Gail, Audrey and the Eddie Stobart game

I was on my way home recently when I spotted an Eddie Stobart lorry with the name of “Gail Audrey”. Surely, this truck must have been named in homage to the Corrie characters, I thought?

After all, we know that Gail is a Stobart spotter. In this wonderful scene from October 2012, a dozen road hauliers’ wives turn up at the Bistro for a Sunday roast and Gail reveals that they used to play “the Eddie Stobart game” in the Tilsley/Platt/Hillman/McIntyre/Rodwell family:

“It used to make long journeys fly by”, says Gail before recalling how they counted forty-eight on that last trip to Cromer. I can relate to this. When I was a kid, we did a lot of motorway driving and one way to make the time go slightly faster was to count how many Eddie Stobart lorries we would see on any given journey - just as the Platts did on the way to Cromer. 

There was never a road trip that went by without clocking at least one of the iconic trucks in Brunswick green and Post Office red. Each lorry is christened with female names painted on the front. For example, “Rebecca Emily”, “Eleanor Joanne” or indeed, “Gail Audrey”. Part of the fun is looking for the name.

Eddie Stobart is a national institution and believe it or not, the company has a fan club with 30,000 members. There are many Stobart spotters out there and according to the book ‘Eddie Stobart: The Ultimate Guide to the British Trucking Legends’, famous spotters include Corrie’s Alan Halsall (Tyrone Dobbs) and Simon Gregson (Steve McDonald) and also Suranne Jones (Karen McDonald) and Brian Capron (Gail’s husband, Richard Hillman).

Now that Corrie has a much bigger set at Trafford Wharf, with the street twice as wide as previously, I reckon there is scope for a storyline that sees the Gail Audrey truck drive along the cobbles. Perhaps once Underworld is back up and running, the Connors will need some help with logistics and warehousing.

I can see it now… Gail Audrey pulls up outside the factory and is seen by Roy Cropper the Stobart Spotter on his way back from the Cash and Carry. Roy immediately jots down the name and number plate (KX16 FLN) before scuttling off to tell Gail and Audrey about his sighting. 

Audrey isn’t bothered but Gail is delighted by the coincidence and forces her way into the driver’s cab to take a closer look and get her hands on the dinky little curtains. Scriptwriters - I’m available.

By Martin Leay, on Twitter @mpleay

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Coronation Street new set – our visit in full

It was a proper privilege to be invited to the reveal of the new Coronation Street set yesterday in Manchester. Armed with notebooks and camera, we set off from Sunderland at 6.30am to arrive by train at the new set just as the heavens opened and the rain chucked down. Typical Weatherfield weather!

Flaming Nora!  It's Weatherfield weather!

All of our pictures are here from the day, and the official ITV time-lapse photos from the big build are here.  The press were out in force and you can read lots of good stuff from proper journalists at The Guardian and The Mirror and the Manchester Evening News and of course, the official Coronation Street website.

But how did it feel for us, as bloggers and fans, to be allowed to see the new set and what did we think about it?  Well, it felt as fantastic as you’d expect, and a real privilege. Thank you from the bottom of our Corrie hearts to ITV for inviting us in.

So, without any further ado and with some of our own pictures from yesterday’s visit, here we go with our write-up of yesterday’s big trip.

The first thing you notice when you see the new set is... 
It looks exactly like the old one.  I was worried it was going to look too clean, too tidy, too new. It doesn’t.  It looks exactly as it should. And because of that, it positions you right at the heart of our favourite show - and that’s when I got the goosebumps.  It’s a new set, with new cobbles, new windows, new doors, new paintwork, a new tree. But that newness brings with it the old magic. For bricks and mortar to create such a strength and depth of emotion and feeling that I got goosebumps and a lump in my throat was incredible, and it took me completely by surprise.

Things that are obviously different and new on this set...
It’s wider, so that two cars can pass on Coronation Street and on Viaduct Street. It’s longer and this means there’s an extra window upstairs in the Rovers Return. There’s an additional door called 16a next to Roy’s Rolls.  Lamp posts have been pushed to the back of pavements and kerbs have been dropped (for ease of production).

There’s now a path behind the gardens of the houses to allow the cameras more access than they had before. Mawdsley Street is now visible as a 3D backdrop that can be lit.

Things that are the same as the old set…
The magic  - and I can’t stress that enough. The new cobbles are as difficult to walk on as they are on the current set (and I had flat boots on).

Items of note…
The attention to detail is incredible to make the new set look as old as possible. It’s a new set but already looks suitably and rightly worn down by generations of Weatherfield worry.

The best bits of our day…
Being given permission to graffiti the garage door.

Watching raffle winning, Salford legend Mike Sweeney put up the new Coronation Street sign.

