Greater Manchester, Greater Entertainment

From sporting greats and comedy heroes, to much-loved soap stars and musicians, the people of Manchester have spoken and named their all time favourite TV stars, and today Virgin Media has brought them together, all on one sofa.

With the region boasting connections to some of the most iconic celebrities, characters and personalities, Virgin Media commissioned a survey of people from Greater Manchester to celebrate and crown those who have helped to put Manchester on the global entertainment map.

Topping the survey are Peter Kay and Victoria Wood making them Manchester's very own King and Queen' of TV. The comedy pair are in good company with much-loved Corrie soap stars Bet Lynch and Hilda Ogden, the musical duo Noel and Liam Gallagher, and comedy heroes Mrs Merton and Karl Pilkington also revealed as the region's favourite faces.

In addition to those born and bred, science buff Professor Brian Cox and Olympian Sir Bradley Wiggins were crowned Honorary Mancunians' due to their ties to the area, with sporting greats David Beckham and George Best trailing closely behind.

To celebrate the vast array of characters and personalities that topped the poll, Virgin Media transformed Piccadilly Gardens into a giant living room, packed with the best celebrity doppelgangers and are now challenging the people of Manchester to try to name them all in the Manchester is watching TiVo' challenge.

Neil Bartholomew, executive director of growth delivery, at Virgin Media said: Manchester has arguably created some of the greatest TV moments and characters over the years. With so much sport, music, TV and film talent connected to this great city we felt it was only right to bring these legends together for the first time giving Manchester a taste of Virgin Media's TiVo service which features all of these TV stars in one box for our customers to enjoy whenever they want.

For more information and a chance to win a fantastic prize visit facebook.com/virginmedia

Notes to Editors

The celebrities were compiled from an independent survey of 1,000 people from Greater Manchester.

Peter Kay (48%) and Victoria Wood (29%) were voted as the favourite TV stars from Greater Manchester with Gary Barlow (29%) and Anna Friel (11%) coming in next.

Brian Cox (30%) and Bradley Wiggins (21%) were voted as honorary' residents due to their ties to the area and were closely followed by Sir Alex Ferguson (20%), George Best (17%) and David Beckham (15%)

Peter Kay (25%), Brian Cox (23%) Victoria Woods (14%) Karl Pilkington (13%) Gary Barlow (13%) Les Dawson (9%) Bradley Wiggins (9%) and Jason Manford (7%) were the TV stars voted as the must have dinner party guests.

Full statistics broken down by borough available on request.

For journalist enquiries contact

Press Office

t: 0207 909 2225

e: pressoffice@virginmedia.co.uk

About Virgin Media

Virgin Media is the first provider of all four broadband, TV, mobile phone and home phone services in the UK.

The company delivers ultrafast broadband connections to over half of all UK homes, with speeds of up to 120Mb, and is expanding this cable network the result of a multi-billion pound investment to reach thousands more people across the country.

Virgin Media has developed the most advanced interactive television service, bringing together broadcast TV, thousands of hours of on demand programming and the best of the web in a single set-top box powered by TiVo. The company was the first to offer HD TV and 3D on demand to millions of UK households.

Virgin Media also operates the most popular virtual mobile network in the UK which, when launched, was the world's first such mobile phone service. It is also one of the largest fixed-line home phone providers in the country.

Virgin Media Inc. is listed on the NASDAQ Stock Market and the London Stock Exchange (VMED).

For more information, go to www.virginmedia.com

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