Florizel Street (lost dry runs of Coronation Street; 1960)

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Coronationstreettitlecard1.png

Title card for Coronation Street used from 1960 to 1964.

Status: Lost

Florizel Street was the original working name for the Granada Television soap opera Coronation Street. The show has since been recognised as the longest continually running television soap opera, with new programmes being routinely broadcast since 9th December 1960. However, it almost never aired a single episode following unenthusiastic reception over its two dry runs (aka pilots) by Granada's programme committee. It subsequently forced several last-minute changes and persuasion by executive producer Harry Elton for it to finally be greenlit.

Background

The story behind Coronation Street's conceptualisation began not at ITV, but surprisingly at the BBC.[1][2][3] In 1957, scriptwriter Tony Warren established Our Street, having converted a previous script of his titled Where No Birds Sing into a comedy.[1] Beforehand, he created a script titled Seven, Bessie Street which also fit within the soap opera genre but had very little else in common with Coronation Street.[4] Alas, the BBC seemingly found the concept unappealing, not even bothering to send Warren a rejection letter.[1][3][2] A second pitch, this time to the BBC's Olive Shapley, also came to nothing.[5][1] A year on, he was employed by Granada Television, initially writing episodes for the Harry Elton-produced detective show Shadow Squad.[6] But after having become disillusioned scriptwriting for Biggles, Warren demanded Elton grant him the chance to establish his own programme.[7][6][2] Elton agreed to this, on the condition the proposal would be ground-breaking for the United Kingdom.[6][2]

Warren promised - and subsequently delivered - a full script the following day.[1][2] The script's setting was based on the back streets of Salford, with ongoing storylines regarding the interconnected lives of predominantly working-class northerners.[1][2] His work was titled Florizel Street, named after Prince Florizel, one of many names given to the prince featured in the French fairytale Sleeping Beauty.[8][5][1][3] Elton immediately loved the concept; in contrast, Granada founder Sidney Bernstein absolutely despised it.[2] He harnessed a quote from close friend Alfred Hitchcock, "Drama is life with the dull bits cut out",[9] to illustrate his contempt with Warren's script, which he felt overly focused on the boring and unpleasant side of northern England society.[2] But Elton remained undeterred; he swiftly conducted a meeting with the deputy chairman and Sidney's brother Cecil.[2] While Cecil was not 100% won over by the script, he recognised Granada needed to fulfil its remit of providing programming centred in and catered to the North of England.[2][1] Cecil later convinced Sidney to greenlight a dry run, especially since the proposed show would be exceptionally cheaper to produce in terms of location and human resources, compared to other Granada programmes.[2]

The Dry Runs

With this, production quickly ramped up.[1] Seeking to establish two dry runs, Elton tasked Warren to write a second script.[1][2] The pilot scripts were early versions of episodes 1 and 3, with some differences in casting and the set design.[10] Regarding the latter, Denis Parkin became the show's first set designer, having taking inspiration from Salford's Archie Street to create the setting for the fictional town of Weatherfield.[11][12][13] Surviving dry run photos illustrate how several miniature-scale houses were bedecked with elaborately patterned wallpaper.[14][13] But when the actual episodes were filmed, the wallpaper was nowhere to be seen as Parkin discovered the backdrops came into visual conflict with the actors' heads.[15][14] Meanwhile, Margaret Morris was responsible for casting, but frequently argued with Warren regarding where to source talent from.[16][13][2] Morris opted to bring in some London actors, but Warren insisted the cast be localised and mostly unknown.[2][16]

The dry runs contained a combined 23 parts.[16] Hence, Morris and her assistant sifted through more than 600 actors.[13] One major headache concerned the part of Ena Sharples, the outspoken uncompromising widow and mother of two daughters.[17] Nita Valerie and Nan Marriott-Watson portrayed Ena in the Episode 1 and 3 dry runs respectively, but neither was deemed appropriate for the role and Marriott-Watson was ultimately already too busy for the role regardless.[13][16][2] Instead, Violet Carson became the "perfect" Ena following the pilots.[13][2][17][16] While William Roache is now synonymous with Coronation Street since the beginning, he initially wanted nothing to do with it.[18][19] During this time, a mostly unknown Roache wanted to concentrate on his starring role in a Play of the Week episode, as well as for a London-based career.[19][18] He was eventually coaxed into joining the cast by his agent, who pointed out that the show likely would give him greater exposure, while its short-run expectancy would prevent it from compromising his other projects.[18][19] The part of Ken Barlow had been filled; no other candidates had been seriously considered, despite rumours Philip Lowrie was considered for the role.[20][16] Instead, Lowrie portrayed Dennis Tranner in the show.[16]

