1991

January
Ken Barlow is talked out of suicide by Bet Gilroy. Later in the month, Ken invites Alma Sedgewick for a meal in the shop flat. Pendlebury's Paper Products win a large order with Hawthorne's, and much to Mavis' annoyance, Victor puts Derek in charge of the contract, as he knows his ex-wife Angela Hawthorne well. Steph Barnes and Jenny Bradley are still doing evening promotions, but Jenny also uses them as an excuse to see married man Robert Weston and eventually has to tell Mark Casey their relationship is over.

Rita Fairclough goes to a dance with Emily Bishop and ends up dancing with Reg Holdsworth, who then persues her. They go to the Races together, but Rita makes it plain she only wants friendship. However Reg still carries on, telling Rita that his wife has left him and gone to New Zealand (she is actually on holiday there). Bettabuys hold a Trolley Dash, which Reg fixes to ensure Rita wins, much to her annoyance. Vera Duckworth spreads rumours that the Trolley Dash is fixed and is sacked by Reg. In retaliation, Vera writes to Head Office. And life is no easier for Bettabuys other manager. Vera gets Curly Watts and Kimberley Taylor back together - but only for a week. Kimberley then demands a transfer to another store which Curly blocks, and later in the month, he sees Kimberley out with another man - Building Society clerk Adrian Gosthorpe, Kimberley's second cousin !

Kevin Webster starts doing 'foreigners' to bring in some extra money, but crashes a car whilst test-driving it. He causes £1250 of damage, and Mark refuses to put it through the garage insurance, and tired of of the trouble caused, sacks Kevin. Kevin finds another job at Walkers Tyre & Exhaust, but cannot pay the bill and the car owner send him a solicitors letter, threatening a court order.

Ken Barlow asks Alf Roberts to make some repairs to the shop flat. Alf stalls, and turns his ankle on a rotten staircase in the flat. Meanwhile, Mike Baldwin moves in with Jackie Ingram and puts his flat up for sale - Jackie starts looking for a larger house.

 

February
Bettabuy's send in Special Investigator Brendan Scott to investigate Vera's allegations. Reg is suspended, with Curly deputising. Reg offers Vera her job back and she withdraws her allegation - but Brendan Scott can only come to a verdict of 'not proven'. And there's no joy on the love front either. Checkout girl Raquel Wolstenhulme makes a play for her new manager, but he still only has eyes for Kimberley. On hearing that Kimberley and Adrian are lovers, Curly snaps and storms into Adrian's Building Society, getting himself arrested on suspicion of robbery. Reg gives Rita Fairclough the impression he is divorced - until his wife appears in the Kabin. She throws Reg out of their house and announces she is returning to New Zealand to live with another man. Reg arrives on Rita's doorstep with a suitcase, but is hastily turned away.

Kevin Webster approaches Mr Seymour's solicitor, to see if he can pay in installments. He refuses. In desperation, Sally rings her mother, who offers to lend them the money. At first Kevin refuses - but rapidly realises he has no other option. Alma Sedgewick visits Jackie Ingram's house with an estate agent and whilst he is occupied, vandalises the bedroom. Mike and Jackie soon realise who the culprit is, and full of remorse, Alma offers to pay for all the damage.

The Wiltons see a fox in their back garden, and when two of Jack Duckworth's pigeons are killed fear for its' life. Jack enlists the help of Bert Latham and his dog Boomer. A drunken foxhunt ensues, with the Wiltons trying to distract the fox - which escapes. After his visit to the Boat Show, Des Barnes buys a decrepit boat for £400, which he installs in his back garden - both to Steph and the Wiltons horror.

Angie Freeman lets Rita Fairclough know about Jenny Bradley's affair. Rita and Jenny row, particularly when Jenny announces she intends to live with Robert in No7. Emily Bishop makes visits to the hospital and Percy Sugden voices his fears that she is ill. It transpires she has been negotiating a six-month lease on the empty No2 Coronation Street to open it as a charity shop.

