THE cobbles are staying.
I broke the news first and exclusively this morning that Coronation Street is staying in Manchester.
Talks about moving ITV Granada from the current site at Quay Street to Salford Quays dramatically broke down this week.
ITV were moving forward with plans to transfer to Trafford Wharfside.
But discussions have now been terminated by ITV and the move scrapped following a dramatic reduction in the financial commitment being offered by MediaCity developers Peel.
Month: March 2009
THERE’S a documentary on TV tonight which might just save your life.
Not that you’d know it from this rather bizarre image, one of several BBC publicity pics issued to tie in with the Horizon film.
It shows, at least in part, Prof Myer Glickman, from the Office of National Statistics.
I use it here, as it almost certainly won’t appear anywhere else.
Perhaps it’s me? Am I missing something?
Myer tells BBC2’s cheerily-titled How To Survive A Disaster: “We would normally classify any death before the age of 70 as premature death.”
Almost three quarters of which are preventable.
THE end of another long and varied week is in sight.
It began on Sunday night with coverage of Roxanne Pallett being frozen out of Dancing On Ice.
And continued back at the keyboard at dawn today with the story of Gary Barlow and his Comic Relief team reaching the summit of Kilimanjaro.
Along the way I spoke to University of Manchester team captain Matthew Yeo on Monday night, just minutes after rivals Oxford were disqualified from University Challenge.
Spent a day on location in Stretford on Tuesday with the new series of The Street for interviews and behind the scenes coverage when it returns to BBC1 later this year.
Wrote about current shows like Shameless, Coronation Street and Law and Order: UK.
And revealed all about The Royle Family’s return for Comic Relief.
THE saga of Coronation Street’s possible move to Salford Quays is nearing a conclusion.
At 7am today ITV announced it intended to axe 600 jobs and cut programme budgets.
And at 7.30am I took part in a long conference call with executive chairman Michael Grade and other ITV bosses.
As luck would have it, I was the first in line called to ask a question.
So I asked for the current thinking on the possible move of ITV Granada – including Corrie – from Manchester and the latest timescale for a decision.
Michael handed the question over to ITV chief operating officer John Cresswell.
You can read the full details in today’s MEN coverage here.
In essence, it looks like – barring a change of heart or last minute hitch – Corrie will be moving.
Described in Mr Cresswell’s answer as “the most valuable programme on British television”.
THERE just had to be one final twist to the Gail Trimble story.
News broke online around 10pm last night of a BBC probe into claims about the winners of this week’s University Challenge grand final.
It appears one member of the Corpus Christi Oxford team ceased to be a student during filming of the series.
Sam Kay (far left in pic) had been studying chemistry.
But during the team’s campaign towards ultimate victory, led by captain Gail, he left the college to work as an accountant.
Sam told today’s Observer here that he was a student during the first two rounds before graduating last June.
While at least one member of the University of Manchester team, who finished as losing finalists, reckons that breaks the rules.
Life of Wylie 