The residents of Coronation Street have been mentioning the Weatherfield Precinct for decades but viewers have never seen it - until now. On Thursday (December 1), the ITV soap unveiled the new exterior set for the first time with the help of a few familiar faces.
James Craven (Aaron Sandford), Harriet Bibby (Summer Spellman), Elle Mulvaney (Amy Barlow), Channique Sterling Brown (Dee-Dee Bailey), Daniel Brocklebank (Billy Mayhew), Colson Smith (Craig Tinker), Jack P Shepherd (David Platt), Antony Cotton (Sean Tully), Sally Dynevor (Sally Metcalfe), Tanisha Gorey (Asha Alahan), and Jimmi Harkishin (Dev Alahan) were all on hand to cut the ribbon and pop confetti cannons as they declared the Precinct open.
Corrie fans will soon be seeing the soap's iconic characters milling around the previously unseen part of Weatherfield complete with a bakery, dessert shop, pawnbrokers, charity shop, pound shop and a children's playground. The first scene will be filmed next week, nine months since building work started on the new exterior set, and will air on-screen January 13.
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Speaking about the Precinct to the Manchester Evening News, Corrie's producer Iain MacLeod said he was "thrilled" with the outcome and shared how he had the design team had been working on the plans for a "long time". He said: "It's exactly how I envisioned it because the design team and I have been looking at real-life precincts that are out and about.
"We wanted it to look very Salford, very earthy, very gritty, and the sort of place you might go in the daytime to buy an ice cream, but you might not want to go down there after dark because it might be full of kids up to no good, and things like that."
He added: "So it's got fun bits like the kids playground, there's an ice cream shop, there's a charity shop which is gonna generate some story for us in the not too distant future, but it's also got the ginnels of doom which is where all the bad stuff happens on Coronation Street - secret rendezvous, criminal assignations and all the rest of it.
"So it's got a little bit of everything and I went around it yesterday and I was absolutely thrilled to pieces. I became totally inarticulate and one of the head designers was there and I was just like, 'I love it,' and he was like, 'any other feedback?' and I was like, 'I love it!' I felt like someone's Woody the cowboy and they were pulling the chord and I was saying, 'I love it!'"
As well as the shops and other units, the i mpressive two-storey construction also features maisonettes, a staircase and balcony leading to the properties. So will there be any Weatherfield residents on the move or new ones to expect?
"I'm sure you'll appreciate every outside space we've got, if we want to build a set for the inside space it has to go in the studio somewhere and our studio is full to bursting," Iain said. "But instantly when we knew this was arriving we were thinking, 'Maybe this character can live there, or maybe when this person runs away from their partner they could hide there'.
"So yes, we're definitely looking in terms of the residential space people may be moving in there at some point. But the thing I am most excited about at the moment are the spaces underneath with particular reference to the charity shop. You will not believe the amount of times a random actor from our show will come and go, 'You know what I think? I think my character would love working in a charity shop...'"
He teased: "There's two really core characters that are gonna be going in there. We are trying to install it as a new iconic destination for the show. Over the years we have had brilliant double acts in The Kabin but we are trying to achieve the same sort of thing over time with the charity shop."
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