Coronation Street: Special Award 2010

Coronation Street’s behind-the-camera talent scooped a special BAFTA as the much-loved soap approached its 50th year on screen.

On 23 May 2010 the team behind the world’s longest-running soap opera won the accolade at the British Academy Television Craft Awards. The Award was in recognition of the roll-call of behind-the-camera talent the much-loved soap has nurtured over the years.

This includes Mike Newell, who went on to conquer Hollywood with Harry Potter and The Goblet Of Fire, and playwright Jack Rosenthal, who won a BAFTA for coming-of-age drama Bar Mitzvah Boy.

Other BAFTA alumni who’ve worked on the street include three-times BAFTA winner Michael Apted (The World is Not Enough), and Paula Milne, who won a BAFTA for The Politician’s Wife in 1996.

Paul Abbott (Shameless) and Frank Cottrell Boyce (24 Hour Party People) both wrote 50 episodes each. Other renowned writers, like Jimmy McGovern (Cracker) and Kay Mellor (Band of Gold), dropped in, wrote an episode and moved on.

From the very first episode on 9 December 1960, Coronation Street has been attracting TV hopefuls.

Michael Apted directed Coronation Street for nine months in 1966.

“It was a great experience,” he says.

“In many ways the show ran itself – it was extremely well organised. It had great writers and crew, and you couldn’t really go wrong. I learned how to work with actors. It had a mix of some of the biggest stars of British TV as well as newcomers. It was also a golden period for writers.”

“It was the natural training ground for writers and also directors. I wanted to write it to learn from my stuff being produced, not write plays which might never get made. I also felt that shows like ‘The Street’ were the true theatre of the people. Actually I still do,” – Paula Milne, Coronation Street writer.

Coronation Street is more than a TV institution – it’s an industry. It takes 60 cast members, a 30-strong writing and editorial team and hundreds of crew and post-production staff to produce five shows a week, 52 weeks a year.

“The demands are extraordinary – there’s a hell of lot of perspiration that goes into making Coronation Street but the real key is to keep the creative and technical excellence at the highest possible level,” says current executive producer Kieran Roberts.

“I wouldn’t go as far as to say that a writer has to work on a soap, and specifically Coronation Street, to make it,” says Roberts, “but many of the greatest writers of British television drama have cut their teeth on soap.

He says the Award is “particularly exciting for all the people who’ve worked so hard over the years behind the scenes. There’s a tremendous loyalty. We have people who’ve been with the crew for 20-plus years.”

A BAFTA Special Award is one of the academy’s highest honours recognising an outstanding contribution to film, games or television. You can see more award winners in our Awards database.

For more inspiring stories from the world of film, games and TV explore our BAFTA Award Stories section.