Queen Elizabeth has visited the set of Coronation Street to mark the long-running television soap opera’s 60th birthday.

The monarch was all smiles on Thursday as she met veteran cast and crew of the show, walked along the storied cobbled street and visited the studio where the interior of the Rovers Return pub is filmed.

It was the second time the queen, 95, has visited Coronation Street – the first time was in the early 1980s, at the show’s original studios in Manchester.

She told the cast it was “really marvellous you’ve been able to carry on” during the coronavirus pandemic and took time to chat to backstage staff including writers, camera operators, set designers and sound engineers.

The show, which focuses on the lives of residents of the fictitious northern English town of Weatherfield, is the world’s longest-running drama series.

Hong Kong-born director Patrick Lau worked on 23 episodes of Coronation Street during the 1980s.

During the royal visit, actress Kate Spencer, who plays Grace Vickers, warned the queen the set’s cobblestones were hard to walk on in heels, to which the monarch replied: “No, I know. I’ve been told. Probably better not.”

Actor Bill Roache, who has played Ken Barlow for decades since the soap’s early days, said the royal visit was a “wonderful bit of icing on the cake.”

“She just smiles. She listens, she always has and she loves to be made to laugh,” Roache said. “I’ve been lucky to meet her quite a few times and she’s always charming, and a laugh is never far away.”

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