Conversation Street

As part of my research I reached out to a coronation street podcast that I listen to occasionally that have been running for 9 years. I emailed them and asked what they thought the most significant issue and controversial storylines have been from each decade from the 60's to current times. This is what they replied with.

60's 
- There were a couple of suicide attempts this decade that would have probably been quite shocking at the time, and very taboo - Christina Hardman and Sheila Birtles (the latter was rewritten after it got out that she'd take her own life and there was massive uproar)
- Generally the battle between Ken and his dad about upward mobility of working class people, and early activism (Ken's ban the bomb protesting)
- When Harry Hewitt and Concepta Riley got married, it was a bit of a big deal as having a Catholic marry a Protestant at the time would have been quite shocking. They had quite a few complaints, it sounds like!
70s
- There was an interesting string of episodes in late 1970 where a gypsy encampment was set up near the street, with characters all taking very different yet equally impassioned stances about how the residents should interact with them. Not a very well-known story, but very interesting to watch! It was on YouTube last year, but I know that some of the channels hosting old episodes were taken down.
80s
- Catholic and Protestant tensions were brought up again when Gail married Brian, whose mother was Catholic, and wanted the children to be raised in the Catholic faith. After Brian was killed, Ivy turned very heavily to her religion to support her, much to the ire of Gail.
- There was an early racism story this decade when Curly Watts went out with Shirley Armitage, which some characters, including much-loved Alf Roberts, clearly didn't fully approve of. This kind of thing was brought up again in later decades e.g. when Fiona Middleton and Alan MacKenna got engaged and his parents weren't too happy with it (or maybe just his dad?) and the same with Geena's mum not being happy with her courting Dev in the early 2000s.
90s
- Hayley Cropper - massive deal was made of having UK soap's first transgender character, and it's been said that the change in laws regarding transgender people (e.g. being able to marry) is partly down to the influence this story had. (Probably worthwhile Googling Corrie and parliament here)
- Spider's eco warrior protests seemed quite topical at the time too, especially as this was near the beginning of Corrie's attempts to modernize and reflect more real-life issues. Spider was clearly modelled on Swampy!
- In a way, the bizarre cult story with Zoe Tattersall was a bit of an issues story in the late 90s, and followed some big real life cult stories in the news in the early to mid-90s (e.g. Ruby Ridge, Waco Siege, Sarin gas attacks in Tokyo, Heaven's Gate etc.)
00s
- Sarah-Louise's pregnancy. Brought into focus teenage pregnancies and the issues surrounding it, as well as still being a bit of a taboo subject at the time.

10s
Take your pick! Big increase in issues-based stories here, including
- Aidan Connor's suicide
- Coercive control with Geoff and Yasmeen
- Hayley's right to die story
- Carla's mental breakdown
- Bethany Platt's sexual exploitation
- David Platt's rape
- Craig's OCD
- Homosexuality in football
- Modern slavery.

Is this useful and how will I use this information?

I believe the information is relatively reliable as the couple who run the podcast have been doing it for 9 years and have a few episodes where they talk about some of the most important issue based storylines. From this I learnt about Shelia Birtles and how in 1963 the original footage of her committing suicide had to be scrapped, as the storyline was leaked and many views of the show complained so they changed the storyline to show that she took pills trying to kill herself but was then found and saved. 

This shows how times have changed as suicide is perceived from it being changed from the very idea that we would see someone kill themselves would be shocking and unbelievable, to it being a vital and important storyline that the show helped to raise awareness.