Written by Leslie Duxbury
For the dedicated Coronation Street aficionado, enjoying the series as broadcast during 1960 to 1975 can only be something of an intermittent pleasure. Having recently catalogued the episodes I hold from this period (well it keeps me off the streets) I’ve established that I have a grand total of 211 (which is a fairly small sample, considering that over 1,500 episodes were broadcast).
But from April 1976 onwards we’re on much firmer ground as that was where Granada Plus started their repeat run from. Between 1996 and 2004 (when the channel was unceremoniously yanked off the air) they managed to go from April 1976 to early February 1994. And since these episodes are circulating in various corners of the internet, with a little bit of effort it’s possible to enjoy a lengthy consecutive run of the series.
Personally, I probably won’t go too far beyond 1984, but when I get there maybe I’ll have the desire to press on a bit further. I won’t have to worry about that for a while though.
Although April 1976 seems like a rather arbitrary start point (you might have expected Granada Plus to rewind back to the start of the colour era) there looks to have been some method in their madness. Bill Podmore had taken over as producer in early 1976 and he’d begun to refashion the series in his own image (for example, injecting more humour – which he felt had all but evaporated).
I do wonder just how dour and humourless the series had actually been before this, but until more examples of 1974 and 1975 Corrie turn up, it’s hard to know for sure.
Today’s episode – marking the return of Elsie Howard (nee Tanner) for the first time since October 1973 – is a pretty decent jumping on point. There’s a few unfamiliar characters dotted about, but many of the regulars would have been like old friends to the 1990’s audience.
The episode opens with a one-shot character, Mrs Conroy (Christine Buckley), bitterly complaining to Mavis in the Kabin about the state of her dentures. “You would think wouldn’t you, if they could build Concorde, they could make a pair of dentures that fit”. There’s no answer to that.
Good grief, Rita looks rough. Really rough. Is she feeling delicate after a night of carousing with Len? Mavis thinks so, but Rita is having none of it. We then drop in to see Ray and Deirdre getting dressed. The sight of Ray Langton with no trousers on is something that will haunt me for some time. I’m just grateful that his shirt managed to hide his underpants.
Len receives a mystery call. Who is it? Ah, you’ll have to wait until the end of the episode to find out. But if anyone can discover who it might be before then it’ll be our Hilda. She’s in full snooping mode today (her curiosity working overtime after Len asks her to clean his house). Jean Alexander is wonderful. This is something I know I’ll be repeating again and again and again ….
This era of Coronation Street has many reasons to recommend it – not least the way it’s now become a fascinating social document. Characters will often stop to bemoan the state of the country (some things never change then). Mrs Walker’s monologue today is a case in point. “I don’t trust the government. Industry is either a playground or a battleground according to the whim of the week”.
Minnie’s relaxing in the snug. Make the most of her as she’s soon to vanish, never to return.
Unlike some incoming producers, Bill Podmore didn’t swing the axe too much. But one character he did decide to write out was Tricia Hopkins (Kathy Jones). I’m not quite sure why though – after all, the Street was hardly awash with younger characters at this time and she had formed a decent partnership with Gail. Her departure is especially odd when you look ahead to January 1977, whuch saw the introduction of Suzie Birchall – a character not too dissimilar to Tricia.
Everyone’s treating Ray and Deirdre to drinks at the Rovers because they believe Deirdre’s pregnant. Except she’s not. There then follows an embarrassed silence when the truth comes out, although I’m not sure how they were going to get away with it (would Deirdre have stuck a pillow up her jumper in a few month’s time?)
Len’s mystery visitor is …. Elsie. And although we don’t see her today, Ena’s curtains are already twitching in anticipation ….
Archive Television Musings 
Snap! I’ve been watching all of the Coronation Street that I’ve managed to procure in sequence from the start, and am now up to December 1976. (I managed to find 374 pre-1976 episodes…). If you just want some occasional viewing out of your pre-1976 collection rather than going through the lot, I’ve found that it’s always more rewarding to watch episodes in consecutive pairs, where you can watch a situation be both set up and followed through. I’ve often found myself realising that Network picked the wrong episode to release, when it was how the characters got into the situation, or how they responded to it, that was the particularly dramatically interesting part to see.
Its a bit of a culture shock once the Granada Plus episodes start. The viewing experience is often one of thinking, “That scene ended/ started very abruptly – edit! Blimey, this is a bit blurry”…
I think that the dourness of Susi Hush Coronation Street is something of a myth. There are some hard storylines, but a lot of fun things, too – more than there were in circa 1972-74. Now that the sixties are just so long ago, the Bill Podmore era has probably now become what most older fans think of the classic era – as your Twitter comments regularly attest. Most of the great characters from the sixties were still around and well used, and Eddie Yeats, Fred Gee, Renee Roberts, etc., immediately gelled very well alongside them.
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I watched the unfamiliar episode *before* this one for the first time tonight… Its a real curio, as much of an interregnum as this one is an obvious starting point. Set entirely at night, it has no scenes in the Rovers, no jokes or melodrama, just three interlocking duologues of Deidre and Ray reflecting on a false alarm pregnancy scare, Rita and Len mulling about marriage (Rita deciding to reject an offscreen proposal that she’s received) and Bet with a stranger who’s walked out on his wife and family.
Its worth watching for a Bet Lynch speech about the increasingly miserable condition of being single and middle-aged, Julie Goodyear very good at conveying blank-eyed dejection. About as bleak as early Coronation Street gets, more so than with tragic occurrences because its an unflinching look at quotidian unhappiness.
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I must admit breaking out in a smile watching the scene where Len Fairclough is looking for his missing sock. ”Socky, socky, socky!”
Len was an absolute slob at times – the inside of Number 5 really does look dingy and disgusting in this episode.
It does make you wonder how on earth Len had so many conquests during his time on the street? I think he even gave Ken a run for his money!
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My apologises – Len lived in Number 9 for many years – not Number 5!!!! Number 9 later became the Duckworth’s home.
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