New Coronation Street set to include a Co-op and Costa Coffee

ITV today announces that it has agreed two significant new partnerships with Costa Coffee and Co-op for Coronation Street.  In an ITV first, viewers will see Co-op and Costa Coffee storefronts as part of a new extended Weatherfield set.

Both facades will be fully branded and open for business in Spring 2018 with other assets such as posters, bags and cups integrated across the iconic soap. 

The new agreements also include digital and brand-licensing aspects for both brands, enabling them to use Coronation Street assets and extend the partnership off-air.

Mark Trinder, Sales Director, ITV said: “The expansion of the Coronation Street set has given us a great opportunity to feature branded shop facades as more of Weatherfield is opened up to viewers. Incorporating product placement on this scale is something we have wanted to do for some time and we’re delighted with this exciting opportunity.  We’ve worked really closely with the Coronation Street team to make sure we’ve got a great brand fit for Co-op and Costa Coffee with the nation’s favourite soap while still ensuring editorial integrity.”

Alison Jones, Customer Director at Co-op said: “Coronation Street is all about community life and the Co-op is a retailer at the heart of local life and being close to the customer, which makes this a perfect match. We are excited about the opportunity to showcase our brand on the world’s most famous street by unveiling a Weatherfield store and having further brand placements with our shopping bags.”

Eric Tavoukdjian, commercial marketing director for Costa Coffee UK&I, said: “Costa Coffee is delighted to be welcomed to the famous cobbles of Coronation Street as part of this innovative partnership with ITV.  As the nation’s favourite coffee shop and a presence on the UK high street for more than 40 years, we feel it’s perfect to have a presence on one of the nation’s favourite and most iconic soaps.  We’re looking forward to partnering with the ITV team to integrate the Costa Coffee brand into Coronation Street as part of this exciting Weatherfield set extension.”

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Tvor @tvordlj on Twitter

Costa Corrie

Costa Corrie

When Audrey, David and our lady of the crimpers, Maria were supping from Costa coffee cups last Monday I was a bit surprised. Don’t they have a Nespresso ‘round the back? I can’t imagine Audrey would shell out £2.35 for a primo cappuccino when she could just tell David to pop in a pod.

I’m not sure I like reality creeping onto the cobbles. Coronation Street is such a complete world of Freshco’s, Newton and Ridley, Weatherfield County FC, the Weatherfield Gazette (and its sub-editor problems), the Red Rec and The Flying Horse. It’s so familiar that we notice when mistakes are made. We know the Precinct, Tile Street and Balaclava Terrace, even though we never see them.

To have the Co-op and a high street coffee shop breaking into this verisimilitude doesn’t makes much sense, even if it pays for more outside broadcasts and better snacks in the green room. The world has changed, and manual workers are more likely to have a frothy coffee rather than a builder’s tea, but it feels like breaking the fourth wall. What brands will intrude next - will the unholy trinity of Guinness, Foster’s and John Smith smooth-flow be on the taps at the Rover’s, rather than N&R Best?

How else could reality poke its way onto the cobbles? Could street residents spend 45 minutes commuting to work rather than 4? Could it be that falsely accused prisoners spend a year on remand rather than the next time Debbie Oates is available to write a trial scene? Might Eva have to wait two weeks for a doctor’s appointment rather than just popping in for a same day appointment every time she is/isn’t pregnant? I reckon the knicker buyers in the Greater Manchester area might one day cotton onto the fact that it’d be a lot cheaper to import underwear from Vietnam or Pakistan, and the factory will become a call centre. Roy’s could become a Greggs, Kev’s a Kwik-Fit, Prima Donner an outlet of Chicken Cottage. Perhaps Norris will realise that his net earnings from the sale of a quarter of bon-bons, an In Sympathy card for Alya, and Rose Webster’s subscription to Moxy magazine, are £1.20 per week and turn the Kabin into a shop that fixes smashed mobile phone screens.

Maybe one day a street resident will go their whole life not finding a long lost relative, being kidnapped or imprisoned for a crime they don’t commit. But if the Weatherfield Arms becomes a Wetherspoons, then I’m out.

Rachel Stevenson - on twitter

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Tvor @tvordlj on Twitter

More heartbreaking pictures of the old Coronation Street set

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


The Manchester Evening News has more photographs today of the old Coronation Street set as it declines even further into wreck and ruin.

The new pictures were captured by urban explorer Mark Andrew.

Mark, 23, said: “It looks really old and there’s been a dramatic change. It looked a right state - dirty and run down. There are no cobbles there and I am not sure what is being done with it.”

