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The Road To Coronation Street
''The Road to Coronation Street'' is a 2010 British drama first broadcast on BBC Four. It is a dramatisation of the creation of '' Coronation Street'', the UK's longest-running television soap opera, from conception to its first transmission in December 1960. Set mainly at Granada Studios, Manchester in 1960, the 75-minute-long programme follows the true story of Tony Warren, a struggling scriptwriter who creates a vision of a television programme depicting normal life in a Salford street of terraced houses. The production first aired in October 2010, and was one of several programmes celebrating the 50th anniversary of ''Coronation Street'' that year. Background ''The Road to Coronation Street'' was written by Daran Little, a long-time archivist on ''Coronation Street'' who became a scriptwriter. At the time, however, Little was a scriptwriter for ''Coronation Street''s rival, '' EastEnders'', broadcast on BBC One. Though ''Coronation Street'' is and always has been, broadcast ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Daran Little
Daran Little (born 11 May 1966) is a BAFTA-winning and Emmy Award-nominated British television writer. He is the only writer to pen more than 100 episodes of both ''Coronation Street'' (from 2000 until 2010) and ''EastEnders'' (from 2010 onwards). Career Early career While at Manchester Polytechnic, he wrote his dissertation about Coronation Street and Tony Warren who became his mentor and insisted the Producers gave him a job. After graduating, he was taken on by Granada Television as an archivist. He has written eleven books, both fiction and non-fiction, about the show and its characters and co-wrote Betty Driver's autobiography. Little left Granada in 2006 after writing 95 episodes of the ''Street'' and introducing the first gay character, Todd Grimshaw. He created the characters Sean Tully, Archie Shuttleworth, Bev Unwin and Eric Gartside who was played by Peter Kay. He created, wrote and produced a 20-part series called '' Hollyoaks: In the City'' for Mersey Television. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
BBC One
BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, primetime drama and entertainment, and live BBC Sport events. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution. It was renamed BBC TV in 1960 and used this name until the launch of the second BBC channel, BBC2, in 1964. The main channel then became known as BBC1. The channel adopted the current spelling of BBC One in 1997. The channel's annual budget for 2012–2013 was £1.14 billion. It is funded by the television licence fee together with the BBC's other domestic television stations and shows uninterrupted programming without commercial advertising. The television channel had the highest reach share of any broadcaster in th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pat Phoenix
Patricia Phoenix Booth (born Patricia Frederica Manfield; 26 November 1923 – 17 September 1986) was an English actress who became one of the first sex symbols of British television through her role as Elsie Tanner, an original cast member of ''Coronation Street'' a role which she portrayed from its first episode in 1960 until she quit the role in 1984. Early life Phoenix was born at St Mary's Hospital in Fallowfield, Manchester, to Annie (''née'' Noonan), originally of County Galway, Ireland, and Thomas "Tom" Manfield. Phoenix claimed that she had also been born in Galway, although she later stated that she was merely agreeing with something her elderly mother had already told the press. When Phoenix was eight years old, her father was involved in a car accident; in court, it was revealed that his marriage was bigamous as he had never divorced his first wife, who was living some miles away and who he had been paying maintenance to for many years. She later described this ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jessie Wallace
Karen Jane Wallace (born 25 September 1971), known professionally as Jessie Wallace, is an English actress. She is known for portraying the role of Kat Slater on the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'' since 2000. Her role as Kat won her the National Television Awards for Most Popular Newcomer (2001), as well as the British Soap Award for Best Newcomer (2001), Most Popular Actress (2003) and the British Soap Award for Best Actress (2011). She was also nominated for the 2011 BAFTA TV Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Pat Phoenix in the BBC Four television film ''The Road to Coronation Street''. Early life Wallace was born in Enfield, North London, to James, a telecommunications engineer, and Annette, a secretary. Wallace is of Irish ancestry, by way of Cork and Dublin. Her parents divorced when she was aged three and she and her sister were raised by their father (however, she did see her mother at weekends). She adopted her stage name after her late grandmother. Car ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steven Berkoff
Steven Berkoff (born Leslie Steven Berks; 3 August 1937) is an English actor, author, playwright, theatre practitioner and theatre director. As a theatre maker he is recognised for staging work with a heightened performance style eponymously known as "Berkovian theatre", which combines elements of physical theatre, total theatre and expressionism. His work has sometimes been viewed as an example of in-yer-face theatre, due to the intense presentation and taboo-breaking material in a number of his plays. As a film actor, he is known for his performances in villainous roles, including the portrayals of General Orlov in the ''James Bond'' film ''Octopussy'' (1983), Victor Maitland in ''Beverly Hills Cop'' (1984), Lt. Col. Podovsky in '' Rambo: First Blood Part II'' (1985) and Adolf Hitler in the TV mini-series ''War and Remembrance'' (1988–89). Early life Berkoff was born Leslie Steven Berks on 3 August 1937, in Stepney in the East End of London, the son of Pauline ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sidney Bernstein, Baron Bernstein
Sidney Lewis Bernstein, Baron Bernstein (30 January 1899 – 5 February 1993) was a British businessman and media executive who was the founding chairman of the London-based Granada Group and the founder of the Manchester-based Granada Television in 1954. Granada was one of the original four ITA franchisees. He believed the North's media industry had potential to be cultivated. Although born in Essex, Bernstein became an adopted northerner, building Granada Television, which created a proud heritage of television broadcasting in Manchester; a legacy which continues. He is described by the British Film Institute (BFI) as the "dominant influence on the growth and development of commercial television in Britain". Bernstein was awarded a life peerage by Queen Elizabeth II in the 1969 Birthday Honours List for his services to television, and in 1984 he was made a Fellow of the British Film Institute in recognition of his outstanding contribution to British television culture. B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shaun Dooley
