will. Paul Fox returned as Mark Redman, appearing just before Mike's death and at the funeral - the only occasion where all three of Mike's sons appeared together. Mike's girlfriend Penny King was written out immediately afterwards. Notably, the penultimate episode featuring Mike was the last script John Stevenson wrote for the programme before retiring. Stevenson had been hired by Bill Podmore in 1976, the year that Johnny Briggs joined Coronation Street.

To celebrate 60 years of Coronation Street on television, we're going through the programme's entire history a year at a time. The full version of this article can be found here. Check back tomorrow for 2007!

1 | Hilda Ogden

Profile: The devoted wife of Stan, Hilda and her husband were the roughnecks of Coronation Street and had frequent clashes with their neighbours. Except for the rare social occasions, Hilda wore her hair in curlers and a headscarf. She was the street's principal gossip and revelled in spreading it around, particularly if it could cause trouble. As a result, she had no real friends in the street, and the neighbours treated her and Stan like a joke - a fact which greatly upset Hilda. As part of her continuing quest to gain the respect and envy of the neighbours, Hilda erected a mural on No.13's parlour wall. She also considered herself a skilled clairvoyant, and offered teacup readings for a fee. Hilda was widowed when Stan died from a heart attack in 1984. She lived at No.13 for three more years, taking in Kevin Webster and his girlfriend Sally Seddon as lodgers. In 1987, she moved to Derbyshire to keep house for Doctor Lowther.
Did you know? At the peak of Hilda's popularity, character and actress gained a number of accolades, including being named as the fourth most recognisable woman in the UK after the Queen, Queen Mother and Diana in a 1982 poll and, more oddly, prompting Michael Parkinson, Russell Harty and Sir John Betjeman to form the British League for Hilda Ogden, with Laurence Olivier as its president.

Played by: Jean Alexander

...that Anthony Schaeffer holds the current record of most roles in the programme with fifteen credited to date?
...that the first episode of the programme ever transmitted that did not feature any of the original cast members from 1960 was Episode 1428 (23rd September 1974)?
...that Stanley Wood, who wrote Episode 1237 (22nd November 1972), was the father of comedian Victoria Wood?
...that in Episode 1183 (17th May 1972), the character of Rita Bates gave her maiden name as "Foster" and not the later-established "Littlewood"?
...that although the character of Armistead Caldwell had died in 1935, his voice was heard in Episode 1256 (29th January 1973)?
...that the first ever repeat of an episode of Coronation Street was on Friday 10th February 1961 when strike action prevented the transmission of that night's edition and Episode 1 was shown in its place?

"All I ever get for Christmas is a frozen lavvy."
Ena Sharples

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Current week Mon 15th Apr (20.00) Wed 17th Apr (20.00) Fri 19th Apr (20.00)


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Wed 10th Apr	20.00 - 21.00
Fri 12th Apr

This week on : Episode 5841 (8th September 2004) to Episode 5850 (20th September 2004)

19 April — Les Battersby shows his pleasure at having contributed to Hayley Patterson's happiness

19th April 1999: On the eve of her wedding to Roy Cropper, Hayley Patterson was despondent that none of her friends seemed bothered about a hen night but she was delighted when the girls took her round to 5 Coronation Street and unveiled a party with plenty of food and drink to consume and - a special gift - a train specially made in Underworld to go with her wedding dress. Far less happy when he returned home after the party was Les Battersby who found that his house had been used as a venue for "that freak" but that was nothing compared to when Janice gleefully told him that she had sold his prized record collection to pay for the party. Les swore vengeance...