“I don’t care what they do in St Helens but in Salford, no-one puts soap next
to bacon”
Despite being relevant to my interests on a number of levels (David Dawson, I’m
northern, and the rest of that cast!), The Road to Coronation Street managed to
slip by me when it was first broadcast on BBC4 in 2010. Though a long term
fixture on ITV (this drama celebrated the 50th anniversary of the
soap opera), it was the BBC that took up the reins of creating this origin
story for the show, a journey that partly reflects that of its writer Daran
Little, who worked on Coronation Street for many years as an archivist but is
now a screenwriter for Eastenders, long its traditional rival. But oddities
aside, it was a frenetic, energetic romp that I found highly engaging and found
it to be over far too soon with its scant 75 minutes-long running time.
The programme tells the true life story of how Tony Warren, a young
screenwriter struggling to make his name in the business at Granada Studios, who
hit on the idea of creating a television programme that related directly to its
audience by presenting a version of everyday working class life on a terraced
street in Manchester. We see the genesis of Warren’s idea, conceived from so
many details of his own upbringing; his fight to convince his Canadian-born boss
to take a chance on it; their battle to persuade the Bernsteins, the studio
owners, to put it on the air; and once agreed, the trials of casting it
perfectly so that it met both the exacting standards of Warren’s ideal and the new
realities of acting on television.
David Dawson makes a hugely appealing presence at the centre of this show with
a brilliantly energetic performance which captures much of the intensity of a
man pouring his absolute heart and soul into a project that couldn’t have been
any more personal if he tried. His relationships throughout the film keep it
motoring along nicely and are always engaging, whether with his faintly batty
mother, Phoebe Nicholls in delicious form, Jane Horrocks’ industrious casting
director, Christian McKay’s passionate producer or the delightful fag-haggery
of Jessie Wallace’s Pat Phoenix.
Celia Imrie is also fun as Doris Speed who took on the role of Annie Walker and
Lynda Baron has huge fun chewing the scenery as the much-feared Violet Carson. Having James Roache, son of William Roache who of course has played Ken Barlow
since the very first episode, may have had a nice circularity about it but he
comes across as a bit too bland of an actor to really make an impact. But this
was the only slightly dull spot in what otherwise was one of my favourite
things I’ve watched in recent months. I just can’t work out why it was so
short.
Labels: Celia Imrie, David Dawson, Henry Goodman, Jane Horrocks, Jessie Wallace, John Thomson, Lynda Baron, Phoebe Nicholls, Shaun Dooley, Steven Berkoff