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Granada Studios Manchester

Matt N

TS Member
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Mako (SeaWorld Orlando)
Hi guys. I was just watching the terrific Expedition Theme Park documentary about the long defunct Granada Studios park in Manchester, and I fancied making this thread just to ask; did any of you get to visit, and if so, what was it like?

The documentary is here, if you want to watch:


I must admit that it does make me sad that this park closed, as it looked to have a very promising trajectory; if it were still around today, I’d wager that it might well have been the UK’s answer to Universal, and one of the UK’s most highly visited parks. Who knows; maybe we might even have seen The Wizarding World of Harry Potter here instead of in Orlando?

Skytrak looks strange, though; it reminds me more of one of those zip line coaster prototypes that sometimes appears at IAAPA than any permanent coaster. Also, I think it might well be the basis for one of the flying coaster types in RCT3, after spending years trying to work out what ride type inspired it…

Also, might I ask; what on earth was this OnDigital thing that caused the collapse of Granada? Am I right in saying that it was basically like Sky, but run by ITV?

Did any of you get to visit? And if so, what was it like?
 
Hi guys. I was just watching the terrific Expedition Theme Park documentary about the long defunct Granada Studios park in Manchester, and I fancied making this thread just to ask; did any of you get to visit, and if so, what was it like?

The documentary is here, if you want to watch:


I must admit that it does make me sad that this park closed, as it looked to have a very promising trajectory; if it were still around today, I’d wager that it might well have been the UK’s answer to Universal, and one of the UK’s most highly visited parks. Who knows; maybe we might even have seen The Wizarding World of Harry Potter here instead of in Orlando?

Skytrak looks strange, though; it reminds me more of one of those zip line coaster prototypes that sometimes appears at IAAPA than any permanent coaster. Also, I think it might well be the basis for one of the flying coaster types in RCT3, after spending years trying to work out what ride type inspired it…

Also, might I ask; what on earth was this OnDigital thing that caused the collapse of Granada? Am I right in saying that it was basically like Sky, but run by ITV?

Did any of you get to visit? And if so, what was it like?

Essentially OnDigital was a competitor to Sky around the turn of the millennium. Granada couldn't compete with Sky partly because of Sky's marketing and partly because OnDigital's football league coverage (which they had seriously overpaid for) was not as attractive as Sky's Premier League coverage. Eventually Granada couldn't pay the football league the promised fees and were put into administration. As well as Granada studios park closing, the collapse caused a lot of lower league football teams to go under as they suddenly didn't have the money they were promised.
I won't pretend to know much about the park but I think it could have lasted a good few more years if Granada didn't collapse although after Brexit and Covid, who knows if it would have survived to the present day although having ITV IP's would probably help them marketing wise.
 
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It was ok but I only went twice as a youngling. I remember the simulator ride ( I think Alien & then Robocop), a fake number 10, a giant prop set, a Coronation Street set and everyone getting excited because they made it snow and then rain indoors. All that was completely put to the back of my mind when we stumbled into Harry Ramsdens that had a grand piano jukebox.

That's pretty much all I can remember about it but I suspect there was very little more to it other than the skytrack failure. Cheers for the video Matt!

OnDigital (aka ITV Digital) was a Digital TV service created by a consortium including Sky. Sky was analogue at the time but became competitors to ITV when Sky left to create their own digital service. I only remember because we used to watch WWF on OnDigital via sky sports and I had to beg my mum to move to Sky when they lost the channels. The football farce was damaging and not helped when Sentanta sports failed as well.
 
Ondigital main problem was the ITC forcing Sky out of the consortium, adding an extra £60million a year to the sky channels contract.
This and bad take up of the pay for football channel put heavy financial strain on Carlton and Granada TV companies.

I went to granada studio tours a couple of time. It was a nice experience and i still have some merchandise from my visits

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I went a few times with friends and work.
All as described above, a bit of a one trick pony really, once you had done it, there was little point in going again.
Don't bring up skytrack though, only ride I ever tried to ride three times and failed.
Even phoned up beforehand, arrived early...broken down.
They refunded my entrance...and quite a few others.
Two attempts at official opening, both failed.
Calculated throughput of 20 people an hour...what the hell were they thinking!
Think we might have a Proud Prestonian on here that did actually ride it...the swine.
 
