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| - The project was announced in February 2010 under its working title of Florizel Street (Coronation Street 's own working title half a century before) and was the idea of Daran Little, a former archivist for the Street and a later script writer. The production excited initial comment as it was commissioned by the BBC and not Granada Television themselves as a tribute in the fiftieth anniversary year however the finished programme was made by ITV productions and not by the BBC. Press comment in early months centred around who would play well-known faces such as Patricia Phoenix, Doris Speed and Violet Carson and when casting was announced in the summer there was further coverage with special mention that William Roache would be played by his own son, James. The programme was scripted by Little with Tony Warren acting as a consultant. Filming took place in the summer of 2010 at locations in Manchester, Salford and along the “A6 corridor” towards Bolton. The actual house Tony Warren lived at in 1960 was used for exterior shots of the same as were parts of the Granada Television Quay Street studios that had not changed to any recognisible degree in the intervening half-century, in particular the boardroom. Other sequences were filmed in buildings in Manchester that could pass for a canteen, offices and a rehearsal room of the period. The director was Charles Sturridge who had also directed episodes of Coronation Street in the late 1970s and had worked with many of the people being portrayed. He cast his wife Phoebe Nicholls in the role of Mrs Simpson, Tony Warren's mother. Actors who themselves played actors were shown clips and episodes from the opening days of the programme to enable them to see how their real-life counterparts appeared on screen whereas others relied on the memory of Tony Warren as to the characters of the production staff they were playing, as well as taking their direction from Little’s superbly researched script. For the purposes of telling the story within the necessary timeframe, some aspects of the 1960 preparations were bowdlerised or omitted. No mention was made of producer Stuart Latham and casting of other roles outside of the quartet of Phoenix, Roache, Speed and Carson was not included within the story. The production was reviewed enthusiastically by the press and media in the week before transmission with the Radio Times describing it as “a triumph” and The Guardian stating it was “a beautifully crafted love letter to the past.” First transmission took place on digital channel BBC Four on Thursday 16th September, 2010 at 9.00pm with a simultaneous transmission on BBC HD. The programme ended with a caption which stated that Coronation Street was now Britain’s longest-running drama, however one day later, the US soap As the World Turns broadcast its final episode and therefore the Street became the longest running drama in the world still to be in production. The end credits were played with photographs of the real-life counterparts that the 2010 actors played, although photographs of characters such as Agnes the tea lady and Brenda the secretary were more generic. The photograph of Nita Valerie was one of her in the role of Polly Sagan in Coronation Street in 1966. 852,000 viewers watched the transmission on BBC4 with a further 60,000 watching BBC HD - large figures for both of those channels. Reviews in the press the next day were equally positive with only The Times making negative comments and The Independent, while praising the programme, saying that it, “rather over-romanticised things.” David Dawson as Tony Warren was singled out for special praise in The Metro. The Daily Express stated that it was, “a joy to watch” and called Lynda Baron’s portrayal of Violet Carson “inspired”. The Guardian stated that it was, “fond, and warm, and charming” The New Statesmen concentrated its praise, as did much of the blogosphere gossip, on the performance of Jessie Wallace as Patricia Phoenix, describing her as “fabulous”. The programme was released as a DVD on 4th October 2010 under the "ITV Studios Home Entertainment" label, initially exclusively to HMV and on 15th March 2011 the production won the category of "Best Single Drama" at the Royal Television Society awards. The programme won the same category at the 2011 BAFTA awards. Lynda Baron and Jessie Wallace were also nominated in the latter for the "Best Supporting Actress" category but neither won. On 19th November, Daran Little won in the category of Best Scriptwriter at the Royal Television Society North West Awards. Further showings in 2010 were as follows: Friday 17th September (12.45am and 3.05am on BBC Four), Saturday 18th September (11.45pm on both BBC Four and BBC HD), Saturday 6th November (9.30pm on BBC HD), Monday 8th November (11.30pm on BBC HD), Saturday 4th December (9.30pm on BBC Four), Sunday 5th December (1.00am on BBC Four), Thursday 9th December - the actual fiftieth anniversary of Coronation Street - (10.50pm on BBC Four) and Saturday 25th December (10.35pm on BBC Four). In 2011 the programme was repeated on BBC4 on Tuesday 1st November at 9.00pm and BBC HD at 11.00pm on the same day. The first transmission on an ITV channel was on ITV3 on Friday 18th September 2015 at 7.55pm with more repeats on the same channel on 27th December 2015 at 10.45pm and Friday 1st January 2016 at 12.05am. Following the death of Tony Warren on 1st March 2016, the programme was repeated again on ITV3 on 14th March at 10.00pm and on ITV1 on 27th March at 10.15pm.
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