Albion Market
| Albion Market | |
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| Genre | Soap opera |
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| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 100 (list of episodes) |
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| Running time | 30 minutes |
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| Picture format | 4:3 |
| Original release | 30 August 1985 – 24 August 1986 |
Albion Market was a British soap opera, set in a covered market in Salford, in the northwest of England. It was intended as a companion to fellow ITV soap Coronation Street, filling the 7:00pm timeslot on Fridays and Sundays previously dubbed by the network as the "graveyard" slot. However, due to continued troubles and ratings competition from the BBC's Open All Hours, the series only broadcast for one year, before being replaced with additional episodes of Coronation Street.
Albion Market launched in August 1985, four months before Coronation Street celebrated its 25th anniversary. Granada Studios dubbed it a "continuing drama series", considering the term "soap opera" derogatory. The show ran twice weekly on Friday and Sunday night; at the time, 7.00pm on Fridays and Sundays were considered "graveyard slots", usually broadcasting game shows or American imports. Very quickly, the Sunday episodes were moved back to around 6.00pm, and LWT later dropped the Friday episode and instead broadcast a double bill of the series at 5.00pm on Sundays. At the series launch, the chairman of Granada Television claimed that "When Coronation Street celebrates its Golden anniversary, Albion Market will be celebrating its silver anniversary". Despite this, the show lasted for only one year.
The show received negative reviews from critics and did not do well in the ratings. Many noted that the actual storyline rarely strayed from the confines of the market itself. The long-suffering market superintendent Derek Owen (David Hargeaves) was the primary focus; his day usually began with the difficult task of assigning the few unowned stalls to the large number of casual traders. Prominent among these were Lynn Harrison (Noreen Kershaw) and her ex-jailbird husband Roy (Jonathan Barlow); while the regular traders included the gossiping ceramics dealer Morris Ransome (Bernard Spear) and handsome ladykiller and cake seller Tony Fraser (John Michie).
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