Much has been made of the cobbles being ripped up from the old set - but we revealed exclusively last year where the cobbles have gone.  Want to find out? You can find out here.

You can view all of the images here.

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Tvor @tvordlj on Twitter

Videos: Weatherfield as you've never seen it before

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

With thanks to our friends at Conversation Street for alerting us to this little gem.  It's a video, which I think might have been shot from a drone, as it flew over the Media City set of Coronation Street in Manchester.



Watching the video makes me wonder where the new street is going to be built, as there doesn't appear to be a lot of space left to build on.  You can find out more about the new street and the set expansion, including a new police station - it's all here.

The person who filmed the aerial views of the Corrie set, above, also has a YouTube video of the abandoned Coronation Street old set which is rather spooky. The person with the camera, whoever it is, walks around inside the houses and it's very eerie indeed. You can watch it below:

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Tvor @tvordlj on Twitter

Kate Oates on Corrie set expansion and 6th episode

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


At the Corrie press day in Manchester yesterday, producer Kate Oates spoke about the future of the show. As we know, it's undergoing historic changes with an extra episode each week coming later this year and expansion of the Coronation Street set.

Speaking about the extra episode, which will take Corrie up to six episodes each week, Kate said that they don't yet know what night it will be shown, or the exact date it will start. All that she could reveal is what we already know, that the 6th episode will begin "in the autumn."

Kate said: "Nothing is yet confirmed and scheduling are working on it at ITV towers, they’ll tell us soon."

And on the expansion of the Coronation Street set, she said she was very excited. "When someone walks down Coronation Street, they'll be able to turn a corner and walk onto another street. It’ll be like the Trueman show.

"We're starting to build imminently and there will be a few months of construction. Building works are going on now where we work so we have to be careful how we storyline at the moment and what we can show. It's exciting."

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Tvor @tvordlj on Twitter

Is Coronation Street the spookiest soap?

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

Pic: The Mirror

It was revealed earlier this week that the old Coronation Street studios has had to call in an exorcist after paranormal goings on.  You can read all about that here. 

The Old Granada Studios is set to host the wrap party next weekend and if you haven't already entered our competition to win tickets - you can enter here.

News that an exorcist has been called in to the Old Granada Studios set started me thinking about Corrie's spooky storylines - both on and off the set.  Here we go with some of the best ones. How many are rumours of theatre-lovey suspicion remain to be seen!




The official Coronation Street website at itv.com/corrie have a list of their top 5 spooky storylines.

However, off-screen the ghostly goings-on becoming slightly more weird.

In 2015 when Coronation Street moved to the new set, cast and crew believed the place was haunted by the spirits of long-dead dock workers after a string of mishaps at the site. A show source said: “It may sound far-fetched, but people are openly saying the site is haunted. Every time something goes wrong the cry goes up, ‘We are cursed.’ At first it was seen as a joke but believe it or not, some have convinced themselves it is true. t has even been suggested, albeit lightheartedly, that an exorcist should be invited on to the set.”

The ghost of Pat Phoenix, who played Elsie Tanner, was also rumoured to have roamed the cobbles.

And back in 2005 the Most Haunted team visit the Granada television studios in Manchester to carry out a paranormal investigation on the set of Britain's longest running TV soap opera. Were the cobbles of Coronation Street haunted?

Watch the programme online here and make up your mind!

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Tvor @tvordlj on Twitter

Inside the Corrie Prop Store (Part 3 of 3)

 

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

Our friends Gemma and Michael, the Coronation Street podcasters at Conversation Street...

... were recently invited into ITV studios for a very special look around the Coronation Street set. And while there, they were given a tour of the Corrie prop store too. They have very kindly offered to share the experience with fans here on the Coronation Street Blog - and they've sent some cracking pictures too. 

Gemma and Michael spoke about their visit to Corrie in a recent podcast and you can listen to it here.

The blog post is quite long and to do it justice here on the blog with all the pictures, I'm splitting their report into three parts.

Part 1 of Inside the Corrie Prop Store is here.
Part 2 of Inside the Corrie Prop Store is here.

And so, it's back to Gemma and Michael...

"Sections further into the store contained china ornaments, cuddly toys, cushions and various pieces of artwork that can be seen adorning the walls of our favourite characters' homes. When a character moves house or leaves, we were told, these things are generally retired for a year or two so that they can fade from the viewers' subconscious, before appearing again on new sets. We can attest to this, having bought a set of three red square pieces of art from Next, only to see them show up in both Dev and Tina's lounges over the years (and yes, we were able to locate them in the prop store too!).

