Granada Studios Tour

Granada Studios Tour was an amusement park in Castlefield that merged television production facilities with entertainment attractions. Visitors could explore replicas of famous television sets and participate in interactive exhibits that showed how television programmes were made.

The park opened in 1988 as the first television studio theme park outside North America and was inspired by Universal Studios Hollywood. It marked a turning point when British viewers could first peek behind the scenes of their favourite shows.

Television fans could walk through recreations of sets from shows they watched at home, like the cobbled street from Coronation Street where characters lived their daily lives. These sets let visitors step directly into the worlds they saw on screen.

The park offered daily live performances, demonstrations, and studio tours where visitors could watch television production up close. It was worth planning time for several attractions, as the grounds offered different stations to explore.

The entrance featured a recreation of Times Square complete with yellow taxis, neon signs, and performers dressed as police officers patrolling the streets. This scene instantly created a theatrical setting that transported visitors into the world of American television.