1979: Coronation Street Goes Mad!

MAD Magazine did a great skit on Coronation Street in December 1979. The idea was that Prince Charles, attending a swanky function, made a speech to his audience, telling them of how he had taken his idea for a "thundering good TV yarn" to the BBC. He called his idea Coronation Street, although the two BBC chappies he tried to sell his idea to preferred "Contraception Street" or "Confrontation Street" - "more in with the times".

But Charles was adamant that it should be Coronation Street - because he believed that Royalty didn't have enough TV coverage!

A nasty old battle axe called Cleena Marbles, lots of pinched faces and boring gossip, and definitely no trees... Prince Charles began to explain his idea. At the end of it, the BBC bods were not impressed.

"A show about a load of ugly people in a pub? About an 80 year old hero and a heroine in a hairnet? A show with no sex or violence? Full of inane conversation and with no action whatsoever? To run for at least twenty years on only ten lines of plot? Forget it - if it lasted for a week, I'd be surprised!" said one of the bods.

The other advised Charles to stick to "parachuting, scuba diving, opening factories, making controversial speeches..."

"After that I might have been downhearted except for one little thing," Charles told his audience. "It appears that nineteen years ago Dad had exactly the same idea! He took it round to the Commercial Channel lot who, unlike the BBC, know a dull idea when they see one. The consequence is they're still using the same script!"