So I did a lot of entertainment, but I think going into local programmes was much more my thing because I was working on half-hour films, so everything was longer-form. This England was a series that I think had enjoyed quite a reputation as a network series. But it wasn’t a network series when I…
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Andrew Serraillier recalls producing This Morning
Coming up to around 1988, that’s when Granada was commissioned to make This Morning, which was a 2 hour 10 minute live middle-of-the-morning programme. I don’t know if it’s just because I wasn’t doing anything at the time, but they made me the producer on that. Probably technically acting producer, but producer none the less.…
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Andrew Serraillier on Granada as a company
What I did find is that all the individuals I met might be divided into people who would encourage young people and others who’s kind of rough them up or resent them a bit. There were very few of the latter. I only met people who I thought were trying to help me. And the…
Read MoreBrian Park biography
Brian Park joined Granada TV as a promotion scriptwriter in April 1980, becoming a researcher in 1982. He worked on a variety of programmes including entertainment and the Emmy award-winning documentary Sword of Islam. He then worked at Tyne Tees for two years re-joining Granada as a producer in 1990. After producing the drama series…
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Brian Park describes how he came to join Granada
I was at Edinburgh University. I had started a life as a perpetual student; I had done two degrees and was starting a PhD, but then I thought maybe I should try and get a proper job. In those days, the Guardian on a Monday had a strange thing called “Creative & Media Recruitment” and…
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Brian Park on the role of the promotion scriptwriter
So when you went for the Manchester interview for the promotion scriptwriter, what did they ask you and how did that go? It was very casual. I think in those days they prided themselves on- they wanted to see a sparkle of personality or individuality, someone who’d fit rather than… Because you couldn’t really… you…
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Brian Park remembers some of the programmes he worked on as a researcher
I was a researcher from 82 I think to 88, when I went up to be a producer at Tyne Tees for two years. So I had a gap in my long career at Granada for two years when I went up to join Trish Kinane and then I came back in 1990 to be…
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Brian Park on returning to Granada as a Light Entertainment producer
So you’re back in 1990. What did you do then? I did a number of shows. I did Remote Control, I remember, with Tony Wilson. I’d forgotten. Well remembered, that, because nobody’s mentioned that show. It’s a forgotten show. It’s a forgotten show that we did for Channel 4. And it was an American format,…
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Brian Park on moving into drama, producing September Song
And so I gave up entertainment and I did a show called September Song with Russ Abbot and Michael Williams. And then, again, the great thing about Granada was – I ended up, because the producer of Prime Suspect, Paul Marcus, also late, wanted to, he got given a chance to direct, so they needed…
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Brian Park describes the ethos of Granada
The canteen was the great democratisation. You would see Denis Forman with his tray looking like one of the doorman. And they would make a point of sitting next to plebs and we would then have indigestion for half an hour! There was a feeling of a slight democracy about it, whether that was true…
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Brian Park on Granada’s legacy
I think Granada’s legacy as a television company… you were very aware of its history and its achievements. ….I think it imbued a certain esprit de corps that… you certainly were proud to have gone through the ranks, and you know, I was there for 18 years, so this was quite a long time. Again,…
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Brian Park’s move to produce Coronation Street
After September Song, I did Prime Suspect. And then I spent a year with Granada Film trying to do strange set-ups. I remember shooting around Australia and Korea of all places. We tried to set up a film, but… and it was in the midst of that that the call came – and I think…
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Brian Park recalls the changes he made to Coronation Street
I do remember when I went in December before I took over in January, when I went to the first story conference… now it may be because it was very cold, but having been – this would be quite contentious, but having been told that the story conference was almost like the pantheon of the…
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Brian Park on ‘shaking up’ Coronation Street
I’ll put it this way. As with all these things, and you learn these things as you go, it’s like, “Oh right Brian, we want you go in and shake it up a bit” and when you start shaking it, they’re like “well we don’t want you to shake it too much though…” So you…
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Brian Park on why he was called “the axe man”
You mentioned that sometimes you had to be slightly ruthless. I remember the phase “the axe man” in the papers. Does that apply to both scriptwriters and cast? The thing that’s probably changed from then to now is that in those days, the huge interest that the papers – particular tabloids, the Sun and the…
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Brian Park on how he left Coronation Street and Granada
