2 July 1996

Jack knew that Terry was up to no good all along and now he's been proved right. Terry packs his bags and tells Vera he's taking little Tommy back to Sheffield for a visit. Jack wonders why Terry's taking all of his belongings with him rather than just an overnight bag but doesn't say anything to Vera. Of course, Terry doesn't go to Sheffield, he goes to Blackpool where he sells little Tommy back to the Ortons for the grand sum of £10,000. A one-off deal is negotiated which means that little Tommy will probably be big, old and grey Tommy by the time Jack and Vera see him again, if they ever do. Mrs Orton just happens to be passing by the Rovers and calls in to see Vera, to make sure she's not too upset about losing little Tommy once more, this time forever. Vera knows nothing about it, she's angry and distraught when she realises what Terry has done, the scumbag! She's furious with Terry and tells Betty to take down Terry's photograph from her mantelpiece and throw it in the bin. She's straight on the solicitor to get Terry taken out of her will and Jack now refuses to believe he ever really had a son. (Actually, this is quite a touching storyline and I have to admit I shed a tear for Vera when she was sobbing into her sherry!).

Steven finally approves the Kbec order at Mike's factory, which is just as well as Alma walks in with a bottle of celebratory champagne which she bought in anticipation of the order being accepted. Mike's problem now is that he has a load of sub-standard clothing he needs to shift so he flogs the lot from a market stall which Tricia helps him to run. He enjoys himself so much on the market stall that he helps Claire (Des' girlfriend) to sell her china plates from the stall next to his.

Josie has cycled off into the sunset. Mind you, I wouldn't put up with Don's miserable face either. Don receives a letter from Josie's solicitor asking for her share of the money which she invested in to the garage - £20,000. When Friday comes around and it's pay-day, Don tells Kevin he can't issue any cheques without Josie's signature, he's stalling as he hasn't got any money and Kevin's beginning to realise something is wrong. Don is telling everyone that Josie has had to go and visit her mother who's taken ill.

The old folks are up in arms at Mayfield Court. The new character, Lily Dempsy, and Percy look set to stage a protest to stop the renaming of Mayfield Court old folks home to "The Alfred Roberts Court". Roy takes Percy a history book of the area showing why Mayfield Court was so called, all adding fuel to Percy's fire to stop the renaming of the place. Reference was made to Phyllis Pearce being ill (which she is in real life - suffering from angina and out of the show for a while) and that's why it seems Lily Dempsy has been introduced into the show.

Raquel wants more out of life than to make Curly's tea and look beautiful. Now that she's been sacked from the Rovers, she places an advert in the local paper and opens her aromatherapy massage parlour in her living room, her first client being Judy Mallett. When Curly comes home to find a note on the living room door reading "Do not enter - client within" he's not best pleased and argues with Raquel, who defends her right to do something with her life other than wait on Curly hand and foot. When Raquel spots another aromatherapy course advertised in the newspaper she wants to apply for it and at first Curly isn't happy, but he then encourages her to go for it, even though it's hundreds of miles away.

The McDonald clan are looking as glum as ever when they go to visit Steve in prison. Liz wants to start dividing up hers and Jim's possessions for their divorce but Jim tells her he doesn't want anything - what use is a houseful of furniture to him?, he asks. More bad news for Jim comes when Liz gets a phone call from Belfast to say that Jim's mother has died. As if that wasn't bad enough for the bloke, she then tells Jim she won't be going to the funeral with him, as she's not part of the family any more. Andy offers to go to the funeral with Jim instead.

Alec and Rita have tea together and he tells Rita of his plans to start a new theatrical agency.