Harry Kershaw was brought in as the script editor.[21][13] With the scripts, cast, set and production crew ready, the two pilots were filmed prior to 25th August 1960, at least according to some accounts.[13] The Coronation Street Story: Celebrating Thirty Five Years of The Street in particular claims the show was subsequently greenlit, giving production over three months to prepare for its debut episode on 9th December 1960.[13] However, some tangible evidence disproves this. Particularly, dry run 1's camera script and Roaches' dry run contract quite clearly state rehearsals for Episode 1 would commence from 14th-18th November.[18] The programme's filming occurred on the final day from 7:00 to 7:30 pm.[18] Roache recalled that he and others were "petrified" but nevertheless saw great potential in the show.[13] It is unknown when exactly Episode 3 was filmed, with Roache not listed among the confirmed participating actors.[13]

The pilots were both titled "Florizel Street Dry Run" and they notably did not include Eric Spear's iconic melody.[22][2] With filming complete, Elton presented the tapes to the programme committee. Unsurprisingly, the committee unanimously rejected the show. Granada's general manager, Victor Peers, echoed Sidney Bernstein's initial critical comments on the show's concept. Programme controller Denis Forman found the show lacked the necessary humour and/or realism for it to be compelling. Similarly, light-entertainment producer Eddie Pola was against having any soap opera on primetime slots, declaring "You don't put that crap on at seven o'clock at night. That should play in the afternoon." Finally, Cecil Bernstein informed Elton, a Canadian, that he had made a "horrible mistake" since the north-country dialect was often looked down upon by television networks, often only being utilised for comedic projects.[7][2][13] It seemed Florizel Street would not come to fruition.

Greenlight and Name Change

But upon witnessing a cleaning lady be passionately engaged with a dry run's plot, Elton realised the show could indeed be compelling among the average British citizen.[2] To test that theory, Elton instructed Granada personnel to watch the pilots and provide written feedback concerning the show's format, casting and the overall set.[7][2][13] The mainly passionate and positive responses prompted Elton to present the findings to the Bernstein brothers.[2][7] While they were annoyed by Elton's unorthodox approach to pushing through the show, even they began to realise its potential.[2] Furthermore, with Biggles coming to a natural conclusion and Elton having devoted his attention solely to Florizel Street, Granada had little choice but to greenlight Elton and Warren's proposal.[7][13][2] Coronation Street Story claims 16 episodes were initially ordered, but this was later reduced to 13.[13][2][3] Warren opted to write essentially all of them, including a possible finale where the street ultimately got demolished as part of construction plans.[7][3][13] Other episodes were subsequently authored by Kershaw.[13][21]

If the dry runs were indeed recorded on 18th November, it would have left Granada only three weeks to prepare for 9th December 1960.[18] This would have meant the final casting, set and rehearsals were done more hastily than what Coronation Street Story claimed.[13] This included a simple name change following the pilots' filming.[8][13][3] The most common narrative behind the decision to drop Florizel Street was that a cleaning lady compared the name to a disinfectant or toilet cleaner.[13][3][2] However, in his autobiography The Street Where I Live, Kershaw noted he and others also disliked the name, with an actor having struggled to pronounce it during auditions.[8] Eventually, Cecil ordered the name be changed.[8] Busy with the scripts, Warren asked Kershaw, Elton and producer Harry Latham to come up with an alternative title.[8][13][2] That night, the trio determined that Weatherfield's streets would probably have emerged between Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee and King Edward VII's Coronation.[8][13] Kershaw claimed he and Elton picked Jubilee Street; however, Latham overruled them and announced the show's new name of Coronation Street, which naturally appealed to Granada's personnel.[8][5][13][3]

