1968

January
Ena is evicted from the Mission. Bulldozers move in to demolish the home she has lived in for thirty years, along with the raincoat factory. Irma Barlow arranges a date between lonely Emily and macho Hungarian building worker Miklos Zadic.

Hilda feels lonely and strikes up a friendship with park gardener George Greenwood. He buys Hilda a budgie which she keeps in his hut. When Stan finds out, they part - but George keeps the budgie. Lucille joins the hippies at Nº11, and Dennis finds a new girlfriend, Cockney Jenny Sutton. They start as waiter and receptionist at Weatherfield Social Club.

February
Ena decides to move to St Annes after all. Elsie returns alone from America with the news that Steve has been posted to Panama. Albert's house is ransacked and his prized coin collection stolen. He accuses Miklos Zadic, but police catch the real thief. Annie Walker is kidnapped by rag students and held for £5 ransom. There are no takers, and she stonily has to pay for her own release.

March
Elsie Tanner announces that she has left Steve. Their marriage, she says, was a twenty- year-old dream. Dennis returns from London with girlfriend Jenny, and tells Elsie they are married and can share the same bed. Under close interrogation he confesses that he was kidding. Dennis becomes a rep for Crowning Glory Hair Requisites.

Irma Ogden is pregnant and plans to emigrate to Australia with David. They put the shop up for sale, but encounter little interest because of a slum clearance programme.

April
Maggie and Les Clegg buy the Corner Shop. Outgoing Maggie is interested in herbalism and stocks natural remedies, Les has a drink problem. Their son Gordon, a trainee accountant, joins them.

Miklos takes a job in Newcastle and Emily leaves with him. Three weeks later she returns alone, tight-lipped, and moves into the Rovers as a paying guest. Len advertizes for a plumber, and Jerry hires Ray Langton in his absence. Irma and David leave for Australia.

May
Len is furious, and sparks fly when he meets Ray. Jerry has to break up a fight between them. Finally Len grudgingly agrees to take him on. An entire building site downs tools when Stan Ogden walks onto the job, and he quits to work in Fairclough and Booth's yard.

Elsie proudly refuses to touch any of Steve's weekly allowance and works at a departrnent store, distributing samples of fish paste on crackers. Dennis borrows £100 from a money lender at 48 per cent interest to marry Jenny. On his wedding night his boss at Crowning Glory orders him immediately to Bristol, leaving Jenny alone in the double bed.

June
Ken Barlow is allocated a maisonette and sells his Mini to buy furniture. Len buys Nº9 for £1,000, Ena returns and moves into a maisonette, and a young couple - Audrey Bright and Dickie Fleming - buy Nº3 for £400.

Les Clegg is admitted to a mental hospital suffering from alcoholism, and Ena helps out in the Corner Shop. Stan Ogden gives Elsie a driving lesson, but they run out of petrol and have to spend the night on the moors. Suspicious Hilda accuses Elsie of having designs on Stan.

July
Jack Walker meets Ena's new neighbour, his childhood sweetheart Effie Spicer. Jealous Annie warns her off when she joins Jack's bowling club and calls him by his pet name, 'Jonty'. Ray Langton becomes Elsie's lodger and wastes no time making advances. Elsie, indignant, throws him out and Len takes him in at Nº9.

Audrey Bright, who is still at school, elopes to Gretna Green to marry Dickie Fleming. Ena, annoyed that Minnie has forsaken her for Effie Spicer, joins forces with Annie to get rid of her.

August
Escaped convict Frank Riley holds Val Barlow prisoner in her maisonette while Ken is attending drama class. She manages to tap a message on the central heating pipes, and Ena raises the alarm. Ken cannot believe that Val was not raped.

Ena is reported for excessive harmonium practice and reluctantly agrees to restrict her playing hours. Audrey Fleming takes a job as an £8 a week petrol pump attendant. Dave Smith buys the old Gamma shop which closed when Papagopolous went bankrupt, and opens a flower shop called the Posy Bowl. Elsie is appointed manageress.

September
Steve Tanner persuades two army buddies, Gary Strauss and Joe Donelli, to talk Elsie into meeting him again. Elsie agrees and returns distressed when he asks her to fly to America. Soon afterwards, Steve is found dead at the foot of the stairs in his flat. Gregg Flint, whom Steve was blackmailing over an affair with Dot Greenhalgh, is unable to offer an alibi.

Miss Nugent agrees to mind Tommy Deakin's donkey, Dolores, while he is away. Annie emphatically bans it from the Rovers, but Maggie Clegg offers to keep it behind the shop. So many customers complain of the smell that Annie is forced to relent and stable it in the pub yard. Audrey Fleming wins £50 as 'Miss Petrol Pump' at the Blue Bell garage.

October
As detectives investigate Steve Tanner's death, the finger of suspicion falls on the Street. Len Fairclough, seen at Steve's flat, is questioned by police ahout his injured hand. Donelli and Strauss have alibis. Gregg Flint reveals he was with a woman in Altrincham. Stan Ogden, after some hesitation, confesses he was in the Flying Horse with Mrs Regan from 19 Inkerman Street.

Len disappears on an extended binge and a developer cancels his building contract. Elsie, after asking Ken Barlow's advice, takes up an invitation to go on holiday with bookie Dave Smith.

November
Gordon Clegg proposes to Lucille, but Maggie forbids him to marry. Len returns to find his firm's funds exhausted, and Ray Langton turns down his offer of a partnership.

Ken Barlow takes up the trumpet again and plays at the Ogden's wedding anniversary. Minnie's cat Bobbie is stuck on the top of the Viaduct. Stan climbs up with difficulty and despite getting scratched, rescues him. It turns out to be a different cat.

December
Lucille and Gordon, determined to marry, run away to Gretna, but have second thoughts in the buffet at Preston station and return home sheepishly. Albert, who has been away attending to his duties as curator of his regimental museum at Bury, takes up residence at Nº1 again. Rovers regulars stage Aladdin, produced by Emily Nugent and the vicar, the Rev Reginald James.

Eye-catching Marjorie Griffin turns up from Len's past on his doorstep and promptly moves in with him. Bobbie is still missing, so Minnie decides to keep the Viaduct stray and call him Sunny Jim, after Jed Stone.


Written by Graham Nown
© Graham Nown, 1985. Reproduced with permission. Do not reproduce this without permission.

 

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