Coronation Street has been on our screens since December 1960 and there have been over 9,000 episodes to date but where can you watch all episodes of Coronation Street?
Recent episodes dating back one month are available to watch on the ITV Hub.
But is there any way to watch anything further back? Or even from the beginning?
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The late Tony Warren created the soap; he reportedly came up with the idea on a train to Manchester late at night.
He wanted to create a series about an ordinary Manchester street and the lives of the people who lived there.
His initial idea was rejected by Granada Television founder Sidney Bernstein. But producer Harry Elton persuaded Bernstein to reconsider and a 13 episode run was commissioned.
Tony wrote all 13 scripts for the first series, and once ITV realised the show was a success, he continued to write it until 1968. He was involved in various other ways until his death in March 2016.
Where can you watch classic Coronation Street?
The first episode of the longest-running soap opera in the world, featuring longest soap actor in the world William Roache as Ken Barlow, is actually available to view on YouTube.
You can also buy a collection of Coronation Street episodes on various DVD boxsets. Each spans a decade of cobbles life and features eighty top episodes of the show.
The first – Coronation Street Best Of 1960-1969 – features episodes including the birth of Peter and Susan Barlow, Ena Sharples’ alleged shoplifting, and Val’s hostage horror.
The 1970-79 collection shows gems including the 1977 Silver Jubilee Street party and the warehouse fire. It also features the discovery of two bodies, Hilda Ogden’s séance, Valerie Barlow’s electrocution and Ernie’s demise at the hands of armed robbers.
Which iconic Coronation Street scenes are available where?
The episodes from 1980-89 show the legendary Ken and Deirdre Barlow affairs, the Ogdens’ ruby anniversary, a fire at the Rovers Return and Alan Bradley’s reign of terror over Rita Tanner.
During 1990-99 scenes include Reg and Maureen’s waterbed fiasco, Curly’s pursuit of Raquel and the McDonald family crises. There’s also the Free The Weatherfield One campaign as Deirdre goes to prison, as well as Hayley’s sex-change revelation.
The beginning of the 00s, 2000-09, sees Richard Hillman’s murderous rampage, Peter Barlow’s bigamy, Gail and Eileen’s street showdown. Plus there’s Tracy Barlow vs. Karen McDonald, Mad Maya’s revenge. And Les and Cilla’s fake wedding, and Blanche at the alcoholics’ support group.
Classic Coronation Street on ITV3
If you’d rather watch on the television, ITV3 are currently showing two Classic Coronation Street episodes from the 1980s every afternoon from 2.50pm, repeated the following morning at 6am.
The likes of Raquel Watts, Des Barnes, Derek Wilton, and wife Mavis feature, as do younger versions of cast members still going strong today such as Rita, Ken Barlow and Audrey Roberts.
Sadly, the complete back catalogue is not downloadable anywhere.
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In 2017 a petition was started on change.org for the show to strike a deal with Netflix to allow the service to stream episodes from the beginning.
Some 188 fans who supported the poster’s desire for ITV to open the vault signed it.
It said they wanted the channel to make Coronation Street episodes from the start available “by opening up the archive. For example, release in yearly box sets on DVD, or repeat on ITV3 from the beginning, or stream on a service such as Netflix.
Older viewers wish to revisit old Coronation Street episodes
“Numerous generations of viewers have been unable to see the older episodes due to not being born when they originally aired, as well as older viewers who would like to revisit those characters and stories again.”
But aside from the daily Classic Coronation Episodes on ITV3, there is currently no library of archive episodes available anywhere.
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