Northamptonshire Coronation Street pioneer's life on the famous Weatherfield cobbles

A Rushden-born television pioneer who worked on some of the UK's longest running TV shows has spoken of his time on the 'Street' that celebrates its 60 year on December 9.

John Allen, now resident in Irthlingborough, joined the crew of Coronation Street at Granada Studios in 1961 as a vision mixer staying in 'Wetherfield' for 12 years working his way up to studio manager.

He found himself working alongside some of the most iconic characters including street siren Elsie Tanner, gossip Ena Sharples and curler-wearing Hilda Ogden and the soap opera's constant - Ken Barlow.

John, 85, who was head-hunted to work at the Manchester studios, said: "Vi Carson who played Ena Sharples was an absolute dream. I got on well with the whole cast."

As studio manager it was John's job to keep filming on schedule, go through the script and source props, and deal with actors whose time-keeping kept him on his toes.

In an era before mobile phones John had to retrieve actor Arthur Lowe, who played pompous Leonard Swindley, urgently from the London express sat at Piccadilly Station to reshoot part of an episode his pompous character 'Mr Swindley' appeared in.

John recalled: "Arthur Lowe would finish filming and dash off to Piccadilly Station to catch the train to London. One day we had a technical glitch and we needed to reshoot. We looked everywhere but we couldn't find him. In the end I got on the phone and asked the police to get him off the train we knew he'd be there.They found him and when he came back he was absolutely livid because everyone recognised him and it looked like he had been taken off the train and arrested."

On another occasion when in charge of Studio Two where filming took place, John admonished Pat Phoenix for arriving late to set - she stopped speaking to him for five years.

He said: "I told her off because she was 20 minutes late. She turned up on set with an excuse. I spun very slowly, 360 degrees around indicating all of the cast and crew and said 'all of these people got here on time'.

"She went off sick. When I said we would have to cancel that week's shows because she was in so many scenes she came back but didn't talk to me.

"Five years later I was at a bar down the road from the studios and this apparition appeared in a sable coat down to her calves. She hugged me and I was wrapped up in it.

"She was extremely generous and would give you a whole bottle of scotch not just a glass."

"Jean Alexander - Hilda Ogden - was a gem. I asked her to do some work in the nineties but she was living in Southport and didn't want to leave but she said if you're ever in the area come and see me."

In the early days, Coronation Street was not shot on a permanent set and shared a studio with other programmes, including University Challenge.

All the scenery had to be taken down and rebuilt twice a week. The famous cobbled street was painted onto the studio floor to allow camera equipment's wheels to smoothly run across the ground.

John's skills and reputation as a vision mixer enabled the iconic University Challenge double-decker effect to be brought to UK screens.

Using the quiz team format pioneered in the USA, the producers also wanted a way to get the two teams together in one shot without having to build a complicated two-tier set.

Series director, Peter Mullings, and host Bamber Gascoinge set John his own challenge to copy the US, one team above the other format, giving him a week to work out how to do it.

Using his vision mixing skills, the need to build a set was saved and when John was a VIP guest at a recording of the show he was invited into the director's box.

He said: "I went up and thought the split screen would have been done automatically but the design was the same. In the studio, a member of staff called me back and shook my hand. He said if it hadn't been for me he would have had to have built the two-tiet set."

His knowledge meant that he became indispensable thwarting his ambition to work on drama projects but eventually his bosses let him do side projects in compensation.

He said: "I wasn't a happy bunny so they let me go off and do some plays which I loved."

John left Granada in 1973 turning his talents to election night broadcasts a year later when there were two national votes in one year.

Over his career continued he worked with top performers including Michael Parkinson, who described John in a letter as 'a cocky chap with as ready smile', Dame Judi Dench, Rumpole actor Leo McKern, had master class from world-renown cellist Mstislav Rostropovich and even a close encounter with the Sex Pistols just after their famous potty-mouthed TV encounter with Bill Grundy.

He said: "The Sex Pistols were doing a pop thing for Mike Mansfield (So It Goes). Two of them came into the studio cafe and they were in the queue. I heard them say 'we're going to create havoc when we're in the studio.' and I said 'you're not - I'm the studio manager. They were as good as gold."

As a freelance, his work led him into directing different genres of TV including children's shows Ragdolly Anna and Puddle Lane, meeting the King of Greece to make a secret broadcast, following striking miners during pit closures in the 1980s, cookery shows and working with Gloria Hunniford.

For a boy whose classroom missed destruction in the Alfred Street School bombing as a five-year-old schoolboy, John has now returned to the county of his birth and is enjoying life with wife Carol and being a grandparent.

He said: "I don't watch Coronation Street, I sometimes see University Challenge.

"I have had the most charmed life. It's been amazing."

Coronation Street will celebrate its 60th anniversary starting on Monday, December 7 with an anniversary week with three storylines reaching spectacular conclusions whilst at the same time starting off new chains of events which will take the show into 2021.

⚫ The soap now attracts around 6.3 million viewers per episode

⚫ The only cast member to have stayed for the whole six decades is William Roache, who plays Ken Barlow.

⚫ There have been more than 10,000 episodes

⚫ The programme has seen 57 births, 146 deaths and 131 weddings

⚫ Coronation Street is a worldwide phenomenon, having been sold to 135 countries