Carlton and Granada merger -LATEST NEWS

They do, at the end of the Street, past the Kabin and the Corner Shop, are the garage like buildings under the viaduct, where Don Brennan met his demise. This is where I understood the sets were.

I don't think so - that's just a fake wall; I don't think there's anything behind it... I could be wrong though.

Would Channel islands actually want a clean feed? I think not! perhaps Carlton-Granada's next takeover....

Monday's Independent had this piece on the implications of the merger on SMG, UTV and Channel:

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/media/story.jsp?story=453215

I personally favour removing (at least some of) the old company names from the news titles. The words "central" and "west country" (or "westcountry" ) might happen to be the former company names, but they also sound like ambiguous descriptions of their region, so names such as that could happily stay in the news titles as far as I'm concerned.

Unless you can think of anything that sound better... "Heartland News" and "South West Today", anyone?

But "Granada" is not a synonym for "north west England"; and "Meridian" is not a synonym for "south & south east England" (etc etc).

So, why not "North West Reports", as DJ Dave suggested?

Would sub-regions have to have totally different titles? (e.g. for Meridian: "South News", "South East News", and "Thames Valley News" or whatever) :

Apart from the Wales, Scottish and Irish regions I think all the English regions should be rebranded so the name relates to the area which they serve

ITV1 South
ITV1 Westcountry
ITV1 West of England
ITV1 Central England
ITV1 North West
ITV1 North East
ITV1 Yorkshire
ITV1 London


Then we could have - HTV Wales, STV, Grampian and Ulster for the nations.

Problem is, the term Westcountry actually refers to the area covered by HTV West more than Westcountry TV itself, so ITV West (not Westcountry so confusion doesn't set it) and South West might be better.

And ITV North East is no good at all. Part of the reason C3NE failed as badly as it did is that a fair proportion of the TTTV region is not the North East; it's North Yorkshire. Leaving the Tyne Tees name intact is, I feel, the best solution to be honest (since the two main studios are on the Tyne and the Tees, and the name is recognised as a local title -- plenty of NE businesses are called Tyne Tees).

It's only really Meridian and Granada that cause a problem with the regional names. The others, whilst not necessarily accurate, are at least fair descriptions of the areas they serve.

Well three people have said the same thing. It would be good if someone has an aerial shot of the studios.

I agree Chris - When I visited the street I think the other side of that wall was the outside of the studios and nothing to do with Granada TV - The sets at the time I visited the set were in the main Granada TV studio's - and there were a few sets as part of the Granada Studios tour, which was situated in that building you can see behind the medical centre, the Rovers end of the Street. Now the tour has closed they may have moved the sets to that building im not sure.

When I went on the studio tour they showed us how they film a weather forcast (they used the ITV National graphics) and also the set of Granada News, which was a fake set cos it was really small and surely the main Granada News comes from the main Granada studios rather from right in the middle of a studio set up for tours. The Rovers Return they also had where you could go for a drink was also a fake one, although the wallpaper was the same other than that there wasnt much attempt to make the layout look like the real set.

That is wrong. The area behind the wall at the end of Coronation Street past the Kabin where Don Brennan drove into, belongs to Granada TV, in fact it's where the main entrance is (not where the entrance to the studio tour is).

The main entrance to the Granada Studios Tour is on Water Street. The Coronation Street set I believe runs parrallel with Water Street. As you walk around the perimeter of Granada TV along Water Street, you turn the corner, and go into Quay Street. This is actually the main entrance to Granada, and you see most of the celebs driving in and out from this entrance. (You saw Brian Capron driving out here in the show about him leaving the Street).

Whether or not they use this area for the sets I'm not sure, but it is definately Granada space.

the link below shows the map :
http://www.granadatv.co.uk/aboutus/granadamap.pdf

Coronation Street actually slots in in the gap between Granada and the Science Museum on that map, the gate to the street set is actually at the top end of street where the main reception is. I had a walk down here when I was in Manchester during the summer and you can actually see the post box at the side of Dev's shop and Steve and Karen's door from the street.

I think the viaduct is the green room for the actors when they are doing scenes on the outdoor set

Yes I know the enterance to the tours is different to the main studios enterance, but I was still under the impression that the main studios are beind the Corrie set (the side of the Rovers and Corner Shop) thats why I dont think there is anything behind that wall where Don Brennan crashed into.

I last visited the set in 1997 so obviously its all changed since then, im not sure what the use the bits where the other parts of the studio tour were (the bits other than Coro St)