Shaun Dooley (born 29 March 1974) is an English actor, narrator and voice-over artist. Early life Dooley was born in Barnsley in Yorkshire. He studied at the Arden School of Theatre in Manchester between 1992 and 1995. Career Dooley's first acting role was as Shaun in ''Groove on a Stanley Knife'' in 1997. He later played Ritchie Fitzgerald in ''Coronation Street'' from 1997 until 1998. He appeared occasionally in ''EastEnders'' as Tom Stuart between 2001 and 2004 until he was replaced during his filming of ''The Street''. He had a role in ''P.O.W.''. Dooley played Peter Harper in BBC drama series ''The Street''. He also featured in the 2007 television docudrama '' Diana: Last Days of a Princess''. Dooley portrayed Kieran in the British horror film ''Salvage''. He portrayed police inspector Dick Alderman in all three parts of the ''Red Riding'' trilogy and in 2017 appeared as Reverend Michaelmas Winter in the Sky 1 drama '' Jamestown''. In 2019, Shaun and his wife Polly ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sophia Di Martino
Sophia Di Martino (born 15 November 1983) is an English actress known for portraying Sylvie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe television series ''Loki''. Early life and education Di Martino was born in Nottingham and grew up in the suburb of Attenborough. She is half Italian. She attended Chilwell Comprehensive School, where she completed an A Level in performing arts. She went on to graduate with a Bachelor of Arts with honours in media and performance from the University of Salford. Career Di Martino works in television, film, theatre, and music. In Channel 4's ''Flowers'', she plays Amy Flowers. She plays Eva in the 2016 feature film '' The Darkest Universe''. She appeared as Amber in the third series of Sky's '' Mount Pleasant'' and as Emma, the girlfriend of Simon Bird's character Adam, in the first episode of series three of Channel 4's ''Friday Night Dinner''. She also appeared in the third series of ''4 O'Clock Club'' in 2014 as Miss Parkwood and in the 2015 film ''R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jane Horrocks
Barbara Jane Horrocks (born 18 January 1964) is a British actress. She portrayed the roles of Bubble and Katy Grin in the BBC sitcom ''Absolutely Fabulous''. She was nominated for the 1993 Olivier Award for Best Actress for the title role in the stage play ''The Rise and Fall of Little Voice'', and received Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations for the role in the film version of ''Little Voice''. Early life Horrocks was born in Rawtenstall, Lancashire, the daughter of Barbara (née Ashworth), a hospital worker, and John Horrocks, a sales representative. She was the youngest of three children. She attended Balladen County Primary School ( Fearns county secondary school). She trained at Oldham College, and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art with Imogen Stubbs and Ralph Fiennes, and began her career with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Career Stage Horrocks has appeared on stage in ''Ask for the Moon'' (Hampstead, 1986), ''A Collier's Friday Night'' (Greenwich, 1987), ''Valued ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Casting Director
In the performing arts industry such as theatre, film, or television, casting, or a casting call, is a pre-production process for selecting a certain type of actor, dancer, singer, or extra (acting), extra for a particular role or part in a script, screenplay, or teleplay. This process may be used for a motion picture, television program, documentary film, music video, play (theatre), play, or advertisement, intended for an audience. Cast types or roles Actors are selected to play various types of roles. Main cast, also called starring roles, consist of several actors whose appearances are significant in film, theatre, or television. There is often a leading actor (or sometimes leading actress for a woman) who lays the largest role, that of the protagonist in a production. When there is not a single leading actor, the main roles are called ensemble cast, which comprises multiple principal actors and performers who are typically assigned roughly equal amounts of screen time. A s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christian McKay
Christian Stuart McKay (born 30 December 1973) is an English stage and screen actor. He is perhaps best known for his portrayal of Orson Welles in the 2008 film ''Me and Orson Welles'', for which he was nominated for over two dozen awards including the BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor. He also appeared in movies such as ''Florence Foster Jenkins'', '' The Theory of Everything'', ''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'' and '' Rush''. Early life McKay was born in Bury, Lancashire. He has a sister, Karen. His mother, Lynn, worked as a hairdresser, and his father, Stuart, was a railway worker. He studied piano as a youth, and performed the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 at age 21. McKay subsequently halted his concert career and enrolled at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art to study acting. Career McKay's television appearances include portraying conductor Pierre Monteux in the BBC TV production ''Riot at the Rite'' (2005). His first film appearance was in ''Abraham's Point'' (2008) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harry Elton
Harry Elton (5 January 1930 – 16 May 2004) was a Canadian broadcaster, primarily known as the television producer who championed the development of the British television programme '' Coronation Street'' in 1960, currently the world's longest-running television soap opera in production. Elton is also known for his work in Canada as a radio and television presenter. Early life Henry John Elton was born in Toronto, Ontario in 1930. When his father died in 1935, Elton's mother moved the family to Detroit, Michigan in the United States. Elton attended Wayne State University, and in 1951 he travelled to London where he studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art for one year. Despite being offered a scholarship at RADA, he returned to Detroit where he obtained his first job in television at WXYZ-TV. Career in Britain The fledgling ITV television franchises in the United Kingdom recruited a number of Canadians in the late 1950s, and Elton was hired as a drama producer for Granada ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
