MagicalManchesterTour2

......And Mark said to us "Actually, you can go right in, they are expecting you". Sure enough, just inside the gates was David - the fellow I had been trying to get hold of to beg help in getting inside, and his wife Helen. This had all been set up between them for ages, and had kept it a secret! We were just totally gobsmacked!! I was so overwhelmed I was just shaking, and I am sure when I see the photos in the 'On The Air' magazine in August, each one of me will have a dazed look and a stupid grin on my face!

We were treated to a VIP tour of both the outdoor and indoor sets, had our photos taken sewing knickers in the factory, walking the cobbles, knocking on doors, pulling pints in The Rovers, drinking beer on the Battersby's sofa (I am sure I picked up something itchy and moving from that!). They even suggested we have a go on Cilla's sunbed, but we declined that little pleasure! We were like two kids let loose in a candy store, but enough from me, let me show you some photos!

No need to tell you what these photos are of. We noticed that the studio vans were all painted with Newton & Ridley logos, David told us this is so they can be used on screen when necessary, but were still useful for haulage purposes. Under the threads in the factory on the right is a fully functional cutting room which is never shown on screen, in fact I believe this was the area of the stockroom that Janice Battersby set on fire. However, the cutting room is there to give the actors more of a feeling that they are in a working environment. Likewise, although you never see a closeup of the staff clocking in cards next to the punch clock, we noticed that each one of them had the name of a character on it, right down to the non-speaking extras who do indeed have a name!

Danny Baldwin's office is, like every other room we saw, amazingly cramped. Pat was checking to see if Gail was home, and Helen was watching for traffic! On the right, between the Chippy and the Rovers, the bridge is real enough, however, the street you see going away on the other side of it is painted on a wall!

Aha! I managed to get a photo of Peter, our photographer for the day outside Audrey's salon. I asked why it had been changed back from Alma's, and Helen told me that it was only suggested by Alma as a joke, and it makes more sense to be called Audrey's - I guess what she was really saying was that in the way of all soaps, once gone - best forgotten! David led us inside what we thought was the medical centre - and surprise surprise, we found ourselves inside Weatherfield General Hospital! No wonder Martin can be Johnny on the spot at every accident, emergency and hang nail, he can get from home to work in 3 seconds! LOL!!

Here is a bit of a spoiler for non-UK viewers. Sally's Hardware is now 'Diggory Compton' Master Baker. We went inside his shop, and felt the rolls in a basket. They were stale, but real. They said the delicious looking cakes in the window were not real, but I didn't like to touch those to find out. They have spared no expense on this set, it looks fabulous! I saw Diggory on the show when I was over there, he is being billed as another Fred Elliott, but he reminded me more of Reg Holdsworth.I know Canadians are anxious to see this shop, so have made the first two photos clickable to see them larger.

OK, now we are heading into sheer grunge! In the first picture Helen is daring to step inside the Battersby's kitchen - I imagine her feet probably stuck to the floor! Just look at that stove, it hasn't been cleaned for years, and the horrible sticky stuff is caked on right across the top and is dripping down the sides! I don't think you will need three guesses to know whose back yard the shot in the middle is of will you? Yes, it is the Battersby's once again. Did you know that the toilet roll holder in their outside loo is made of two old taps with a stick across the middle? LOL!! The attention to detail in these sets just amazed me, this is why Coronation Street keeps winning awards, and is still going just as strong after 45 years, it is so obvious that absolutely everyone involved with it cares about it passionately. The photo on the right is Street Cars, and Pat is waiting for her cab outside, she doesn't want to take a chance on sitting in that awful chair while she waits! It looks very well used doesn't it?

Thought I would call on Vera to see if she wanted to go to bingo, but she wasn't home. Looks as if they took the pigeons with them when they left too!
Can you guess whose back door is on the right? You will notice it has a cat flap at the bottom. At first I thought it might be left from the days of Minnie Caldwell, then remembered she had lived in No. 5, not this one! You will be as surprised as I was when I tell you further down!

