Coronation Street is a British soap opera, produced by ITV Studios. Created by writer Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on ITV on 9 December 1960. It has been produced by Phil Collinson since 2010. The following is a list of characters introduced by Collinson in the show's fifty-first year, by order of first appearance. January saw three introductions; (Pooja Shah), the detective in charge of the investigation into the attack on Tracy Barlow (Kate Ford), (Andrew Hall), a new love interest for both Audrey Roberts (Sue Nicholls) and Claudia Colby (Rula Lenska), and , played by former The Bill actor Andrew Lancel, as a new business partner for Carla Connor (Alison King). (Ellie Leach), the adoptive daughter of Anna (Debbie Rush) and Eddie Windass (Steve Huison), Jeff Cullen (Steven Houghton), a love interest for Sally Webster (Sally Dynevor), and the soap's first Chinese character, (Elizabeth Tan), a friend of Tina McIntyre (Michelle Keegan), arrived in February. Veteran actress Stephanie Cole joined as Sylvia Goodwin, the mother of established character Roy Cropper (David Neilson), in April. June saw a new family take over the running of the Rovers Return for the first time as former EastEnders actress Michelle Collins and Taggart actor John Michie took on the roles of and respectively. The couple were also joined by Stella's daughter (Catherine Tyldesley). A potential new love interest for Steve McDonald (Simon Gregson), Beth Tinker (Lisa George), and her son (Colson Smith) arrived in August and Frank's parents, (Gwen Taylor) and (Paul Clayton), made their first appearances in September, along with Kirsty Soames (Natalie Gumede), a new love interest for Tyrone Dobbs (Alan Halsall). Paul Kershaw's (Tony Hirst) Alzheimer's-suffering wife, (Judy Holt), followed in October and Jeremy Sheffield began appearing as , a new love interest for Becky McDonald (Katherine Kelly), in December. That same month saw the birth of Chesney Brown (Sam Aston) and Katy Armstrong's (Georgia May Foote) newborn son , the only child to be born that year.