Beverley Callard thinks ‘Coronation Street’ will be on air for 100 years.
Beverley Callard
The long-running ITV soap will celebrate its 60th anniversary next month, and cobbles icon Beverley - who has played former Rovers Return landlady Liz McDonald on and off since 1984 - has said she could see the soap continuing to air for at least another 40 years.
When asked if she thinks ‘Corrie’ will run long enough to see its 100th anniversary, she said: “That would be amazing. I don’t see any reason why not.
"It depends on the accountants, but the show should be put before anything. If I were in control, that’s what I would try to do. I think it will continue.”
Beverley believes ‘Corrie’ needs to “evolve” to keep up with the changes in the ways people consume televised content, but ultimately thinks the show has a winning formula that will stand the test of time.
She added: “Today, people not tuning in on Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 7.30pm can watch it when they feel like watching. These days, the show’s aims are different. It has to evolve but it will keep going for a very long time.
“When it started, they said, ‘It won’t last very long’. But the secret, and what they have to keep going, more than anything, is that it’s a matriarchal show - and that’s what [its late creator] Tony Warren captured.
“Tony knew women, he really got that. They were sirens who would literally kill. They were like lionesses, they would kill for their families.”
The 63-year-old actress even joked that 88-year-old ‘Corrie’ icon Bill Roache - who has played Ken Barlow since day one in 1960 - will find a way to be there when the programme marks its centenary in 2060.
Speaking to The Sun newspaper to mark the start of the outlet’s ‘Corrie Week’, she quipped: “He definitely will, and he will still have that amazing hair — he’s the Robert Redford of soaps.”
‘Coronation Street’, which is the world’s longest-running serial, will turn 60 on December 9.
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