The inaugural Coronation Street episode aired live on 9th December 1960.[23][13] Initially, the show attracted poor critical reception.[7] Most infamously, Ken Irwin of the Daily Mirror declared the show would be "doomed" after just three weeks.[24][25] However, the television ratings proved the show was actually a major hit within not just in the North of England, but across the United Kingdom.[7] Within six months, the show was being beamed into at least seven million British households, securing its long-term future and making it Britain's first mainstream soap opera.[26][2] Following the CBS soap As the World Turns' cancellation in September 2010, Coronation Street has since become the longest-running TV soap opera according to Guinness World Records.[27] This streak has extended to over 60 years, with Roache having remained in the show ever since the beginning.[25] While Warren did not quite appreciate the show over time, he nevertheless accepted its unexpected longevity.[5] After it reached its 25th anniversary, Warren decided to send a book to Olive Shapley with the message "For Olive, who failed to see the point of Coronation Street on a railway train, on a dark wet night in the late 1950s".[5]

Whereas Roache, Doris Speed (as Annie Walker), Patricia Phoenix (cast as Elsie Tanner following a fiery audition) and others appeared in the pilots and enjoyed long stints on the show, others were ultimately overlooked for main roles and/or were relegated to bit parts.[13] Doris Hare, perhaps most recognisable as the second Mabel "Mum" Butler in On the Buses, auditioned as Minnie Caldwell and was even considered to play Ena Sharples, but declined due to work commitments and to avoid being typecast.[28][13] Two actors, Larry Dann and Bryan Hulme, both portrayed Dennis Tanner, but neither was deemed acceptable for the role.[13] Instead, Philip Lowrie obtained it following a post-pilot audition.[13] Neither Nita Valerie nor Nan Marriott-Watson could properly portray Ena Sharples, almost causing the character to be cut until Warren reluctantly suggested Violet Carson.[13][2][17][16] Finally, Alison Bayley was originally Martha Longhurst in the second dry run, but Lynne Carol ultimately obtained the part.[13] Remarkably, one photo shows Bayley, Hare and Marriott-Watson together in their respective cut roles, which shows just how different Coronation Street's inaugural cast could have been.[13]

Finally, while the name Florizel Street was also on the pre-broadcast chopping block, its legacy exists beyond the dry runs.[3] As he was writing the second dry run episode, Warren was asked by Elton to create a memo, reflecting Granada's culture of summarising a show's format, its characters, setting and why people would watch it.[13][2][3] Warren complied to ensure Elton had something to provide for the programme committee, though it ultimately took two days.[29][2] Not only was it more time-consuming than the dry run scripts, but Warren also declared it was the "most pompous thing" he was ever tasked to write.[29] While some sources briefly summarise the memo,[30][29][3] the actual document was longer and, as Elton requested, documented some of the key characters and settings.[13] The Coronation Street Story states it began with the following outline:

A fascinating freemasonary, a volume of unwritten rules. These are the driving forces behind life in a working-class street in the north of England. To the uninitiated outsider, all this would be completely incomprehensible. The purpose of Florizel Street is to entertain by examining a community of this kind and initiating the viewer into the ways of the people who live there.[13]

Availability

A remarkable aspect of Coronation Street is that almost all episodes bar 1202 have been preserved, much unlike the BBC or other ITV programmes that were partially or fully wiped during the 1960s and 1970s.[31][32][33] It therefore makes the absence of both its dry runs especially unfortunate, as confirmed by Kaleidoscope during its review of available Coronation Street media.[31] A few photographs of both pilots were included in The Coronation Street Story and have since been uploaded to Corriepedia.[13] A recreation of the dry run's title sequence was shown in the BBC Four film The Road to Coronation Street, which dramatised the difficulties Coronation Street faced before it aired on television.[34][2] It was first broadcast on 16th September 2010.[34]

Gallery

Videos

The Road To Coronation Street providing a dramatisation behind the pilots and the difficult trek towards airing on television.