9 July 1996

Feeling is running high at Mayfield Court where the residents, led by Lily Dempsey and Percy Sugden, are protesting against the change of name to Alf Roberts Court, they even get their point across on the TV news. Alf is called upon by the Council to stand in at the last minute to meet a delegation of Germans at the Town Hall, Audrey is upset as she'd been planning on going shopping and now has to act as Mayoress. At the town hall, in front of the German delegation, the old folks are there waving banners and shouting at Alf, and in the fray, Audrey loses her temper and tells them all what she thinks of them, so Lily Dempsey throws an egg at Audrey which splatters all over her new suit. Later, Alf tells Audrey he's had enough of being Mayor and that he intends to resign from his post. Alf and Audrey get a visit from the Planning Committee of the Council who apologies for the matter over Mayfield Court and tells Alf that the Council would still like to do something to honour him. Alf can have any road or street in Weatherfield re-named in his honour, and Alf has chosen Coronation Street! (I can imagine there'll be a few more objections to that than there was to Mayfield Court!). Audrey tells Alf "It'll be nice to have a plaque on the road for you Alf, 'cos you've always let folk walk all over you all through your life, and now they can do it forever".

Don tells Kevin that Josie has left him and that's the reason he can't afford to pay the wages. He asks Kevin if he's interested in buying Josie's half of the garage and going into partnership but Kevin says no, without consulting Sally, who is furious when she finds out. She is even more furious with Kev when she finds out that Tony intends to put the money up and go into partnership with Don. Turns out that Tony's father is a local businessman, an owner of carpet stores and can afford to give Tony the money, if the business looks like a safe bet. Tony's dad wants to see the financial books, which Don hands over to Tony.

Fiona decides to tell Tony that she's been going to visit Steve in prison as she feels guilty keeping the news from him. Of course, when he finds out, he isn't best pleased, in fact, he's really upset and there are tears in his eyes as he tells Fiona they're finished because she wasn't honest with him. Maxine takes it upon herself to be matchmaker but her efforts to bring Tony and Fi together don't work at all, and when Tony and Fi argue in the hair salon, one person who is pleased to see them split up is Liz McDonald (who is in the salon having her candy floss hair sugared to perfection) who thinks this will mean Fiona will visit Steve in prison more often.

Raquel tells Curly about an aromatherapy course she's interested in taking, but it's in Maidenhead, which is light years away from Coronation Street. Curly encourages her to take the course, although it's expensive. Raquel had been looking forward to summer holidays with Curly but he tells her that because Firmans are undergoing some changes, he can't go away, and encourages her to go on the course instead.

Alec takes on Joyce Smedly as his cleaner in the flat (seems he's bought Reg's old place? I'm a bit confused about this as I must have missed any direct references to it). He pours Joyce a big glass of brandy and they settle down for a long chat about his showbiz days. "Oh, I handled all the stars you know" he said "Rita Fairclough... even Cliff!" Joyce cries with glee "Cliff Richard?" "No, no." Alec replies "Cliff Leadbetter".

Ken tells Kelly he can no longer afford to keep her on as his live in nanny. She's very upset and blubbers to everyone who will listen, Sally included. Sally tries to talk to Kevin about her concerns for Kelly's future but Kev just isn't interested and they end up arguing. Sally tells Kevin she wants more from life than her house and the children but Kevin can't understand why she isn't happy with what she's already got (typical bloke!). And if you want to know what's going to happen to Sally, read on below.....

SPOILER: Sally gets a job in Baldwin's factory next week!


16 July 1996

This update is written specially for George Taylor with love from Bette and Roy.
Best wishes to you George from myself in England too.

Alf still wants to press ahead with the name change of Coronation Street to "Alfred Roberts Place". Audrey, who as we know, can keep a secret as well as a sieve can hold vodka, tells Rita about Alf's plan "Tho' why he wants a dingy little back street named after him, I'll never know". Rita tells Jack Duckworth and before you know it, everyone on the Street knows. Audrey then tells Rita it's top secret and she shouldn't tell anyone about Alf's news (too late!). Audrey and Alf are organising a drinks party at their house, where the great name change is to be revealed to a (supposedly) surprised gathering of friends and relatives.

Tony's father decides that Don's business proposition isn't worth investing in. When Tony tells Don this, Don is devastated and Tony ends up resigning from his job. Don then goes to visit his bank, to ask for more capital to inject into the garage. He isn't too honest with the bank at first, and doesn't tell them that Josie has pulled out of the partnership. When the truth comes out, the bank won't lend Don any more money. In fact, they decide to pull in the £6,000 that Don already owes them, saying that Don is trading illegally if he is still trading knowing that the business isn't viable. Kevin tells Sally he has decided finally to go into partnership with Don, but waits until Don comes back from his meeting at the bank before giving him the good news. However, Kevin soon changes his mind when Don tells him what's happening, that he could go bankrupt. Upset and angry, Kevin and Don argue and Kevin threatens to resign but Don calms down and Kevin stays (but for how long?).

