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 previous episode. The regular exterior buildings shown in "Coronation Street" include a row of terrace houses, several townhouses, and communal areas including a newsagents ("The Kabin"), a café ("Roy's Rolls"), a general grocery shop ("D&S Alahan's"), a factory ("Underworld") and "Rovers Return Inn" public house. The Rovers Return Inn is the main meeting place for the show's characters. Between 1960 and 1968, street scenes were filmed before a set constructed in a studio, with the house fronts reduced in scale to 3/4 and constructed from wood. In 1968 Granada built an outside set not all that different from the interior