Monday 20 November 2017

Tony Warren's typewriter and scripts on show at Salford Museum

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


Today is the day that the Tony Warren exhibition opens at Salford Museum and Art Gallery.

And those who were there on the press preview day earlier this week have revealed what's in store for fans to see at the exhibition.

The BBC tell us that there's a script for Tony Warren's previously unknown first attempt at a soap opera, called Seven, Bessie Street. His friend David Tucker said it centres on a terraced street but is otherwise very different from Coronation Street.

Tony Warren left his estate to Mr Tucker, a friend of 22 years, with an instruction to destroy all creative works that weren't already in the public domain. But Mr Tucker decided to keep the Seven, Bessie Street - with the proviso that no one else could read it.



The exhibition also traces Warren's early life and career, which included acting in the BBC's Northern Children's Hour and writing for police series Shadow Squad.  The exhibition also includes the typewriter Warren used in his early years.

The exhibition also shows his past as a male model, appearing on the cover of a 1957 edition of Knitters Digest and on the packet for a pullover knitting pattern.


There are many mementos from the Corrie years too, including his MBE, various awards, his red This Is Your Life book and letters from former poet laureate John Betjeman describing it as his "favourite programme".

Betjeman and Laurence Olivier were such fans that they were chairman and president respectively of the British League for Hilda Ogden, established in 1979.


Tony Warren's Coronation Street runs at Salford Museum & Art Gallery until 3 July.

As part of the exhibition there are a lot of events happening connected to Coronation Street and you can find out more here.







Tvor @tvordlj on Twitter

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