Time for a little rest on Maxine's bench. The doors and paintwork everywhere looked very shabby and dull, and was peeling in many places. Helen told me this was deliberate so that it looks normal when they light it up for filming. The picture in the middle is the back yard of the Rovers, and the one on the right is an enormous photo that they have up on a wall. It is almost life size, yet you can't see any joins. I have no idea how they did it!

I was having a little trouble with my flash on some of the inside shots, new camera and didn't know what I was doing! However, hope you can see that we were sitting with Mark and Peter in one of the booths in The Rovers. Like everything else, it seemed extremely small and cramped. But I got to touch the dog balancing the ball on his nose! :-)) (Readers of Mike Plowman's older updates will know what I am talking about!) The centre photo is the back room at the Rovers. In a recent episode in Canada, Shelly was wearing a shirt that looked exactly the same as that wallpaper - she almost disappeared! :-) On the right is the corner shop, which looks a lot different to the way it looks right now in Canada, even the door is in a different place, but there is a good reason coming up for that isn't there? :-))

I believe the first two rooms belong to the Peacocks. I asked if the reason there was so much purple on the show was because of Cadbury's being their sponsor, as that was when everything seemed to turn purple from shirts to sofas. They looked totally surprised as if that thought had never occurred to them, and assured me that it has nothing to do with Cadbury's - so there you go! The room on the right has to be the Platts because of the photo. I guess Gail no longer owns the picture she had taken of the family with Richard front and centre!

Charlie Stubbs' yard, (let's hope that set isn't too permanent!) Centre is the inside of the Salon, and right, is a set they are extremely proud of, and rightly so, it is the huge restaurant called The Clock, which has a full size bar at one end, lots of tables and chairs, an enormous fireplace. chandelier and even a statue of David, which of course I homed in on, I never could resist a naked man! :-) Sorry the two above are so dark, flash problems again. I did lighten them as much as I could without too much distortion.

It was getting near time to leave, and the only star I had seen was Tupele Dorgu (Kelly), whom I had caught a glimpse of through a doorway. Then, while we were standing talking to David & Helen, who should walk by but Shobna Gulati (Sunita) and Bradley Walsh (Danny) (my heart throb!). I must have gasped or something, because he turned around, smiled, waved and shouted 'Hi'. I nearly fainted on the spot! :-)) He is even better looking in real life than he is on screen!! Just then, Helen disappeared for a couple of moments, then when she came back, she had Julie Hesmondhalgh (Hayley) with her! What a lovely woman she is, so friendly and down to earth. She told us she hates the clothes she has to wear, I could tell that her wig was itchy too, because she kept scratching! :-) She was very happy to have her photo taken with us. Then shortly after that, Jennie McAlpine (Fiz) and Antony Cotton (Sean) came running by, and stopped for a chat and a photo. We asked them when they were going to come out to Canada, and they said they would love to come any time we asked them! So come on CBC, help us find the money please - we want to have them in Winnipeg!

Our trip to the studios and to the Coronation Street location sites was over, we bid a fond farewell to David and Helen, then Peter took the car, and Mark took us on a tram ride back to our hotel. Never been on one of those before, but it felt similar to the underground, except the scenery was better!

The fun wasn't over yet for Pat and I though. In the evening we took a cab over to Chorlton and met up with Digger, Twiglet, Annie and Tinky at the Lloyds. We made them honourary Canadians for the evening by bestowing upon them little flashing maple leaf flags. We ate an enormous dinner, then sat around nattering as if we had known each other all our lives - in actual fact, except for Annie, whom I had met once before, we were meeting for the first time face to face, although we had met up a few times online.

Did you figure out whose door with the cat flap is shown above? Believe it or not, it is Number 3, belonging to Emily Bishop. The only reason I can see for the cat flap is that Norris must have installed it when he was trying to adopt Monty - but I am surprised that Emily allowed him to make a hole in her door, she didn't even want the cat!

Unfortunately we didn't get to spend the whole evening with Annie, as she had to disappear upstairs to rehearse a play she is directing, but we saw her before and after. Then Tinky, bless his cotton socks, gave us a lift back to our hotel, and I had another night with little sleep, because the events of the day just kept going through my mind.

I would like to publicly thank Mark Llewellyn and Peter Riley for giving us the most memorable day of our lives.,