DO you notice people who play the small parts in television dramas? You know, the barman polishing glasses in the background, the waitress, the bus conductor?

If you don’t — spare them more than a glance next time. You might be watching a television star in the making.

It isn’t enough to be a first-class stage performer if you are going to succeed on television. You have to be trained for the new medium — and for this reason most television companies have a system of trying out promising actors and actresses with small roles.

One system was initiated, in fact, by Margaret Morris — who has just taken over as producer of Coronation Street but who was then head of casting.

“In those days all actors and actresses in our plays were imported from London,” said Margaret. “But we knew that there was a huge reservoir of virtually untouched talent in the North itself, and we wanted to get that talent onto our screens.”

The Casting Department travelled thousands of miles up and down the region, following tip-offs — visiting scores of theatres, interviewing hundreds of performers.

Margaret made a number of real television discoveries.

Peter Adamson was one of her most exciting. Peter was working at Sale Repertory Theatre when Margaret spotted him.

“He had a rugged romantic quality, and a marvellous comedy ability,” she said. “But hardly any television experience.”

So Peter was introduced through bit-parts in a number of series and made a big impression with a small part in one in particular.

“And by the time Coronation Street came along, he was more than ready for the part of Len Fairclough,” she said.

“Pat Phoenix was another actress with a first-class repertory reputation but little television experience,” said Margaret.

Pat was first seen on ITV screens in a small part in The Verdict Is Yours. And her magnetism marked her out for future stardom immediately.

Doris Speed and Arthur Leslie were both bom into the theatre business — but they, too, went through the “digestive” process.

“Doris gave a most memorable performance as a precise and businesslike lady magistrate in a court series,” said Margaret.

“Arthur used that great quality of gentleness to best effect in one of his series. And after those they were natural choices for Jack and Annie Walker.”

Bill Roache came from repertory in Oldham to play the lead of a soldier with a social conscience — “a boy very similar to Kenneth Barlow” — in a play called Marking Time, after two other tiny initiating parts.

Ivan Beavis was the greatest gamble of all — because Margaret had only seen him in a Manchester amateur production before giving him his first chance.

But by the time casting was under way for Coronation Street, Ivan was already some thing of a television “veteran” with half a dozen brief appearances in other shows.

The post Learning to live in Coronation Street appeared first on THIS IS GRANADA from Transdiffusion.

‣ Introduction by TONY WARREN who brought the street to television

WHERE is Coronation Street? My unfavourite question and one I am asked every day. Why my unfavourite question? Because I simply don’t know the answer.

I’ve been told for a fact that it’s in Salford, Manchester, Leeds — even Birmingham. I am always meeting someone who knows someone who lived there.

Seven terraced houses, a pub, a comer shop and a whole lot of people.

Everyone knows their own Elsie Tanner, half-admires their Ena Sharpies, makes excuses for the Minnie Caidwell in their lives: “When all’s said an’ done she’s very good to ’er mother.”

A canal, a viaduct, the memory of a tram, the reality of the bus-stop at the corner.

You can borrow a cup of sugar, get someone to lay a bet and if you’re ill you can be sure your windows will never go dirty and someone will stone your step. You’ll belong. Belonging, however, can have its drawbacks. Everyone will know all your business though they’d never admit it, and should such a thing as a plain van draw up at your front door there’ll be a stirring of seven pairs of lace curtains.

On bonfire nights there’s parkin and treacle toffee, at Christmas port and sherry and the same at funerals with ham and tongue, tinned cling peaches and cream horns.

This then is the Coronation Street that is being featured on this page.

But where IS Coronation Street?

The answer: Just where ever you want it to be.

All their yesterdays

‣ A glimpse into the past… what was Coronation Street like 25 years ago… what were your favourite inhabitants like… in 1936

CATCH a 181 bus outside the Town Hall and fourpence will take you to Coronation Street. Look out for the stop outside Bessie Street School, walk 100 yds., turn left and you’re in the street that millions visit twice a week.

But it’s only during the past year that it’s become well, overcrowded!

What was it like 25 years ago? What sort of picture would you have seen back in 1936?

You’d have come by tram, of course. You’d have turned left at the Rover’s Return — and you wouldn’t have known the difference.

