I felt incredibly proud to work there, not least because I had grown up in Manchester, so I’d always seen the building and I was familiar with its programmes. I used to think it made programmes I would want to watch; intelligent programmes. Yes they did the whole gamut of entertainment and drama and so on but I always felt it was a channel that could hold its own against the BBC. It didn’t go for the lowest denomination; it never spoke down to the audience. I guess it had this view you could entertain as well as inform.
I’m sure hundreds of people will have told you that in every room at Granada there was a picture of P.T Barnum. That was to remind everybody who was in that building that they were in entertainment and never to forget you were in showbiz. But it was not at the expense of intelligent programming.
I loved the fact that we were a channel that was not based in London, that there was a degree of sticking two fingers up to the establishment. I loved all of that.