Listening to Clint Boon from The Inspiral Carpets’ DJ set in the press tent while swigging champagne, eating mince pies and wondering how much 54,000 cobbles cost to buy.  Seeing Corrie creator Tony Warren giving interviews to the press.

Things we learned from the press pack...
The new bus stop has been specially designed by JC Decaux for Coronation Street with a higher and shorter roof to allow for boom mics and a hinged glass sidescreen for better camera angles.  The tree outside of Audrey's salon is 25 years old and is called an Alnus Icana (if you squint a lot, it looks like the tree's called Almas Incarnation).  Interior filming done in Underworld and Streetcars will now be done inside the cab office and factory on the new set rather than in the studio.

Our overall feelings about the new set...
More than anything it was relief that it’s not changed – too much.  Will we notice the changes when we see it on TV? It’s hard to say because they’ll do such a fantastic job with the camera angles.

And finally, the new set is...
It's truly fantastic. It’s magical. It’s Coronation Street.

We've been caught on camera too - have a look at this!

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Coronation Street's new set - time lapse photos of the big build

Yesterday, we visited the new Coronation Street set and you can see our own pictures here.

Below are the official ITV pictures showing how the new set was built.  To see a bigger version of each picture, just click on them.

November 2011: The build begins

July 2012: The footprint of the new Street takes place.

3rd September 2012: The Medical Centre and Bonded Warehouse.

November 2012: The viaduct behind the Rovers is clearly identifiable.

February 2013: The roofs of the modern terraces and the Kabin takes shape.

April 2013: Brickwork nears completion on the main terrace and the roofs are on

April 2013: Coronation Street is clearly visible from the air.

April 2013: Brickwork races on and the Corner Shop awaits its main windows.

July 2013: The famous cobbles are laid.

October 2013: The ginnel is almost complete.

November 2013: Coronation Street Trafford, first official picture.

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New Corrie Set update - November 2012

I've been reading Chewy's blog posts with photos of the construction of the new Coronation Street set, the most recent one from June. This month I am visiting Manchester and today we decided to go to the Imperial war Museum North. I had an ulterior motive. I did want to see the museum, and if you get the chance to go, you should, it's very, very good. But I also wanted to go up the viewing platform in the museum's tower to have a peek over the fence at the Corrie set construction.

As you can see from this photo, the framing is now in for Rosamund Street across the end of what will be Coronation Street. You can also see that there's more distance between the houses on either side of the Street. We know they are going to construct it at real-life size rather than somewhat smaller as it is now.

I think the shorter square building on the left end behind the Rosamund Street structure will probably be the builder's yard. The taller structure in the back is probably going to be studio. We can't see the Victoria Street section in this angle.

Click on the photo for a larger view.

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New Corrie set update - June 2012

This month we can see that most of Coronation Street has now gone up, with part of Victoria Street also being built. The frames for the facades have now gone up, which will soon make it harder to get a peek of the Street.

More pictures of the set progress are available at Mark Whitfield's MediaCity timeline website, in case you missed it, you can see the set from a different angle in a blog post from earlier this month.

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The new Coronation Street set in all its glory

Well, here it is, the frame of the future Coronation Street, which has gone up really fast over the last month. Thanks to 'manc' from the Skyscraper city forum for the picture.

Click through the link to see a picture of the whole of the new ITV compound.

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Corrie's new set update: May 2012

This month we finally see the Street itself going up, from looking at the picture I have labelled what I think each of the structures is, as you can see here.

There's dozens more pictures of the new set, and MediaCity itself in the sunshine, over here on Mark Whitfield's website.

I'm excited to see how much the Street will progress in the next month or so!

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Corrie's New Set: April Update

Work on the new set seems to be storming along, the new ITV building is looking even more complete this month.

The street itself looks to finally be getting some groundwork, as you can see on Mark Whitfield's monthly gallery of work going on in the Salford Quays area.

I can't wait to see the actual set rising in the next few months, it should be exciting to watch!

To check out our timeline of pictures so far, look here.

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New Corrie Set: March 2012 Update

Big changes this month, the whole site is now starting to take place, the shell of the ITV building now looks complete and you can see the start of the set contruction. As usual the pictures are taken by Mark Whitfield, and there are lots more in depth pictures over on his site.

Click to enlarge

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Is this the fate of the current Coronation Street set?

Manchester Evening News has an article today featuring plans of what will become of the old Granada Studios and Coronation Street set.

The picture to the left shows the Bonded Warehouse, which currently sits behind Rosamund Street Medical Centre among new developments, and a new public square.

It must be noted that the area shown is at the opposite side of the warehouse though, the set from this perspective is behind the large building.

While I am a Corrie fan, I can understand the reasoning for the set to be changed into a public area. I just think it would be a shame to demolish the street though, as it is a big attraction for the Castlefield area of Manchester and is an important part of the city's history.

