g7uk » granada

TV drama filming, Stevenson Square, Manchester

GS — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 17:21:10 +0000

As I passed Stevenson Square on my way home, at 5.30pm, a film crew was shooting a drama for Granada TV in the Koffee Pot cafe.

Manchester television history disappears

GS — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 20:15:44 +0000

A small piece of Manchester’s television history disappeared in November when the transmission tower was removed from the roof of the Granada TV office building.

Most Haunted: Coronation Street

GS — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 03:59:06 +0000

On YouTube I found an episode of Most Haunted from 2005 in which they visit the studios and outdoor set of Coronation Street.

The studio is built on a former graveyard they claim. This is not the 1960′s Granada block but a studio that was constructed next to Lower Byrom Street in the late 1980′s.

It’s a good story, but a quick look through some photographs on the Manchester City Council local image library suggests it isn’t true.

The site of St. John’s Church now. Photo date: November 2008

My Richard and Judy experience

GS — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 14:24:40 +0000

Channel Four is in the news again over yet another possible scam. This time involving the You Say We Pay quiz on the Richard and Judy programme.

The Daily Telegraph gets it wrong

GS — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 12:47:39 +0000

In its obituary for Jennifer Moss, who played Lucille Hewitt in Coronation Street, The Daily Telegraph repeatedly refers to ‘Grampian Television’ instead of Granada.

What a mistake to make about one of the most famous television programmes of all time from probably the most famous ITV company. Doesn’t the Telegraph have sub-editors?

How can you trust a publication that is wrong about something as basic as this and doesn’t notice?

It alarms me just how often I see factual errors like this on subjects I know something about. I’ve spotted a few in The Independent newspaper over recent months. And the obvious question is, how many mistakes are there in articles about subjects I know nothing about?

Here Come the Double Deckers

GS — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 23:02:43 +0000

One of my favourite TV programmes as a kid.

As far as I can make out, this series has never been released on video or DVD in the UK (and probably not in the US either). The last time I remember it being on terrestrial TV here was in the Granada ITV region in 1990.

This is one of a vast number of British television programmes and films that remain unseen, languishing in a vault somewhere. There are British films that I’ve never been able to watch and there is no way to see them because they are not available anywhere.

As a content producer myself I understand the need for copyright. But, is it right that companies can deny us access to our cultural heritage and prevent us from viewing these for decades? Simply because they can’t be bothered, or can’t make a profit by releasing them.

There should be some way for people to see these. Either require the companies to make a copy available that people can borrow from a local library. Or make it legal to share non-profit copies of commercially unavailable material.

Carry On Screaming with The Sun

GS — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 14:26:17 +0000

In terms of sheer hypocrisy no other British newspaper can match The Sun. Take Tuesday’s issue…

On the bottom half of the front page: relatives of the victims of the ‘Moors Murderers’ condemn Granada Television for merely filming an episode of Coronation Street on Saddleworth Moor.

On the top half of The Sun’s front page: ‘Free today! Carry On Screaming DVD’. Which is especially appalling when you consider that Brady and Hindley recorded one of their victims as they abused her.

Presumably it is OK for Rupert Murdoch to use the murders along with a comedy DVD to sell his rag of a ‘newspaper’?

As far as the Coronation Street issue is concerned… I have sympathy with the relatives, but I don’t think you can ban all filming at a certain location because of something that happened forty years ago. Any drama that is based in Manchester, and which needs a desolate location, is going to turn to the moors.

Actually I’ve always wondered if the 1959 film Hell Is A City gave Brady ideas in the first place. There is a scene in that where a woman who works in a bookmakers is abducted by the robbers, murdered in the car and her body thrown out on the moors.

Very few films were made in Manchester, so Hell Is A City would have been a big event. It had its premiere at the Apollo Theatre, Ardwick, in April 1960. Brady and Hindley began killing and burying the bodies on Saddleworth Moor just over three years later…