I once knew someone who spotted a man staring at her and making notes as she had a drink in a pub.

Turned out it was Coronation Street creator Tony Warren.

I’m not sure whether or not any part of a character based on her ever made it on to the screen, but looking at the average Street resident, you would be extremely disturbed if it did.

I’m no big Corrie fan, but the fact it has made it to 50 years on TV is no mean achievement, which makes it all the more odd that this drama was aired on BBC4 rather than ITV.

Basically, it told the story of how the longest-running drama series on British television first ended up on our screens.

Creator Warren (played by David Dawson) was only 23 when he first presented his idea — Bolton’s very own Bill Naughton may dispute the “his” bit — to bosses at Granada and it was a number of years before the familiar theme tune first rang out.

At first, he faced opposition from the powers that be, who were mostly against the idea of regional accents being on TV.

That opinion still exists, to a degree, as far as presenting goes, but if it still ruled the roost in drama we would never have had the likes of Boys From The Blackstuff, The Lakes, Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, Brookside and, er, Emmerdale.

Dawson was great as the somewhat camp Warren, while Steve Berkoff was his usually excellent self as studio boss Sidney Bernstein.

The story, though, didn’t really matter. What this programme served to do was remind you of the high number of feisty northerners created by Warren, from Annie Walker to Hilda Ogden and Vera Duckworth to Elsie Tanner and Ena Sharples. To a degree, the show still benefits from this, but the standard these days isn’t so good.

Jane Horrocks appears as casting director Margaret Morris and Lynda Barren as Violet Carson, but it’s more about the characters than the actors here.

I certainly wouldn’t have messed with Ena or Violet and, if Annie Walker had refused to served me in the Rovers, I would have been straight in my car, over to Emmerdale and a pint in the Woolpack.