The bricks and mortar were the same … the houses, the factory, the Mission.

The forest of TV aerials hadn’t even been planted, of course, and there wasn’t a frozen food locker in the corner shop or plastic piping in the pub — but they were on the way.

It was only a question of time.

On the way too were Christine Hardman, the Barlow boys, Doreen Lostock and Dennis Tanner.

Mind, if you’d told this to Elsie Tanner, the child-bride at No. 11, she’d have said you were flamin’ mad! As far as she was concerned young Linda, sucking her dummy in the pram outside, was the first — and the last!

Bored stiff, not caring much for the neighbours, Elsie sat and smoked and waited for the sea to wash her sailor husband home again — or at least for something to happen.

And, 1,000 miles away, a boy named Ivan Cheveski ran around the streets of Warsaw where they hadn’t any TV aerials either. He’d heard of England — vaguely.

Down the street at the Rover’s Return, Jack and Annie Walker were in their first year as landlords. It wasn’t what Annie was used to, but she tried to think it had possibilities.

Some of the customers weren’t up to her standard, particularly some of the women who came in the snug, but she had ideas about that, too.

She didn’t say anything to Jack, of course, because there were other things to be got out of the way first — like starting a family. It could all be dealt with in good time.

Down the other end of the street, at No. 1, Albert Tatlock struggled hard to keep a wife and two daughters on a municipal clerk’s wage of under £4 a week.

His wife didn’t like the street very much, and he wondered sometimes if she wasn’t giving the girls ideas, but he supposed it would all work out in the end.

A bit of a philosopher, Albert, they all said, and a big reader. They respected him for it but he didn’t have many close friends.

A family called Leeming lived next door at the time — the Barlows didn’t move in until 1940. Sam Leeming died at Dunkirk and his wife went back to her parents.

It was Mary Hewitt, Harry’s mother, who persuaded Ida Barlow to get husband Frank interested in the empty house. Twenty-five years later, Harry Hewitt stood in the rain and watched them carry Ida out.

The Hayes were at No. 5.

Mr. Hayes, a quiet scholarly man who had obviously come down in the world, lived in the street but never really became a part of it.

Neither did his wife, who was an invalid and seldom seen outside the house. It was Esther the daughter, then a quiet 12-year-old who represented the family to the street, along with her brother Tom.

“A good little lass that,” they would say, watching Esther hanging out the washing in the backyard, or scouring the front step.

But when Tom’s name was mentioned they merely shook their heads, sadly, and predicted a sorry future for this wild, undisciplined boy.

It was like that in the street in 1936. They lived the present vigorously, or placidly, according to their natures, and predicted the future as they saw, or hoped, or feared it would be.

Flashback

‣ Births, deaths, weddings, trips, crises … they all made up the first exciting year of television’s most famous street. Here in next week’s supplement, we recall some of the dramatic highlights as viewers saw them at the time.

DECEMBER

Trouble at the comer shop where Florrie Lindley, who has just taken over the business from Elsie Lappin and is determined to make a success of it, has her first brush with the law. She finds she’s been committing an offence by selling a packet of fire-lighters after hours — to a policewoman, too?

JANUARY

Tragedy has come to the street with the death of Christine Hardman’s widowed mother. But it is not long before a new face comes into her life when she meets a handsome plumber called Joe Makinson. In Snape’s Cafe a romance begins to develop that has everyone in the neighbourhood taking notice.

FEBRUARY

Memories of the blitz come flooding back to the people of Coronation Street when a gas main explodes and the order goes out that all the houses have to be evacuated. The Mission Hall is turned into a temporary shelter where the homeless families spend a sleepless night until the danger is over.

MARCH

There’s an even greater crisis when Ena Sharpies overhears a chance remark and spreads the scare that the street is scheduled for demolition. Only when old Albert Tatlock calls in a council official (centre) is it found that the rumour is unfounded — and all the residents can breathe easily again.

APRIL

Ena is out of favour with everyone and gets her marching orders from Mission Hall secretary Leonard Swindley. It’s a highly emotional moment for the doting Miss Nugent when he asks her if she would like to take over the caretaker’s job. But they soon discover Ena is not to be dislodged so easily.

