Auntie's Northern Soul

This is Salford Quays, the brand new home of BBC North. Much of the

day, Blue Peter, 5 Live, they are all coming here. Coronation Street

has moved in just around the corner. Some of the very best of British TV

has been made up here, up north. I'll be looking back at some of the

great TV shows which have been made in the North West and finding out

what it is about this part of the world that's created some of the

MUSIC. One of my favourite TV shows and I

was a kid was top of the Pops. I loved the music, and the dancing.

With the first three years, the show was broadcast from a converted

You yes, it's number one, its top of the Pops! Top of the Pops was

launched on New Year's Day, 1964, by none other than the King of Pop

at the time, Jimmy Savile. It was live, black and white TV. The first

group was the Rolling Stones. It was tremendous. The Beatles and the

Rolling Stones a new year's Day! So when they have all been at Marianne

Faithfull's penthouse flat doing God knows what the night before,

they have to get chance to Manchester. They were the biggest

pop groups in the world, you know. They decided to pit top of the Pops

in Manchester because they couldn't bear it in London. London was very

posh. Anything that they didn't want to do in London they brought

up to the old church in Manchester. They didn't want anything to do

with pop music, so that was our place.

The Supremes even made their world television debut on the programme.

There was no problem getting artists to come. Top Of the Pops

was the number one pop show in the Jimmy Savile was so different. We

had a different foyers. His total presentation was, well I was going

to say not normal, but that sounds unkind. He was such a character.

have got the blues in the morning, I have the greens at night! Nobody

ever utter rot kick - - a rock gig has ever looked like Jimmy Savile!

At least you realise that the kids wanted to do something else. By the

end of 1967, the show was so successful it had outgrown the old

church and was moved to London. Yes, 80 million viewers across

Europe would tune in every week to watch the European version of the

show. Everybody that comes up to the north is affected by the North

and Northern people. It was a magic mix. The North and Top Of The Pops

was a magic mix. This is what I have been looking

for. It's a knockout, unforgettable Saturday night television. Stuart

Hall, Eddie Waring, the ridiculous costumes. You could not be tipped.

It was absolute genius. Everybody had to make a date with It's a

knockout. It was just a seminal programme of our time. All these

people dressed up, not just in a costume, but characters that would

It is Stuart Hall's unbridled enthusiasm for everything that he

dos. You very rarely here at grown man nearly wetting himself these

days and the television. It still works. When you hear it, you can

help yourself. He is really having We had 80 million viewers every

Yes, 80 million viewers across Europe would tune in to watch the

European version of the show. Penguin game, which is shown on the

YouTube non-stop, featuring the eight penguins collecting water on

a carousel. Simple. Why it works is that everyone is taking this

incredibly seriously. You know those men in those penguin suits

and their assistants, national pride is at work here. So, that is

what makes it so touching and so funny. Now, ducky and dustbin man

from Skegness was our Penguin. He gave me some of the best fun. He

completely destroyed it. Wendy speeded up the carousel, he went

quicker. He took out the German, At the same time as doing it so

But at the same time as doing It's A Knockout, Stuart Hall was also

presenting the regional evening news programme, Look North, and

doing so in his own unique style. The world was then full of

journalists. We used to pray things would go wrong. Please, let it all

breakdown. I am a breakdown merchant. It was the same with

everything I have done. I pray for things to breakdown so you can

escape the stranglehold of the regimen of television.

In 1972 the BBC decided to build new studios on Oxford Road,

Manchester. The move to New Broadcasting House was seen at the

time as a commitment by the BBC to making top quality programmes from

the North West. Over the following years a host of shows were

broadcast from the new studios, including Look North. And now it's

North West Tonight, which is still serving up a mix of news, sport and

entertainment for viewers in the region. We have had lots of showbiz

and celebrities, so many people, all the comedians. My favourite

comedian a volleys Peter Kay, he just makes the tears rolled down my

cheeks. On one particular occasion he decided to leave the sofa when

Diane was presenting the weather. The top temperature of B27. There

will be no arctic roll left them as they!

The one person who could handle that would be damned. She kept him

under control. My name is Paul caff, support man

City, like drinking. I could fight, punch up.

I think you should wear a mask. I don't like looking at your face.

