TV soap stars.

Last night I watched a program that I’d recorded some time ago. It was charting the introduction of the Lancashire soap....Coronation Street. Gosh it took me back. As a teenager I had been involved in my local Labour Party and had been invited to take part in a series of programs with the grand title, "Youth wants to know!" This was very exciting involving going to the TV studio where Granada were based.. Before being filmed we were fed in the canteen and chatted to each other and the politician we were going to interview. I recognised some of the sets and remembered eating in the canteen before sitting under the harsh lights and asking leading politicians to explain various events in Parliament. Some of them were very jokey and made it easy for us to ask impertinent questions. Which we did...at eighteen it was amazing to meet so many famous people and Grenada was very good in sending us home by taxi to keep us safe afterwards. I had forgotten all about this until watching the the story of the birth of Coronation Street last night. The stars who played in the early soap remained household names for the rest of their lives. And us callow youths bumped into them sometimes as we walked the corridors at Grenada. It all flooded back last night...my short time in TV came to a halt after starting college. I still got invitations to take part but only managed one. My tutors did not give permission for it. It took me out of college far too often at a time when I needed to settle down to work. But the memories flooded back. I still watch the Street. Occasionally something tugs at old memory...but last night watching the start of it all brought back the moment in my youth when I actually got recognised after my performances. Giddy days!


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