Coronation Street Profiles

You can learn a lot while browsing through Coronation Street profiles. The show spans decades and boasts quite an impressive history!

Go behind the scenes with an in-depth profile.

Known as Corrie by all who know and love it, Coronation Street is England's longest running soap opera and clearly one of the most popular. Since its first airdate in 1960, it has earned itself high praise for being one of the nation's most appealing "kitchen-sink" dramas. Its storylines revolve around the working class residents of the street, topics that both endear and repulse viewers with their starkly accurate portrayals of real life events and relationships.

Of course, it's not all true to life or it wouldn't be a soap opera! Indeed, Coronation Street has seen its share of jaw-dropping storylines since its inception, ranging from kidnappings and gang violence to infidelity and rape. The program's writers have never shied away from drawing viewer attention through controversial storylines, and as edgier plots have become more acceptable over time, the program has only continued to employ them through the years!

What do you want to know about the show? Whatever it is, chances are you can learn it all by reading through some Coronation Street profiles. Since the program has been on for decades, it's clearly seen its fair share of actors, writers, stories and gossip, information only the staunchest and most rabid viewers would attest to knowing all about.

General fans of the show, though, can glean some inside information by simply browsing actor profiles or even flipping through soap opera magazines! Here's just a bit of what you can pick up by reading through various types of profiles.

• Actor profiles are fantastic resources for learning more about the people playing the characters you've grown to love or loathe. Want to know more about the man who plays longest running character Ken Barlow? Wondering what those bombshells and villains are like in real life? An actor's profile is definitely the place to find out!

• Character profiles, on the other hand, tell you all you need to know about the many roles depicted on Coronation Street. If you're somewhat new to the show, you might find it handy to browse through a character guide, such as this one, and read a bit about the history of each. It's not easy to simply jump into a soap opera – what with the intricate, complicated storylines, it can be a bit of a challenge keeping up if you aren't familiar with who's who!

• Family profiles are very helpful, as they provide insight into the heart and soul of Coronation Street. All soap operas have a few main families that serve as the backbones of the community in which they reside. In Corrie's case, the Baldwins, Battersbys and Duckworths are all prominent families who have played important roles in the program's history.

• Photo profiles obviously provide greater visual insight into the show's cast. This is a great choice if you'd like to witness the changes some of the long-standing cast members have undergone since the show began decades ago. And it's also quite intriguing to see just how much the casts change from decade to decade.

• Production profiles will give you a bit of insight into the major players behind the scenes – those individuals who make it all happen but don't necessarily get recognized in a major way for it. In the case of Coronation Street, there are numerous individuals who have contributed to the show's success, including over 100 writers, 100 directors and almost 30 producers since its inception.

• Trivia profiles give you some intriguing tidbits about the show, such as the weddings, divorces, births and deaths that have happened throughout the course of the show. In a show with as much history as Coronation Street has, it's always interesting to learn about some of the famous people who have made stopovers on the street on their path to stardom. Many have graced the show, including Mollie Sugden (of Are You Being Served? fame); Joanna Lumley (Absolutely Fabulous), Ben Kingsley and HRH Prince Charles, among many others.

Fan websites, in particular, go the extra mile to provide viewers with the kind of in-depth information on Coronation Street that they crave. A few that are sure to please fans include:

• Corrieblog
• Coronation Street Updates

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