See Also

External Links

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 The "Coronation Street" Story: Celebrating Thirty Five Years of the Street detailing Warren's failed attempts to get his concept greenlit by the BBC. Retrieved 13th Jan '24
  2. ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 2.17 2.18 2.19 2.20 2.21 2.22 2.23 2.24 2.25 2.26 2.27 2.28 2.29 2.30 As depicted in The Road to Coronation Street. Retrieved 13th Jan '24
  3. ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 16th April 2000 issue of the Sunday Mail summarising how Coronation Street came to be. Retrieved 13th Jan '24
  4. ↑ BBC News reporting on Seven, Bessie Street, whose existence only became public knowledge following Warren's passing. Retrieved 13th Jan '24
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 The Great British Dream Factory summarising Warren's inspiration for Florizel Street, how he became a critic of the show, and sending a book containing a message to Shapley 25 years following the show's beginning. Retrieved 13th Jan '24
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 The "Coronation Street" Story: Celebrating Thirty Five Years of the Street detailing Warren's early career before getting the opportunity to pitch Coronation Street. Retrieved 13th Jan '24
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 7.7 Granada Television - The First Generation where Elton provided his account on how Coronation Street was established despite Granada's programme committee's reluctance. Retrieved 13th Jan '24
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 The Street Where I Live detailing how Florizel Street became Coronation Street. Retrieved 13th Jan '24
  9. ↑ Quote Investigator on Alfred Hitchcock's "Drama is life with the dull bits cut out" quote. Retrieved 13th Jan '24
  10. ↑ The British Television Pilot Episodes Research Guide 1936-2015 summarising the two pilots of Coronation Street. Retrieved 13th Jan '24
  11. ↑ Granada Land where Parkin summarised his time as the show's set designer. Retrieved 13th Jan '24
  12. ↑ If Those Walls Could Talk summarising the history of Archie Street, which inspired Coronation Street's setting. Retrieved 13th Jan '24
  13. ↑ 13.00 13.01 13.02 13.03 13.04 13.05 13.06 13.07 13.08 13.09 13.10 13.11 13.12 13.13 13.14 13.15 13.16 13.17 13.18 13.19 13.20 13.21 13.22 13.23 13.24 13.25 13.26 13.27 13.28 13.29 13.30 13.31 13.32 13.33 13.34 The "Coronation Street" Story: Celebrating Thirty Five Years of the Street detailing the production and casting for the dry runs, including a few rare photos. Retrieved 13th Jan '24
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 November 1961 Weekend interview with Parkin on the dry run set choices and the removal of the patterned wallpaper. Retrieved 13th Jan '24
  15. ↑ As shown in the broadcast version of Episode 1. Retrieved 13th Jan '24
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 16.4 16.5 16.6 16.7 60 Years of Coronation Street detailing the auditions process. Retrieved 13th Jan '24
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 Corrie profile on Ena Sharples. Retrieved 13th Jan '24
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 18.3 18.4 18.5 60 Years of Coronation Street detailing how Roache was cast in Coronation Street and providing a photo of his dry runs contract (p.g. 9-11). Retrieved 13th Jan '24
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 50 Years on the Street where Roache detailed how he got onto Coronation Street, changing his career path (p.g. 37-39). Retrieved 13th Jan '24
  20. ↑ Corrie profile on Ken Barlow. Retrieved 13th Jan '24
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 The Street Where I Live where Kershaw details how he became the show's first script editor. Retrieved 13th Jan '24
  22. ↑ The Guardian on Eric Spear's theme tune for Coronation Street. Retrieved 13th Jan '24
  23. ↑ Entertainment Daily reflecting on the first episode of Coronation Street. Retrieved 13th Jan '24
  24. ↑ Radio Times summarising Ken Irwin's review of Coronation Street back in December 1960. Retrieved 13th Jan '24
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 BBC News reporting on Coronation Street reaching its 60th year, with Roache having remained in the soap ever since the beginning. Retrieved 13th Jan '24
  26. ↑ Style in British Television Drama noting the show's dramatic rise in popularity within less than a year. Retrieved 13th Jan '24
  27. ↑ Guinness World Records declaring Coronation Street as the "Longest running TV soap opera". Retrieved 13th Jan '24
  28. ↑ On the Buses Fan Club noting that Doris Hare rejected the role of Ena Sharples. Retrieved 13th Jan '24
  29. ↑ 29.0 29.1 29.2 Daily Mirror summarising the Florizel Street memo that Warren declared as the "most pompous thing" he was ever tasked to write. Retrieved 13th Jan '24
  30. ↑ Independent summarising the memo for Florizel Street. Retrieved 13th Jan '24
  31. ↑ 31.0 31.1 Kaleidoscope listing missing Coronation Street programming, including the dry runs. Retrieved 13th Jan '24
  32. ↑ Coronation Street Updates summarising the missing Episode 1202. Retrieved 13th Jan '24
  33. ↑ The Sundae on the extent of wiped British television, which Coronation Street was lucky to avoid. Retrieved 13th Jan '24
  34. ↑ 34.0 34.1 The Guardian review of The Road to Coronation Street. Retrieved 13th Jan '24
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