How Long Has Coronation Street Been Running? The Number Says It All

That makes it the longest-running television soap opera in the world, a title it's held officially since 2010 when the Guinness World Records recognised it after the American soap As the World Turns was cancelled. The show is currently in its 67th year of production. As of early June 2026, over 11,870 episodes have been broadcast. A Daily Mirror columnist once predicted it wouldn't last more than three weeks. He was off by about six and a half decades.

How it started

The show was created by Tony Warren, a young screenwriter from Salford. The original plan was modest — just 13 episodes. ITV picked it up as a short-run experiment, and the very first episode was broadcast live, in black and white, at 7pm. It introduced viewers to a cobbled terraced street in the fictional town of Weatherfield, Greater Manchester — a setting based on Warren's native Salford.

The first character to appear on screen was Ken Barlow, a 21-year-old university student played by William Roache. His first line? "No, thanks" — politely declining his mum's offer of bottled sauce. Roache was paid £10 per episode at the time.

The numbers

Here's what 65 years of television looks like:

• First episode — 9 December 1960.
• Total episodes — over 11,870 (as of June 2026).
• 10,000th episode — aired on 7 February 2020, an hour-long special.
• Original schedule — two episodes per week.
• Current schedule — five 30-minute episodes per week, Monday to Friday (changed in January 2026, after a stint of hour-long episodes from 2022 to 2025).
• Filming location — Granada Studios, Manchester (1960–2014); MediaCityUK, Trafford (2014–present).
• Network — ITV, from day one.

William Roache — the man who's been there since minute one

This is the part that genuinely staggers. William Roache has played Ken Barlow since the very first episode in 1960. He is now 94 years old and still appears on the programme. That's over 65 years in one continuous role — the longest run of any actor in the history of television, according to Guinness World Records.

Roache is the sole surviving original cast member. He's outlasted every co-star, every producer, every scheduling change, every format shift. He held the record for longest-serving TV soap star even before the show's 60th anniversary in 2020, when he and the programme both received updated Guinness certificates. In 2022, he was awarded an OBE for services to drama and charity.

Over the decades, Ken Barlow has had three marriages, countless love interests, feuds, breakdowns, career changes — and somehow remained in the same house on the same street. When asked about his longevity, Roache once said: "10,000 episodes — who would have believed that? If they'd offered me a 60-year contract back then, I probably would have run a mile."