Page "Coronation Street" Paragraph 61

Coronation Street and its characters often rely heavily on archetypes, with the characterisation of some of its current cast based loosely on past characters.

Blanche Hunt ( Maggie Jones ) embodied the role of the acid-tongued busybody originally held by Ena Sharples, Sally Webster ( Sally Dynevor ) has grown snobbish, like Annie Walker, and a number of the programme's female characters mirror the vulnerability of Elsie Tanner and Bet Lynch.

Other recurring archetypes include the war veteran ( Albert Tatlock, Percy Sugden ), the bumbling retail manager ( Leonard Swindley, Reg Holdsworth, Norris Cole ), and the perennial losers ( Stan and Hilda Ogden, Jack and Vera Duckworth, and Les Battersby-Brown ).

The show's former archivist and scriptwriter Daran Little disagreed with the characterisation of the show as a collection of stereotypes.

" Rather, remember that Elsie, Ena and Co. were the first of their kind ever seen on British television.

If later characters are stereotypes, it's because they are from the same original mould.

It is the hundreds of programmes that have followed which have copied Coronation Street.