Property man on Coronation St

Press, 30 December 1980, Page 7

Property man on Coronation St

Gathered together in a draughty Manchester television studio, a ' dozen actors and actresses waited to start the first episode of a new low-budge seven-week series. None of them was famous. None of them expected the work to last for more than about a month. And certainly noone realised that the show would make show business history — and turn most of them into, television superstars. It was on December 9, 1960, that the first instalment of “Coronation Street” went on to the air. From that original seven-week run, it has become the most successful and longest-running television series in the world, recently celebrating its 2000th instalment. Bert Harrison, the studio’s props manager, was there at the start of the epic, and is still there today. “I’m beginning to think that ‘Coronation Street’ will go on for ever,” he said. “I can’t see how. why -or when, the final episode will ever be screened.

“When I was a boy I lived in a street not unlike Coronation Street. And surely much of the programme’s success is because it’s just like a real street, filled with real people. “I’ll never forget the start of ‘Coronation Street.’ I started working on the props for the series •in the autumn of 1960, and finally, on December 9, we’started what was intended to be a seven-week series. Violet Carson, Pat Phoenix and' Doris Speed were all in the original cast.

“I’m certain that if you had predicted to these three that they Would still be in their original roles 20 years later, they’d have though you were off your rocker.

“When the series started, it was meant to revolve around the corner shop and its customers,

but it was when It began to include the Rover’s Return that the show really took off.

“It’s my'job to get most of the props used in the programme. I organise the material needed for Mike Baldwin’s factory, where they make jeans and “I get the beer that’s drunk in the pub, the cigarettes that are smoked, and I’ve even got a few hairnets for Ena Sharpies, over the years. “My first task, for that first episode, was organising the corner shop, its layout and contents. “And when you compare what prices were in the shop then, with what they''

are now, you really get some idea of how times have changed. In the Rover’s Return, 20 cigarettes and half-a-pint of bitter cost 4s when the series started. “And in the first episode, when Florrie Lindley takes over the shop, she was warned not, to give Elsie Tanner’s family too much credit. The advice was nothing above ten shillings — that’s 50 pence m today’s money. “I’m probably one of the luckiest Coronation Street fans, because I have a good idea of what’s coming in the future, having to work as far as three or four weeks ahead. “Over the years there have been some episodes that I’ve felt particularly pleased with. For instance, the one which featured the

viaduct disaster was particularly well done.

“And we all felt rather proud of the way in which we planned and produced Fat Phoenix’s wedding. “We’ve featured weddings before in churches, of course, but this was done entirely in the stu-; dio. It looked so authentic I hat people wrote in asking which church we had used.”

Ther have been amusing moments too, in the long history of “Coronation Street.”

“I remember when we> needed a police car for one episode,” says Bert.i “We arranged to hire aft white car which we plan-| ned to do up ouraelves. “The car was needed for filming one Monday afternoon but when I went? along to collect it, the white car hadn’t been returned. The manager had set aside a red car for us, instead.

“I’ll never forget the look on his face when I said: ‘But that’s the wrong colour. We need a white one, because it's got to' look like a police car.’ I think he thought we were planning a robbery, or. something. “It' took a lot of telephone calls to convince him that we weren’t on the wrong side of the law.”

On most programmes, says Bert Harrison, props staff don’t come into contact with the actors and actresses. But “Coronation Street” has been going for so long that he now has many personal friends among the cast. “Today, ‘Coronation Street’ is as successful as. ever,” he says, “and I certainly can’t see any final episode in sight. It’s just like a meeting up with old friends every time you watch it.

“Perhaps its secret is that it’s the sort of series vJhich, if you miss out some episodes, you soon get back into the swing of p things, l and quickly catch up on what you’ve missed. ? “After 20 years working on the show. I’m still its number one fan.”