'I watched the first episode of Coronation Street and one key thing surprised me'

Like many people I don't remember a time in my life where Coronation Street wasn't a feature - hardly surprising since it is coming up to its 65th anniversary. Since my mother was a fan it would be on in our household and while I dipped in and out in my teens I have watched pretty consistently since then. Nowadays I also often write about it and have been lucky enough to meet many of the cast over the years. Obviously the early episodes were well before my time and given how gritty and dark many of the current storylines are I delved into the archive to go back to the beginning to see if that was always the case.

Even though I wasn't born when the episode aired as the black and white images flickered on my screen I still recognised all the original characters such is their place in Corrie lore. The likes of the formidable Rovers Return landlady Annie Walker (played by Doris Speed) and the feisty Elsie Tanner (Pat Phoenix) are icons of the show. And of course there is irrepressible Ken Barlow, played by soap legend William Roche. He of course is still in the role and holds the world record as the longest serving television soap actor. The biggest surprise in this six and a half decade old episode actually came from him.

Ken's accent was distinctly more northern in this episode. The former teacher and journalist has always been articulate and erudite in the episodes I've grown up with.

Even in episodes that pop up on Classic Coronation Street from the 1970s he is very well spoken. He talks like someone who has lived in the south and softened his accent. However in these early offerings he sounds far more Mancunian.

Given that Ken has never left the cobbles other than for the odd holiday I found this distinctly odd. A bit of digging revealed that this wasn't my imagaination and he had in fact changed the way he spoke as the show progressed.

He reportedly used a more pronounced Lancashire accent to fit the working-class setting of the show originally. However, over time, as he became more comfortable and the show became a long-running fixture, he gradually dropped it in favour of his natural accent.

Ken's (very distracting) accent aside overall I found the episode quite charming and warm - something that the soap sadly seems to have lost in the midst of storylines about serial killers, grooming gangs and mistaken identities. While it was definitely gentler than the assault on the senses most modern TV and not just Corrie has become, it did touch on some darker subjects.

Dennis Tanner (Phillip Lowrie) has just been released from prison after a three month stretch for petty theft. Meanwhile his sister Linda had left her husband Ivan Cheveski, which was a huge social stigma at the time.

Even the opening scenes which showed the apparently single (her husband would track her down five years later) Florrie Lindley (Betty Alberge) taking over the corner shop was shining a spotlight on societal norms at a time when it was highly unusual for a single woman to run a business like that.

Suffice to say Coronation Street has apparently never shied away from controversial plots, even if they do seem a bit tame when viewed through the modern gaze.