PA MediaA Coronation Street superfan has followed in his father’s footsteps by leading more than 2,500 tours of the long-running soap opera’s set.
David Owen, 59, has been running the tours since 2014 and won the Lifetime Achievement Award from The Coronation Street Experience in 2022.
His dad Bill Owen, who died in 2013, was a performer at the Granada Studios Tours on Quay Street in Manchester, where the ITV drama was originally filmed before moving to Salford.
David said of the tours and his late father: “It’s a very special connection between us. In many ways, our lives have been intertwined.”
PA MediaDavid said: “I do feel cheated that I never got to share my tour guide notes with him but I know he would have been incredibly proud.
“I can hear him saying, ‘That’s my boy’!”
Around the time of his father’s death, David said he was made redundant after nearly 30 years in a packing job at a factory.
He said he was inspired to carry on the family legacy.
“My dad was an amazing man – he was a big extrovert and truly my hero,” said David.
“I felt very honoured to get the job – one to be following in my father’s footsteps, but also to be doing this on such an amazing show.”
Coronation Street Studios in Salford is the world’s largest single working production set in television.
PA Media‘More than just a TV show’
The Coronation Street experience can see up to 1,000 people visit over a weekend, with tourists coming from as far away as Canada and New Zealand.
“It’s more than just a TV show,” said David of Corrie. “It’s a huge part of British culture.”
Even after leading 2,500 tours, David insisted no two were ever alike.
PA MediaDavid recalled one tour which left a pair of New Zealand tourists in tears.
“When we started the tours at Quay Street, the character Hayley Cropper [played by Julie Hesmondhalgh] had died.
“She had a cardboard flowery coffin, we had it in the props display, and these two ladies from New Zealand saw her name on it and they were in tears.
“We didn’t know at the time but New Zealand were two years behind in the plot lines, so at the time in New Zealand, Hayley was alive and well!”
The famous cobbles of the Coronation Street set have seen it all over the years.
During one tour, David said he witnessed a proposal outside the Rovers Return.
David said: “They just got a massive round of applause and they were both in tears.
“I was nearly tearing up myself to be honest with you – it was so lovely.”