There has been no shortage of laughter from appeared. Some of the

best-loved comedians are from this part of the world. Did you know

Caroline and her and just to be a secretary in the offices of BBC

Manchester? Luckily enough, she discovered she had a few hidden

talents. Mrs Merton's sharp wit and special

blend of northern humour were a smash hit with audiences.

genius of it is making a rather pleasant old lady. It disarms

everyone straight away. Every woman's dream is to marry Paul

Daniels. This dream came true for Debbie McGee. She will be popping

up litter. Debbie McGee was on the very first show. All I knew was

that it was some sort of comedy chat show. Her first question was...

what first attracted you to the Malik... what attracted you to the

millionaire Paul Daniels? That Cuba, because you much can be used as a

weapon, you feel that in Manchester and Liverpool. Anyone who is

getting a little bits above themselves. Debbie McGee is

disarmed by it, so she can do object. That is a stroke of genius.

Caroline Aherne is brilliant that it because she plays the old lady

with real sweetness and naughtiness as well. Say you wake up at night

and you're in your bed and you just pick your hand out to stroke Paul's

head and he is not there, do you look up and he is at the end of the

bed pulling doves out that is the jammers. Do you find that happens?

I did not feel uncomfortable for a minute. I laughed from beginning to

end. I laughs Attar other shows afterwards. And I thought she was

hysterical. My experience of it was In 1998 Caroline Aherne returned to

our screens in The Royle Family, this time along side co-writer

Craig Cash. That programme is genius, I think.

Very funny but very moving. Particularly this sequence where

Barbara is doing her mother's hair and they are singing to each other.

That is not just comedy, as some of the greatest drama you will ever

see. Barbara? Yes. Could you get on what my toenails next. Yeah.

Barbara? Yet. Barbara, thank you. Thank you, Barbara. What for?

Everything. What it is is a celebration of the ties that bind

in North West families. It is a family under the microscope.

Some of the most original and artistic he shows of the last

couple of decades have come out of this place. And some of them have

revolutionised the way television is made. In 1987, Janet Street-

Porter became head of youth and entertainment at the BBC in

Manchester. When I arrived at the BBC I could see that using the

offices in Manchester as a base, instead of being in a studio with

reporters popping up and sitting behind desks, the people that made

the programme would be part of the programme. We want to know what you

think about rescue out reach. could see the office. It was all

part of the same thing and they would tell you how the story was

going and how they have put it together. Local authorities or

private companies want to keep an eye on us. And it can be used as

evidence against you. We tackled subject that had not been done

before, like the rising number of CCTV cameras that seem to be

The programme I am most proud of that I made in Manchester was rough

guide. Before that, travel shows had been so drab. Judith Chalmers

standing on the beach. It was always about beaches and hotel

rooms and it was never about what the locals were up to. This is a

tiny fashion fashion up affairs it off the water off the peg, and what

better way to do that, than D I Y? Down the corridor The Travel Show

was also doing things differently, but for a more mainstream audience.

I think what set the travel sure apart from other programmes around

that that time was, we were given the brief to tell it as it is. So

we would be sent to a particular location and we have to tell the

viewers what it was that we found. Anyone of any shape or size is

supposed to be able to get through this hole. It is an interesting

front door. We went to a shrine, and I had to squeeze through this

tiny little whole. Hurrah! Once you get through this hole, you are

supposed to be cleansed of your sins, but if you are very bad, you

will come in clean but go out dirty. We had all the problems of going

into this chamber and trying to get out again. I am not sure if my sins

were claims. I would leave that to everyone else to decide.

Manchester is home to some of the most popular long-running

entertainment programmes on tv. three of us see that when we come

to work to do A Question Of Sport, it feels like a hobby, not a job,

it is something we thoroughly enjoyed. For me it is the best

thing that I do on TV. For me, growing up it was something we

always watched on the telly and when I was asked to come on it as a

player, it was a rubber stamp that you have done quite well in your

sport. I was very proud the first time I appeared as a guest. I wrote

to Jim'll Fix It when I was eight years old to say, please could I go

on Question of Sport. I would lie on the carpet in front of my dad,

and try to thrash him at a A Question Of Sport. You had Princess

and sitting next to you as a team captain. I cannot imagine having

Princess and sitting next to me. It just would not happen now. I can

see that you are the right captain! The appeal of Question of Sport is

the interplay. You have been practising all week with your arms

folded... It was very English, a A Question Of Sport, quite self-

deprecating and not taking itself too seriously. Mastermind has been

put in its contenders to the test since 1962. The thing about

Mastermind is, it is intelligent. It does not make any concessions.

