Welcome to Corrie ­— that is Coronation Street, Maryport, not Manchester.

It would be easy to muddle the two, however, as Coronation Street Maryport appeared in an advertisement in prime-time television this week, sponsoring the popular and long-running soap.

The advertisement was for Argos, which has become only the fourth major sponsor in the soap opera’s 60-year history.

Gavel Street resident Kimberley Benson watched it all happen.

“My mum, Julie Howley, lives in Coronation Street and I can see her house from mine.

“We got letters in December asking us to move our cars off the street between 7am and 5pm on day.

“I was not at work so I saw it all happening ­— the film crew here and how they went about filming the advertisement.”

The advertisement caused a small sensation on social media.

Some said they could not believe what they saw.

There were more than 60 comments. Most were identifying the houses shown in the film ­— “my old house,” “my Mam’s house” and reliving memories of this west coast Coronation Street.

Cynthia Thompson spoke about living in Coronation Street as a child and how much fun it had been.

“Happy days!” was the response from Lynne Vickers.

Maryport Mayor Peter Kendall said he is delighted at anything that gives Maryport a little publicity.

“I am very proud of Coronation Street ­— our one. Now that we are appearing in such close proximity to the iconic television series maybe we could get a Royal Warrant now!

“On a more serious note, at a time when we are looking to attract regeneration money to the town it is great to see us mentioned in any way, shape or form.

“And, if nothing else, it has sparked something positive to talk about at a time when lockdown and worries about schools and Covid are the main talking about.”

Vera Duckworth may not live in the Maryport Corrie, but it seems there are as many characters having as much fun and sharing much as there are on TV.

An Argos spokesman said the company wanted to highlight the extent of its services this by featuring Coronation Streets from all over the UK.

“We started off by conducting thorough research to locate and collate all the Coronation Streets in the UK; we then selected the chosen streets based on a few factors including those that that displayed a range of different families.”

He added: “All the residents were amazing and really accommodating while we shot the footage.”