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,
Coronation Street 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"." Over the show's history, "Coronation Street" has highlighted a wide range of different social issues, including rape, cancer, HIV, incest, hoarding, stillbirth, murder, suicide, arson, hit-and-run, miscarriage, adultery, euthanasia, homosexuality, depression, epilepsy, osteoporosis, childhood cancer, domestic violence, post traumatic stress disorder, teenage pregnancy, gambling addiction, widowers moving onto other relationships, ehlers–danlos syndrome, brain aneurysm, drink driving, bipolar disorder, multiple sclerosis, alzheimer's disease, families