Weatherfield On The Move?

ITV to relocate its Manchester base reports suggest.

Reports suggest that ITV’s historic Quay Street Studios could finally be on the move after on-off negotiations were resumed. It would of course mean the Coronation Street backlot – which has been standing since 1982 in its current location – would have to be demolished and a new cobbled terrace erected.

According to the Guardian, who incorrectly state that the street was home to iconic moments between Ena and Elsie – those moments recorded originally indoors on a fake exterior street, claim that new ITV Chairman, former ASDA supremo, Archie Norman has resumed talks to re-locate ITV Granada in the Media City complex in Salford Quays.

The studios, the first specially built broadcasting facilities for ITV, (and beat the BBC to opening the first complex by four years when London’s TV Centre finally arrived in 1960) were opened by Granada Television in 1956 and for almost 55 years the red and white ‘Granada TV’ sign on the rooftop of the studios tower block has become a cultural landmark on Manchester City Centre’s skyline.

The current studios of ITV in the North West have played host to many of ITV’s popular programming including World In Action, Stars In Their Eyes and Nearest and Dearest to name only a few.

It is, of course, Corrie that has become the iconic programme of the Manchester studios. Originally exterior shots were recorded in a studio, with outside views for the opening and closing sequences recorded on the long demolished real Archie Street. Coronation Street was finally afforded the luxury of a blacklot fake-street in 1968. This wasn’t the street viewers have now come to know and love-to-hate.

The first backlot was made initially of wood fronts, with upgrades added over the years. In 1982 the mainly-brick built set still in use today was erected on land directly behind the Granada studios, moving the recording site slightly closer to the main studio buildings than previously – mainly due to security problems with the old backlot.

The current Coronation Street set comes in for much stick for not being ‘realistic’ and has the nickname of ‘Toy Town’. With the bricks being the wrong style to the period the terrace was supposed to be erected, the viaduct which runs directly behind the houses – which suddenly vanishes in back alley shots and the long-running joke that the Rovers Return Inn toilets are actually in Ken Barlow’s kitchen – a move would hopefully correct these issues.

While Granada has always been quick to dismiss these gaffs as something the viewers don’t really notice – the same company will mock other soaps in documentaries for their apparent structural gaffs!

ATV Soap Expert Justin Mason adds: “Viewers it seems do notice every tiny detail, a design that worked in the 1960s that hasn’t been updated fully, due no doubt put down to tradition. But in a soap tradition cannot be the main priority or shows become out of touch with the here and now, it has to move forward. Emmerdale managed it successfully in 1998, there is no reason why Weatherfield can’t either.”

Bryan Gray, the chairman of the site’s developers, Peel Media, told The Guardian that: “I can confirm that we’ve offered them [ITV] a package.” The soap will celebrate 50 years of production at the Quay Street complex in December.

Reports last year also speculated that the BBC may be planning to move EastEnders from its backlot in the former ATV Elstree Studios – now BBC Elstree – to a new location, possibly the Pinewood Studios which were famously home to the Carry On movies. Both proposals to move locations come with the advent of high definition television and many older sets don’t stand up to the improved picture quality.