Samir and Tracey are ready for their operation. Ken is ready to
take them both to hospital along with Deidre when Samir tells
Deidre that he must have time to prepare for the operation, and
that he wishes to walk to the hospital rather than have a lift
from Ken, in order to clear his head and prepare himself. Deidre,
Ken and Tracey set off for the hospital and Tracey walks into
the hospital on her own, she doesn't want Ken and Deidre to go
in with her. Meanwhile, Samir is walking along the canal when
a group of youths try to push past him, one of them making a racist
remark to him. Later that evening, Deidre is sitting by the phone
in the McDonald's house, waiting for a phone call from Samir at
the hospital, when 2 police officers arrive at the door looking
for Mrs. Rashid. It appears that Samir is in hospital but he has
tremendous head injuries consistent with those he could have suffered
from a fall or an attack. The police have no evidence that he
was attacked so we still don't know if it was an accident or not.
Samir dies in hospital and Deidre agrees to donate his kidney
to Tracey and agrees to donate some of his other vital organs
to other patients. Tracey's kidney transplant operation goes well,
however Deidre refuses to see Tracey in hospital, blaming Tracey
for Samir's death. When Deidre does eventually go into hospital
to see Tracey to tell her that Samir is dead, Tracey is asleep
in her hospital bed and Deidre angrily throws a bunch of flowers
onto Tracey's bed and walks out. It is left to Ken to tell Tracey
that Samir is dead, and Deidre flies back to Morocco with Samir's
body. When Tracey finds out about Samir, Ken tells her she mustn't
blame herself for what has happend. Tracey tells him she doesn't
blame herself, she blames Ken.
Denise stays overnight at Ken's flat with baby Danny, and Denise
makes Fiona the new Manager of the hair salon. Fiona is overjoyed
about this but when she tells Steve about her good news, he just
isn't interested.
Denny the thug visits Steve McDonald in the print shop and tells
him he is looking for some money from him for his boss, Frank
Mottram. Steve asks Vicky to lend him £5,000 and Vicky says
if it was for business then she would agree, but she has to say
no if it is for his personal life. Steve then disappears, neither
Vicky nor Fiona knows where he has gone although he keeps in contact
with Fiona by telephone. Fiona moves Maxine into the flat while
Steve is away. When Steve does come back, it appears he has been
in London trying to raise some money to pay Frank Mottram. Unfortunately,
he is visited in the print shop by another thug, this time armed
with a baseball bat and he beats Steve up.
Alf receives a letter notifying him that he is to be awarded the
OBE (Order of the British Empire). Audrey is more overjoyed to
be the wife of an OBE than she is that Alf has actually been awarded
the OBE. Celebrations are in order at the Rovers.
Trisha is sacked from the corner shop as Maureen is now back at
work. Trisha overhears that the flat above the shop is empty and
she is now working on Maureen and Reg to rent the flat to her
and Jamie.
Betty goes to a tea dance with Billy Williams who asks Betty to
go away on holiday with him. When Betty says she is unsure about
this, Billy asks her if it would make any difference if they were
married. Betty doesn't know if this is a true proposal of marriage
or if it is just for convenience sake so they can go on holiday
together.
Alma is putting together a business proposal for the chap she
and Audrey met on their day out shopping. The chap wants a catering
consultant for his pub and Alma is taking the work seriously,
and enlists the help of Vicky who prepares a business plan for
Alma. Mike isn't taking this too seriously at all.
Vera has been sacked from Bettabuys. When she tells Jack, he is
ready to fight for Vera's rights at an appeal until Vera admits
she has been caught damaging cans of food so she can buy them
cheap!
Steve McDonald is terribly battered and bruised after his beating
by one of Frank Mottram's thugs. He tells both Fiona and Vicky
about his debts, it appears he owes about £6,000 to casino
owners and betting shops. Fiona is worried about Steve and wonders
if he can ever pull himself out of debt. Steve goes to Vicky and
asks her if he can borrow some money from her to pay off his debts
but she says 'no' once again. Then, she finally agrees to lend
him some money as long as he shows that he is working to clear
his debts too and suggests that he starts by selling his car,
so he puts his car up for sale and then Vicky gives him a wad
of cash.
Alma gets a cheque for £500 for the catering consultancy
job and she gives Audrey a gift token for her help in this just
as Audrey is moaning to Alf that Alma owes her something! It's
Mike and Alma's wedding anniversary and Mike brings a bouquet
of flowers into the cafe for Alma. However, Alma has forgotten
about the anniversary completely! so she has to pretend that she
has a special surprise for Mike that evening, and she books up
in a fancy restaurant for dinner for them both. When they are
in the restaurant, Steve McDonald and Fiona come in.
Fiona is amazed at Steve, the fact that he is completely broke
but is prepared to splash out on an expensive meal. When she finds
that he intends to pay with Vicky's money, she tells Steve exactly
what she thinks of him and walks out of the restaurant, goes back
to the flat and throws Steve's clothes out of the window onto
the pavement, and tells him to go to Vicky.
A local newspaper want a picture and story on Alf now that he
is to awarded the OBE. Audrey buys an expensive decanter to use
in the photograph, she has an idea that the photograph will be
taken with the Mayor and his wife at home, but it ends up being
taken in the Rovers. The newspaper eventually uses a photo of
Alf and Betty, much to Audrey's annoyance.
