Confessions of a Coronation Street Tour Guide (4 of 5)

(This post was originally posted by Flaming Nora on the Coronation Street Blog July 2017, reposted to this blog with permission.)


Here we go with the continuation of Aussie Pete's Confessions of a Coronation Street Tour Guide.

Missed earlier parts of our Confessions of a Coronation Street Tour Guide?
Check them out here - Day 1 and Day 2 and Day 3

What kind of questions did the guests ask you?
At the end of most tours when we arrived on the street, it gave the guests an opportunity to ask us questions we couldn’t answer whilst on the tour itself, due to it being a set time limit with the amount of tours we would have run in a day.

Here is a list of the most common questions we were asked:

• Are the pigeons’ real? Are they electronic?
• Do the people get angry with us knocking on their doors?
• Can we have a photo with (character)?
• Did Tina really die on this spot?
• Where is (character) today?
• Have you met all the cast?
• Can you drink at the pub?
• Is the alcohol real?
• Are the Kabin sweets real and can I have some?

Any tricky moments working as a tour guide?
It was hard sometimes when you had guests who thought they were above other guests and expected to be at the front of every set every stop and would actually push their way through others. Young children could be nightmarish too when they would kick off and start screaming the place down. If it got too much, we would radio for assistance so a parent could take the child away to calm down. One time two friends came, had a argument and nearly had a punch-up at The Platts!!

One of the other difficult moments was when there was a backlog in the studio. The usual tour path was as follows:

• Introduction which took place at the door to the cast Green Room which also doubled as the entrance to Draper’s Mill Apartments.
• The Green Room
• Corridor of Stars/Cast dressing rooms
• Wardrobe and Makeup Department
• 5 minute video montage
• Carla Connor’s Apartment
• The Platt House
• The Rovers Return
• Underworld
• Props and Artefacts and Martha’s Barge
• The Duckworths/Dobbs House
• The Kabin
• The Production Suite
• Interior of Nick’s Bistro
• The Grand Reveal
• The Street

Tune in tomorrow for the final part of Aussie Pete's Confessions of a Coronation Street Tour Guide.

Missed earlier parts of our Confessions of a Coronation Street Tour Guide?
Check them out here - Day 1 and Day 2 and Day 3

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Tvor @tvordlj on Twitter