The Road to Coronation Street the character of Annie Walker, and Lynda Baron played the role of Violet Carson, who played one of "Coronation Street"s most iconic characters, Ena Sharples. John Thomson and Michelle Holmes, who had previously been members of the Coronation Street cast, appeared as H.V. Kershaw and Harry Elton's secretary respectively. The drama achieved a peak of 852,000 viewers on its first transmission, making it the second most popular programme in BBC Four's history, behind 2008's "The Curse of Steptoe" at 1.41m viewers. Sam Wollaston, a critic for "The Guardian", gave a positive review, stating ""The Road to Coronation Street" is fond,
Mike Baldwin (Coronation Street) suggesting that as Alma she treated Mike in the same way that she [Barrie] treated Briggs off-set, poking fun at him. Television researcher Helena Robson has discussed the appeal of soap operas and suggested that "many soap stories are never finally resolved and conflicts between characters may run throughout the programme's history". She used the "undying hatred" between Mike Baldwin and Ken Barlow (William Roach) as an example of this, suggesting that viewers "welcome the sense of stability this offers although the element of change offers as much enjoyment for viewers." It was suggested in an ITV documentary in 2006