MAY

The sun comes out again and the people of Coronation Street patch up their differences and take an away-from-it-all coach trip — to Blackpool. Even Ena has to smile when her old cronies from the Rover’s Return, Martha and Minnie, invite her to join them for an afternoon paddle.

No. 13 – with the lid off

ONCE you’ve taken away the pub and the corner shop, the Mission Hall and the back wall of the raincoat factory, all that’s left of Coronation Street are seven very ordinary-looking terraced houses.

From the outside they are distinguished from each other only by the pattern of the curtains and the ways some of the doorsteps and windowsills have been subjected to more donkey-stoning than others.

But what are they like inside? Christine Hardman, who lives alone at No. 13, invites you in to see for yourself.

“I’m one of the lucky ones,” she says. “Most of the houses haven’t been touched since they were built, and that means when you want a bath you have to have it in a tin tub in the living room, and the only toilet is in that little outhouse at the back of the yard.

“But a few years ago my landlord had one of the three bedrooms converted into a bathroom, and it’s quite a posh affair.”

Besides the living room and the bedrooms, there are two other rooms — the front parlour, which is only used on very special occasions and, at the back of the house, the tiny scullery with a window looking out on to the yard.

For all this Christine pays a rent of 19s. a week.

‣ You don’t need o passport to visit Coronation Street. But to understand better what the natives are saying — especially in their more heated moments — non-Northerners would be well advised to study this TV Times digest of the local dialect. It has been specially compiled by Mrs. Elsie Tanner, who also posed for the pictures

Where they good old days?

‣ Continuing a glimpse into the past… what was Coronation Street like 25 years ago… and what were people doing… back in 1936.

THE cobbled streets of Lancashire, have worn well — and Coronation Street as well as any.

The bricks of the houses were soot-blackened in 1936. Today they are even blacker. But in the warm, steamy kitchens there was a sense of security which was a protection against grimmer happenings in the world outside.

Take the Hewitts at Number Seven. Matt Hewitt had a wife, daughter, and a stocky dark haired son Harr y— and none or them was very much aware of the changes going on in the world around them. If hard times came they probably couldn’t be any harder than those they’d already been through, especially in the depression years.

Matt had a steady job as a warehouse foreman. He earned enough to keep his family respectable and allow him the odd pint at the Rover’s Return.

Any night in the week, barring Sundays, Harry would be seen delivering papers in the streets round about. He shared the round with a pal of his from Mawdsley Street, a fair haired lad by the name of Len Fairclough.

On Saturdays, if they couldn’t get in without paying, they used part of the proceeds for football. The rest went on comics or pictures at the local Hippodrome. But they couldn’t wait to leave school and get working.

A few doors from the Faircloughs in Mawdsley Street lived Martha Longhurst. She lives there still, but in those days she had a railwayman husband and a daughter, Lily. The happiest day in Martha’s life was the day Lily got married. This was partly because they didn’t get on very well — Martha had never been one to suffer fools gladly — and partly because she’d made up her mind that Lily would get married the day her son-in-law-to-be put his feet under the front room table.

Martha’s husband didn’t long survive the wedding. But as Martha never tired of pointing out, he lived to see his life’s mission completed.

A friend of Martha’s, already a widow for some years, was Minnie Caldwell. She kept house for her mother in Jubilee Terrace. Because she had never had any children she took to loving cats — black cats, grey cats, smooth cats, in fact any cats in the neighbourhood that drifted her way.

Minnie might have married again, despite her mother (and the cats) but by the time her friends had convinced her of the reason for her Mr. Williams’ regular visits, he had long departed from the world.

Minnie’s great friend in 1936, and at indeterminate intervals ever since, was a rather fearsome woman by the name of Ena Sharpies.

“Whatever do them two see in each other?” people used to ask. They said exactly the same thing about Ena and her husband, Alfred, a frail man employed as timekeeper at a tailoring factory.

Alfred Sharpies died in 1937, and some said it was a merciful release. At the funeral Ena’s face was rigid as the stones which surrounded her, and remained so thereafter — at least in public.

A fortnight after his funeral she went to the Glad Tidings Mission for the first time. Two days later she moved in as caretaker.

If you ask people in Coronation Street which is the most important sound in their lives, some will say the distant hooters of the ships on the canal, others the church bells on Rosamund Street on a Sunday.

