Thursday, 11 November 2010

50 Years Of Corrie In 50 Days – 1983

Day 23 of our 50 day countdown of Coronation Street - written by blogger Sunny Jim.
1983 saw the departure of Annie Walker and Len Fairclough. Doris Speed's health had deteriorated, which wasn’t helped when a national newspaper printed a copy of her birth certificate showing her to be 15 years older than she claimed. She was also traumatised by a robbery at her home while she was upstairs in bed and so moved into a nursing home. On screen, Annie Walker retired to her daughter’s in Derby.

Peter Adamson had stood trial on charges of indecent assault and was found not guilty. Having won the case and hence his costs would have been repaid, it was therefore puzzling why Adamson decided to sell his story to a newspaper. He had been warned before about selling unauthorised interviews before and so Granada felt they had no option but to sack him. On screen, Len was killed in a car accident after falling asleep at the wheel while driving back from a job in Ashton. To add insult to injury, it was revealed after the funeral that Len had in fact been having an affair with Marjorie Proctor.

Mavis Riley was being wooed by bohemian potter Victor Pendlebury who brought out the wild, artistic, romantic in her. He took her on a camping holiday to the Lake District but when she saw the size of the tent that he’d brought for them to sleep in, she refused to have anything to do with it and they ended up sleeping in a youth hostel. He later announced that he was buying a cottage in Saddleworth and asked Mavis to move in with him in a trial marriage. She was tempted but felt that if he wasn’t prepared to commit fully then he wasn’t worthy of her. The following year he proposed to her but by then she was engaged to that dozy drip of a man, Derek Wilton. If only she’d been bolder.

Also in 1983: Deirdre Barlow has an affair with Mike Baldwin; Eddie Yeats and Marion Willis get married; first appearances for Curly Watts, Terry Duckworth, Kevin Webster and Percy Sugden; Suzie Birchall returns but leaves again after failing to seduce Brian Tilsley; Graffiti Club opens; the Duckworths move into No. 9, complete with pigeons; Vince St Clair & Carole Malone go on a ‘date’.

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