Could Kevin become a house-husband? Well, that certainly could be the case now that Sally has got herself a proper job at Baldwin's factory! Mike takes her on as a machinist after she asks him for a job and she loves it, she entertains the other girls there with tales of her children and wants to go for a drink with Ida and Trisha after work, but Kevin puts his foot down and says she can't go. Kevin is worried for his future, his place in society as chief breadwinner looks like crumbling from beneath him.

Who needs enemies when you've got friends like Maxine? No sooner than you can you say "short back and sides", Maxine and Tony are wrapped around each other playing tonsil hockey. A night out is arranged at the Hour Glass pub where Liz works. Curly, Andy, Maxine, Anne and Tony all go out together and the evening ends up with Maxine, yes MAXINE, and Tony, yes TONY, snogging in the corner. Maxine asks Fiona if she's missing Tony and when Fiona admits she is, Maxine goes to see Tony again to say that there is a chance that Tony could make things up with Fiona if he wanted to. But, it's not Fiona he wants now (as he starts eating away at Maxine's lips again).

Fiona goes to visit Steve in prison one more time, and tells him that she won't be going to see him again, this is the last time she'll visit him. Steve rings Fiona in the salon and begs her to reconsider but Fiona has made her mind up. While this phone call is taking place there's an excellent comic scene going on in the background between Roy Cropper and Maxine. Roy is extolling the virtues of petroleum jelly and admits he used to make his own "but petrol isn't cheap these days and Coconuts aren't two a penny".

Alec is thinking of starting up another theatrical agency, and wonders where he can showcase all this new talent he's going to round up off the streets of Weatherfield. In the Rovers, he chats to Anne (Andy's girlfriend) and she tells him to move with the times, to use pubs as his entertainment venues. "What sort of pubs?" he asks her "Pubs like this one" she replies. Oh dear, I fear we'll be seeing "Whistling Cliff Leadbetter and his juggling ponies" entertaining the old folk in the Rovers' snug before long.

Kelly tells Ken she will stay on to look after Danny on a day care basis, and also take in Sally's children during the day time. Everyone seems fine with this arrangement until Sally's first day at work comes around. She's 10 minutes late in picking up her children and Kelly is throwing a wobbler as she wanted to dash off and meet someone (probably Ashley).

Judy and Gary Mallett are having a catalogue of disasters in their house. Judy wants to order all sorts of useless household appliances from her mum's catalogue and Gary is very much against her reckless spending. The only thing he knows about catalogues is "I learned all I needed to know about women from looking at the underwear section of me mam's catalogue". So, when a DIY conservatory arrives in a van, he's really annoyed with Judy. However,it's not Judy that's ordered the conservatory, it's her mother, who actually won the conservatory in a competition and gave it to her daughter and son in law. What *are* they going to do with it?

Major Spoiler Alert Ahead.....

I have heard this from a friend of a friend of a man who heard it in the pub, so it could be inaccurate! Trisha will find out she is pregnant with Terry Duckworth's child!!


23 July 1996


It's just not Don's week, this week. He's so desperate for cash to inject into his failing business that he even tries to get his hands on Nicky's money. He tells Nicky he can follow in his father's footsteps and become a mechanic, just like Brian used to be. Nicky can't see that Don is using him only to get at his money, but once Gail and Martin hear about it, Martin goes straight over to see Don and gives him a piece of his mind. The receiver from the bank visits Don. He takes an inventory of the stock, inspects the books and tells Don he's so far in debt that the business now belongs to the bank. Don, of course, has to fire Kevin who isn't happy at all being a house husband while Sally is out at work all day. The receiver from the bank tells Don that he shouldn't have bought into the business without first checking that it was viable. Don broods on this a bit, gets drunk and then storms into the Rovers to have a go at Mike, telling Mike it was all his fault that the business has gone bust. He hits out at Mike and misses, and then Mike hits Don, who falls to the ground. (There's nothing like a good old fight in the Rovers, is there?). Jack helps Don outside and he just stands there alone feeling sorry for himself. He goes into the cafe to see if Alma will be civil to him, which she is at first, but then Mike walks in and gets an ear bashing from Don: "Go on, hit the cripple again, knock me good leg from under me this time, why don't ya, go on". Mike just tells Don to stay away from him.