But in fact it is the bell on the door of the corner shop, which has jangled there so long and so often that everyone forgets it now. In 1936 a girl named Florrie who was staying with an aunt nearby called in the shop — she didn’t particularly notice it either.

The years went by and the faces in the street changed.

Some were born, and some died, and some just went away. Albert Tatlock will remember most of them and all their comings and goings. The arrival of Florrie and Concepta, Jed Stone and Jean, Doreen and Sheila. The departures of Billy Walker, Nancy Leathers, David Barlow … and his mother.

“Aye well,” says Tatlock, “that’s life…”

‣ The 25-year-old photographs appearing in on this page are from the albums of Violet Carson (Ena), Lynne Carol (Martha), Margot Bryant (Minnie), Ivan Beavis (Harry), Peter Adamson (Len), Pat Phoenix (Elsie), Doris Speed (Annie), Arthur Leslie (Jock), Daphne Oxenford (Esther), Jack Howarth (Albert).

NEVER before photographed – Coronation Street as it is on a typical Saturday morning. Everyone is here. Well, almost everyone. Kenneth Barlow shows his dad, Frank, a letter he’s just received from brother David. Len Fairclough, riding to work, stops outside the Hewitts’ to say hullo to Concepta and sympathise with Harry on his weekly window cleaning chore. Jack and Annie Walker are on their way back to the Rover’s Return after their early morning stroll while Elsie Tanner, collecting the milk, has a few choice words to say to Dennis on the perils of oversleeping. Christine Hardman, who is another late starter most Saturdays, gets a polite greeting from Leonard Swindley and his ever-faithful Miss Nugent. Florrie Lindley rests from brushing the pavement outside her shop to pass the time of day with Esther Hayes and Albert Tatlock, and on the corner Minnie Caldwell and Martha Longhurst are gossiping as usual. No prizes for guessing the missing face. Our photographer was told that Ena Sharples was away on a day trip, making one of her rare visits to her daughter and grandson.

Flashback

‣ Continuing a month-by-month review of some of the dramatic highlights in the lives of the people you meet in television’s most famous street. The pictures reproduced here show scenes as viewers saw them at the time.

JUNE

A happy event is awaited by Linda Cheveski and her Polish husband Ivan, who are now happily settled in No. 9. Before the month is out the street is celebrating the arrival of baby Paul — and Elsie Tanner, enjoying the idea of being a grandmother is seen in a novel light — as an expert on baby care.

JULY

Dennis Tanner, Elsie’s layabout son, is hypnotised by the overnight successes of young men with the same haircut as himself and decides it’s time he earned a living. Fixing his sights on fame among the bright lights he buys a guitar and keeps the street awake at night as he gets to grips with the mysteries of the pulsating rhythm of rock ’n’ roll.

AUGUST

After a quarter of a century in Coronation Street, Annie and Jack Walker are asked to leave to take over a new hotel. But they turn it down when they find plush furnishings and taped music a poor substitute for the beer-stained tables and homely gossip they are so used to in the Rover’s Return.

SEPTEMBER

The world of post-office sorter Frank Barlow and his university-educated son Kenneth is shattered when news is broken that well-loved Ida Barlow has been killed in a bus accident, and Frank’s sorrow is further deepened by the non-appearance at the funeral of his other son, David. The whole street goes into mourning.

OCTOBER

Smiles again at the wedding of widower Harry Hewitt and the perky Irish barmaid from the Rover, Concepta Riley. Harry’s 11-year-old daughter, Lucille, is bridesmaid and his dart-playing pal Len Fairclough acts as best man. For the honeymoon they fly off to spend a fortnight in the Isle of Man.

NOVEMBER

Tempers rise in a kerbside brawl and Ena Sharpies goes on the offensive after Elsie Tanner publicly accuses her of being the writer of a poison pen letter she has received. Doors and windows fly open and the whole street comes out to watch as the long expected battle finally gets going.

See what their lucky stars foretell

‣ Ever since Ena Sharples had her hand read at Blackpool during the summer, fortune-telling has been the top talking-point among the women of Coronation Street. To find out what the stars have in store for them in 1962, TV Times has called in JOHN NAYLOR the world famous astrologer. Here are his predictions starting with Ena herself

ENA SHARPLES

Birthday: Nov 14. Number: nine. Stone: bloodstone. Colour: violet.

