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Interview with Coronation Street’s first ever trainee writer
by Glenda
Young
The
Coronation Street blog is
privileged to have been in conversation with Mr John Finch.
For those Corrie fans with long memories, the name
might ring a few bells. Back when Corrie started in 1960, John
became the first trainee writer to be contracted to write for
Coronation Street. He later became Editor and then Producer
from 1968-9, and along with Harry Kershaw, is the only person
to have done all three jobs for The Street.
John’s
first Coronation Street script was commissioned in November
1960 for episode 24, screened in March 1961. He became Script
Editor for a year in 1961 and wrote 140 scripts with his final
episode screened in December 1970; he also co-wrote two
episodes with Jim Allen in May 1967. In 1964 John co-wrote a
comedy stage play called Coronation Street On The
Road.
John explains how he came to write for
Granada. “It’s a rather odd story. I'd sent them a play
about Yorkshire miners which they originally accepted and then
changed their minds. This was before the station went on air.
I turned down some of the series they wanted me to do, but
then they gave me the first few scripts of Corrie to read, and
Tony Warren’s characters were so marvellous I said yes
immediately.”
“It’s hard to say which of the original
characters I most enjoyed writing for,” John says. “I
loved them all.. but perhaps Ena Sharples as she reminded me
of a relative which made it easy to write. Pat Phoenix (Elsie
Tanner) was great fun, and I was sorry when Denis
went."
"I very much enjoyed writing scenes with
Bill Roache (Ken Barlow) and Ann Reid (Valerie Barlow) after
they married. Some of the smaller part characters were a
bit of a turn-off, especially if they had phony northern
accents.”
“I worked initially with Harry Kershaw, the
first editor. We used to knock out the stories for a couple of
episodes and then toss a coin to see who did which. Writers
came and went, but I somehow survived and became editor, then
producer.”
While John was writing for Coronation Street
he also wrote several plays for BBC television and some
adaptations for Granada. He was an early contributor to The
Power Game and other series of that period. He devised and
produced City 68 and The System for Granada in 1968-69, and
then famously created, edited and wrote A Family At War (52
hours), followed by Sam (39 hours) which won Broadcasting
Press Guild and Writers Guild Awards. These were followed by
This Year Next Year (13 hours), Spoils of War(20 hours) and
then for the BBC Flesh and Blood (20 hours). He also wrote for
The Hard Word (Thames), The Life of Riley
alongside H. V. Kershaw and produced The Dustbinmen.
John has also written a novel called Cuddon
Return and is editor of the book Granada Television, the first
generation. These days John lives in the
beautiful Yorkshire Dales where he’s resided for the past 40
years.
Find out more about John Finch at his website
here.
Read profiles of all of the current Coronation
Street writers here.
Copyright:
Glenda Young, April
2009
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