At 4am last Saturday morning, while most of us were still tucked up in bed, Brian Altman was making his latest journey to the most important street in the world to him. For Brian is a Coronation Street superfan - and he boarded the earliest train possible from his home in Glasgow to Manchester to be sure he was one of the first fans on the cobbles for the return of public tours at the set for the first time in two years.
Proudly wearing his "Free the Weatherfield One" T-shirt - a nod to one of the ITV soap 's most famous storylines when Deirdre Rachid was imprisoned - Brian is certainly no stranger to the soap's famous set. For he also makes regular pilgrimages back here to wait outside the studio gates in a bid to meet the stars of the show.
There, he'll patiently wait for hours in the hope that one of the cast members will stop their car on the way in or out of the set, or maybe stop off when they nip out for their lunch. The hope is they'll stop for a photo or a chat with him and many of the other soap superfans who stand in all weathers, in a bid to get close to Weatherfield's finest.
Read more:
And he always comes prepared. He buys bags of sweets from Poundland to give to his soap favourites, to say thank you for all that they do in bringing the storylines of Corrie so magically to life to him.
Brian says: "I don't like to go down empty handed. I can't sit there in my flat and thank them for a great performance when I've watched it on TV, so I just feel sometimes I like to thank them personally for a good job done and I wouldn't turn up at a friend's house empty handed, so that's why I bring the sweets down to the set to say thank you."
Brian, 60, has been a Coronation Street fan for as long as he can remember - from watching the soap with his mum and dad and sister as a child at home in Glasgow. His flat is now something of a shrine to Corrie - with all the memorabilia he has collected over the years and his photos with a galaxy of show stars adorning the walls - an he hails himself "Scotland's biggest Corrie fan".
When we arrange this chat about his love for Corrie, Brian informs me over email that he will strictly NOT be available on either Monday, Wednesday or Friday nights between 8 and 9pm. It's something his friends and family know only too well that he is quite simply "off grid" and uncontactable by phone, text or email once the familiar strains of Corrie start on the telly.
He smiles: "I like to switch off my mobile phone, media, my ipad and my landline to fully concentrate - my family and friends know they will not get me for love or money when Corrie is on. That is my time three times a week, that's me, that's just the way I'm built."
He's never missed an episode to his knowledge, and proudly tells me he has met 92 Corrie stars past and present over the years. Back in the day it would be at meet and greets or as a competition winner (he recalls a memorable luncheon in the Rovers with Ken Barlow star William Roache and Gail aka Helen Worth that he won through a TV magazine back in 1989).
But since the dawn of Twitter, Brian has discovered the community of fellow soap superfans who share his passion - and it was through them that he heard he could visit the set in the hope of meeting a star there. Now, he plans four trips a year to Manchester do just that (when he's saved up enough money) booking a budget hotel and then heading to the Trafford Wharf Road security gates for two or three consecutive days in a bid to see as many stars as possible.
Brian says: "Most of the cast know me now, and it's a great feeling when I'm watching a scene and I can think to myself, 'oh I've met all of them'. It wasn't until Twitter came along that I saw people with photographs outside the studio and I thought Oo this is a good idea.
"The amount of friends I've made on Twitter through my love of Corrie, I've been very fortunate, at my age you can lose friends the older you get, but I've actually made a good 15 really good friends out of this, people I can talk to for an hour at a time, a lot of it is Corrie related or family related, it's just great."
For Brian, finding fellow superfans online has been brilliant, and Twitter has also brought him closer to the stars as he always puts on there when he's planning one of his quarterly visits so they can look out for him. He makes a point of thanking EVERYONE who goes into the set - cast, crew, security - to make them know how appreciated their work really is to the fan faithful.
Brian says: "I first started visiting the set in about 2014. You can stand there from 9am in the morning to 5pm at night. If you go for a toilet break, you might miss someone, so it's trial and error - you can be there all day and see three people or go and see nine people. The best I ever had I saw 11 on one visit."
There are also specific perils of the set being so close to the waterways of Salford Quays. He laughs: "You also have to be careful the birds don't swoop down on you while you eat your sandwiches. It's a different life, when you do this as a hobby!"
