George Reed on set in 1963 with Arthur Leslie and Doris Speed. Photograph courtesy of ITV Studios
George Reed was a storyliner on 242 episodes of Coronation Street from Episode 308 (25th November 1963) to Episode 529 (5th January 1966) (220 episodes) with further stints in the role from Episode 2038 (13th October 1980) to Episode 2059 (24th December 1980) (12 episodes) and Episode 2124 (10th August 1981) to Episode 2133 (9th September 1981) (10 episodes).
His television career first began in 1962 with three episodes of The Verdict is Yours - a one hour drama made by Granada Television. An episode of The Odd Man, a thriller series created by Eddie Boyd, followed a year later, together with an episode of Dr Finlay’s Casebook for the BBC.
As well as being a storyliner for Coronation Street, he wrote an episode of Catch Hand for the BBC and an episode of The Villains for Granada. Also in 1966, Reed storylined 32 episodes of the BBC’s new twice weekly serial, The Newcomers, and completed a one hour radio play, The Guest Speaker for the BBC.
Between 1967 and 1969, Reed wrote more than 200 episodes of A Student’s Diary for BBC radio overseas, replacing writer Tom Stoppard. Also in 1969, he wrote ATV’s Saturday Night Theatre, Travelling Where and the stage play, The Rights of Man, which the Park Theatre Company performed at London’s Fortune Theatre, starring John Neville as Tom Paine.
Two years later in 1971, Reed wrote The York Pageant celebrating 1900 years of York’s history. A royal performance was attended by The Queen and Prince Philip and Reed wrote the lyrics for a record released at the same time and commemorating the event.
In 1980 and 1981, Reed returned to Granada to work on a further 22 storylines for Coronation Street.