It does not assume that the general public are as thick as two short

planks because they are not. would sit down with my mother and

watch Mastermind. We think she wanted to find out if I was

learning anything at school. That dramatic music... In the spotlight

after night is the strictly dancer, Darren Bennett, whose subject is

science fiction films that became a force to be reckoned with. Stuart

Maconie takes on a century of works by Britain's greatest pause.

poets. It is exhilarating and frightening at the same time.

poem contains the line they shall not grow old as we that are left

grow old. The fallen. I would watch them coming out with their eyes

fixed on the black cheers and however experienced at quizzes they

are, how clever they are, everyone is scared by the time they accept

down in that chair. Why would anybody want this? But when it

comes to fear factor there's nothing more terrifying than facing

the Dragons in their famous Den. When you see individuals coming up

those stairs, you can sometimes physically see them shake, almost

see their nervousness, then you get in a conversation and when you see

that the individual has got it, you know that they have got that spirit

and bribe of one entrepreneur, coupled with a great product and

you think, now, I am starting to shake, I am getting excited.

some ready source in your life. Levi groups excited the Dragons

when he pitched. It does not get better than that. �25,000 from me

and from another dragon and years later, he is a multi-millionaire.

Every now and then the show throws up some disastrous pictures, like

the chair there is a multi-gym. What made it more hilarious was

that Duncan, being an expert up on gyms, he went up and try to use

these things and I cried my eyes out. It was hilarious. You are like

two old codgers! Trying to get fit! Duncan was out of breath, giggling

This year, songs of Praise is celebrating its 50th anniversary.

Aled Jones was already famous for his angelic voice when he first

appeared on it as a choirboy. But his singing was not always

appreciated when he joined in when watching the show at home.

Sometimes I was told off for singing too loudly and spoiling it

for my grandmother. And then he presented songs of praise from his

home city in Wales. Welcome to Banda, the oldest diocese in

Britain. -- Bangor. I was petrified going back because I knew all the

people in the Commons -- congregation. The kids there would

have been doing this, and I would have to say, the next 10 is, and we

would have to do it about 13 times. We're doing a hen that celebrates

all the scenes of Wales, sung to this familiar Welsh tune. -- hymn.

I would say that half of the people watching it do not go to church,

but when they might start launching into pens, it starts them going

back to school assemblies and a happy, comfortable time in their

lives. He was happy when the show was featured on the the vicar of

the Glee. I have had a letter from the BBC who want to film songs of

Praise. Heavens preserve us. I like the thought that they thought it

was going to be Tom Jones, when it was Aled Jones. This is not the

first drama to be filmed in these studios. Life On Mars was filmed

here, too. There has been a stabbing. Queenie the road. Uniform

is already on the scene. -- Queen Mary Road. Life On Mars re created

1970s Manchester with scenes from all over the city and in the Oxford

Life On Mars, women should have given your role in it. It is 1973,

almost banal time. Fantastic performances. Great drama. Every

corner has to be whiter than white or the entire thing falls apart. --

every corporate. And the north-west is home to some of the best drama

writers in the UK. Paul Abbott, Alan Bleasdale and Jimmy McGovern,

to name but a few. Glaswegian, about 45 years old. Billy Rafferty.

He is dead. There is a great love of language in and around

Manchester and Liverpool pubs. A great jury in language and in story

telling. In conversation, in the sense of a community, and I think

writers have packed into that, and brought it to a national audience.

What is your name? And it is this love of language and story telling

that Jimmy McGovern has used to such dramatic effect in The Street.

I cannot even look after myself, never mind someone like you. What

is great about the Street, you feel that the writer listens to how

people actually speak and we know that in Manchester and Liverpool

there is a joy in language that is very idiosyncratic. And Jimmy

McGovern has a very acute ear for the way that people in the north-

west talk and thing. -- think. Gissa Job! Oh over the years the

north-west has produced some of the very best television drama. Am I

right? I am I right! You should never change... Nice, what are you

doing up here? Business or pleasure? Come on, Jack, let's be

naughty. I know that you wanted. The BBC has come along way from the

days of studios in converted churches. It is starting a new

chapter at Media City are, on a bigger scale than ever before, and

here is a taste of what is to come. I don't know what you drink up in

Manchester but there seems to be something in the water, that little

spark of creativity, so I am not surprised that BBC Manchester has

been so successful. This move is enormously important, for the

message that it sends out which is that Britain does not begin and end