Alf is called in to see the Chief Executive of the Council and
he assumes that he has been called in so that he can be granted
the freedom of the borough after being Mayor for 2 years. However,
when he arrives at the Council he is accused of stealing over
£7,000 from the Mayor's charity fund, which Alf was responsible
for during his year of command. The money has gone missing, apparantly
cheques have been written to companies and organisations which
do not actually exist. Alf tells the Chief Executive that he only
signed the cheques, they were all written out before he signed
them, and he never checked where the money was going. It appears
that someone has taken advantage of Alf but the council chambers
are full of rumours now that Alf has stolen the money from the
fund. Alf is worried in case he loses his OBE because of this.
Determined not to lose his garden gnomes again, Derek uses cement
to keep his 2 gnomes in his garden. As he is doing this, Gail,
Martin and the kids are playing in their garden, so they see him
do it. Derek goes away and when he returns, gnome foot prints
are everywhere in the wet cement and Arthur has disappeared again.
At first Derek blames Gail and Martin, saying the footprints could
have been caused by doll's shoes, but then Derek blames Des again
in Rovers.
Mike Baldwin goes to see Trisha to tell her to tidy up the house
as he has prospective buyers coming to view the property. When
he arrives at the house, Trisha is still in her nightie and starts
chatting up Mike, he doesn't know quite how to take it. Jim McDonald
watches Mike go into Trisha's house and sees that Trisha isn't
dressed and assumes that Mike fancies Trisha.
After passing his exams, Martin now has a temporary job at Weatherfield
General, on a 6 month contract in the casualty department.
Well, the Fiona/Vicky/Steve McDonald storyline is certainly hotting
things up in the Street. As Fiona has now kicked Steve out of
the flat they shared above Jim's Cafe, Steve has been sleeping
in the print shop. When Vicky finds out that Steve is now a free
agent, she goes to see Steve late at night in the print shop when
he is just about to sleep, walks in and unbuttons her top while
he is lying in his sleeping bag - saying "Stop me if this
isn't what you want!" Well, it obviously is what he wants
as she's still there at 3.30am the next morning and sneaks back
to the Rovers as quietly as she can only to be met by a stony
faced Bet who had waited up for her. Vicky lies like mad and pretends
she was out with a friend, but Bet is guessing what is really
going on. Vicky goes back to the print shop the next night after
taking a taxi from the Rovers and makes the taxi driver go around
the block to make it seem to Bet like she is really going out.
When Vicky and Steve are tucked up in his sleeping bag again,
Steve asks Vicky to marry him!!
It's the McDonald twins 21st birthday and they both receive a
cheque for £500 each from Liz and Jim. Steve needs to get
his hands on the cash immediately so he asks Rita if she can give
him some cash against the cheque. Rita agrees to give him a small
advance of £50 after she mistakenly believes he wants the
money to take Fiona out for a meal as an apology to her. Steve
asks Fiona to the Rovers for a drink and Fiona is under the impression
that he is going to apologise to her and that they will get back
together again. However, all that Steve wanted to tell her was
that although she can keep the stereo, it is worth £200,
and if Fiona gives him £50 for it, she can keep it!
Des takes Andy out for a drunken night for his birthday and Andy
sleeps on the sofa in Des' house only to be waken when Phyllis'
vacuum cleaner keeps bumping into the sofa the next morning. Des
also buys a bottle of champagne in the Rovers to celebrate Andy's
birthday with Jim and Liz.
Raquel tells Betty that she has seen Billy Williams walking in
the street and that he looks very poorly as he's walking with
a limp. Both Bet and Racquel end up making Betty feel so guilty
that she hasn't seen Billy for some time, that Betty goes to see
Billy and it turns out that the reason he was limping is that
he has had trouble with his bunion and had been to see the chiropodist!
Alf confides in Ken about the missing money, Ken assures Alf that
the money will turn up in due course. Ken remembers that when
he ran the Recorder newspaper, council money was often going astray
due to wrongful allocation of funds, and that he often reported
this in the Recorder only to have his story proved wrong when
the money later turned up. Audrey's plans for a new conservatory
are out of the question now as Alf doesn't want her to spend any
more money on the house as he's so worried about what people will
think of him. A journalist has also been sniffing around Alf and
Audrey's house on the scent of the missing money. Even people
in the Rovers, people who know Alf are starting to wonder if her
really did steal the money.
Jack and Vera are broke. Vera owns up to not paying any bills
for a couple of months, and admits to Jack that the mortgage is
in serious arrears. Vera receives a card from Ivy in the retreat
and this gives her the idea of going to church to ask God to send
them some money! (This really is a very funny scene). Later that
week, Jack reads in a newspaper that his brother Cliff and his
wife have been killed while on holiday in Spain and now Vera is
blaming herself for Cliff's death as it happened on the same day
that she went to church to pray. Jack fishes out Cliff's last
will and testament that Cliff signed when he lived with Jack and
Vera over Christmas and wonders how much money Cliff has left
them both. Jack calls in an insurance consultant for an informal
chat but when Jack starts asking specific questions such as "how
much would a person get if a married couple died?" then the
rather young and inexperienced insurance salesman gets up and
leaves, feeling very worried about the questions Jack is asking.
Tracey has visitors in the hospital - Percy Sugden and Emily.
And Percy even makes Tracey laugh! Tracey leaves the hospital
despite Ken's wishes, and she goes to live with a brother of one
of her friends even though Ken wants her to live with him. Deidre
is due back in England next week too.
Sally is now back in the street (after taking time off to have
a baby in real life). She asks Rita to babysit but Vera Duckworth
jumps in with both feet and offers to babysit instead, saying
she could do with the money. Sally and Kevin weren't intending
to pay and feel like Vera has railroaded them.
The gnome is still missing.
