Tag: bingo

Friends come and go, family members may go to college or simply move away, but Coronation Street is here to stay, ladies and gents! Holding nearly 200 nominations and 147 awards, such as ‘Best Soap & Continuing Drama’, ‘Best Storyline’, ‘Spectacular Scene of the Year’ and whatever not, Coronation Street has turned itself into a real phenomenon. Let’s have a look at its story, its almost not-gonna-happen beginnings and the world records it holds. Yeah, you read that right – Guinness World Records!

Corrie Almost Didn’t See the Light of Broadcast

Coronation Street or Corrie, as its friends call it, is a British soap opera that first aired on September 9, 1960. Although it was not expected to survive for more than 3 weeks, as it was forecasted by Daily Mirror columnist Ken Irwin, this television show has been airing for nearly 55 years and it has no intention of going anywhere.

The idea was conceived by Tony Warren at Granada Television and it was initially rejected by the Baron – Sidney Lewis Bernstein, founder of the Granada Group. Later on, they station agreed to produce 13 pilot episodes. Much to everyone’s surprise, the British public took to it like duck to water and within 6 months, Coronation Street became the most watched show on British stations and is now considered to be a part of British culture, in which even Prince Charles made an appearance.

Guinness World Records

A truly unusual record that the soap indirectly holds and perhaps the funniest one is for, get this: ‘Largest Set of Bingo Balls’ that Gala Bingo used on the set of Coronation Street Tour, during the Male Cancer Awareness Charity Campaign. That’s right, we are talking about bingo, because if there’s something that we love as much as we love Coronation Street, that’s bingo games! And if you put the two of them together, do you know what you get? An exclusive Virtue Fusion creation, that combines the two hallmarks of entertainment for Brits of just about all ages – over 18, of course. The Virtue Fusion platform has created this dedicated bingo room for fans of this soap opera and it is has been a real hit ever since its launch.

The most impressive record that Coronation Street holds is for ‘Longest Running TV Soap Opera’. The drama serial made it in the Guinness Book of Records after the announcement that the TV show ‘As the World Turns’ would be cancelled by September 2009, making way for Coronation Street to grab its place in UK and world history. The second world record is held by William Roache, who has played Ken Barlow since the very beginning. He still holds the record for the ‘Longest-serving Soap Actor’, although allegations that he strenuously denied got him arrested and suspended from the show for one year. In 2014 he was cleared and all charges were dropped and he re-appeared on screen on August 4 of the same year.