`Coronation Street' is Britain's longest-running soap, on the air since 1960, and has become a beloved British television institution. The residents of Coronation Street are ordinary, working-class people, and the show follows them through regular social and family interactions at home, in the workplace, and in their local pub, the Rovers Return Inn. Over the years, the programme has covered a vast range of social and personal issues including addiction, mental health, poverty, sexuality and crime, and has played a unique role in bringing these themes into the public consciousness.