It's a superb film and so well cast. Jessie Wallace as Pat Phoenix is wonderful as is Lynda Barron playing Violet Carson. James Roache plays a young Bill Roache (Ken Barlow). And it's got Celia Imrie in it, so that gets my vote any day of the week. A lot of it was shot at Granada Studios before it closed its doors. There are certain similarities between it and Adventures in Space and Time, which was shot largely at Television Centre.
It always annoyed me that the BBC were happy to have the programme made for them by Granada/ITV, yet the ITV channels themselves preferred to show 'the Great Big Corrie quiz' and similar ahem.. trash... to mark Corrie's 50th. Even their repeat of episode one was cut for time and edited very clumsily!
I imagine it would have been a far more expensive production had it been made for prime time ITV.
Well, TV drama doesn't necessarily need to cost 2 million quid per hour to be enjoyable and good !
Completely agree, but I would have thought the actors' agents would have negotiated a far better deal had it not been a BBC Four commission.
Yes, fair point. Though, I wonder what the typical 'talent' cost alone is for a BBC 4 style prog, compared with primetime BBC 1 or ITV ? (All other things being equal)
Do we know whether Tony or ITV (through Granada) ultimately owned the rights to Coronation Street? I'm guessing it's probably the broadcaster, but it will be kind of interesting to see how much creating arguably the countries most successful TV programme was actually worth in the end to the estate of Tony Warren.