ITV do appear to have plans for the set though, ITV's property director, Peter Copley is quoted as saying: "ITV is strengthening its commitment to the region through its investment at MediaCityUK but is also keen to leave a strong legacy in Manchester City centre. There's an opportunity at Quay Street for a project that extends the already-successful city centre and draws on the rich history and character of the site."

ITV is strengthening its commitment to the region through its investment at MediaCityUK but is also keen to leave a strong legacy in Manchester city centre.

Read more at: http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/news/s/1488402_first-images-of-new-family-neighbourhood-plans-for-granada-studios-quay-street-si

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New Corrie Set: February 2012 update

Progress has finally been made on the Trafford Wharf site, which will house the new Coronation Street set, take a look below, the building under construction is the main ITV building on the site, as seen here.

This has all gone up very quickly as a picture from earlier this month shows.

Click to enlarge the picture

You can find larger pics here and a timeline of pictures here.

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New Corrie Set: January 2012 Update

Once again, in this post I must give a massive shoutout to Mark Whitfield and his site, without his monthly updates via the MediaCity UK flickr I would not be able to post this feature (and timeline) of pictures.

There looks to be a lot of ground work going on at the site now, I don't think it will be too long before we see something going up as the foundations are now being laid. Don't forget to click the links for more images, and the picture below for a bigger view.

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What areas would you like to see on the new Corrie set?

The precinct/tram stop set at Granada Studios.

After yesterday's news that the new Coronation Street set would be adding new areas onto the set, which areas would you like to see?

On the current set, there is the police station exterior, the Street set, and a precinct set, which you may not have noticed was a set. Small bit of trivia: the viaduct in the picture was the one used for the 1970s set and also for Davenport's garage in 2004.  And the final set, Weatherfield General Hospital's entrance.

On the new set, I think it would be great to finally introduce Tile Street, after the sheer amount of times it has been mentioned by Coronation Street residents. Also, if I'm not mistaken, Tile Street is also home to its own police station, so that could be introduced. Tile Street is meant to behind Victoria Street, according to old maps, and there is a back street for Victoria Street on the new set.

I would also like for the old Roy's Rolls / Rita's Kabin houses to return, there is apparently room to add things behind the bridge on Rosamund Street, so I'd put the back there. Anyway, enough of my ideas, tell us some of your own!

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Corrie's new set: Progress update

Mark Whitfield, the man who takes the pictures used for MediaCity UK's flickr feed has posted his December batch of pictures, which you can view here. There looks to be a lot of groundwork going on at the site now, keep an eye on this blog, and Mark's site for more pictures! There's also a picture timeline of the construction of the whole of the MediaCity UK complex on the site, it's definitely worth a look.

Click to enlarge picture.

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A few more changes found on the new set

I wrote a blog the other day, detailing the changes I noticed on Corrie's new set. This got Corrie fans looking to see if they could spot any changes to the new set, and they didn't disappoint!

Commenter Grant over on the Weatherfield Recorder blog pointed out to me that not only has the Rovers gained an extra window, but the Corner Shop has done as well. Another fan with a keen eye, Paul, pointed out that on the planning documents submitted to Trafford Council, Victoria Street had gotten some quite noticeable changes.

The picture of the street shows Roy's Rolls with a new door at either side of the exterior, presumably these lead up to the Butchers flat and the Takeaway flat. Until now these had been accessed by a door near Victoria Court, which seemed quite strange. Another change is Roy & Hayley's flat now appears to have two bay windows instead of one, which possibly means Victoria Street will look a lot larger on the new set. If you notice any changes, don't be afraid to send them in!

Click to enlarge!

After posting this blog, I noticed another little change to Victoria Street, or to be more precise, Victoria Court. In the set plans Victoria Court has four stories, where as on the current set it only has three, this probably wont be noticed all that much as we haven't often seen the top of Victoria Court, so another floor would be easy to add.

The changes to Victoria Court, click to enlarge.

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Noticeable changes to the new set

Over on my Weatherfield Recorder blog, I've made quite a big list of all the changes I can spot on the model of the new set that we posted about yesterday. It's worth a look as I've dug up many comparison pictures so you can compare the differences yourself. It seems the majority of changes fix some of the problems that the Granada Studios set has.

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See the model for Corrie's new set, in detail

Make: Manchester, the company who made the model for Corrie's new set have released a few new pictures on their site, and their Facebook, if you look close enough you will notice a few changes, such as Underworld now actually looking bigger on the outside than on the inside, and Victoria Street's back street opening up.

It will be a little weird seeing the Bonded Warehouse from Granada Studios being rebuilt in the 21th Century and Museum of Science and Industry being replicated as a facade, here at the blog we're looking forward to seeing the completed set on our screens in 2013!


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