Also of interest was a corner filled with shelves divided up by character, each containing some of their own personal items. A gaudy little angel on Billy's shelf, Deirdre-made mugs on Ken's, little Jack's cuddly dog, many of these were items that are probably used fairly regularly on screen (whether or not you'd be able to recognise them is another matter!) so are grouped together for easy access. And yes, up on the top shelf, even Emily still has a section, so let's not give up hope of her still returning one day, eh?

Now, we know what you're thinking: did we nab any sneaky 'souvenirs' off the shelves while we were there? It was certainly tempting, but we won't be having DS MacKinnon knocking on our door any time soon on the hunt for stolen goods (although, considering her recent track record in arresting the wrong person, who knows..?).

The only item we did liberate, with our guide's blessing, might we add, was a strawberry Chupa Chups lolly. This was something we found in amongst a whole load of other confectionery items that are used for scenes in The Kabin and Dev's shop.

Mixed up among them were a handful of 'fake' chocolate and sweet branded packets, which are brought out whenever there needs to be a close up of an item on screen, without fear of unintended product placement. This is also why, although there may be real magazines on Rita's shelves in The Kabin, customers are always seen browsing the likes of Hiya! and other made up publications.

Honestly, we could have probably stayed all morning in the prop store but twenty minutes is all we got (and we were only told it was fine to take pictures towards the end - cue a mad dash around the room with our phones, snapping away in the last few minutes of our tour!).

It was one of the many highlights on our day at the set, and we're incredibly grateful at being given the privilege of being invited along.

If you'd like to hear more about our time at Media City, including the stars we met, the scenes we saw being filmed and our walk along the cobbles, then tune into Episode 250 of our podcast.

Visit Conversation Street, the Coronation Street podcast

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Tvor @tvordlj on Twitter

Inside the Corrie Prop Store (Part 2 of 3)

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

Our friends Gemma and Michael, the Coronation Street podcasters at Conversation Street...

... were recently invited into ITV studios for a very special look around the Coronation Street set. And while there, they were given a tour of the Corrie prop store too. They have very kindly offered to share the experience with fans here on the Coronation Street Blog - and they've sent some cracking pictures too. 

Gemma and Michael spoke about their visit to Corrie in a recent podcast and you can listen to it here.

The blog post is quite long and to do it justice here on the blog with all the pictures, I'm splitting their report into three parts.

Part 1 of Inside the Corrie Prop Store is here.
Part 3 of Inside the Corrie Prop Store will appear on the Blog tomorrow, Thursday 4 May.

And so, it's back to Gemma and Michael...

"Speaking of portraits, we were chuffed to see the oil painting of Alf Roberts in all his mayoral regalia, which always used to be seen above the fireplace at Grasmere Drive - fortunately not destroyed by Audrey's recent damp problem!

Other highlights included a couple of Sally Metcalfe's recent unwelcome gifts: the tandem that Tim bought her earlier this year, the Australia-less globe (sitting on a shelf amusingly labelled BUMPF) and a cardboard box with PIG'S HEART written on.

Now this was an opportunity we couldn't miss. Asking for it to be pulled down from the shelf, we gleefully peered inside at the incredibly realistic model, which was now sitting in a bed of plastic wrapping.

Jenny Bradley actress Sally-Ann Matthews, who was accompanying us on the tour and whose idea it was for us to even visit the prop store in the first place, even recoiled upon seeing it, telling us she expected it to smell! It was so realistic looking, no wonder Sally Dynevor was able to give such a stellar performance of horror when opening the package on screen!

During our trip to the prop store, we were also able to chat with some of the guys working there, who were eager to show us some of the more interesting exhibits, such as a drawer full of babies (of course - where else would you keep them?).

We were also handed a box full of the rubbery bits of transparent material used for whenever broken glass needs to be shown on screen. Taking a handful of the 'shards' from the box, we were surprised at how soft they were - necessary, of course, for when they're thrown in actors' faces, or when they have to be lain upon following whatever the latest crash or explosion there's been!

Speaking of glass, we also got to see an entire section of bottles, champagne flutes and beer mugs, all made out of a material called 'break glass'. As you might expect from the name, this material is used so that whenever the item needs to be dropped, hit over someone's head or, in the case of Michelle in the wake of baby Oliver's paternity revelation, thrown through a window, it shatters in a convincing but completely safe way.

Also in this section were a variety of mugs and plates, all made out of wax, again for easy breakage. These may not have looked quite as realistic as the real thing, but for the split seconds that they'd appear on screen, they do the job perfectly well.

Part 3 of Inside the Corrie Prop store will be posted here on Thursday 4 May.

Visit Conversation Street, the Coronation Street podcast

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Tvor @tvordlj on Twitter