JIMMY McGovern has two good reasons to celebrate at the moment - so it seemed only sensible to suggest we meet in a pub.
And so, over a few pints of bitter in Thomas Rigby's in Dale Street, he told me all about the return of something old . . . and the start of something new.
After a nine-year absence, filming will take place next month on a one-off, two-hour-long Cracker special for ITV1, again starring the larger-than-life Robbie Coltrane as criminal psychologist Fitz.
And filming has just started on a new six-part drama series being made by Granada for the BBC - with the first two episodes written by Jimmy and the remainder by other Liverpool-born writers - provisionally-entitled The Street.
Cheers. Time for another celebratory drink .
And perhaps a couple more. The return of Cracker has long been on the cards, but the programme which was recently voted the 12th greatest ITV show of all time (only 12th?!) is only back thanks to . . . golf. Jimmy explains: "It's all down to the Hillsborough Family Support Group. I'd been helping group chairman Phil Hammond organise the annual Hillsborough Memorial Golf Tournament and, a couple of years ago, the event lost its sponsor.
"So I went to Granada TV knowing they wanted me to do another Cracker and said 'If you sponsor our next golf tournament to the tune of £5,000, I'll give you a one-off episode' (although they still had to pay me to do it as well, of course)."
What was their response? Prepare NOT to be surprised.
