|
|
|
 |
 |
|
|
index page |
|
|
January
Deirdre tells Ken she is visiting a girlfriend, but spends another
cosy evening at Mike's flat. More dates follow as Ken breaks his
promises to take her out. Eddie writes-off Annie's Rover by backing
the bin lorry into it.
Handbag-Sammy Patel makes the factory girls another offer to manufacture
bags on the quiet. Mike hears about the profit involved and decides
to rnake it legal. The girls refuse unless they get a bonus.
February
Suzie Birchall returns and Fred offers her the job of relief barmaid
at the Rovers. Emily confronts Deirdre about her affair with Mike.
He pressures Deirdre to leave Ken and marry him. Deirdre rows
with Ken and confesses her affair. They sleep apart, but talk
out their problems and decide to give it another try. Ken books
a getaway holiday in Malta and warns Mike to stay off.
A disgruntled Annie learns that Fred has bought her wrecked Rover,
and makes it clear she still expects to he chauffeured in it.
Brian Tilsley removes the battery from Len's van until he pays
a repair bill.
March
Stan, realizing his window-cleaning days are over, is £15
in debt to moneylender Syd Kippax. Eddie buys the round and employs
Stan, who finds him a tough boss. Bert Tilsley confides in Brian
that he has had a slight stroke, but dare not tell Ivy. Brian
takes out a bank loan and buys the garage business for himself.
Fred Gee takes up with middle-aged Maureen Slater who lives twenty
miles away in Warrington. Whenever Fred gives her a lift home,
she runs up the path, leaving him speechlessly unfulfilled. Hilda's
well-to-do employers, Dr and Mrs Lowther, call with a message
for her, and are momentarily taken aback to encounter Stan in
his vest.
April
Eddie helps Marion move into Elsie's front parlour and turn
it in into a bed-sit. Mike, Len and Alf join forces to open a
wine-bar disco. Despite loud opposition from the locals, plans
for the Graffiti Club are passed. Mavis is forty-six, and Rita
gives her a porcelain budgie, which she christens Bunty. Victor
Pendlebury also arrives with a surprise. He has arranged a camping
holiday in the Lake District, and brings a tent for them to practise.
Elsie has a caller who tells her he is Suzie's husband. Elsie
leaves them alone, and returns to find Suzie bruised and battered.
May
Fred Gee takes Bet and Betty to the park in his car, which rolls
into the lake when he parks it. They arrive at the Rovers late
and dishevelled to find chaos - Vera is helping behind the bar.
Pam Mitchell of the Weatherfield Recorder, a local freesheet,
asks Ken to write an advice column. Bet joins a video agency and
is shown a tape of medallion-man Vince St Clair, who turns out
to be Jack Duckworth. Bet persuades Vera to join as Carole Munro,
and arranges a date between them at the Rovers. Mavis agonizes
over an invitation from Victor to embark on a trial marriage.
June
Mavis, still uncertain about the trial arrangement, visits Victor's
cottage and is angry to learn that he has told his neighbour she
is 'Mrs Pendlebury'. Hilda inherits a chip shop from her late
brother Archie. She decides to sell it after a wrangle with Archie's
common law wife, and invests the profit in new carpets and a bidet.
Deirdre is beginning to worry about Recorder editor Pam
Mitchell's influence over Ken.
July
Bet Lynch launches a slimming contest at the Rovers. Fred is disqualified
for cheating by filling his pockets with loose change and discarding
it for the final weigh-in. Mike Baldwin meets a Russian trade
delegation and dates the interpreter. Bert, helping at the garage
while Brian gives Gail a driving lesson, causes an explosion by
overinflating a tyre. Ivy silently prays as he lies unconscious
in hospital.
August
Chalkie Whiteley emigrates to Australia, and the Street has reservations
as the Duckworths buy his house for £10,000. Bert Tilsley,
discharged from hospital, is missing. Police trace him to Bristol,
where he is suffering from a mental breakdown. Ken is summoned
to the Town Hall after leaking a plan to close youth clubs to
the Recorder. He refuses to sign a loyalty agreement, and
takes voluntary redundancy. Percy Sugden is appointed Centre caretaker.
September
Opening night at the Graffiti Club: half the Street are refused
admission to the ticket-only night. A huge row erupts in the foyer
while Hilda, the cloakroom attendant, looks smugly on. The Duckworths
move their furniture into Chalkie's empty house to avoid storage
charges. A violent struggle ensues with auctioneers who empty
the house to take the furniture to a saleroom. Gail fails her
driving test, and Brian puts the ailing garage up for sale. Hilda
opens a bank account with the remains of her legacy and takes
Stan out for a high-class meal. Terry Duckworth challenges Fred
to prove he was a Para. Fred jumps from a back-yard wall and lands
on a dustbin, hurting his back.
October
Gail and Brian sell their 'micro-bijou' home and move in with
Ivy. Betty objects to the Rovers new staff uniforms, which look
like spray-on T-shirts. Marion and Eddie decide to marry as she
is expecting a baby. The news leaks out and Fred taunts Eddie.
They fight and Eddie arrives at church with a black eye. The best
man is late because Jack Duckworth's taxi breaks down. The Street
Autumn Fayre ends in acrimony when the Deputy Mayoress chooses
Hilda's cake instead of Annie's. Ken tells a shocked Deirdre that
he has sunk his redundancy money into a partnership in the Weatherfield
Recorder.
November
Annie retreats from Eddie and Marion's wedding reception when
the best man reads out suggestive telegrams. Emily Bishop takes
in binman Curly Watts as a lodger. Ken writes a crusading article
attacking the Graffiti Club. Fearing loss of advertising, his
partner orders him to rewrite it as a flattering piece. Ken reluctantly
complies, describing Mike Baldwin as 'the debonaire dynamo of
denim'. Hilda wants to go abroad to celebrate her Ruby Wedding.
They apply for a duplicate birth certificate for Stan's passport,
and find that he is sixty-four, not sixty-one. Percy Sugden introduces
his gentleman budgie, Randy, to Mavis' Harriet. She is horrified
and accuses Randy of being rough and uncouth. Percy takes him
home in a huff.
December
Hilda and Stan book the Rovers for their Ruby Wedding. Eddie and
Marion say goodbye before leaving for a new life in Bury, and
Rita has just sung Stardust when the news comes through
that Len has been killed in a motorway crash. After the funeral
Rita finds that Len died on his way back from meeting another
woman.