Soap supremo looks back on career that took him from tea at gran’s to the Baftas

One of Stuart Blackburn’s earliest memories is hearing the score from his granny’s favourite soap as he tucked into lettuce and corned beef sandwiches on a visit to her home on Wednesday evenings.

Even now, reminiscing from his office offering a vantage of the Manchester Ship Canal on one side and the edge of MediaCity UK, he never imagined he would one day be sat in the producer’s seat.

The boss of Britain’s best-loved street, who was involved in orchestrating the recent move to the multi-million pound purpose-built set within Salford Quays, and boasts of having a BAFTA on the mantlepiece of his Horsforth home after Coronation Street clinched the Best Soap award, talks of growing up in Keighley and how luck has partly played a part in his progression into ‘the best job in the world.’ “We lived just above the old swimming baths in the centre and I loved it. It was the usual rough and tumble and fights and bunking off school,” recalls Stuart.

Subjects sank in easily so revision wasn’t really required prompting Stuart to choose the more favourable pastime of hanging around Devonshire park with his mates. But with his A-levels looming, along with the threat of suspension, Stuart followed the advice of a teacher which would eventually lead him into drama.

“I was just so gobby and had an opinion on anything and liked showing off. She thought I could channel it into something vaguely useful,” Stuart recalls.

Although he embarked on a drama degree, Stuart viewed it as the easiest degree in the world. It also gave him the chance to spread his wings further than Keighley. “So even doing the drama degree was not just because I was interested in it,” he says.

He hadn’t been exposed to theatre. “I hadn’t seen a single play in my life even when I started the drama degree I didn’t think it was for me.”

Stuart’s interest developed when he took a year out from his studies. In between part-time jobs, cleaning factories to pay his way, it was his involvement with Birmingham Youth Theatre which opened his eyes to drama from a different dimension.

Being among working class kids, Stuart realised the impact drama had on their lives. “They were talking about their whole lives and experiences and I thought it could really matter.”

Seeing the struggles faced through the series ‘Boys from the Black Stuff’ also made its mark on Stuart. “That and the children at the youth theatre inspired me,” says Stuart.

Towards the end of his studies, he listened to a talk by Jimmy Boyle about his work with ex-prisoners. This prompted Stuart to do voluntary work in Edinburgh working with ex-prisoners and writing plays about their experiences.

“Again, there was no plan. I was constantly putting off making decisions about what to do.

“But seeing how much the stuff we were doing mattered to real people, drama mattered, it could really change lives and make people think about things,” he says.

Stuart spent a few years doing community theatre and ran the Theatre in the Mill in Bradford during the mid to late 90s where he met his wife, freelance designer Naomi Parker. The couple have been together 18 years and married for five.

During that time Stuart worked with Opera North along with theatre companies in Bradford and Leeds.

He was working as a freelance director when he decided to make a speculative call to the team working on the Yorkshire soap Emmerdale. It set the scene for his future career.

“I phoned up Emmerdale and said ‘I am really good and I come from Leeds!’ They said come up and we will have a chat.”

Stuart was offered a story lining role which, he explains, involves story liners and writers sitting down every four weeks to work out what happens to a character.

His next stop was London where he wrote for shows such as Ballykissangel. He also worked on The Bill before heading back up north where he got his first taste of life on Coronation Street as a story editor.

A return to Emmerdale, as a producer, followed during which time Stuart was involved in the live 40th anniversary episode.

“That was really scary. It was live telly on a hill in October.”

He recalls the night before the live episode howling gales brought down the marquee venue for the wedding of characters Declan Macey, played by Jason Merrells and Katie Sugden (Sammy Winward). Fortunately, though, it was all right on the night.

“That is the most exciting thing I have ever done, sat there in a van with all the monitors I thought ‘this is exciting’.”

Shortly after Stuart clinched the top job at his old stomping ground – Coronation Street.

“By then I had done Emmerdale, I had a whole load of experience and I genuinely love Corrie and they love that,” says Stuart, recalling his interview for the producer’s role.

Ironically, during his initial story editor’s interview on the Street some years before, he’d been asked by the then producer where he wanted to be in four or five years time. “I said in your chair!” laughs Stuart, who is now literally living the dream.

While he clearly has the skill and expertise, he also puts his success down to luck. “I have been so lucky, being in the right place at the right time and meeting the right people. I am just blessed.”

Being a good story teller helps too.

“I always loved reading. I remember at ten or 11 rather than going into the children’s library in Keighley I was blagging my way into the adults library. I could get through four or five books easily. I was passionate about stories and just read, and read and read and I love telling stories.”

While proud of his role with Coronation Street which has seen him tackle emotive and sensitive storylines such as character Hayley Cropper’s battle with pancreatic cancer, which broached the right-to-die issue, Stuart is also proud of the honorary doctorate he recently received from Leeds Metropolitan University.

He admits he thought it was a wind-up when he received the initial invitation. “It was completely out of the blue and I genuinely thought it was a wind-up,” recalls Stuart.

“Never in a million years do you dream for it or expect it . The ceremony was really touching, there were tears in my eyes and it meant everything.”

“Just because you’ve been brought up in the back streets of Keighley you can achieve anything,” he says.