Did you enjoy it? Did I enjoy what? Working on Coronation Street? Oh, yeah, I really loved it. It was great having that amount of… it was like having a toy box and you just… yeah, we took risks, but… inevitably, with any job you do, I discovered, you have to stick your head above…
Read MoreJason Shulman Captures Entire Movies In a Single Image
It’s one thing to reject the ideas of others… But when we reject, deny, stifle, squelch, strike, silence and otherwise put ideas of our own to death, sometimes even before they’re born. Most times, ideacide happens without us even realizing it. A possible off-the-wall idea or solution appears like a blip and disappears without us…
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Stewart Darby on how he started work at Granada
Ray Green (a photographer at Granada) tipped me brother off saying, “There’s a job going, tell your Stew to write in”, which I did. I wrote in, got an interview and there’s a guy called Vic Adeley who I was at the Mail with who got the job. Anyway about 3 month later I got…
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Stewart Darby remembers some of the Coronation Street characters
Vi (Violet Carson who played Ena Sharples) was lovely! Oh God! She was a very good actress, Vi. I will tell you a couple of stories. There’s a couple of pictures, I don’t know if you remember it, but she’s like that grinning at me at the camera on one of the pictures from the…
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Stewart Darby describes his role taking photographs of Coronation Street
What your role was would be taking photographs that could be used in the TV Times and… For press and publicity generally. So when I photographed Coronation Street – in those days they were only a fortnight in front – those we would try and get in the Daily Mirror, the Sun, the News of…
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Stewart Darby’s memories of Sidney Bernstein
Let me give you, while it’s on my mind, a few Sidney stories, can I? This is fairly early days and Jack Smith (producer) had come across a very rare stamp and I was going to photograph him with this stamp with a glass, you know the sort of thing. The stamp die would be…
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Stewart Darby remembers going to India for Staying On
I used to go to work in the morning, shirt and tie, suit, smart because often the phone would go at five to six – David Plowright – “Stew, got some visiting the Penthouse, can you whip up and do a quick pic?” “Absolutely.” And produce them before they went. You know what I mean?…
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Stewart Darby on his friendship with the actor, David Hemmings
They were wonderful days when I think back. I say it was always my intention to get on with everybody. We did a thing in the Lake District called Clouds of Glory, Ken Russell directed. And David Warner and Felicity Kendal. And Ken Russell he used to be a stills-man in these early days and…
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Esther Dean describes how she came to join Granada
This is going to be quite a long story! I was always very stage-struck. I was brought up in Manchester. Even during the war I can remember going to the Robert Atkins, the open-air theatre from Regent’s Park coming up to the Whitworth Park. I think I was six and I saw Merchant of Venice…
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Esther Dean describes the different stages in designing costumes for a programme
It was my job to clothe the show. So I would start with the script, or sometimes I would actually start with the book. I certainly did with Jewel (in the Crown). I read the book before I read the scripts. Not always because sometimes it could be confusing. You’d work it out on…
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Esther Dean on her responsibilities once in production
Once you were in production, once you were filming or in the studio, what were your responsibilities then? Well, I liked to be around when the filming was going but obviously I couldn’t. But what I always liked to do was if there was an actor and they were wearing a new dress that hadn’t…
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Esther Dean on the challenges of moving from black and white to colour tv
At the time when you first started work, television was in black and white. What kind of challenges did that bring for you? Well the big thing with black and white was something called the grey scale. You had to know. It all had to be done in shades of black, white and grey. If…
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Esther Dean on how costume brings out a character
I think when we were talking about Hard Times, I don’t know if it was the same for Jewel, but you used costume as a way of placing someone in terms of time and perhaps their background, but also their position as a character, or how they felt. I always used to feel that…
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Esther Dean talks about filming in India for ‘Staying On’ and ‘The Jewel in the Crown’
The first big one and the one that was done as a test to see if one could film in India was Staying On, with Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson. We did it first but story-wise it’s about an old couple who have stayed on in India after partition, after independence. It was done really…
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Esther Dean describes the challenges she faced to recognition and equal pay
Costume design was a female occupation, is that a true assumption? Yes. I mean, obviously there are male designers, but yes, it was, and we were very much underpaid. It was also part of the sweatshop thing that we were in a way the lowest of the low and when I first went up there,…
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