There's a new barmaid in the Rovers - Samantha. She comes revving into the Street with her motorbike and false tan and looks set to cause trouble (she's got that sort of face). Jack hired her, of course, and Vera isn't very happy that yet another young thing is behind the bar of the Rovers. Trisha asks Vera if she's seen or heard from Terry lately, she's anxious to speak to him about something.... (and if you read last week's update spoiler, you'll know why!).

Audrey invites friends and neighbours to her house for Alf's big announcement. In front of the gathered throng, Alf proudly announces that he intends to change the name of Coronation Street to Alfred Roberts Place. Instead of the congratulations he was expecting, he gets a stony silence followed by Ken saying "Well, frankly Alf, I think it stinks". No one is happy about the name change, apart from Derek, who thinks he can get some business from stationery orders of new letterhead paper. They all admit they knew about the name change as Audrey had been gossiping, and Alf gives her one of his looks.

Gary starts to unpack the conservatory which was delivered last week, and along with help (!) from Roy Cropper he intends to install it on the back of his and Judy's house, despite the fact it won't fit and the back of the house doesn't get any sun. Emily isn't happy about the conservatory going up either, and tells Gary that the last person who did structural work on the street ran into all sorts of problems when their house fell down (who was this? I can't recall? [The Hewitts house - the old Nº 7 - Graham] ). Des tells Derek and Mavis he intends to buy the conservatory from Gary and install it in his back garden. Mavis and Derek are aghast! How dare Des invade their space with a conservatory in his garden? "He'll only use it to grow cannabis" says Mavis. But Des is using reverse psychology and in the end, Derek tells Des he'll buy the conservatory instead and have it in his garden.

Alec Gilroy wants to arrange a talent night in the Rovers but Jack isn't keen until Alec tells him that he can do his "Vince Sinclair" routine if he wishes. So the talent night is arranged for this coming Friday, and Maxine intends to enter. Alec arrives home one night to find Mrs Smedley still there, carrying her cleaning duties a little too far by ironing his shirts for him. "I like ironing shirts" she says (she can come round my house any day, then). They offer each other backhanded, strange sort of compliments, which could point to a future storyline between them? (I'm not sure about these two as a couple though....)

Maxine tells Fiona the truth about her and Tony, and Fiona takes it quite well (well, she doesn't tear Maxine's hair out!). Steve continues to phone Fiona from prison and she hangs up on him, finally.

Gail and Martin have gone away on a family holiday and Nicky, sorry Nick, puts his foot down and declares He's old enough to stay at home on his own. Finally, Gail agrees and asks Audrey to pop round and make sure Nick behaves himself while they are on holiday.

Jim receives the cheque from his mother's will and it's burning such a big hole in his pocket that he tells Liz he wants to use it to buy the house from her. Liz is still smarting from the fact that's she's in her 40's and couldn't get a mortgage to buy it herself. We know she's still smarting as she walks into the Rovers, hisses at Jim who's minding his own business at the bar, and then she trounces out again.


30 July 1996


Des manages to convince Derek and Mavis to buy the conservatory from Judy and Gary Mallett. Judy and Gary fix the conservatory up, Judy acting as Gary's labourer (these two ARE the new Laurel and Hardy). As befits a new house extension, Mavis has a conservatory party and invites the Mallets, Des and Rita to drink a toast to the new green house, er... sorry - conservatory.

Behind the bar of the Rovers, new barmaid Samantha is playing it cool, trying to work out who is the boss, Jack or Vera. She asks Judy, who tells her, without a shadow of the doubt, and as we all know, it's Vera. Curly (who is missing Raquel as she's away on her aromatherapy course) and Gary Mallett sit at the bar with their tongues hanging out watching while Samantha pull pints.

