1982 - The Very First Coronation Street Video Release...

In late 1982, when I saw the Magic Of Coronation Street in my local WH Smith's, I didn't have a VCR. Few people did (only 5% of the population in 1980) so that didn't worry me, but, by late 1982, I was thinking that one day I MIGHT have one, so I bought the video. It turns out it was 1987 before I actually got a VCR, but it was worth the wait because The Magic Of Coronation Street is a great watch - classic episodes from the show's early days, linked by Annie Walker, Elsie Tanner and Len Fairclough in the Rovers Return in 1982, reminiscing.

Broadcast Magazine, December 1982: Video releases. Annie Walker, of course, represents the Street's debut on video. But then, when one is licensee of one of the borough's foremost hostelries and a former Lady Mayoress to boot, one expects these little chores...

This was the very first Coronation Street video release (brilliantly parodied by Victoria Wood a few years later as something you could "keep and keep again") and it still makes lovely viewing. The episodes it contains, including the very first, are smashing, but the interlinking stuff from 1982 is also brilliant. It all finishes at Closing Time at the Rovers, with Annie bidding Elsie and Len goodnight, and treating Len to one of her specialities - a gorgeously sugary bitchy remark. Having observed him spending the evening with his old love, she can't resist a parting shot: "My love to Rita!"