The British writer who created the long-running soap ”Coronation Street,” has died after a short illness.

Tony Warren was 79.

He was an actor when he had the idea for a TV series set in a working class street in northwestern England, where he’d grown up.

The initial 13-episode run of what was initially called ”Florizel Street”, was renamed before it’s first broadcast in December 1960.

Some TV executives had their doubts about the show, but ”Coronation Street” still has millions of viewers.

Warren also wrote some novels, other TV shows and the 1960 film ”Ferry Cross The Mersey,” starring the Liverpool group Gerry and the Pacemakers, but nothing else had the impact of the British soap.