ITV

The Secret of Soaps: The Story Behind the Stories

No one could accuse Coronation Street of taking it easy, even though this would be understandable for a middle-aged British telly institution. Over the last couple of years the ITV soap has given viewers multiple murders, deaths and suicides; explosions and a minibus crash; a pre-teen pregnancy; and even a gay vicar.

Audiences have been lapping up the drama, which regularly attracts more than 7 million viewers. Corrie remains the nation’s favourite soap.

Ten things you might not know about Coronation Street

Helen Worth as Gail Platt (Credit: ITV)

 

1. The Rovers by numbers

Everyone's favourite local watering hole the Rovers Return Inn may seem like a fake pub, but staff still pull a hefty number of pints each week, and Betty's famous hotpot lives on long after actress Betty Driver passed away in 2011. Weekly, The Rovers serves up 1,440 pints, 100 gin and tonics, and 84 hotpots - as well as 2,500 bags of crisps per year. The beer served is actually very weak - and very sweet - shandy, and the gin and tonics are just fizzy water and lime.

 

The cast and crew of ITV's Mr Bates vs The Post Office share its creation story

Mr Bates vs the Post Office belongs to that handful of British TV dramas – think Cathy Come Home or Queer as Folk – that changed the world we live in, but the shocking truth is that it almost didn’t get made.

This was one of several remarkable insights shared with the RTS into the four-part ITV series that finally drew the public’s attention to what may be our broken nation’s gravest miscarriage of justice ever.

Working Lives: Medical Advisor

Dr Thom Petty in character as Dr Neil Westland in Breathtaking

You were the lead medical advisor on Breathtaking. How did that come about?

I know Prasanna Puwanarajah, a former doctor, and had a little bit of input, along with a few other doctors, into the script he wrote with Dr Rachel Clarke and Jed Mercurio. The production felt they needed somebody on the ground as a medical advisor and I was available.

What did the job involve in pre-production?

David Tennant confirmed as Genius Game host after hints from brainteaser

David Tennant stands in a room holding a cube

The show will select players based on both their brains and social intelligence. Those looking to get ahead in the programme’s all-new game formats will need to use their heads in more ways than one.

As well as mental acuity, contestants will need to use the dark art of manipulation to cheat each other out of the cash prize.

Yesterday, ITV tweeted out a brain teaser hinting that Tennant was the host.

Small town unravels as ITV releases first trailer for detective drama Passenger

A woman drives a car down a suburban town

In the sleepy northern town of Chadder Vale, Katie Wells goes missing. Then, she comes back. Most of the villagers are content all’s well that ends well, except one.

Police officer Riya Ajunwa is relatively new in town, having been here for five years after a decade-long stint in the Met. Bored of investigating bins, she smells something fishy in Wells’s disappearance. As a series of devastating and unnatural crimes begin to be committed, her suspicions are confirmed. However, several questions remain unanswered.

ITV releases first-look image of Lucy Boynton as Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in UK

A woman indoors looks at the camera, smoking a cigarette

The four-part drama stars Lucy Boynton (Murder on the Orient Express) as the real-life 1950s London club manager, then the youngest in the capital.

Ellis later found an entirely different kind of fame, becoming the last woman in Britain to be hanged, after shooting her partner David Blakely. The drama is based on A Fine Day for Hanging: The Real Ruth Ellis Story, the biography by Carol Ann Lee.

A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story follows the impresario’s story through clubland and the abusive relationship she had with Blakely.

ITV announces major change to Celebrity Big Brother cast announcement

From Love Island’s Chloe Burrows, to Wagatha Christie victim Rebekah Vardy, to Reggae Reggae sauce creator Levi Roots, there are many rumours floating around social media as to who will be the next household names turned housemates. But fans will have to wait a little longer to lay these rumours to rest.  

ITV revealed via X (formerly Twitter) that the cast will only be announced live in the launch show – a major shake up from the 2023 civilian series, where the cast were pre-announced, and the show was pre-recorded.