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January
Eddie Yeats returns to Walton in a prison van for overstaying
his Christmas parole. Carlos proposes to Mavis, who sends him
packing when she finds he is really looking for a residency permit.
Battered wife Lynn Johnson calls on Councillor Fairclough for
advice, and is found dead in his living room. Len is held by murder
squad detectives, but released when the husband confesses.
February
Granny Hopkins sends Gordon Clegg a nasty letter revealing his
real parentage, but Maggie has already told him. He tears up the
Corner Shop sale contract and the Hopkins leave under cover of
darkness in Cox's Removals van.
Alf Roberts asks Rita to partner him to entertain a visiting alderman
and his wife. He is embarrassed when Rita wears a plunging dress,
but Alderman Digby's wife Dawn wears one equally revealing. Ray
Langton sends Stan a Valentine from the lady at 19 Inkerman Street.
Hilda storms round to confront her, and makes a fool of herself.
March
Len has an on-off relationship with Bet Lynch. Stan Ogden has
been in hospital with middle-ear troule. He returns to find his
social security benefit cut, and Hilda takes over the window-cleaning
round. Eddie Yeats helps Hilda and together they make £4
more than Stan's normal wage.
Betty Turpin wins Newton and Ridley's 'Personality of the Pub'
competition. Billy Walker shows Deirdre his £526 savings,
and they name the day - a June wedding with top-hat, tails and
all the trimmings.
April
Bad news for Bet: she ends the affair with Len when he refuses
to live with her, and learns that her illegitimate son Martin
has been killed in a Belfast road accident. Eddie Yeats encourages
her to turn up for work at the Rovers and washes her tights at
the laundrette because she has nothing to wear. Bet is touched
by his kindness.
Annie Walker and Blanche Hunt discover they have bought identical
daffodil wedding outfits. Stan Ogden and Eddie Yeats buy a dishevelled
dog called Fury and branch into the guard dog business. Albert
agrees to keep it in hls back yard.
May
Gail Potter applies for an air hostess's job, making Deirdre unsettled
at the prospect of being tied by marriage. The engagement ends.
Fury guards Len's yard, but a thief breaks in and steals £200
worth of copper piping - and the dog.
Rita sings at the Gatsby Club while, in the audience, Ray Langton
brawls with a drunken oil rigger. Billy Walker leaves to manage
the Hotel Carlotta in Jersey. Ernest Bishop and Alf Roberts are
at loggerheads over the rates, prompting Ernest to form WARP -
Weatherfield Association of Ratepayers.
June
A fight breaks out when Ernest tries to record Len's views on
the rates on a tape recorder. Ernest wrongly accuses a councillor
of corruption and has to apologize on Radio Weatherfield. Ken
Barlow is now a taxi-driver, and Annie objects to him using the
Rovers telephone to take bookings.
Mavis buys two gross of misshapen tights from a con-man - each
pair has one leg shorter than the other. Deirdre resigns from
the Yard office after a blazing row with Langton, but the hate
turns to love . . . and thoughts of marrlage.
July
After a joint stag and hen party at the Rovers, Deirdre and Ray
marry at Weatherfield Register Office. Len throws a surprise champagne
reception. They miss their train and have to spend their wedding
night at Blanche Hunt's. Albert Tatlock goes to hospital to have
a 'floating' piece of shrapnel removed from his bottom. He proudly
shows the memento round the Rovers.
Brassy Post Office canteen girl Donna Parker calls on Alf Roberts
late at night, saying she has been thrown out of her flat. He
takes her in and lends her £500 to start a hairdressing
business. The lady vanishes.
August
The Street holds a party for Albert's eightieth hirthday, and
the Lancashire Fusiliers send a Bugler. Ken Barlow enrols at a
computer dating agency and is paired with a shocked Mavis, who
joined undr an assumed name.
Is the ghost of Martha Longkurst haunting the Rovers? The regulars
call her on a Ouija board to no avail. After the great rates uproar,
Stan and Hilda discover that they are the only house to withhold
their payments. The rating officer investigates.
September
A fare Ken picks up in his taxi turns out to be his estranged
wife Janet and Vince Denton, the man she is living with. Ken invites
them home and they get on well together. Newly-wed Deirdre has
a party, but throws everyone out when someone burns her new coffee
table with a cigarette.
Eddie Yeats is arrested for handling stolen property. Three young
hooligans wreck the Centre. Ken calls at their home to remonstrate,
but refuses to call the police. Society is to blame, he says.
Albert reports them and the boys break Ken's windows, thinking
he has shopped them.
October
The three delinquents break into the Warehouse and leave a cigarette
smouldering in an armchair. There is a huge blaze and the Street
has to be evacuated as the flames approach liquid gas tanks. Rovers
regulars take refuge in the New Old Inn.
Next day, when the all-clear is sounded, Annie returns to find
her nest-egg of thirty-five gold sovereigns missing. Billy had
moved them for safety, leaving Annie ashamed that she had suspected
her customers. A drunken Gordon Clegg lets slip the secret that
Betty is his mother to a barmaid. Soon the news is all round the
Street.
November
Betty finds it hard to face the Rovers. Ken Barlow is appointed
Community Development Officer. His first prolect, a Bonfire Night
reading of the history of the Gunpowder Plot, without fireworks,
is a flop.
A distressed Len receives news of the death of Jerry Booth. Concepta's
Irish husband Sean visits the Rovers and tries to kiss Bet. She
allows him - then smacks him across the face and threatens to
tell Concepta what a rat she married. Annie Walker is taken to
hospital after being terrorized by two youths after closing time.
Len and Ray intervene and beat them up.
December
Deirdre blacks Tricia Hopkins' eye for spreading a rumour that
Ray is having an affair with a blonde housewife, Pauline Jarvis.
The Rovers Amateur Dramatic Society perform Cinderella.
Len is Buttons, Bet as Prince Charming mimes When I Fall In
Love, with Rita singing in the wings. Tricia plays the title
role with a black eye.
Hilda's son Trevor arrives to take her to Chesterfield, where
Polly is expecting a new baby. Hilda refuses to leave until the
panto is over.