The Spring of 962 brings benefits which result from changes made around your 1961 birthday. Do-it-yourself talents are put to good use and lead to the development of a new hobby or interest because others admire your work.

MARTHA LONGHURST

Birthday: Sept. 2. Number: two and five. Stone: topaz. Colour: grey.

Sudden and unexpected events next March affect future prospects. Despite a stroke of luck in July a discontent prevails which stems from two causes, lack of ready cash and envy of successes others achieve! Late 1962 early 1963 brings an increase in income however.

MINNIE CALDWELL

Birthday: Sept. 30. Number: six. Stone: sapphire. Colour: rose.

Usually gentle and long-suffering, you’ll become impatient with two people, both much loved, whose demands and quarrels make life a burden. Health may give trouble during May. A delightful spending spree becomes possible late in 1962 — due to an unexpected windfall.

ESTHER HAYES

Birthday: May 10. Number: six. Stone: turquoise. Colour: light-blue.

A long-held business ambition will be achieved April-June. This helps you push recent emotional up-sets into the background. April brings a chance to undertake a trip with someone you get on well with; late in 1962 you spend heavily on your home.

ANNIE WALKER

Birthday: Aug. 11. Number: one. Stone: diamond. Colour: gold.

A critical year; a hard-working year. Psychologically, you experience a feeling of loneliness, are easily depressed. Early 1962 brings business problems, much responsibility, troublesome holdups. Prospects brighten mid-1962. A new relationship transforms your life late in the summer months.

ELSIE TANNER

Birthday: March 5. Number: seven. Stone: amethyst. Colour: green.

Everything goes with a swing! More money, better prospects, a relationship now growing in important to you is put on a lasting basis next spring. A fortunate meeting with someone important brings benefits because they take to you.

CONCEPTA RILEY

Birthday: Jan. 15. Number: eight. Stone: garnet. Colour: chocolate brown.

An enjoyable success to start the year off and it stems from something you have done in the past! The achievements of a loved one give much pleasure in the summer. July-September sees much coming and going involving a relative.

FLORRIE LINDLEY

Birthday: June 12. Number: five. Stone: Topaz. Colour: primrose-yellow.

More prosperous conditions, a favourable decision, quickly disperse late 1961 anxieties. The autumn finds you deeply involved in a relationship which starts in May. In November an ambitious venture is started which necessitates a heavy outlay but offers glittering prospects.

The post TV Times guide to Coronation Street appeared first on THIS IS GRANADA from Transdiffusion.

THERE is a rumour going round that the wedding between Harry Hewitt and Concepta Riley isn’t coming off. All over the country people have been arguing about it and ringing Granada at all hours for the facts.

I have been down to Coronation Street to ask them. I made for “The Rover’s Return.”

Harry Hewitt (Ivan Beavis) was as usual propping up the bar. Concepta (Doreen Keogh) was polishing glasses I asked: “Ivan, is the wedding coming off?”

Concepta suddenly stopped polishing and Harry cocked an aggressive eyebrow.

“People never call us by our real names any more” said Ivan.

To save further confusion I decided to fall in with the majority — even though the career facts I gathered refer to their real-life careers.

“Did I ever tell you how I got started in this acting game?” he said. “I was convalescing at the time. I’d been ill for about 20 months.

“I wanted something to do. My brother and sister in Liverpool were winning prizes for elocution, but I didn’t fancy my chances at elocuting. so I decided to try acting …”

I interrupted. “About this wedding…” Harry grasped my shoulder. “Ask Concepta when she started acting.” he said.

“My mother told me I started the day I was born.” said Concepta.

“Yes. I was born in Dublin and studied at the Abbey Theatre school. Later I acted at The Gate Theatre.”

I nodded. “Yes,” I said. “we’ve had a lot of telephone calls about your wedding…

“Ask Harry how he turned professional,” said Concepta.

“I was an accountant,” said Harry. “Had been for years. But I didn’t like auditing. It always seemed like you were succeeding by finding other people’s mistakes.”

Harry got his break with Coronation Street after he played a northern part in Knight Errant Limited.

