After 60 years, the brass band melody – inspired by sun streaming through a dreary Manchester day – is now the most played piece of music on British TV
As Coronation Street turns 60 and passes 10,100 episodes, Eric Spear’s pining and plaintive theme tune has been – apart from Ken Barlow – the only constant in the show, appearing four times per episode (intro, outro and buffering the ad break). The characters come and go, the original set has been moved, and production has been repeatedly hampered by coronavirus – high-budget “Hollywood spectacular elements” for the 60th anniversary had to be cancelled. But the tune remains: 22 seconds that strove to distil a mythical sense of the north, written by a man from Croydon a fortnight before its first broadcast, and now the most played piece of music on British TV.
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