Let’s move on to The Krypton Factor. That’s the programme you’re most associated with at Granada. Like many things in one’s life, you get breaks you don’t expect to get – they happen in the most ludicrous way, and they change your life. And my break originally into newspapers in Northern Ireland was in a…
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Gordon Burns talks about the emphasis on quality within Granada
What I would say is that there was all that high energy of young people wanting to make a career in television, wanting to shine or wanting to become, if they were researchers, wanting to become producer or director, or indeed a presenter. And that actually gave the programme (Granada Reports)… it might have had…
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Gordon Burns remembers working on World In Action in Northern Ireland and the challenges he and his crew faced
The other thing I should mention, which is another one of my pride areas, that World in Action was the great award-winning, again, pioneering investigative programme which the elite, if you like, in news… most journalists’ ambition was to work on World in Action, and it was left, right and centre award-winning, and tremendous investigative…
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Gordon Burns remembers Sidney Bernstein – and his attention to cleanliness!
Sidney Bernstein. I remember quite vividly, every so often he used to set off round the building, and he had marching in his wake, an assistant who had a clipboard with paper on it, and Sidney Bernstein would head into an office and so on, and bark out things like, “Wall needs painting!” or whatever,…
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Gordon Burns remembers a programme he made about Uri Geller and his powers
One Reports Extra I did was with Uri Geller who had astonished the nation with his spoon-bending, and I wanted to see if he really could bend spoons, and whether he really had telepathy, because he claimed if you thought of a picture, he could probably draw it. So I invited him along and had lunch…
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Gordon Burns reflects on the growing power of the unions within Granada in the 1970’s
That was the time when the unions were growing in power, and I think that did lead to a change in situation when the unions were challenging the whole time, and strike action was not necessarily infrequent, but there was one major strike action, and in fact the unions, in my view, got far too…
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Gordon Burns recalls the resources that were available to staff working on Granada Reports
It was just Granada Reports when I started – and I was astonished. I’d come from little Ulster television, Belfast – and although we had a major international story on our doorstep night after night, so there was that huge programme, with big interviews to be done, and a very challenging situation, we had bombs…
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Gordon Burns recalls the innovative Granada 500 programme at the time of the 1979 General Election
Well, the Granada 500 was one of the best experiences I’ve had in television, certainly with Granada. Granada were this wonderful, pioneering organisation, I’ve talked about their quality demand, they are clearly pioneers of television, even in drama it was pioneering when they actually took on things like Brideshead Revisited and Jewel in the Crown,…
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Gordon Burns recalls a very unusual task he had to undertake as a presenter!
Because I had moved away from Granada Reports, I was given this late evening programme called Reports Extra, which was basically pop psychology. We had an audience in the studio, and we did all sorts of things, like we examined one of the senses each week, smell, touch and so on, and we would have…
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Gordon Burns describes his exclusive interview with Margaret Thatcher and how she kept a promise to his co-producer
Probably the highlight for me (on Reports Politics) was when I got to interview the then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. That was an interesting and strange experience, by the way it came about. My co-producer, David Kemp, who had also worked for World in Action, had made a documentary about Mrs Thatcher when she ran…
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Gordon Burns considers whether Granada looked after its employees
You talk very fondly there about Granada Television. Was it a company that cared for its employees? Well, care for its employees, that’s a good question. I think as much as companies do, yes – I think it did. We tended to get whatever we needed to make programmes, so they were fairly liberal with…
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Roland Coburn remembers visiting Granada as a child
I think you mentioned to me you would get taken into the studio by your mum? Yes. Obviously, with Father working for the BBC and Mother working for Granada, I was volunteered to go to boarding school — that’s probably the best way of putting it — and often, when I used to finish the…
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Roland Coburn on Granada as a family-friendly company
It was always very friendly, especially in the early days. I always remember, when I was possibly about eight or nine, Granada always used to have, at Christmas, a children’s show, that they used to have in one of the studios. They used to invite all the children of the employees down there and it…
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Frank Clarke remembers the sports clubs at Granada
What about Sport? Sport. You mean sport programmes? No, sport in the social context -did the Company do much sport? They didn’t have enough really. We had an inter-departmental – six a side tournament which was held at Whalley Range football club near Brantingham, off Wilbraham Road – there. That was for about six years.…
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Frank Clarke recalls the fringe benefits of working at Granada