“Very interesting,” I said. “Now about this…”

“Ask Concepta how she got her break,” said Harry, serenely.

“I was playing the part of an Irish wife in The Citadel,” said Concepta. “It was a serial, you know. I started off with five children and ended up with about nine.”

“Never got over it,” said Harry. “There we both were at the first rehearsal we attended. I was supposed to be in love with her, and she with me, and we couldn’t even recognise each other.”

I cut in quickly. “I’m glad you mentioned that…” and prepared weakly for another attempt.

“Tell him about the wedding present,” said Harry.

“We’ve had our first wedding present, you know,” said Concepta. “A little girl gave us a tiny china figure. It was lovely.”

Harry cut in again. “There’s even a rumour that the wedding isn’t going to come off, ” he said. “Fancy spreading a rumour like that.”

The post Popping the question in Coronation Street appeared first on THIS IS GRANADA from Transdiffusion.

EYES that have launched a thousand glares widened in disbelief. The most famous hair-net in Britain shook in amazement.

“l just can’t understand it,” said Violet Carson, who plays fire-eating Ena Sharpies in Granada’s Coronation Street.

“I wouldn’t have believed that so many people could be so concerned about what happened to a bad-tempered, vindictive old woman like Ena.”

Violet’s surprise is perhaps understandable.

After more than a year with one of Britain’s top television programmes, she has come to accept fan-mail as routine. But even she has been taken aback by the reaction there has been to the collapse of Ena Sharpies in the Mission Hall a few weeks ago.

“There have been letters, get-well cards, flowers,” said Violet.

“People have telephoned from all parts of the country inquiring about Ena. I’ve been stopped in the street dozens of times and asked how I was.

“Two little girls even wrote to tell me that they were praying for my recovery!”

But Violet is not the only member of the cast who has found herself in this sort of situation.

The programme has taken such a hold of the national imagination that thousands of people all over the country absolutely refuse to disassociate the actors and actresses from the characters they play.

You couldn’t meet a more amiable chap than Peter Adamson, who plays Len Fairclough, for instance. “But I can’t walk down a street in Manchester now without finding people glaring at me with hatred in their eyes,” said Peter.

“It started when I thumped Kenneth Barlow in the snug of the Rover’s Return,” he explained.

“And it’s got even worse since I had a fight with Harry Hewitt about Concepta.

“Threatening letters arrive for me every day. I’ve been called everything from a beer-swilling moron to a thug. To tell you the truth, I love it. If people are reacting as violently as this, my performance must be doing something to them.”

After his skirmish with Len in the Rover’s Return, Bill Roache, who plays Kenneth Barlow, was flooded with letters.

“Two hundred schoolgirls signed one letter, telling me that they agreed with everything that I said about Len Fairclough and the people in the street,” said Bill.

“One frantic father wrote to tell me that his little girl hadn’t stopped crying since seeing me knocked down.

“She refused to be convinced that Peter and I were only acting, and the father begged me to write her a letter telling her that I was, in fact, all right.”

Bill wrote the letter.

Frank Pemberton, who plays Kenneth’s father, still receives sympathetic inquiries from all over Britain. “And many of them now want to know when I’m getting married again,” said Frank.

Wherever they go, Ivan Beavis and Doreen Keogh, who play Harry and Concepta Hewitt, can’t get away from the fact that Concepta is expecting a baby.

“People have sent us presents for the child — bootees, a matinee jacket, a lovely model of a stork with a baby hanging from its beak,” said Doreen.

“A midwife rang the studios to offer her advice and services when the time came.

“And wherever I go, I’m offered a seat for the sake of the baby.”

Minnie Caldwell’s love of cats brings in regular invitations for Margot Bryant to visit cats and cats’ homes.

“I accept as many invitations as I can,” she said.

Arthur Leslie, who plays landlord Jack Walker, could get a job as a licensee any time he wants.

And Doris Speed, who plays his wife, is constantly being asked by people to stop nagging her easy-going husband.

“I’ve given up trying to convince them that it isn’t me who’s nagging him but Annie Walker,” said Doris.

Elsie Tanner, of course, has half the country agog at present over her relationship with Len Fairclough.

“There’s nothing in it,” said Pat Phoenix, treating me to a Tanner-sized wink.

“We’re just good friends.”

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