THEY used to call it flaming June.
Now it appears to be the month of torrential downpours.
This Sunday it gets even stranger with a white wedding.
Not unusual in June – but this one comes complete with real snow.
The long-awaited Heartbeat wedding of Gina Ward and Phil Bellamy was actually filmed in January.
And Cheshire-based actress Tricia Penrose, who plays Gina, says both she and co-star Phil Jordon were freezing.
“It was awful for me in terms of my costume, because I had a long cape over my dress which did get a bit wet and muddy.
Author: ianwylie
COULD the Coronation Street cobbles be moved?
That’s one of the questions I posed in an interview with ITV Granada managing director Susan Woodward.
“You could move it, pick it up, do it somewhere else,” she said.
“It could look the same, feel the same, taste the same and probably work the same. But it’s a big decision to make.”
That decision – expected this summer – is about the future of ITV Granada’s 24 acre Quay Street site in Manchester.
One option is to stay put on a redeveloped site.
The other is to move to Media City in Salford.
You can read more in last Friday’s Pg 9 MEN feature – the online version is here.
Susan also told me: “Coronation Street is an extraordinary creative factory. They always want to expand the boundaries.
THE bride wore ivory on another busy day in Midsomer.
“Thank you all for being the cheapest labour we’ve ever had,” laughed John Nettles.
The occasion was filming for the Midsomer Murders wedding of his screen daughter Cully Barnaby to Simon Dixon.
And the reason for John’s joke?
Among the wedding guests in the church congregation were the massed ranks of Her Majesty’s Press, including yours truly.
We were invited by executive producer Brian True-May, who married his own wife Maureen on the same spot in 1969.
Not that you’re likely to see much of us when episode one of series 11 – Blood Wedding – is screened on ITV1 later this year.
IF you’ve been wondering where he’s been, wonder no longer.
Michael Palin returns to our screens later this year in a much anticipated new BBC1 series.
When people ask me for a list of my favourite people to interview, Michael is always in there near the top.
I’ve been signed up to his Palin’s Travels website since it was launched a few years ago and have watched it grow.
You can also receive infrequent email updates from Michael and his interweb team.
They tend to drop into your in-box when you’re least expecting them.
This one was sent out yesterday:
THE torrential rain did its best to dampen last night’s celebration to mark the BBC’s £250m move to Salford’s Media City.
Suffice to say, after my tram broke down one stop short – I might as well have jumped into the water off Salford Quays.
But there was a glow of bright optimism on the faces of the 200 guests who gathered for a slice of the future on a soundstage at The Pie Factory.
Standing on the edge of the Media City site in Salford Quays, the TV production complex – as the name suggests – is based in an old factory.
But as managing director Andy Sumner said: “Personally, I see The Pie Factory as the start of Media City, the first green shoots.
“We’re the first part of a story that will see the transformation of this site over the next five years.”
BBC director-general Mark Thompson (pictured above at last night’s event) met staff at his Oxford Road HQ before going on to the official launch of Media City.
The BBC move will be the first phase of the development and occupy around a quarter of the site.
IT’S the dawn of a new era in Salford today.
Many critics thought it would never happen. They’ve been proved wrong.
A special reception will be held tonight celebrating the signing of contracts confirming the BBC’s move to Salford Quays.
BBC director general Mark Thompson will be there, along with others involved in the historic Media City deal.
Visiting the site last year, he described the move as a “compelling vision” and a leap into the future “of global significance”.
The £250m move was given the green light back in January, with the final legal agreement signed at the end of last month.
That means five London-based BBC departments – Children’s, Children’s Learning, Future Media & Technology, Radio Five Live, BBC Sport – will move to Salford in 2011.
IT’S not hard to fathom the appeal of one of TV’s surprise hits.
Trawlermen is back for a new series next week, spread across five consecutive nights on BBC1.
The latest batch of adventures on the high seas begin at the start of this year, immediately after the Christmas and New Year holiday.
As the programme explains, crews only get paid a share of what they catch.
So if they don’t catch anything, they don’t get paid.
Fans of last year’s first series will be pleased to see Amity skipper Jimmy Buchan (pictured above left) and Ocean Venture skipper John Buchan (below right) in Monday’s first programme.
We watch them battle with a winter storm and treacherous seas.
YET again, Andrew Lloyd Webber has got the right person for the job after his latest TV search for a West End star.
Understudy Lee Mead was always the leading man among the finalists in BBC1’s Any Dream Will Do.
Like Maria winner Connie Fisher, he had that necessary mix of experience and talent to head the cast of a major stage musical.
And while Lloyd Webber had no casting vote in the final, he had reduced the risks of the wrong man getting the job in earlier rounds.
That left Lee, 25, as a firm favourite to win on Saturday night when a total of three million votes were cast by viewers.
“I feel incredible,” said Lee. “It’s the best feeling in the world.”
Lewis Bradley, 18, looked shocked to be voted out in third place – but at least got the chance for a final moment in the spotlight via Close Every Door.
DOCTOR Who fans are still busy on web forums talking about last Saturday’s stunning episode.
The Family of Blood was the conclusion of a two-part story, written by Paul Cornell.
Set in the England of 1913, it was heavy with foreboding for the First World War to come a year later.
Some believe it was the best episode of the time travel series ever screened.
And many have reported they were in tears at the unexpected conclusion, depicting a modern day service of remembrance for those who died in the war.
It saw the poppy-wearing Doctor and Martha standing in the distance to pay their respects to a now aged veteran Tim Latimer.
TV bosses at Channel 4 know that every picture sells a story.
So they must have been delighted by the royal row over Diana: The Witnesses In The Tunnel which captured acres of media coverage.
Before, it was just another documentary about her death, and goodness knows we’ve had enough of them.
Now those newspaper headlines, TV, radio and web reports will have delivered a far larger audience tonight than would have watched otherwise.
I sat just a short distance away from Princes William and Harry at Diana’s Westminster Abbey funeral and saw what could not be broadcast on television – the tears which flowed for their mother.
Of course they will be upset by this film, which focused on events involving photographers in the Pont d’Alma tunnel after the Paris car crash which claimed her life.
In particular, there was concern about the decision to show a photo of a doctor administering oxygen to Diana, even though she was blocked out of the picture and unseen.
Life of Wylie 