|
|
|
 |
 |
|
|
index page |
|
|
January
Stan Ogden dabbles in antiques but gives it up to launch Hilda
as a full-time clairvoyant. Minnie Caldwell, laying secret bets
at Dave Smith's shop, shows signs of becoming a compulsive gambler.
Billy Walker returns from London with a Chinese girlfriend, Jasmine
Chong, much to Annie's disapproval.
Len tries to ditch old flame Marjorie, who has left her husband,
by proposing to her. He is flabbergasted when she accepts, and
her husband Basil calls with her clothes and her pet monkey Marlon.
Desperate Len borrows two local lads, aged two and twelve, and
passes them off as his sons. Majorie finally goes back to Basil.
February
Janice Langton, Ray's deliquent sister, turns up at Nº9.
Len likes her and lets her stay - she has learned to cook at approved
school. Val Barlow consults Madame Hilda for a tea cup reading
and is told she is going to have a baby.
Minnie disappears from home, leaving a note: 'Look after Sunny
Jim.' She owes Dave Smith £10 in gambling debts, and is
taken to hospital as an 'unknown person found collapsed'. Janice
leaves briskly after stealing Dave Smith's Jag, and Ena threatens
to tell the Inland Revenue about the car unless he wipes clean
Minnie's debt.
March
Gordon and Lucille fix a wedding date. Lucille buys the dress
and makes the arrangements, but a worried Gordon backs out on
the last minute. They part as friends. Minnie, who is being treated
in hospital for exposure, pleads with nurses to keep her whereabouts
secret from the formidable Ena.
Alice Pickens moves in as Albert's lodger and hints to Hilda that
she plans to marry him. Emily has a date with the vicar, but decides
he is too naive: he believes that the Street's materialistic values
outweigh its spiritual ones.
April
Albert has had enough and decides to evict Alice, along with her
mynah bird Kitchener. He stacks her belongings on the pavement,
and she moves in with Minnie. Dave Smith's wife Lillian hires
a private eye to tail Elsie. When divorce proceedings threaten
a third of his income, he capitulates and agrees to pay her a
weekly allowance.
Stan and Hilda have a day out in Derbyshire but miss the train
home and have to hitch a ride on a milk float. Ena organizes a
sit-in against plans to demolish the Pensioners' Club-room to
make way for a car park. She is arrested by PC Wilcox, but allowed
off with a caution. Ray Langton begins an affair with newly-wed
Audrey Fleming.
May
Alice Pickins abandons her quest for Albert and leaves to look
after her eighty-year-old uncle in West Hartlepool. Dickie Fleming
quits his job to work in an amusement arcade where he is having
an affair with a slot-machine cashier.
Annie, striving to bring sophistication to the Street, decorates
the Rovers with clogs and miners' lamps and collects signatures
for the 'Perfect Landlady' competition. She wins a trip to Majorca
for two, and invites Ena to join her. Dickie loses his job at
the arcade
June
Maggie Clegg's sister, Betty Turpin, arrives in the Street with
her husband Cyril, a police sergeant, and takes a job at the Rovers.
Ena returns from Majorca alone - Annie telegrams Jack to say she
is returning with a gentleman friend.
Len is in financial trouble, and Elsie slips Jack Walker £300
to lend him in his name. Len then reveals he wants the money to
get married. He introduces Elsie to town hall clerk Janet Reid,
who confides that she does not love Len, but hasn't the heart
to tell him. When she plucks up courage, Len blames Elsie and
slaps her across the face. Elsie, angry and upset, leaves the
Street in a taxi, shouting that she is going for ever.
July
Annie returns with brewery representative Douglas Cresswell, and
an offer. She and Jack have been asked to manage a pub in Majorca.
They accept, but the brewery turns them down, because of Jack's
age. Len makes up with Elsie and sells his van to repay the £300.
Stan Ogden borrows £50 to buy fifty suit lengths from 'Billy
Oilcloth' on the market. He plans to sell them for £10 each
but Hilda, mistakenly believing they are stolen, sells them for
£1 each when Stan is out. Unstoppable Alice Pickens arrives
at AIbert's regimental museum while he is giving a conducted tour.
He falls off the platform in shock, breaking his arm and cracking
two ribs. The doctor gives him an ultimatum: either Alice moves
in to nurse him, or he goes to hospital.
August
Albert, on advice from Val and Ken, proposes to Alice Pickens.
They book a honeymoon suite in Morecambe, and Albert gts drunk
on his stag night. He is found sitting beneath a lamp-post singing:
'If I Ruled the World '.
Ray Langton, now working for himself, takes on Audrey Fleming
as his clerk. Annie, who takes a dislike to Betty Turpin, asks
Jack to get rid of her, but relents because they are short-handed.
September
Albert's wedding is doomed - the vicar's car breaks down and he
fails to turn up for the service. They call it off and Alice,
rather than waste the tickets, goes to Morecambe alone for a holiday.
Stan Ogden becomes an Arthur Dooley-style sculptor. Gallery owner
Bernard Fleming enthusiastically sponsors an exhibition of the
new primitive's work, but dustmen take the exhibits thinking they
are junk. Rovers regulars are challenged to a foothall match by
the Flying Horse.
October
Hilda scores - for the Flying Horse. The match is a draw, but
the Rovers win the toss, and a barrel of beer from Annie. Squatters
move into the empty flat next to Ken and Val. Ken supports them
because his old college chum Dave Robbins is their spokesman,
but Val wants them out. Elsie, now back at Miami Modes, collects
a parcel for Dot Greenhalgh. It contains stolen dresses and she
is charged with shop-lifting.
Stan Oden and Betty Turpin secretly sign up with a slimming club
- Fatties Anonymous. Hilda tails him, convinced he is meeting
the woman frorn Inkerman Street. She eavesdrops on the slimming
session, and glows proudly to hear Stan make a public testimonial
that he wants to make himself more attractive to his wife. The
Rovers take a coach trip to Windermere on a bus which has faulty
steering. The hire compally frantically alerts the police, but
they are unable to trace them. The coach runs off a moorland road,
injuring all the passengers, who are ferried to hospital.
November
Ena, who escaped with bruises, keeps an all-night vigil at the
bedside of unconscious Minnie Caldwell. Maggie Clegg has a fractured
pelvis, and Albert has broken his arm - in the same place as before.
Ray Langton is paralysed from the waist down, and transferred
to an orthopaedic hospital. Annie Walker organies a collection
for the widow of the coach driver. Elsie appears in court for
shop-lifting.
December
Alan Howard appears in the Street and offers Val Barlow the job
of manageress at a hairdressing salon he is opening at the Posy
Bowl. Ken, who has an old-fashioned view about wives working,
is against it. Jack and Albert get drunk at a regimental reunion.
Ray Langton leaves hospital in a wheelchair and stays with Audrey
and Dickie. Betty Turpin is sacked from the Rovers after more
friction with Annie. The Street hold a Christmas Talent Night.
Ken plays his trumpet, Minnie recites The Owl And The Pussycat,
Albert performs a monologue and Irma Barlow, who has returned
for the holiday, impersonates Hilda Baker.