Vera Duckworth's mother dies. At the funeral, her Aunt Cissie tells her it was her mother's dying wish that she looks after old friend Joss Shackleton. He tells her he is her real father, and so is made very welcome at No9 - Curly has to sleep on the sofa. Deirdre Barlow's boyfriend Phil Jennings stays at the Rovers for a while - he has to keep a low profile. Alec Gilroy talks about going into partnership with Phil, re-opening a nightclub.

 

March
Alec makes plans to open the AlPhiBet club with Phil against Bet's better judgement. But just when Alec has Bet talked round, Phil finds the investment elsewhere, never really planning to involve Alec at all. Alec decides to convince Alf to run for council against Deirdre so that Alf can put the skids to the new club. In spite of Audrey's objections, Alf decides to run for election. Audrey is jealous of Alf's jolly campaign helper, old pal Vivian Barford.

Jenny and Rita fall out over her involvement with Robert. They make up briefly and then Jenny leaves Coronation Street to be Robert's kept woman. (he tells Jenny he's leaving his wife but we don't find out if he actually does). Fed up with dossing on the sofa, Curly moves in as Angie's platonic roommate in Number 7. In the meantime, Jack gets well and truly fed up with Joss freeloading on them. Joss tells Vera he is the descendant of an illegitimate child of King Edward VII, Vera is dead chuffed to find out she has Royal blood in her veins. Jack is highly skeptical of this latest revelation but Vera will continue to believe it to the end of her days.

Steph is frustrated and bored because Des is spending so much time in the garden fixing up the boat. She decides to go on a ski holiday on her own to punish him only she breaks her ankle just before she leaves. Des thinks this will keep her home but he is mistaken. She stubbornly goes away anyway and comes home with several misleading messages of adoration written on her cast and a suspicious holiday snap or two. There is more fighting between the Battling Barnes when Des has jealous fits over Steph's exploits while away after discovering her old boss, Clive was at the same resort. Des gets the worst of a fight with Clive and he and Steph finally make it up.

Andy is caught running a betting book at school. The result of this is much tension between Ken and the MacDonald's. Curly accompanies Raquel to a regional Miss Bettabuys contest. She doesn't win. Curly defends her honour against a randy Brendan Scott and ends up dating her. Des hires Phyllis to clean for him while Steph is away and Phyllis is kept on as a regular cleaner after Steph returns.

 

April
Gail goes back to work, leaving Martin in charge of the kids. Martin offers to mind Rosie so Sally can go back to work too but Sally is not happy and quits to be a full time mum. Liz goes to Ireland to nurse Jim's ailing mother. Phil Jennings bails Andy out of a counterfeit concert poster scheme. Raquel models Angie's creations in a student fashion show. With Bettabuys as a sponsor, Raquel is a hit, modeling Angie's piece de resistance, a man's suit, when the male model backs out and Curly won't pinch hit.

Jackie asks Mike to sign a pre-nuptial contract. He resists, she sweetens the deal, he signs. The rent on the cafÈ goes up 400%. What will Alma and Gail do? Gail goes to Mike on the sly to see if he can find out any information. He tells Gail he's done a deal and their rent only goes up slightly. What they don't know is that the new company that owns the lease on the cafÈ is owned by Mike using funds from Ingrams.

Joss flirts with Emily causing Percy to get his back up. There's an accident and Percy is accused of pushing Joss over putting him in hospital. Later, Joss's tales of living among the rich and famous inspire Jack to apply for jobs on behalf of him and Vera to work in a posh house somewhere. But Vera is guilty over the deception about forged references and turns the job down.

The election campaign gets down and dirty with Alec firing the first shot by publishing leaflets that portray Deirdre in a very unflattering light, much to Alf's dismay. Deirdre refuses to enter the fray but Phil has no compunction and raises a few unfounded rumours about Alf's involvement with the Widow Barford which of course causes Audrey to row with Alf. Alf and Ken fall out over Ken displaying a poster for Deirdre's candidacy in his window. Alf threatens to evict Ken, Ken goes to the newspaper.

