Goodbye Granadaland

A wet-behind-the-ears Take That played in the car park of Granada Studios. Woody Allen did a rare stand-up set there in 1965. It offered us our first look at the Sex Pistols, Blondie and Happy Mondays. And in ‘Up’ and ‘World in Action’, it produced two of the finest factual strands in the history of television.

The Granada studio is facing the bulldozers. But this valedictory documentary suggests that it deserves if not mourning, then certainly maximum respect. Presented by Peter Kay, but featuring contributions from pretty much everyone who helped make it what it was (Mirren, Parkinson, Paxman, Bet Lynch and dozens more), the film is much like the institution it celebrates: warm, lively almost to a fault, perhaps a little lacking in hidden depths, but great fun.