death_date death_place years_active birth_place name birth_date spouse article_title birth_name partner occupation
22 january 1994 cheadle , stockport , england 1967 -- 88 gainsborough , lincolnshire , england bill podmore 15 august 1931 gillian podmore -lrb- separated -rrb- bill podmore
 edgar william podmore millie preece tv producer
bill podmore

edgar william `` bill '' podmore -lrb- 15 august 1931 -- 22 january 1994 -rrb- was a british television producer .
born in gainsborough , lincolnshire , he was best known for his long association with the soap opera `` coronation street '' , a series he produced for twelve years -lrb- 1976 -- 88 -rrb- .
this period is now widely regarded as a `` golden era '' in the programme 's history .
initially a royal air force pilot , he became a tv cameraman for the bbc , shortly after with granada television and later , a director .
when , as a relatively young man , he was called upon to direct an episode of `` coronation street '' , violet carson -lrb- ena sharples -rrb- with a massive twinkle in her eye , drew herself up to her full height and confronted him - `` hello bill , welcome ... my train leaves at 5.30 p.m. ! ''
bill was asked to take over as producer of `` the street '' in 1976 .
initially he turned the offer down flat .
as former street writer john stevenson recalled recently in a bbc radio 2 documentary , '' `` coronation street '' was on a downward slope at the time .
stevenson stated that no-one wanted to work on it , the quality of the scripts had dropped , the storylines were poor and it was becoming something of a joke within the tv industry to have to work on it '' .
podmore helped steer the programme back onto an even keel .
he referred to this as `` re-decoration , not demolition '' meaning that he intended to capitalise on the strengths he already had there .
thus the ogdens became a comedic double act yet again , and eddie yeats , who before podmore 's stewardship had been nothing more than a petty thug , became the ogdens ' surrogate son and was revealed to have a heart of gold .
bill brought in new characters , such as renee bradshaw , and brought minor characters , such as fred gee and vera duckworth , to the fore .
however , it was not all plain sailing .
in the early 1980s , peter dudley was arrested in a manchester public lavatory for importuning .
podmore , a married man with two children , hellen and richard john , stood by peter steadfastly , insisting that although he was involved in a `` shameful '' court case in reality , whatever dudley did in his private life was his own business .
dudley later suffered a stroke caused by the stress of the case , and finally suffering a fatal heart attack after asking to be `` written-out '' of the show .
podmore was , however , no easy touch .
the cast referred to him as `` the godfather '' for he could be very ruthless .
in 1980 , he killed renee roberts off as he considered her marriage to alf roberts not working ; podmore was quoted as saying that alf roberts was allowed to emerge `` from the shadows of a rather humdrum marriage '' .
when stephen hancock refused to sign a new contract , podmore had him killed off , having him shot dead in a bungled wages snatch at baldwin 's factory .
podmore was also instrumental in the unpopular termination of actor peter adamson 's contract .
adamson had been suspended from the programme after allegations that he had interfered with two young girls in a bury -lrb- lancashire , england -rrb- swimming pool .
podmore , who had known adamson for over 20 years was prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt , especially after he was found not guilty .
but adamson , faced with cripplingly high legal fees , sold his story to a british national newspaper , giving away personal details about the very people who had stood by him in his darkest hour .
podmore called this `` indefensible '' and sacked him .
in 1988 , podmore settled into retirement , dying in 1994 , at cheadle royal hospital .
his memoirs , entitled `` coronation street - the inside story '' , were published in 1990 .
