January
Ken, back from New York, accepts a teaching post at the Randal
Hart School, Montego Bay. He is shattered when, on the night of
the farewell party, Val is electrocuted by a faulty hair-dryer
plug and killed.
An outraged Annie has heen accused by the Health Department of
watering the Rovers gin. Stan discovers that a drayman is the
culprit. Alan Howard announces that he is solvent again.
February
The twins are taken to Glasgow after Val's funeral. Ken stays
at Weatherfield's Bay Tree Hotel, to get away for a while, where
he is comforted by understanding receptionist Yvonne Chapel. The
flats are demolished because of the structural fault which killed
Val, and a new Community Centre and Warehouse are to be built
on the site.
Billy Walker borrows Weatherfield's Mayoral Rolls to take Alan,
Elsie and Irma for a joy-ride. On the return journey they hit
a Mini outside a chip shop.
March
Miss Nugent tries to organize a demonstration against building
the Warehouse, but it fails through lack of support. She forms
a human barricade and is covered in sand from a dumper .
Ken Barlow engages housekeeper Margaret Lacey to look after the
twins. Lucille recognizes her as the nurse who ill-treated her
at the orphanage, and she is forced to resign. Elsie accuses Alan
of playing around, but the woman was simply a client buying a
car.
April
Annie Walker takes a cruise to Greece with local butcher Arthur
Dewhurst, and returns alone saying she had a wonderful time. Arthur
follows later, and to Billy Walker's outrage is accompanied by
his attractive daughter-in-law.
Ray and Irma find Stan Ogden asleep in a van at his job as night
watchman at Hulme's Bakery. They drive the van into town for a
joke and park it. Stan is given his cards but Ray offers him a
job to make up for it.
May
Elsie is appointed supervisor at the Warehouse, despite Hilda
telling the manager that she has been in court for theft. Hetty
Thorpe, the new Community Centre caretaker, is frightened out
of the job by Ena's tales of hooliganism. Ena promptly takes over.
Ray Langton tries to sell portable saunas by getting Irma to pose
as a French lady demonstrator
June
Stan, who feels he is being exploited at the yard, forms his own
union, SODU - the Stanley Ogden District Union. When Len finds
that Stan is being paid £1 more than the union rate, he
cuts his wages. Emily feels that working with Ernest in the shop
is endangering their relationship, and starts work at the Warehouse.
Billy Walker meets physiotherapist Lorna Shorecross when his mother
invited her to lodge at the Rovers. He was about to propose when
she left to marry her fiancé to whom she was secretly engaged.
July
Emily breaks off her friendship with Ernest because of a cartoon
he has drawn of Annie for the local paper, but they make up and
become engaged. Hilda's old flame, gardener George Greenwood,
judges a flower show at the Community Centre and recognizes Stan's
entry as an orchid stolen from the park. Minnie and Ena sample
the homemade wine entries. Billy Walker moves to a self-service
petrol station in Chiswick, leaving Alan Howard to manage the
Garage.
August
The Ogdens buy a colour TV, but two weeks later the HP company
repossesses it. Ernest Bishop loses Emily's £100 engagement
ring. Stan is suspected of stealing it, but it is found in his
trouser turn-up. Former town hall clerk Janet Reid, now working
at the Corner Shop, has a secret date with Alan Howard in Leeds.
She tells everyone she is visiting her sister in Leicester, but
Elsie finds out. Emily and Ernest hold an engagement party.
September
Alan and Elsie are reconciled. Dave Smith takes Minnie for a day
out to Blackpool to celebrate her birthday. Ernest Bishop leaves
on a photographic assignment to Spain.
Hilda, in her quest for one-upmanship, orders Stan to build a
serving hatch between the kitchen and living room. Stan gets the
plans wrong and makes one big enough for a factory canteen. Hilda
proudly throws a party to show it off to the neighbours, but only
Ena turns up.
October
Ken Barlow has an affair with hotel receptionist Yvonne Chapel.
He proposes, but she turns him down, unable to cope with looking
after the twins. Jerry Booth returns to the Street jobless and
moves in with Len and Ray. He knocks a customer unconscious in
an argument in the Rovers, and is given twelve months conditional
discharge. Ernest Bishop is arrested photographing a sex orgy
in Spain and charged with offending public morality.
November
Emily flies to Spain to plead for Ernest, while Annie petitions
the embassy officials. Behind her back, Lucille becomes a go-go
dancer at the Aquarius Club. Irma Barlow begins dating county
footballer Eddie Duncan.
December
Annie Walker goes to the Licensed Victuallers Boxing Day Ball
with Kitty Stonely of the Robin Hood, and Nellie Harvey. Annie
is offended by Bernard Manning's jokes, but meets handsome widower
Lt. Com. Gerald Prince R.N. Ret. and a liaison starts.
Footballer Eddie transfers his attentions to Bet Lynch. Hilda
wins £500 on the Premium Bonds and pays off the money borrowed
from Dave Smith to buy Irma's Corner Shop partnership.