Manchester's People's History Museum

Lovely place, quite impressive really.  And a more than decent cafe on the main floor (inevitably named The Left Bank).

The Chartist etc. bit triggered memories of long ago English history classes.  The more recent displays a bit depressing in that I lived through and can remember many of them (even participated, in a small way, as with the Miners Strike).  Next thing you know I will wake up to find myself stuffed and in a display case.

Lots of hands-on things for kids.

I LOVED the union banners on display.  Just wish there were more.  Nobody does a good banner like the British.

The only down side to the place is that it pretty much killed the day for us, especially as we (yet again) did not bring one of our little folding stools for Geri and her back started to go after a couple of hours.

With a bit of luck and a shitload of money the Workers Heritage Centre in Hamilton will be like this in 50 years or so.

After we made off to Mr. Thomas' Chop House, a very nicely maintained Victorian pub turned slightly trendy restaurant.  Food fab (picture a 21st century take on corned beef hash) and a couple of pints of Black Sheep.

Photos of the museum HERE and of the walking we did before and after and of Mr. Thomas' HERE.  But best of all, shots of a couple of nice oddities in the men's and women's WCs at the museum HERE.

G and D on the Street!

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.

29.    See our photo HERE.  They say a great deal more about how much fun it was than anything I could write.

Settled in Manchester

So, settled with our hosts, Geri’s friend Anne and husband Roy, in Manchester. 

Love Icelandair and am thinking that at their prices even with no stay over in Iceland they might come in handy after I retire and our source of aeroplane points disappears.  We were upgraded at the airport to business class for the Toronto-Keflavik segment.  All for $200 less than Air Transat and about $350 less than Air Canada.

Very friendly folks in the airport in Iceland, hoping that carries on outside the doors when we get back there on Monday.

British border officer not only a Corrie fan but says as most of the cast live in or near Manchester she sees them regularly returning from holidays and tours.  Didn’t even blink an eye when we told her we were entering the UK for three days to visit the set before it is torn down.

That’s the old set.  Rumour here has it the new set on the edge of town may be open or opening soon for tours.

Not much to report.  I am watching an episode of allo Allo (HA!) and doing this while people fuss about various things.  Dinner her and then a pub.

Tomorrow is the big day as our tour tickets get us onto the set at 14:40.  I had thought later, closer to midnight when it closes for demolition.  Was thinking that the closer to closing the more cast and producers would be around (a least one of each supposed to be there all day for speeches and photo ops).  Would have enhanced my chances of being discovered and getting a role, even if just a walk-on.  Was thinking I could pitch a mysterious character who follows Ken home from his extended trip to Canada. Lurking in the Rover’s with a pint in every episode would be perfect for me.  Uses my skills too. :-)

No photos yet as I see to have charged all our camera batteries but neglected to return them to the camera case.  My obsession with only buying cameras that use AA batteries pays off finally as I just need to buy a set or two on the way to the pub tonight after dinner and I can take another of my obssesive-compulsive behaviours out for an airing and shoot lots of photos for uploading tomorrow morning.

More later, inevitable.  :-)

Couldn't Resist, So...

We're off to Manchester (UK) and Iceland in early October.  We've always wanted to take a tour of the Coronation Street set but the tours ended when the show went to a five nights per week schedule.  No time for tours around the shooting.

Anyway, the production company built a new set (hence the overnight increase in the size on every room on the show) and the old one has been in use as a tour site since April.  On 4 October that ends and the demo starts, but on that same day we're doing a tour.

The cheapest flights direct Toronto-Manchester-Toronto were Iceland Air and so on the way back we're spending 5 days in Iceland.

In Manchester we're staying with friends but we're HERE whilst in Reykjavik. 

Treat number two results from Geri inheriting a sum from her father when he died (see below).  She'll be in Cuba for 4 weeks over Christmas and New Years while I will be joining her for three weeks.  Letting us both celebrate Christmas and New Year's on the beach at the Melia Cayo Santa Maria.

Corrie Pilgrims

I just booked two tickets for the afternoon of the last day on which Coronation Street tours will be conducted on the old, original (sort of) set in Manchester. Production recently moved to a new set in a new studio complex. The old set will be used for tours until next fall when it will be demolished.

If you're not doing anything on 4 October, join us...
 
Tickets are available online through Ticketmaster HERE.

We'll be looking to book flights and a B&B in a week or two. Nice to have lots of points.