 

May
Alf wins the election, putting Deirdre out of work. After an unsuccessful job hunt, Deirdre accepts Phil's offer of a job in one of his warehouses but it's not much of a job and Deirdre spends most of her days twiddling her thumbs. Steve gets a crush on Steph Barnes while helping Des work on the boat.

Raquel falls in with a photographer whom she believes is going to make her into a professional model and she leaves Weatherfield with him. One of Angie's designs is stolen and reproduced by Onyx fashions. Curly and Angie drown their sorrows and end up sleeping together. They have one more night of passion a few weeks later before agreeing that they should just be platonic friends.

The water gets cut off for a few days. When it comes back on, Jack and Vera's bathroom floods causing a lot of damage. Joss seems to have disappeared at this point or during the water shortage, probably from the inconvenience. They are persuaded to fiddle the insurance claim because "everyone does it" but are caught out and receive nothing since part of the claim was false.

Ivy gets herself sacked from Ingrams for gossiping about Jackie. Alf takes Ivy on in the corner shop. Audrey is not pleased to say the least and insists Alf let Ivy go. Alf digs his heels in and so does Audrey until, fed up with what she sees as Alf's misplaced loyalties, Audrey leaves and sets up camp, first to a posh hotel until Alf cancels her credit cards and then moves in with Alma.

Mavis discovers the aphrodisiac properties of parsnips and begins inundating Derek with parsnip surprise casserole which ends up having rather alarming results, however, when Derek, overcome with lust is accused of molesting a cleaning woman at PPP. She sues for unfair dismissal and sexual harassment and only with Victor and Mavis' interference is persuaded to come to an out of court settlement.

 

June
Des fires up the motor in his boat which vibrates so badly that the whole boat crashes over on the fence separating the Barnes' from the Wiltons' garden and destroys Mavis's new sun lounger. Derek presents the Barnes with a bill for 850 pounds including costs for mental stress which launches weeks of. Des fixes the fence, replaces the shrubs and sun lounger but refuses to pay anything else. After weeks of obsessing, Derek finally makes peace with Des over a drink and drops the matter.

Alma puts 2 and 2 together and figures out that Mike owns Alcazar holdings which owns the lease on the cafÈ. Gail and Alma row over the. Alma confronts Mike who promises to keep his nose out of her business but she's not convinced. Alf, Don and Jim go on a boozy fishing trip and end up leaving Don behind. Creditors and other suspicious characters keep asking for Phil but Deirdre has more and more difficulties tracking Phil down.

Audrey and Alf fight childishly, score points in humiliation off each other throughout the month. Audrey tries twice to go to Alf to talk it out but the first time she goes, she sees the Widow Barford emerging from the house and the second time, she finds Alf has changed the locks. Audrey leaves Alma's and ends up on Gail's doorstep. By the end of the month Audrey is threatening divorce and Ivy, fed up with being in the middle is considering taking a job at Bettabuys.

 

July
Emily considers retiring to Rhos on Sea, mainly to get away from Mr. Sugden. He tries to sabotage the sale of the house but in the end has to move to a B&B. After he lands in the hospital because of a severe allergic reaction to the landlady's cat, Emily takes pity and decides to stay after all, inviting him back to lodge.

Mike and Jackie get married. Jackie decides to sell the factory, not telling Mike until their wedding reception. Her old manager is brought back to check over the business prior to selling it and discovers the Alcazar/Mike/Alma connection. He spills the beans to Jackie but Mike manages to squirm out of that. Phil, getting desperate for money, tries to touch Mike for a business loan and is not best pleased when Mike turns him down flat. He exacts his revenge by going to Jackie and filling her in on all of the skeleton's in Mike's closet, including getting a friend to pretend to buy Ingrams for a low price after Peter died so Jackie would keep the factory and keep Mike's feet under the table. Jackie leaves Mike after only 2 weeks of marriage, sacks him and sells the factory. She buys him off with a large settlement to get him out of her life for good and Mike goes to London for a few months.

