To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Coronation Street. It was the rival BBC that commissioned ITV to make this television movie which was first broadcast on BBC4.

Scripted by Daran Little who was a fan of Coronation Street who went on to become an archivist of the show and later a writer.

The framing is how a young gobby actor turned writer Tony Warren (David Dawson) managed to persuade Harry Elton the Canadian producer of Granada TV to make a drama series about the back streets of Manchester. The kind of streets that Tony had grown up in.

Rewriting a script called Florizel Street that had previously been rejected by the BBC. Harry Elton had to persuade the Granada heads, the Bernstein brothers to go with the idea. They were not initially keen on the idea, preferring more arty projects or cheap sitcoms.

Once the project got the go ahead. They had the difficulties in casting the actors. Tony Warren wanted northerners, people from in and around Manchester. The key characters were Elsie Tanner, Annie Walker and Ena Sharples.

A love letter to the soap opera. It was made just before Granada left its studio complex at Quay Street. The key part of it was the casting process. Celia Imrie smiling knowingly as Doris Speed when told that she would have to act older. It later transpired that the actress Doris Speed had chopped some years off her real age.

The problems of casting for Ena Sharples. Lynda Baron who was a busty sex symbol in Open All Hours catches all the nuances of Violet Carson. I remember being frightened as a kid just watching Ena Sharples on the screen.

The plum role belonged to Jessie Wallace. The Eastenders stalwart had to northern up as Pat Phoenix, who like the brassy Elsie Tanner had been around the block.

Nostalgic, this was warm and witty. It was well acted by all the cast including James Roache who played the then young and rather wet William Roache, his father.

It starts off with actress "Jessie Wallace" portraying "Pat Phoenix" running down a corridor looking for tony warren for his support 7min's before first transmission.Then it cut's back to the past day's which show's tony's extremely hard work to get his feet under the table at Granada television which he fail's to do on the acting side.Then one of the producers mentions about someone upstairs looking for young,northern writer's to nurture which turns out to be Canadian harry Elton..Without droning on to much it's a really good plot line of how one of Britain's best loved soap operas very nearly became a pile of papers on the hearth.And how the bigwig's at Granada didn't even want it commissioned in the first place..I gave it 10 out of 10 and throughly enjoy it so much so i have seen it 3time's..I write this review after just seeing for the 3rd time and also today's day is coronation street's official 50th birthday not bad for a show that was only commissioned for 13 episodes.

I've just finished an on-line viewing of this opus on the CBC's website and thoroughly enjoyed it. I think it's well-acted, well-done and worthwhile: "Coronation Street" is a national, even international, phenomenon, and seeing its very beginnings is at least educational. It's interesting that William Roache is played by one of the Roache family--the actor himself felt that the show he had been cast in was only to run 13 episodes. The woman who plays Pat Phoenix was, I think, better-looking than the actual actress, and played here with conviction: Pat Phoenix was about to quit her acting career when offered the role of Elsie Tanner. That the show was conceived and initially pushed forward by a man, Tony Warren, who felt strongly that he had something to say that others would want to see shows the power of perseverance. As a long-time "Street" watcher, I am glad he, and those who supported him, got what they wanted.