Andy is broke. He can't afford to pay his car tax at the end of this month and asks Liz if she will get him a job in the wine bar. He asks Jack for extra hours at the Rovers, he asks Curly if there's anything going at Bettabuys, and meanwhile Kevin asks Tony if there's any work going at the garage place he's now working at.

Liz asks Fiona if she wants to visit Steve in prison, and Fiona says she no longer wants anything to do with Steve. When Liz and Jim arrive at the prison, they visit Steve in the prison hospital. He's been beaten up and is lying on his hospital bed feeling even more sorry for himself than usual. Liz is convinced the beating was a set-up in order to get Fiona to feel sorry for Steve and go to visit him, but even when she hears about this, Fiona still refuses to go to visit him.

Poor old Trish. She's found out that she's pregnant with baby Duckworth and goes to see Des, hoping that he knows where she can find Terry. She believes that if she tells Terry what's happened, he'll come charging through Baldwin's factory on his white horse and whisk her off her sewing machine. Des does have an old address for Terry in Sheffield and drives Trisha to an awful high rise block of flats. The address she finds is answered by another of Terry's girlfriends who hasn't seen him for months. "If you see him" she tells Trisha "tell him I want me £1,800 pounds". Trish confides in Sally about the pregnancy, and Sally tells her to ask Vera once more for Terry's address.

It's the night of the Rovers talent competition. The acts that Alec has lined up for the evening's entertainment are so utterly, totally bad, they're brilliant! What a scream! Even Percy gets up playing his ukulele. Jack gets more than half way through his turn before someone pulls the plug on him, and then Maxine gets up and sings the old hit "Shout". And this is where it turns into a classic Coronation Street episode. As Maxine is singing "Everybody shout now, come on and shout now...", Liz and Jim McDonald are screaming at each other, having a humdinger of an argument in one corner of the Rovers over who gets to buy the house. "Shout!" Vera can't believe her ears when Trisha tells her the news about the baby and tears a strip off her, telling Trish she's a liar, that her Terry wouldn't have anything to do with a slag like her. And all this is going on, all this screaming, while Maxine is belting out "Shout, Shout, Shout" Great stuff. Jack doesn't know why Trisha snubs him in the Street the next day, and thinks that Trisha is still looking for Terry because she fancies him. Trisha tells him the truth, and Jack storms in to see Vera, demanding to know why she had kept the news from him. Joyce Smedley has the hots for Alec, it's official! She offers to do his shopping for him and then decides to prepare his evening meal before he comes in from work. Alec invites her to stay for dinner with him and they chat about this and that. I don't think I'd get married again" he says, "no one would have me". To this, Joyce raised her eyes in a "I wouldn't be too sure about that, mate" kind of way.

All they want is five minutes on their own but Des and Claire have a problem and her name is Becky. Des wants to go on holiday with Claire but Claire is wary of upsetting her in-laws whom she normally goes on holiday with each year. So, they ask Becky if she wants to stay with her grandparents this year while Des and Claire go off on their own on a barge (strange choice for Des, considering....). She says no, she wants to come with them, and has every intention of spoiling the whole holiday for them both because she's an insecure and immature teenager filled with angst and that's the kind of thing teenagers do.

Another troubled teenager is Nick Platt who has ran away from home this week. Audrey goes round to check on him, to make sure he's eating his greens and not having late night raves in the front room and seems quite disappointed when she finds that everything looks normal in Gail and Martin's absence. Unfortunately, Nick and Audrey argue when she pops in to see him, she's interrupted him packing his bags (which he hides away when Audrey comes in) so she doesn't know he was already planning to run away before their argument. So now, she blames herself (and Alf, of course) for the fact that Nick is missing. At this point my husband exclaimed "I know where he's gone - Chessington Zoo!" and I gave him one of my looks. If you want to know where Nick will end up, read on..



Spoiler space...


Rumour has it that Nick goes to live in Canada with his uncle Steven.


Written by Glenda Young


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