The Scot who's spilled all the blood on the Street...
He is the smiling Scots axeman who makes isure there is no Rovers Return for the big iname stars of the struggling soap Coronation Street.Tough-talking producer Brian Park has made the blood flow freely down the most famous TV street in the world.
Since taking control in January, Park has led a brutal purge of famous faces in Wetherfield.
And it's likely that more heads will roll.
He wanted rid of dopey Derek Wilton, a Street regular for 21 years. So Derek - played by Peter Baldwin - died of a heart-attack last week.
Cabbie Don Brennan (Geoff Hinsliff) will make a dramatic exit by driving his taxi into a river - with Alma Baldwin in the passenger seat.
Supermarket boss Anne Malone, played by Eve Steele, will be axed after turning into a crazed stalker.
Park killed off Joyce Smedley, played by Anita Carey, who died when mowed down in an accident.
And bye-bye to Tony Horrocks, played by Lee Warburton, who was driving the car that killed off Joyce.
Also written out ... Claire Palmer, Des Barnes's girlfriend, played by Maggie Norris.
Other familiar names with uncertain futures include ageing lothario Ken Barlow (William Roache) and worrier Emily Bishop (Eileen Derbyshire), both Street stalwarts since its beginning in the spring of 1961.
The irony is that Aberdeen boy Park, who's pressing the reject button, is no stranger to the ordeal of rejection.
As a student in his final year at Edinburgh University, he sent out hundreds of letters to anyone in broadcasting, both radio and TV.
He actually papered his study room with the rejection letters.
But it was at Granada in Manchester that 41-year-old Park got his foot in the door when he joined their trainee scheme.
His first job was as a lowly writer of scripts for the links between shows for the continuity announcers.
He flitted around various ITV companies, eventually coming home to Granada.
His CV is a raging contradiction. From working on ITV's documentaries out in the Middle East just before the Gulf War...
To backroom boy on nerdy ITV gameshows such as Chain Letters.
Now he's landed what is seen as probably THE most important job on ITV.
Unmarried Park was drafted in to help re-vitalise the crisis-hit soap's flagging ratings.
The noisy and nosey Cockneys of EastEnders have consistently beaten the cosy Northerners.
Park's brief: Reverse that downward spiral - at any cost.
His dictum: Nobody is bigger than the Street. His ruthless actions have won him a few friends but more enemies.
"I fear for the Street in Park's hands," says TV writer and columnist Victor Lewis Smith.
"He is a poisoned carrot of a man whose meagre CV boasts truly unfunny shows like September Song.
"Leaving him in charge of a classic soap opera is as sensible as leaving Fred West in charge of the YWCA."
Smith was writer on Tyne Tees show Chain Letters, where Park assisted in production.
"He seemed to have had a comedic by-pass," claims Smith. "An office tyrant, he's alienating people who have Coronation Street's interests at heart."
Park has been nicknamed the mad axeman, with good reason.
As a researcher, he worked on Granada's Sword of Islam which featured decapitations.
"He saw a hand-removing machine in Iran," says documentary maker Tim Hodlin.
"Now he's brought something similar to the Street, but not for the hand. He's an interesting chap. He did a film with Hezbollah in Lebanon, which was brave.
"He was an extremely good researcher.
"He did a good job, snuffled round eating brain sandwiches - which he didn't like.
"But we were filming in a Muslim world where we were loathed."
Hodlin adds: "He knew what he wanted - and that was to get on in television."
Many doubt the ability of Coronation Street to survive if any more famous heads roll.
But the axeman quotes that classic get-out line - "I'm only doing my job."
He adds: "Don't forget - The Street itself is the real star."
A corny line, but true.
Ominously he says: "Street folk like Jack and Vera, Ken and Deirdre, Rita, Betty are characters that people have grown up with.
"But I want to make the stars of the future."
He backs youth and favours younger cast members like Tina Hobley, who plays Samantha, and the McDonald twins.
"When I took on this job, I had to examine the soap very closely and decide if radical changes were needed.
"It is a big task to come in to the programme just when it is taking off as four episodes a week. But I enjoy that challenge."
He's quick to point out that the Street will not become a northern version of EastEnders.
A TV insider says: "He's very determined and very ambitious, but very direct.
"And don't get on the wrong side of him.
"He is absolutely feared. The cast didn't know him from Adam but they'd heard on the grapevine that he ruled with a rod of iron. Cross him and you're history
"That's one reason why he got the job."
The show needs a shake-up and needs dragging into the next century.
"Park says if he has to get rid of people he'll get rid of them," adds the insider.
"He says nobody is bigger than the show. And he ordered Derek's death to improve ratings."
Certainly this Street fighter is not afraid to spill a little blood.
 Printer friendly
 Cite/link
 Email
 Feedback
| |
| Author: | Docherty, Gavin |
|---|---|
| Publication: | Sunday Mail (Glasgow, Scotland) |
| Date: | Apr 13, 1997 |
| Words: | 896 |
| Previous Article: | TRICKY TOMMY IS BACK; SUNDAY MAIL INVESTIGATION. |
| Next Article: | The Judge; Tricia's Turkish delight. |