Alf finally buckles under the stress and collapses, sending Audrey straight to his bedside and back to the shop to carry on while he's off on sick leave. Sally starts back to work evenings to help out while Kevin looks after Rosie. Don wins a pile of money off Phil in a poker game but Phil's too broke to pay up. Ivy gives Don stick for gambling. Phil disappears and a frantic Deirdre tries to track him down and when she does, she's horrified to find out he's skipping the country with his WIFE!

Steph has began an affair with Simon Beatty. Alec's ex-wife Joyce dies. On the way to the funeral, Alec's daughter and son-in-law, Sandra and Tim die in a car crash. Alec brings a shell shocked Vicky back to the Rovers.

 

August
Deirdre, out of work again, ends up swallowing her pride and working at the corner shop again. Vicky deals with the loss of her parents and the unsettling fact that she must move into the pub with Alec as her legal guardian. Curly is set in charge of a Bettabuys float for the Weatherfield carnival. Angie designs it and the costumes including a Mercury the Messenger one for Curly, Bacchus for Reg. Vera and Ivy get to be Vestal Virgins! LOL! But she has to battle Reg for payment of her materials and services which ends several weeks later after Curly takes it on himself to authorize a payment from the Bettabuy's accounts to make up the difference between Angie's fee and her costs.

Derek sees Steph with her new boyfriend and she has quite a time fending off the interfering neighbours. In the course of defending Derek, accused of making a pass at Steph, Mavis spills the beans and her vague allegations raise Des's suspicions. It all comes to a head when the Barnes' and the Platts have a day on the canal in Des's boat, finally water-worthy. Steph admits adultery, breaking Des's heart. In a desperate attempt to get Steph back, Des burns his boat on the canal in front of her, symbolic of their marriage gone up in flames and their marriage comes to a messy emotional end.

Steve, Andy and Tracy start a local but very illegal radio station. They play tapes featuring local student bands and take great delight in slagging off their teachers and neighbours. They persuade Tracy to let them use Ken's empty flat until Ken overhears the broadcast and busts them. Using Number 1 while Deirdre and Tracy are away, Vicky gets in on the act but Bet catches them and finally the radio station meets its demise.

 

September
Martin begins to pressure Gail to marry him. Gail suggests Martin adopt the kids instead but there's a better chance if they're married. Gail is reluctant but after Alma points out a few home truths, she changes her mind. Ivy is cool to the idea of the marriage but hits the roof when she hears about the adoption. Ivy begins a mission to cause as much trouble for Gail as she can, even resorting to changing her will so that Nicky only inherits if he keeps the Tilsley name! Ivy takes no notice whatsoever what Don thinks which angers him considerably. At Martin's stag night, Don meets a sympathetic cocktail waitress...Julie. Martin passes out drunk at Des's, worrying Gail to the point of nearly calling off the wedding but in the end, they get to the registry office on time and Gail and Martin get married.

Liz discovers that she's pregnant and is at odds as to what to do. She teeters on the edge of deciding to abort but reluctantly succumbs to Jim's pleas to go through with the pregnancy. Des has a rough time coming to terms with his marital split. The neighbours delight in something new to gossip about. Curly discovers that Reg manipulated things so that Curly didn't get a promotion that he was in line for.

Alma takes a night class in Spanish and bumps into Ken who's taking a class in wine tasting. They begin dating, cautiously at first, just as friends, as Alma is still on the rebound from Mike. Vicky goes back to school after Bet and Alec's fourth wedding anniversary celebration. Reg buys the flat next to Rita and wastes no time trying to cozy up to her now that his marriage has gone south, New Zealand to be exact. Rita makes it plain that she doesn't want anything to do with him but he won't take No for an answer.

 

October
Ivy continues her tirade against Gail and Martin adopting her grandchildren. Don becomes more and more resentful of Ivy's obsession which has extended to bribing Nicky with the church football team if he becomes an altar boy and later telling Nicky about her new will. Martin loses his temper at Ivy in public. Ivy gets her wish temporarily when Nicky takes his anger out on Martin after being dragged off the football field. Gail tries to make Ivy realize that she won't lose her grandchildren even if they have a different name. It culminates with Ivy trying her best to sabotage the adoption by sticking her oar in with the social workers. It is unsuccessful and Ivy's heart breaks when the adoption goes through.

