Geri and I have
both been fans of Coronation Street for decades. Fans since before we became fans of each
other, so to speak.
Before the show
went to the 5-days-a-week schedule tours were offered by the studio and we were
planning on using up some of our Aeroplan points to fly over and take it, make
a cheap fun weekend out of it.
But in 1999 the
schedule was bumped-up and the tours stopped as the set had no down time.
This past spring
however, they resumed as the old set was abandoned for a brand new one across
town. There won’t be any tours of the
new set either (for the same reason) but for a limited time there would be
tours of the old one before it as torn down to make way for housing.
So we decided to
give it some thought. Pending a conclusion
we booked our tickets for what was announced as the last day for tours, 4
October.
In the end we
couldn’t resist and while we didn’t have the points for business class seats
(needed because of back problems) we did manage to find cheap seats on
Icelandair with the added benefit of a possible stopover at no extra cost on
the way back. We were quite impressed
with the airline. Not least because they
run an online auction for available seat upgrades and we got biz class seats
for the Keflavik-Manchester-Keflavik segments.
The bits into and out of Toronto not, but not too terrible as there was a stop in Iceland long enough for some stretching and because we paid for
‘comfort class’ (economy seats but with the centre seat covered with a tray and
somewhat more legroom, what Lufthansa
tries to pass-off as its business class) and the flight is only about 4 hours.
So, for a mere $30
or so plus airfare we got to spend 2 hours playing on the old set. Which I think works out to about $25 per
minute if you take the estimated cost of our trip as a whole and divide it by
120. :-)
Anyway, here’s the
lowdown on the tour:
1.
The
tour crowd was 40 in number with a new group going through every 10 minutes
from 0800 to 2230 every day. Even with
breaks for the guides still over 20,000 through each weekend day. Many fewer on weekdays I would expect.
2.
75%
women, broad age range.
3.
One in
our group doing a Bet Lynch imitation, another dressed as Hilda Ogden.
4.
Overall
much more fun than the Tower of Buckingham Palace I must say. :-)
5.
Real
royalty too: Reg Holdsworth put in an appearance in a bright pink jacket. Geri asked him if the jacket put him in
character and he replied “Yes, along with the matching underwear.” He was quite the sport and must have stood
for hours for photos, autographs and was quite chatty.
6.
The
indoor behind the scenes stuff was mildly interesting. No photos allowed there or on the indoor sets
except for the tour-does-you-pay shots of tourists at the bar on the Rover’s
set.
7.
Green
room, dressing rooms, make-up room, interior sets of various houses along the
Street all on the tour.
8.
The costumes
kinda fun. They have an archive of old
clothing for each continuing character.
9.
Bit of
an explanation of where they shop for costumes for each of the characters, who
buys their own etc.
10.
Quite
the collection of wedding dresses too.
11.
Apparently
the actor who plays Norris falls asleep every time he is having his makeup
done.
12.
Small
theatre with video of highlights of the show over the past 60+ years. A lot of beer has been wasted over the years
by being thrown at or poured over characters. :-)
13.
People
on the tour found the theatre got rather dusty now and then during the sad
bits. A couple behind me we quite sad
after the Haley retrospective.
14.
Bit of
a history of Liz’s boobs too. And yet
she still denies having had enhancement surgery done. :-)
15.
Some
uncaught bloopers that made it to air.
Kinda fun. Sets and equipment
exposed, that sort of thing.
16.
Display
of props.
17.
Only
two coffins every used in the 148 funerals on the show. One for 146.
18.
Diedre’s
glasses collection. :-)
19.
102
weddings, all dresses kept.
20.
The
Rover’s interior much more realistic than I had expected. Photos of Geri pulling me a pint and of me
along behind the bar are amongst out photos (see end of this postcard for the
link to them all).
21.
Horror
expressed by all that Betty’s hotpot was bought at the local Tesco’s and often
eaten cold by the actors if many takes required.
22.
Roy’s
train set was on display.
23.
The
Jack and Vera was fun and includes their urns
24.
Hilda’s
hair rollers and the Sharpes hairnet there too.
25.
Outdoors
was the best bit other than the Rover’s interior set. See our photos. Some of the fans used their access to photo
or video their re-enactments of various famous scenes (there was a lineup at
one point as a bunch of women took turns being photographed lying where Tina
did after she was pushed.
26.
Yes,
yes, I did one. See the photo and guess. :-)
27.
The
tour is so popular (see the numbers above) that it has been extended to the end
of October and permission from the Council to keep it going for the rest of the
year has been applied-for.
28.
#corrietour
is the officially-encouraged hashtag.
