Mark Woodhouse meets Peter Salmon, director of programmes for Granada TV

WHEN news sneaked out that Coronation Street's Derek Wilton was about to join the big sales convention in the sky, Granada Television's hotlines were hot with protesting fans.

Peter Salmon, the station's Director of Programmes, remembers the time well.

"When Derek died, a lady believed I had a power of reprieve, a bit like somebody on Death Row writing to the President," said Peter.

"She pursued me for days on end, but I had to explain that the episode had been recorded a few weeks before and the deed had been done. She did not want to believe it.

"It's a great tribute to the Street that it means so much to people. Unfortunately, I could not reprieve Derek but I was quite touched by her entreaties!"

Coronation Street has been in the news a lot lately, what with Derek dying, the Battersbys terrorising the neighbourhood and Percy Sugden allegedly about to quit over "declining moral standards" after romeo Kevin's seedy affair with Natalie.

As the station's programme director, Peter is in charge of the show's overall direction and strategy, though he does not, of course, write the scripts. However, he is adamant that "Corrie" is in safe hands.

"Coronation Street was mother's milk to me. It was the only time of the week when my family sat down together in one room. It was not far from being a religious experience so the last thing I want to do is damage it!

"We've got to make it the number one show again because last year we were being outgunned by EastEnders, but I think we've come back again now. "Coronation Street has got to evolve, it cannot be allowed to fossilize. We are in a period of gentle evolution."

He adds that Coronation Street will always be "a magical place that doesn't really exist", a haven of old-world Northern values and cobbled streets, even though the cobbles are fast disappearing from his native Burnley.

"I don't think it's a question of making it more gritty or more realistic," he says. "We are still driven by the best stories - would a character do this and what's the logical conclusion of a character doing that."

That said, he does hope that the new younger characters coming into the show will help breathe new life into it, no matter what objections are raised.

Peter is well-used to the controversy generated in a television-obsessed media.

As Controller of Factual Programmes at Channel 4 for three years he was one of a number of high ranking executives who came in for a lot of bad press for the station's output, though Michael Grade - dubbed the "Pornographer In Chief" - got the brunt of it.

"There was a little spat with the Daily Mail, I remember, which ran profiles of each of us saying we were corruptors of morals! "They just decided to make us their number one target and then it became focused on Michael, which was pretty awful because it was only a tiny element of what we did.

"I got used to being hammered by the tabloids. You had to develop a pretty thick skin."

Brought up in Albion Street, Burnley, the son of mill worker Doreen and window cleaner Patrick, 41-year-old Peter's rise through the notoriously back-stabbing world of television has been nothing short of meteoric.

After getting his own big break by winning a place on the BBC's ultra-competitive graduate trainee scheme, Peter amassed a wide range of experience, mainly in factual programmes.

He admits his Northern accent - in contrast to the typical BBC Oxbridge type - probably helped get his foot in the door but after that it was up to him.

He worked for Blue Peter, Newsnight, a series with David Dimbleby on America, and did radio reports from troublespots like Namibia and the Lebanon.

Having then decided to spend more time at home, he was the original producer of Crimewatch and at BBC Bristol he was executive producer of BBC 2's War and Peace season, the Oscar-winning Wallace and Gromit animation The Wrong Trousers and BBC 1's 999 series.

Being back in the North West allows Peter to spend more time with his wife Penny and sons Michael, David and Paul, at home in south Manchester, and enables him to visit his electrician brother Michael in Burnley and watch his beloved Clarets. He also has a sister Carole, a nurse, who lives in the South and numerous relatives in the Burnley area. But as if running Granada's TV programmes is not enough, Peter was also heavily involved in British Digital Broadcasting's successful bid to launch 15 new channels in the second half of next year. The new station brings together Granada, Carlton, the BBC and BSkyB to usher in a new era of television viewing. But will it just mean more repeats?

"The challenge for us is to invent a whole new style of programming," he adds. "People won't watch it just because it's there.

"All the programme makers that made Granada such a famous company, from Brideshead Revisited to Coronation Street or This Morning to Cracker, have got to take their expertise and share their experience so that we can produce more programme ideas for BDB.

"If we can do that, it will be another Granada success story but if we just fill it with old shows it will go the way of so many other new channel developments. We are determined that it's going to be a success."

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