Reg manages to get on Rita's good side when he lends invaluable help when the Kabin is broken into. Playing on this, Reg invites Rita to a flatwarming, but sussing that she's the only guest, Rita takes Bet along with her. Mike is back from London and starts sniffing around Alma again, which seems to be push to get more physical with Ken. Mike moves into the Rovers temporarily and begins a campaign to win back Alma from Ken. Alma tries to convince herself that she's happy with Ken who gnashes his teeth at Mike every chance he gets.

Jim makes plans to build an extension on the back to house the new baby, causing him to run afoul of his immediate neighbours who whine about planning permission and all the construction noise. Kevin loses his job and takes up fixing cars on the street out front until Derek causes a ruckus by complaining about eyesores and permits to the authorities so there's more bad feelings there. It all seems to die down by the end of the month.

 

November
Mike decides to open a garage in the new unit at the end of the Street and hires Kevin to run it. He gets a contract to maintain a fleet of vehicles to make it worth while. Kevin and Mike buy a load of used equipment at auction after Mark Casey goes bust.

Des faces charges in the boat burning incident and though he gets off lightly, he has a short fling with his lady solicitor. Alec whines about having to make concessions for Liz's pregnancy. Ken and Alma can't seem to find conversations that don't include Mike or Deirdre at some. Alec is approached with the opportunity to book a group of acts for a Christmas season Caribbean cruise. Since he can't scare up an MC for the cruise he decides to do it himself, meaning he'll be away from the pub during the busiest time of the year. Bet is dead set against it but try as she might, she can't persuade him out of it and bitterly watches him leave.

By the time Ivy finally realizes she may have pushed Don too far, it's too late. Although Ivy makes valiant attempts to make it up to him, Don becomes quite nasty and resentful of Ivy and renews his acquaintance with Julie the barmaid. Ivy believes Don is gambling again and is gobsmacked to find out he's having an affair! Don actually leaves Ivy for a few nights but she manages to play on the guilt until he caves and tells Julie he's going to give his marriage another try. Don and Ivy decide to sell their house and move.

 

December
Percy plays Father Christmas at Bettabuys but he doesn't last very long when he starts criticizing children for their greed instead of remembering the true reason for the season. Angie gets a part time job in the Rovers as a barmaid. As Don and Ivy start searching for a new home, Martin suggests that he and Gail buy Number 8 Coronation Street. Gail initially balks but since Ivy won't be on her doorstep, eventually agrees. But the day they move in, they find out that Ivy has decided not to move after all, now that her grandkiddies will be just across the street!

Mike steps up his pursuit of Alma, including recruiting Tracy's help. He persuades her to coerce her parents into sharing Christmas day together for her sake, scotching plans Ken was making for he and Alma to go away for a few days. Mike plays on Alma's disappointment, vulnerability and attraction to him and manages to spend Christmas night in her bed. She regrets it later and confesses to Ken on New Year's Eve. Ken is so incensed that he walks out on her, leaving her in the country hotel alone.

Bet engages an old boyfriend, Des Foster, to do some redecorating. She flirts with him but doesn't cross the line. Vicky comes home for Christmas and has her suspicions, especially when Bet ends up getting pushed around by the painter for rebuffing his advances. Curly and Reg end up together at Christmas but Reg gets arrested as he has just finished raiding the supermarket for dinner supplies, much to Curly's amusement. Raquel returns to Weatherfield at New Year's and she and Curly join Angie and Des to see in 1992.

After Alf's car radio is stolen, it comes to light that Steve is involved in reselling hot goods for some mates when he is caught selling Alf's radio to Derek. Steve is charged but refuses to name his conspirators. Andy gets beaten up because he tells the names in stead. All the stress causes Liz to go into premature labour and in very early January, she gives birth to wee Katherine. But the baby isn't strong enough and dies within two days.


Written by Graham Allsopp (January & February) and Diane Johnston (March - December)
© Graham Allsopp & Diane Johnston, 1999. Not to be reproduced without permission.

 

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