As for other soaps, it's only Coronation Street that has his heart these days. He does watch Emmerdale, but doesn't feel the acting quite matches up to the power of Corrie, and he got fed up with EastEnders for being a bit too miserable some years back.
Read more :
Read more :
He says: "I haven't watched EastEnders since Den got shot through the daffodils 20 years ago. Originally I watched Grange Hill when Susan Tully was in it and followed that through to her in EastEnders, but I gave it up as it never seems to have a humorous moment. I don't appreciate paying my TV licence for all doom and gloom.
"In Corrie yes you have dark moments and death, but then the next scene you have something funny with Mary, it's always kept to its basics. That's why I think it's the whole top of them."
As for favourites on Corrie, Brian says he loves them all - although there is one particular icon who he hails his favourite of all time.
"Barbara Knox who plays Rita is my favourite of all time, I go all the way back to when Len Fairclough got written out, I remember it was Hilda and Stan's wedding anniversary in the pub and Rita got a phone call to say he'd fallen asleep at the wheel.... those sort of scenes they stick in the memory. She's just a fabulous actress."
The memorabilia that adorns almost every surface of his kitchen includes the likes of Corrie branded mugs, tea towels, figurines, models of the sets and even official Corrie soaps that he's kept intact in their wrappers. When the Co-Op launched a range of Corrie meals like Betty's hotpot a couple of years back, Brian made sure he bought them all - even though he doesn't eat meat - but he's kept the boxes for posterity.
He keeps a constant watch on EBay for Corrie memorabilia too - and managed to pick up one of the original souvenir boxes the Queen gave to cast when she visited in 2000. He's also the proud owner of Becky McDonald's wedding dress which he snapped up when it was auctioned for charity, which he now keeps on a mannequin at his flat with a photo of Becky's head stuck on top.
So what is it about the show that so enthralls Brian?
He says: "I think it's just amazing how it's evolved, from one person Tony Warren who created this whole thing, I love the drama, the comedy, the escapism three times of week that he has created, and just think of all the jobs he has created on this show, it's all very underestimated, that's why I love it so much. What Tony created, right from the start, it was with a northern humour and the feisty females, and he always maintained three storylines at any one time.
"Nowadays with the hour long episodes, how many storylines do you have running at one time, it's about six! You never know what's going to go on next, it keeps you on your toes and that's why I love it.
"There's going to be more characters and more things happening because of the new set that's just been announced to be built, with the maisonettes and the shopping precinct. I put a voting thing on Twitter saying when they build these maisonettes they should make one of them liveable in and for charity they should let us fans pay to stay in there! Maybe two adults every weekend or something like that."
Brian is full of praise for the new up-and-coming talent on Corrie - believing the show to be in safe hands with the new generation of talented actors. And he particular loves the stand-out performance of Sally Carman as Abi in some of the show's most gripping and heartbreaking scenes in the past year.
Brian says: "Millie Gibson, Adam Hussein, Tanish Gorey - the new generation they're all fantastic in their own craft, they can throw any storyline at them and they can handle it they were just born for the parts. They get it spot on every time. At the beginning when new characters start you think 'I don't know about them', but within a month you get the character and it all falls into place. The casting directors are always spot on."
As for the Corrie tour - he's visited the set since Granada Studios days and reckons he may have visited the tour more times than anyone else in recent years. He returned last weekend for the very first tour of the new tranche of dates announced after the two year absence due to successive lockdowns.
While he always enjoys the visit, he feels the tour has become very expensive, particularly for those with families, costing £35 for adults and £32.50 for children. Brian is no longer able to work due to ill health, so he has to save up for his visits to Corrie, getting the best deals on budget hotel stays to do it.
He says: "The tour is a lot of money, particularly if you're a single parent wanting to take children, because you've got the price of travel, accommodation and food on top of that, so I'd love to see more affordable ticket options."
Brian's next planned visit to Corrie will hopefully be in April - to tie in with the 90th birthday of show icon William Roache.
Get the latest What's On news - from food and drink to music and nightlife - straight to your inbox with our daily newsletter.
