Coronation Street

I noticed that as well - it was quite strange. Are Corrie trying to highlight car parking offences!

no, somebody p###ed off a writer with a parking fine then they got it in the neck at school for not putting their kid's book in their bookbag

why is it in soaps anybody who cannot drink in pubs never orders a cola drink

Happened to look at some old Corrie clips from the 60's on You Tube.

One of the clips starts & ends with 'Granada Television International', which must mean they're export copies.

Are the export copies the only copies that remain in the archives, or are they duplicate copies & whoever did the research for retransmission picked up the first copy to hand?

Does any 60's Corrie survive on B & W VT as originally transmitted, or are they all telerecordings/film prints?

(The only clips I've seen of B & W VT Corrie have been from the colour strike era, Val Barlow's death for example!)

By the way, when did the various 'Granada' frontcaps & endcaps change, as the classic 70's one we normally see, I saw in the 1969 coach crash clip, albeit in B & W minus the 'Colour Production' bit obviously?

I believe that all of the original VTs were wiped, as was the norm back then. AIUI all 1960s episodes exist but only on film telerecordings made, as you rightly say, for international sales.

As for Granada frontcaps: there are some of these telerecordings that have the original frontcaps intact (see one such example below, courtesy of TV Ark), but most of them have the "Granada Television International" ones tacked onto the beginning and the end ready for foreign audiences.

http://hub.tv-ark.org.uk/images/itvnorthwest/itv_northwest_images/endcaps/GTV_endboards/granada_1965.jpg

I think in about 1968 - when Granada lost the entire North and was relegated to the North West - it was decided that their arrow symbol didn't accurately reflect their new service and so it was replaced by a rather bland looking frontcap; essentially the word "Granada" on a grey screen, surrounded by two thick black lines. I guess the people at the top also thought it too bland as it disappeared quite quickly, about a year later, to be replaced by the famous G-arrow symbol that was to be in use for the next thirty years ("Granada" and the symbol underneath it). This is essentially the frontcap that was used until the late '80s (save for the various colour adjustments), with "Colour Production" being added to the necessary programmes.

I don't know if I've got all the info precisely correct - perhaps someone more knowledgeable could jump in... - but hope this helps!

The first Coronation Street in the archive kept originally from its 2" Videotape is from 3rd Nov 1969. All the others before are listed as being film copies.

When you think that some early Coronation Street episodes were live broadcasts, it is remarkable that every episode has survived. After all, the programme was meant to fill a slot for 13 weeks, not run for 50 years. Granada always archived a far greater amount of its output that most other ITV companies. In comparison, few episodes of Crossroads, made by ATV, were kept before the late 70s. ATV, ABC, Rediffusion etc preserved very little for posterity. It's understandable. Keeping programmes was a costly process. Much of the output would never be repeated anyway. No one, in the 60s, envisaged there would be, for instance, a channel showing repeat after repeat of old quiz and game shows. And, as far as drama's concerned, an agreement with the actors' union meant programmes made on videotape could be screened once, repeated and then put on a shelf to gather dust unless substantial fees were paid.

Just catching up with last nights corrie, who has an AA meeting across the road from a pub?!?! Also that cake looked more like the Queen than Betty! God nows what I'm getting in the second half.

you're getting nowt, there's no second half on a Thursday

the corry street view is showing google map instead of the actual street bit

sorry I meant that I was halfway through the episode on the adverts on ITV player

I realised that after posting

the corry street view worked the second time

It was an excellent episode - well done to Betty still pulling pints at 90 and also Betty Driver is almost 90 herself and is still amazing.

I also think the Peter Barlow storyline is going to get really good.

Ever reliable Wiki says she is 79 - I thought she was 89