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January
Brewery chief Sarah Ridley offers Gordon another pub and Bet the
Rovers. Hilda takes a paying guest - Henry Wakefield, who later
confesses he is out of work after being blacked for strike-breaking
at a local foundry. Hilda insists he stays and persuades Mike
Baldwin to give him a job.
Kevin Webster turns up at the last minute for the wedding, and
makes friends with his father. Bill offers to let him live at
the house until it is sold. Pushy designer Christine Millward
sells her designs to Mike Baldwin. They make a successful business
trip to London, and occupy separate hotel bedrooms, but they are
cleatly attracted to each other.
February
Mike Baldwin has high hopes for designer Christine Millward -
until her husband David turns up. Old soldier Percy Sugden works
hard organizing a charity Valentine's Dance at the Community Centre,
then discovers, thunderstruck, that the DJ, 'Kaiser Bill', wears
a Gerrnan helmet. Bet Lynch, now with her name over the Rovers'
door finds running a pub hard work for a woman: then a stranger
called Wilf Starkey walks in and offers his services.
March
Andrea Clayton, with poor results in her mock A-levels, wants
to leave school, but Ken Barlow persuades her to stay on. George
Wardle, the new factory van driver, has an eye for Ivy Tilsley.
He manages the church football team and talks her into washing
their kit.
The story of Mavis' 'honeymoon that never was' attracts the Press.
Angry Derek Wilton demands an explanation and threatens to sue
the reporter. Ken gets into D.I.Y. difficulties. He goes out for
help, and returns to find that Deirdre has finished the bookcase
herself. Trouble at the Tilsley's - Gail wants a home of her own
away from Ivy, but Brian prefers life the way it is. Meanwhile,
at the Rovers, Bet has a visit from snooty Stella Rigby of the
White Swan.
April
Rovers regulars take on the White Swan in the Brainiest Pub Contest.
It's neck and neck until Percy Sugden lets them down on a football
question, and they lose by one point. Bet tries not to choke on
the defeat. Terry Duckworth and Curly Watts buy Jack's car and,
with Kevin as mechanic, open a moonlighting business.
Gail walks out on Brian, taking Nicky with her, and rents a tatty
bed-sit. After a row they are reconciled and agree to apply for
a council house. Jack gives Vera a length of silver lurex to have
a dress made up by Connie Clayton. Vera says she will make Joan
Collins look like a lollipop lady. Jack's view: 'Don't ask me,
kiddo. I'm only the husband.'
May
A bitter feud erupts between the Duckworths and the Claytons when
Vera refuses to pay the £38 dress bill. Tight-fisted Terry
agrees to settle it when the row threatens to cloud his love-life
with Andrea. George Wardle invites Ivy to the church football
semi-final. When the mini-bus breaks down they borrow Mike Baldwin's
van without telling him. The opposing team daubs it with slogans,
and a furious Mike threatens to sack them both. Only the intervention
of a big order for jeans cools his temper, and he lets them off.
Kevin Webster, on a double date with Andrea and Terry, falls in
love with uppercrust Michelle Robinson, from the 'better part'
of Weatherfield. When her wealthy parents find out, Kevin finds
himself battling against class barriers.
June
Mike Baldwin wines and dines businessman Don Ashton to clinch
a deal. Ashton leaves a briefcase containing £4000 in a
nightclub loo, and is tragically killed on his way home. Hilda
finds the case, but it is empty. Barman Wilf Starkey confesses
to Bet that he took it, but Mike decides to keep it quiet because
the deal was shady. Bet Lynch wants to sack Wilf, but Mike intervenes.
Bet, Rita and Mavis let their hair down on a holiday in Blackpool.
They are all picked up by holiday romeos - but Mavis gets the
only one who is not married.
July
Ivy and George take a holiday together. When they return he proposes
and Ivy accepts. The Claytons, still fuming after their row with
the Duckworths over Vera's dress receive a shock -Andrea confesses
that she is three month's pregnant, and Terry is the father.
Alf Roberts, planning to expand his shop, offers next-door-neighbour
Hilda Ogden £15,000 for her house. She begins to hedge when
she hears about the redevelopment scheme. Then Alf discovers that
Mike Baldwin has been secretly advising Hilda on how to handle
the sale.
August
Ivy and George marry with no complications, well, only a few.
The rest of the Street have their own private recollections of
former neighbours and friends - Annie Walker celebrating her seventy-sixth
birthday quietly in Derby; Ken with thoughts of his first wife
Val, who was electrocuted - they would have been together twenty-three
years. Widow Emily Bishop's late husband Ernest would have been
fifty-five on the 21st. Over in Bury, binman Eddie Yeats is probably
celebrating his forty-fourth birthday with a knees-up.
September
Age shall not weary them: Vera Duckworth is forty-nine. And in
September 1968, Elsie Tanner was widowed when her Gl husband Steve
was found dead at the foot of the stairs. Victor Pendlebury ponders
how different his forty-eighth birthday might have been with Mavis.
Life in the Street goes on - births, deaths, new faces and familiar
friends. The world in another twenty-five years might be very
different, but down Weatherfield way they will be sharing the
same fun, tears, hopes and fears as the rest of us.