Percy Sugden: "This street is nothing but an eyesore, Councillor Roberts - it should've been blown up in 1960!"Alf Roberts: "Nay, Mr Sugden, there's more bulldozers than explosions round 'ere. Now, if we were to hire a Tardis and go forward twenty-three years, well, I wouldn't want to be standing here..."
Katie writes:
Just read in the Sun that Tony Warren wanted Coronation Street blown up after 13 episodes. As Daran Little, he of the fevered imagination, said this, and I don't trust him - although he's hailed at the ultimate Corrie expert - I thought I'd ask for second, third and fourth opinions!
I've certainly read, several times in the '70s and '80s, that the Street had a demolition story-line built in as a possible early ending, but never that Tony Warren wanted it blown up or to only run to thirteen episodes!
In 1985, Tony Warren wrote in the book Coronation Street 25 Years:
"I was to go on writing to episode twelve, and plan a possible bulldozing of the Street for what might prove to be a final thirteenth episode."
I took it from that that the demolition story-line would simply have reflected the trend to pull down old terraces and build high rise blocks, and that Granada was providing itself with a get-out route should the show prove to be a disaster.
Do note that what Daran Little actually said (according to the Sun) was:
5 comments:
Even i know the story of the 13th episode demolition possibility! I think 16 episodes had been commissioned, and the possibility if things didn't work out was for the announcement that the Street was to be demolished to be made in the 13th episode and everybody would move out in the 16th.
I don't know why Daran Little is saying this - he must know the facts as he's read everything ever published on the Street - and everybody from HV Kershaw to Tony Warren himself mentions the bulldozer possibility at some point. Perhaps it's a publicity gimmick for the 50th anniversary?
Technically, can you imagine the difficulties in blowing up the street way back then? Daran Little's either just talking tripe, drumming up publicity for Tony Warren by making him look even more interesting, or the paper's misquoted him. We all know Tony Warren wanted Corrie to succeed.
Daran Little takes the viewers for mugs. This is a cheap publicity ploy if ever there was one. And my congratulations to Mr Little for his "Children In Need" "East Street" skit. It reminded me a lot of a French & Saunders sketch from years ago and Victoria Wood As Seen On TV.
I wish it HAD been blown up. It would of saved us all from years of garbage.
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