To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Coronation Street. It was the rival BBC that commissioned ITV to make this television movie which was first broadcast on BBC4.
Scripted by Daran Little who was a fan of Coronation Street who went on to become an archivist of the show and later a writer.
The framing is how a young gobby actor turned writer Tony Warren (David Dawson) managed to persuade Harry Elton the Canadian producer of Granada TV to make a drama series about the back streets of Manchester. The kind of streets that Tony had grown up in.
Rewriting a script called Florizel Street that had previously been rejected by the BBC. Harry Elton had to persuade the Granada heads, the Bernstein brothers to go with the idea. They were not initially keen on the idea, preferring more arty projects or cheap sitcoms.
Once the project got the go ahead. They had the difficulties in casting the actors. Tony Warren wanted northerners, people from in and around Manchester. The key characters were Elsie Tanner, Annie Walker and Ena Sharples.
A love letter to the soap opera. It was made just before Granada left its studio complex at Quay Street. The key part of it was the casting process. Celia Imrie smiling knowingly as Doris Speed when told that she would have to act older. It later transpired that the actress Doris Speed had chopped some years off her real age.
The problems of casting for Ena Sharples. Lynda Baron who was a busty sex symbol in Open All Hours catches all the nuances of Violet Carson. I remember being frightened as a kid just watching Ena Sharples on the screen.
The plum role belonged to Jessie Wallace. The Eastenders stalwart had to northern up as Pat Phoenix, who like the brassy Elsie Tanner had been around the block.
Nostalgic, this was warm and witty. It was well acted by all the cast including James Roache who played the then young and rather wet William Roache, his father.