I must be one of the few who actually rode Skytrak. Only once though on what I guess was my final visit. Was closed at the start of the day but opened not long before the end of the day luckily. It was an upcharge attraction and fun though remember it being strange at the time. Riding headfirst lying doing. More exposed/intense then Air because you just ride on your own. Remember it flying over the new York set area then back towards the bonded warehouse.

Glad I got it once though didn't expect that to be my final visit as we really enjoyed it and went most years it was open and were very sad when it closed as it never looked run down or that it was about to close. I still have the guide book.
 
As a family we always went every year during the summer months from early 90’s to roughly 97. I’m going round my parents house for dinner today and will look for photos and upload them on to here.
It was a weird setup with the entrance area been all American themed. With new attractions been built every year. They had to remove some of the backstage tour area to build Corrie bigger and after it closed it 98 it was used for filming locations. I went to look at it in 2003 while in Manchester and the main entrance to the attraction was still in place. There was even still signage on road signs 5 years after it was closed so not sure when they were replaced.
 
It’s a real shame that it closed. It was evidently really popular and as far as I remember there were no signs that it was going downhill before it closed, if anything quite the opposite.

Personally, I really enjoyed the Deadly FX show which showed you loads of behind the scenes details of gory effects - fake blood, break away glass etc.
 
Visited in early 1999, at the time I was in secondary school and was doing volunteer work with a local primary school so they wanted us to go as extra people to help keep an eye on the younger kids. They were attending some debate in the house of commons set. Got to do most of the tour, number 10, the Baker Street sets, the street from corrie, the Aliens motion master, and also the dark ride UFO Zone which was fun.

I've absolutely no recollection of seeing Sky track at all though.

Seemed a really fun attraction.
 
I'm old enough to remember visiting and it really wasn't all that tbh with you. My memories are mainly poor ones of our 2 visits.
 
We went with our local football team visiting in the afternoon after going to the United Ground in the morning.

Apart from the Coronation Street bits the only thing I remember is that the Alien ride got shut down for the day. Let's just say there were a lot of 12/13 year lads that thought it would be funny to try and demask the alien.
 
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I forgot all about Ondigital/Itv digital it was so short lived. To think, at one point there was debate about the government's digital TV switchover with concerns that there would only be a cost and no new benefit to people who would eventually be forced into switching with an expensive new box to receive the same 4/5 channels (swathes of the country still couldn't get Channel 5 in the early 2000's) they always had before anyway unless they subscribed to a pay service. Thankfully, ITV digital turned into Freeview. I remember the boxes would still display the Ondigital logo on menu's and boot up when later being used as Freeview box's.
 
Yeah it was a mess the whole ITV digital thing. Only thing any good that came from it was the advertising with Johnny Vegas and Monkey, pretty sure even Vegas didn't get paid due to the companies collapse.
 
Yeah it was a mess the whole ITV digital thing. Only thing any good that came from it was the advertising with Johnny Vegas and Monkey, pretty sure even Vegas didn't get paid due to the companies collapse.
Yeah I remember that! Didn't they take the Mick out of that in one of the later PG Tips ads? Before all that debacle, Granada were a massive company. Theme parks, cinema's and even motorway service stations.
 
ONdigital had almost nothing to do with the downfall of Granada Studios Tour. Far more relevant is the Broadcasting Act 1990. Granada Studios Tours was a bit more insulated than the other 2 parks being directly attached to their studios but was ultimately a victim of the same thing.

Also, might I ask; what on earth was this OnDigital thing that caused the collapse of Granada? Am I right in saying that it was basically like Sky, but run by ITV?

Granada didn't collapse, nor was it in any danger of collapsing. Granada plc became ITV plc after merging (but really taking over) Carlton.

Carlton & Granada jointly owned ONdigtal. Carlton's installed leadership pushed for a strategy of buying whatever football rights they could at any cost. When the strategy was clearly failing less than a year later Granada pulled the plug on it.
 
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