Tribute to corrie’s creator
new exhibition will celebrate the life and career of tony Warren
CORONATION Street creator Tony Warren will be celebrated in a new exhibition depicting his journey to Weatherfield. The early life and career of the screenwriter behind the world’s longest-running continuing drama, will be remembered in an exhibition at Salford Museum and Art Gallery.
Four Miles from Manchester; Tony Warren’s Coronation Street has been named in honour of Tony’s affectionate words about his beloved TV street.
Back in 1995 he said: “Coronation Street is four miles in any one direction from the centre of Manchester. Emotionally, it’s wherever you want it to be in your own heart.”
The free exhibition will showcase aspects of Tony’s life growing up in Pendlebury, Salford, where he absorbed the streets, people and sounds surrounding him, which led him to create a soap telling the stories of ordinary people on an ordinary street.
Original scripts and other items from his early writing career will be on show at the exhibition, which runs from Saturday, October 21, to Tuesday, July 3, 2018.
As a child Tony, who died in March last year after suffering from a short illness, remembered visiting his grandmother’s house, where he would sit under the table and listen to the speech patterns of his female relatives.
The exhibition will bring these moments to life and will include a replica living room scene from the 50s and 60s.
There will also be the opportunity for fans to watch the first episode of Coronation Street screened on December 9, 1960, and to view personal items and photographs for the first time.
Salford’s terraced houses, cobbled streets, industrial sights and sounds will also feature in the exhibition with specially created paintings by local artist David Coulter, who grew up in the same place and time that Tony did.
Coronation Street executive producer Kieran Roberts said: “Coronation Street is the story of the everyday lives of ordinary folk living on a cobbled back-street somewhere in Manchester.
“Tony Warren was a wonderful and brilliant man who created not just the programme but an entire genre of British television.”
Tony, who was awarded an MBE for services to broadcasting, created Corrie at the age of 24.
Hundreds of mourners gathered to pay their respects at his funeral held at Manchester Cathedral including William Roache, Kim Marsh, Julie Goodyear, Les Dennis and Barbara Knox.
Paul Dennett, Salford’s City Mayor, said: “He brought the lives of ordinary Salford people to the television screen, which hit a note with the nation and continues today.”