How would you describe Granada as a company? Excellent,excellent. The Property Buyer, Spud Taylor, who had incidentally worked on Snows of Kilimanjaro, he was Property Buyer on the film. He was on the ladder, putting some props away, fell and broke his leg. Taken to hospital. Of course Sidney was told about it. He sent…
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Frank Clarke describes how programmes where costed in the 1950’s
Whatever the programme was, Denis (Forman) chaired it but when the costs were done, it was to Sidney (Bernstein) it went in those days. After things got run properly, it was just sent to the Producer and as long as it was within the overall estimate for, say thirteen weeks, there were no problems and…
Read MoreFrank Clarke’s memories of Sidney Bernstein
The secret I think was, everybody set out to please Sidney Bernstein. He, I’ll give you one incident he did, in mid ’56 it was. He was known for going out of his office during the day. Just saying to his office, “I’m going for a walk” – even she didn’t know where he was…
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Frank Clarke remembers the very early days of Granada
I went in the morning. Another lad joined me, Roy Montrose, and the first week we were just sitting there doing nothing. There were five Accounts staff. Two Accountants, an Office Junior, a Secretary and a Cashier. That was it and us two. Then Tuesday of the second week, Bill Dixon came and said “oh,…
Read MoreFrank Clarke remembers the Christmas parties that Granada held for employees’ children
In those days, by now in the late 60’s/early 70’s, we used to have a children’s party one Saturday before Christmas. All the employees could bring their child – one, two, three, whatever they had. They gave the employees chance to go Christmas shopping with their wives and husbands and whatever you see. About eight…
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Bob Greaves – Presenter
Bob Greaves was one of the most recognizable and best loved of Granada’s presenters. He joined the company in 1964 as a reporter and editor for the regional news magazine programme Scene at 6.30 and went onto work for Granada for 35 years, mainly in local programmes. He sadly died in 2011 and his obituary…
Read MoreIan White
Ian White joined Granada in 1978 as a researcher and later became a director, including working on Coronation Street. He now works as a freelance and has directed a wide range of drama programmes including Hollyoaks, Emmerdale and Casualty. I started working on Coronation Street in 1989 for about four years until I left in 1992. There were…
Read MoreMike Newell
Mike Newell began working for Granada in 1963 and went on to direct Coronation Street during the 1960s. He is now a well-known film director whose major films include Four Weddings and a Funeral and Donnie Brasco. I started working for Granada in 1963, when I was 21, as a production trainee which was a…
Read MoreMichael Apted
Michael Apted is a well known film director who began his career at Granada Television in the early 1960s. He first directed Coronation Street in 1966. Later became man award-winning films such as The Coalminer’s Daughter, Gorky Park and Nell. I started working at Granada at the end of 63 on the production training…
Read MoreJulian Farino
Julian Farino began his Granada career in the mid 1980s as a Researcher. He later became a director and was a director on Coronation Street during the early 1990s. He is now a well known director of top rated American TV series such as Sex In The City and Entourage and lives in Hollywood. …
Read MoreJim Walker
Although Jim Walker never worked on Coronation Street he was a producer at Granada for more than 20 years and was always in close contact with the actors and production staff during that time. As such he saw a great many changes in the format of the show. Before I conjure up the glamour of…
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Roland Coburn’s memories of the Granada canteen and the Stables
People have mentioned to me about the canteen, the bar and the Stables being very important? The canteen was very important, for several reasons, I always thought, because anybody who was working at the station and wanted anything to drink or eat would have to go in the canteen. There was none of this, ‘Oh,…
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Roland Coburn’s memories of Sir Denis Forman and the Bernsteins
Occasionally I was taken off to do particular one-off programmes because, perhaps, World in Action was off the air, and things like that. One of them was The Battle of Monte Cassino; this was the battle in which Sir Denis had been injured and lost his leg during the war. Sir Denis often used to pop…
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Roland Coburn talks about how technical changes have affected the work of the editor
You were there at Granada when you get this crucial change in film editing? Yes. One of the great things was, obviously, film would have to move, in the sense that you would shoot the film, it’d have to go to the labs, it’d have to be developed, you would get a print to edit,…
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Roland Coburn remembers working on World In Action for over 20 years
Ultimately, it came that there was an editor’s job. I applied for it and luckily I got it. You then started editing ‘proper’ programmes. I was lucky enough to do a Bulman and a Strangers which, in those years, were ITV’s top drama programmes. Not many people now will remember them, but they were great,…
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Roland Coburn remembers meeting the stars of Coronation Street
She (his mother) was also involved quite heavily, in the early days, on Coronation Street. She was very good friends with Violet Carson, Ena Sharples, Elsie Tanner, Pat Phoenix and Doris Speed, who was Annie Walker. They were always at our house, and I was always wandering round with mother to their houses, because Pat…
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