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January
Hilda, inspired by Christmas cards, takes up painting. Eddie cons
Annie Walker into buying one of her pictures - by 'an unknown
primitive artist' - for twenty guineas. On the back Annie stonily
reads the message: 'Stan - am at bingo. Your dinner's in the oven.'
Dave Barnes bursts into his wife's literacy lessons, threatening
Ken and terrorizing Albert. Ken knocks him cold. Ivy and Bert
Tilsley buy Nº5 for £7,000. Suzie Birchall hitch-hikes
home from London, broke, and signs up with a model agency. Annie
walks into the Rovers, and is appalled to find Fred Gee taking
bets. Len is found collapsed through overwork.
February
Len, recuperating, watches Rita sing Birth of the Blues
at the Gatsby. Deirdre moves in with Emily, while Ivy and Bert
- a Mantovani fan with interests in astronomy - take over Nº5.
Stan cleans their windows by mistake, and Ivy refuses to pay.
Hilda solves the impasse by throwing dirty water over them.
Brian Tilsley has an on-off affair with Gail. Elsie's Ron Mather
leaves to take a chauffeur's job in Torquay. Bet Lynch, kidnapped
in a rag stunt and held to £20 ransom, is slightly dismayed
when the Rovers regulars raise only £4.56p to free her.
March
Sally Norton, who was in maternity hospital with Deirdre, offers
to take Tracy out in her pram. It is last seen outside the Rovers,
before a lorry driver has a heart attack at the wheel and ploughs
into the pub. Police and firemen tear at the rubble and find Tracy's
doll. Deirdre runs hysterically from the Street, but the baby
is found safe with Sally.
Mike Baldwin and Len are injured in the accident, and Alf Roberts
lies unconscious in hospital for three weeks. Renee waits at his
bedside throughout their wedding anniversary. Mike puts officious
young Steve Fisher in sole command of the factory, and the girls
threaten to walk-out. Mike discharges himself to sort out the
trouble.
April
Brian Tilsley and Gail Potter throw an engagement party. To Gail's
disappointment her vivacious, man-chasing mum is invited. Fred
Gee, spurned by Mrs Potter, rethinks his image, and buys a wig.
Alf, out of hospital, is displaying disturbing outbursts of temper
with customers in the shop.
Eddie and Stan keep three hens in Hilda's back yard. Eddie christens
them Hilda, Mrs Walker and Ena. Ken Barlow starts a jogging club
and waits for recruits.
May
Suzie Birchall puts hard-boiled eggs in the Ogden's coop. Hilda
proudly gives two eggs to Ena, who cuts one open in the Rovers,
to Hilda's embarrassment. Only Mavis turns up for jogging, and
Ken finds he is too out of condition to run. Alf insults more
customers, and is sent for psychiatric treatment.
Ken abandons jogging for the dance floor, and invites Deirdre
on a disco date. Billy Walker arrives home, and wastes no time
in asking her out. Annie's Rover is towed to the police pound
when Fred runs an errand. She stops the £28 recovery fee
from his wages.
June
Eddie acquires a metal detector, in the hope of finding buried
treasure. Albert craftily tells him he has found coins on his
allotment and Eddie, Stan and Hilda eagerly dig it over for him.
Billy asks Deirdre to marry him and move to Jersey. After second
thoughts she declines.
Eddie takes a job selling ice-cream in the park, and enlists Stan's
help. They sell beer out of the van to thirsty fathers, until
the police warn them off.
July
Len is too husy to take a holiday, so Rita and Bet book a caravan
in Morecambe. Bet picks up two men, and an uneasy Rita agrees
to a caravan drinks party. The men sleep in the spare bunks, after
losing their caravan keys, but Len arrives on the doorstep at
breakfast time. The Faircloughs return to the Street at loggerheads.
Suzie Birchall starts at the factory, and inspires Hilda to apply
for training as a machinist. Mike Baldwin tells her she is too
old. Ken cooks Deirdre steak au poivre, ending with brandy
and a growing understanding.
August
Gail calls on Ivy with her wedding present list and the Tilsleys
invite them to live at Nº5 when they are married. Betty Turpin's
carriage clock is stolen by a mate of Eddie Yeats. She gives Eddie
twenty-four hours to return it before she calls in the police.
Hilda buys a home piano tutor, but Annie refuses to let her near
the Rovers piano. Hilda learns secretly on it when Annie is out,
and plays Beautiful Dreamer to applause from Ena.
September
On a quiet Sunday morning an electrical fault triggers the factory
burglar alarm, and no-one has a key to turn it off. After seven
disturbed hours, an irate Stan hits it with a poker and blacks
out the whole Street. Mike Baldwin returns on Monday to find he
has no power supply, and demands £200 damages from Stan.
Ken and Deirdre return from a short holiday in the Lake District,
and joke about the stir they have caused. They retire to a candle-lit
dinner at Ken's and kiss. Next day Deirdre receives a letter from
Ray, and bursts into tears.
October
Ray seeks a divorce and threatens to cite Ken as co-respondent.
A nervous Ken tells Deirdre to keep him out of it, and she realizes
he has no feelings for her.
Mavis Riley hears noises in the night and is convinced they are
psychic phenomena. Eddie volunteers to keep watch, but falls asleep.
The following night he hears them too, and cowers in Mavis' room
for safety. It turns out to be a bird trapped behind the boarded-up
fireplace.
November
A yellow budgie is found in Mavis' chimney by RSPCA man Harry
Scott, who allows her to keep it. His mate Jack Walsh, forty and
single, redecorates the room and Mavis asks him to dinner. Ken
Barlow tells Deirdre he needs her, and they kiss and make up.
Ron Mather returns from Torquay and asks Elsie to join him. She
shocks Suzie by putting the house up for sale and leaving. Brian
and Gail have a white wedding in church, with Ivy as matron of
honour.
December
Annie provides free champagne for the reception at the Rovers.
Hilda is invited as washer-up. Suzie Birchall tries to safeguard
her lodgings by putting off prospective house-buyers, but Elsie
orders her out. Mike Baldwin catches her using his phone to ring
her new punk boyfriend, and sacks her.
Five tickets are available for an exchange visit to Weatherfield's
twin town in France. Hilda wins one, but learns that it will still
cost her £60. She sells her 1950s clothes to a New Wave
boutique to raise the money. Elsie is back from Torquay and tells
everyone she is staying for good.