Video: The First Episode of Coronation Street

The first episode of Coronation Street was broadcast on December 9th, 1960.

In September 2010 Coronation Street became the world's longest-running television soap opera; it celebrated its fiftieth birthday last year.

But why is this intensely parochial television series that has willfully refused to acknowledge change still going strong? In Coronation Street: A Jubilee Street Party Andrew Roberts explains how and why the soap opera has survived.