It is as it was ... sort of
The Road to Coronation Street
BBC Four
Rating: 
Coronation Street seems to be on every night of the week these days, so what a pleasure for a fan, if a little odd, to get another instalment of the programme (albeit 50 years old) on BBC Four last night.
Why the BBC saw fit to screen a drama charting the early days of their biggest commercial competitors flag ship show is still somewhat of a mystery, but nevertheless, what they created was something quite delightful.
The Road to Coronation Street charts a young but tenacious Tony Warren’s (David Dawson) struggle to take his idea of a ‘real Salford street’ from the page to the screen. At the mercy of the Granada TV executives, Warren battles to convince the establishment that not only do people want life ‘warts and all’ on their television set, they will grow to love it.
Championed by his producer, a Canadian called Harry Elton (Christian McKay), Warren assembles a cast, builds a set and makes a pilot … but there’s something wrong, not only do the executives think Florizel Street (as Warren originally called it) is a clunky unpronounceable name, they’re not convinced that anyone will be interested in what happens between backstreet fishwives as they chat over the garden wall.
A passionate Elton is forced to go behind their backs and screen the show to the staff at Granada, the polarised reaction he receives is enough to convince the TV mogul Sidney Bernstein (Steven Berkoff) that it’s worth a stab at making 13 parts … and 50 years later … the rest as they say, is history.
An exciting an eclectic cast bring this enchanting story to life, mixing legendary real and legendary fictitious names together in such a way that you cannot help but stay transfixed.
Who wouldn’t want to see EastEnder Jessie Wallace play Pat Phoenix playing Elsie Tanner? It’s a play within a play within a play (or something), and Wallace excels herself as the brassy but vulnerable northern actress ahead of her EastEnders return this month.
Elsewhere the casting director plays with your mind even further as James Roache, William Roache’s real son plays a young William Roache playing a young Ken Barlow … but at the same time, over on ITV, James (whose real name is William James Roache) is also playing Ken Barlow’s (William Roache) grandson, who’s called James in Coronation Street today. That’s enough to send any Corrie fan into meltdown … but the good news is, James is fantastic at portraying his father … uttering the immortal line, “Oh well, it’s only thirteen episodes.”
It is also worth mentioning a storming performance from Lynda Baron who plays the belligerent Violet Carson, the actress who portrayed the original Corrie troublemaker Ena Sharples. Her no nonsense approach to acting and life became one of the central pillars for the Coronation Street brand, and as Baron stares straight into the camera to deliver her audition (although Violet insists she doesn’t do those), it’s like looking back in time … this is what Corrie was meant to be.
Is this story historically accurate? Did Tony Warren wash his hands of the name and allow the producers to choose between Coronation Street and Jubilee Street down the pub the night before transmission? Was Harry Elton quite such a maverick in the boardroom at Granada? I don’t know … but at the end of the day, does it matter?
What the BBC have done here is create an engaging, beautifully shot and phenomenally well cast production that has enough of a smell of truth and you recognise enough names and events that you have to know what happens next.
After all, a soap opera is nothing more than a hyper-real reflection of life, so it is quite fitting that a show that reveals the genesis of the longest running drama in British television history should have some of the same traits.
A stunning programme, but for those who watched it to the end… it was an ITV Studios production for the BBC! Hope it wins loads of awards!
I have to agree with everything said here, I was indeed ‘transfixed’ by this excellent BBC4 drama. Brilliant casting and superb performances from all especially Jessie Wallace playing Pat Pheonix! Just perfect.
I got goosebumps when Lynda Baron peformed her audition for Ena Sharples – TV magic