His television career began on Granada's Scene at 6.30 magazine programme, where Eckersley worked with his friend Michael Parkinson.
[2] There he met and married one of its stars, Anne Reid, who played Valerie Barlow.
[3] He also produced the sitcom Nearest and Dearest with Hylda Baker and Jimmy Jewel.
[2] During the late 1970s, Eckersley spotted and developed a young comedian Victoria Wood, who went on to become one of the UK's most successful comedy stars.
[5] David Liddiment, ITV's former director of programmes said: "Peter Eckersley nurtured a new cadre of young northern writers who reflected the realities of post-war urban life for the first time....They were all to make television drama younger, sharper and closer to the experience of the mass audience.