Coronation Street is an English television soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960. The show has been on the air for over 51 years. Coronation Street is produced by ITV Granada Television under ITV Studios and shown in all ITV regions. It has been filmed in Manchester at the Granada Studios since inception, but filming will move to a new set at Media City in Trafford in 2013.

Since first being aired, it has been one of the most financially lucrative programmes on British commercial television, underpinning the success of its broadcaster ITV and its franchise Granada Television. On 17 September 2010, it became the world's longest-running TV soap opera in production, after the United States soap opera As the World Turns ended.

The first episode was aired on 9 December 1960 and was not initially a critical success; Daily Mirror columnist Ken Iriwin claimed the series would only last three weeks. Granada Television commissioned only 13 episodes and some inside the company doubted the show would last its planned production run. Despite the criticism, viewers were immediately drawn to the serial, won over by Coronation Street's 'ordinary' characters. The programme also made use of Northern English language and dialect; affectionate local terms like "eh, chook?", "nowt" (IPA  /ˈnaʊt/, means nothing), and "by heck!" became widely heard on British television for the first time.