Dry runs The dry runs were two episodes of " Coronation Street " produced prior to the live transmission of Episode 1 in 1960 for viewing purposes within Granada Television . The episodes used draft scripts of the eventual episodes 1 and 3 and had some variations in cast from the transmitted episodes . Dry runs in television . A dry run or " pilot programme " is an episode or edition of a television programme made prior to its normal production run with several purposes in mind : The latter point is particularly key when considering current affairs or live programmes where pilots act as a full rehearsal although it can also be applicable to drama or comedy productions . In addition , in the United States of America such programmes are made to convince network executives to commit to the commissioning of a full series although in the United Kingdom such decisions have usually been reached at or before the scripting stage . Almost all television series have had pilots made for them although not all have reached the screen , particularly in the UK where they can be made in a more experimental prototype fashion to the eventual series . In the United States the pilots usually act as a season premiere and very little difference can be observed by the casual viewer between this episode and the remainder of the season run . Programmes in the latter market whose pilots have acted as transmitted episodes include " I Love Lucy " , " The A - Team " , " The Golden Girls " , " The X Files " and " That 70 ' s Show " . In addition , series such as " Star Trek " and " All in the Family " had more than one pilot when networks requested a second attempt before committing to a series . In the UK , " Doctor Who " had a pilot episode made which was intended to be the first episode of the series but in the event was rejected on grounds of characterisation and for being below - par technically but whose script was , with only moderate changes in places , used to remake the transmitted version three weeks later . " Coronation Street " ’ s dry runs . " Coronation Street " had two pilot programmes recorded , however they are referred to in Granada Television as " dry runs " . The episodes chosen to be made for internal viewing only were Episodes 1 and 3 but , like many events concerning the programme ' s beginning , different stories have been told about the timing and rationale behind some of the actions taken . The accepted story to date , based very much on people ' s recollections years after the event and documented in " The Coronation Street Story " and dramatised in " The Road to Coronation Street " is that drama producer Harry Elton was allowed to make a dry run of Episode 1 in the summer of 1960 only with extreme reluctance on the part of Sidney Bernstein , Chairman of Granada , who disliked Tony Warren ' s scripts , feeling that they gave a negative impression of the North of England . The episode was cast ( with Nita Valerie in the role of Ena Sharples ) and recorded and then shown to the weekly Programme Committee at Granada , made up of senior executives including Bernstein , his brother Cecil , future Managing Director Denis Forman and others , who all were unanimous in rejecting what they had seen . Elton documented this meeting in his contribution to John Finch ’ s book " Granada Television – the First Generation " when he said . . Elton described the unanimous views of the committee : Elton then performed an act of showmanship which earned the eventual approval of the Bernsteins : on an unknown date he had monitors placed around the Granada building and asked all staff to watch a playback of the episode during the lunch hour , filling in a questionnaire with their views on what they had seen . Not everyone was impressed ( Gus McDonald , the future Lord McDonald , thought the programme had no future at all ) whereas others showed the same enthusiasm for the production that the viewing public would later do when transmissions began at the end of the year . According to a popular version of the story , it was the latter which convinced the programme board to go ahead and commission the programme and they approved a run of sixteen ( some say thirteen , twelve or seven ) episodes on 25th August 1960 . Mixed in with these hazy recollections is that some people say that the dry run of Episode 3 was also recorded prior to 25th August and was also shown and commented on during the lunch playback . However within the " Coronation Street " production office , the camera script of the dry run of Episode 1 exists . This document , issued on 17th November 1960 , shows that the camera rehearsal of the episode was due to take place in Studio 2 at Granada ' s Manchester Quay Street studios between 10 . 00am and 5 . 30pm on Friday 18th November with videotape recording taking place between 7 . 30pm and 8 . 00pm on the same day . The script is different to the transmitted version in that the characters of Annie Walker and Susan Cunningham don ' t appear , the scene of Florrie Lindley being caught selling firelighters after 7 . 00pm is brought forward from Episode 2 and Peter Adamson ( later Len Fairclough ) appears as insurance man Harry Bailey , who would appear under the name of Ron Bailey intermittently from Episode 5 ( 23rd December 1960 ) onwards . The full cast of the episode is as follows : A similar camera script for the dry run of Episode 3 is lost but in this instalment the following cast members appeared : … and possibly Eileen Mayers ( later Sheila Crossley ) in the role of Linda Cheveski . As only Nita Valerie and Nan Marriott - Watson are known to have played the role of Ena Sharples before Violet Carson was finally cast before rehearsals for the transmitted version of Episode 1 began on Monday 5th December , this evidence changes the timeline of accepted events . Assuming that the 25th August decision was a " formal " commission to begin production , casting of the programme would then have taken place in September and October 1960 with design preparation by Denis Parkin taking place in tandem . The negative response from the Programme Committee meeting would then have been " after " 18th November with Harry Elton ' s lunchtime transmission to the Granada staff following very soon afterwards , with all the time alternative casting for characters such as Dennis Tanner , Albert Tatlock and Ena Sharples and the creation and casting of David Barlow happening in quick succession . This relatively short gap of just three weeks between dry run and transmission is echoed by other productions of the time such as the aforementioned " Doctor Who " where the pilot was recorded on Friday 27th September 1963 and the transmitted version was also in studio three weeks later on Friday 18th October . Granada had a network obligation to transmit a programme in the 7 . 00pm timeslot on Friday 9th December and the following Wednesday and Friday slots thereafter and this ties in with Harry Elton ' s published statement in the above - mentioned John Finch book that the Programme Committee had no choice " but " to proceed with production as there was nothing else in preparation to fill the transmission slot , however he was also instructed to find a replacement as soon as possible . He further went on to state an alternative reason for the lunchtime closed - circuit broadcast of the dry run : He went on to describe the result and concluded … Until further contemporary paperwork comes to light , the timeline of the birth of the programme will remain subject to debate . Archive status . The two dry runs no longer exist in the Granada Television archives . The only other " Coronation Street " - related material not in the archives are the two inserts for the " All Star Comedy Carnival " shown at Christmas 1969 and 1970 , the two pilot programmes for the spin - off " Pardon the Expression " and the six episodes of the 1967 spin - off " Turn out the Lights " .