How Coronation Street’s Carla and Lisa – Swarla – became a global phenomenon

Legions of fans right across the globe (Picture: Metro/ITV/Getty)

For over a year, alarms in New York, Mexico City and Gothenburg have been set at all hours as viewers squint in the dark on laptops and phones to watch two women on Coronation Street – Carla and Lisa – share the screen, often for just three or four minutes, sparking impassioned social media discourse, a stream of fanfiction, and for some young fans, a gateway into a 65-year-old British soap opera. 

I myself, making a 2am coffee in Upper Manhattan, have the Manc Dictionary on a tab as I write this (tea is sometimes a hot beverage, sometimes an evening meal!?). 

What makes this unusual is not just the intensity, but the scale. This is not a fandom confined to British living rooms. 

It didn’t spread through traditional viewing channels. Instead, it emerged in ...