Derek organised a trip to London to see Miss Saigon as a way of giving Mavis some excitement. She'd complained about being bored, but she'd imagined something a bit more stimulating than a coach down the M6 with Emily and Ken. As a result they rowed, and Derek sat away from her - so when the coach left without him, she didn't even notice. Mavis was mortified to realise they'd left him at Sandbach services but Derek assumed she'd done it deliberately. He didn't get any sleep and ended up dozing off in the school - leaving it unlocked. He was woken by the police as the school had been broken into. Vicky brought her new boyfriend Leo back to the pub after he missed his train. Bet agreed to let him stay in the back bedroom - as long as Vicky made sure Steve saw him leave next morning. (She also warned Leo that she was a very light sleeper and the floorboards in the Rovers were very creaky, in that delightfully playful yet ever so slightly threatening way that only Julie Goodyear can pull off). Meanwhile, Charlie came back to the pub and apologised for humiliating Bet; they were soon snogging on the sofa. Raquel went to a modelling shoot for the brewery's calendar where she posed with a racing driver, Erik. Her ex-boyfriend Wayne the footballer was also there, and when he tried to put Raquel down, Erik leapt to her defence.
TUESDAY - Episodes originally broadcast 21st and 23rd February 1994
It's would be easy to call Emily boring, with her quiet life in her little house, but she's always been a right goer on the sly. She lost her virginity to a Hungarian, she married a bigamist, and she'd protest any injustice at the slightest provocation. She's certainly far too interesting for dull Bernard the vicar, or rather, ex-vicar, as his crisis of faith meant he'd handed in his resignation to the Bishop. Derek was carpeted by the headmistress after the school robbery and suspended, with her recommending to the governors that he be fired. He knocked back the Johnnie Walker and blamed Mavis for dragging him down. Poor Mave. Tanya's stuff was dumped at the pub; her dad had discovered she was having an affair with a married man and kicked her out. She moved into the cafe flat permanently while Bet warned her she was playing with fire. Fiona and Denise had a bet about how old Ken was; they interrogated the locals, which lead to some lovely little mentions of Leonard Swindley and Gamma Garments.
WEDNESDAY - Episodes originally broadcast 25th and 28th February 1994
Today saw the arrival of an important cast member: Ivy's New Lips. Yes, Lynne Perrie went off and got collagen injections without telling anyone, and suddenly dour, down-to-earth Catholic Ivy has a trout pout Kim Kardashian would envy. Worse, she's not learned how to talk through them yet, so it sounds like she's got a load of cotton wool in her mouth. Elsewhere, Des's boss, Captain Bertorelli from 'Allo 'Allo, turned up in the Rovers and caught him hanging out with Raquel. He was trying to persuade her to go out with him again. She agreed, but then spoiled things by hinting she'd like to move back in with him. Tanya wasn't too happy to see Captain Bertorelli, and we found out why; he was Alex, her married lover. Whatta mistake-a to make-a! Ken found out about Fiona and Denise's bet, and when she apologised and admitted it was because he looked so good for his age, he asked her out. This is the start of Daniel, of course, though this whole thing was an emergency storyline - Ken was getting close to Deirdre again before Christmas, but Anne Kirkbride's illness meant she had to be written out fast and so Denise was drafted in to give something for Ken to do. And Maud was so unhappy about moving out she sold the house from under Reg and Maureen, flogging it to an equity release company so she'd get an income to stay there. The Holdsworths tried to persuade her to change her mind but she refused, so they moved back into the Coronation Street flat and left her to it. It also meant Rita didn't have a buyer for Ted's old house - still - so she put it back on the market.
THURSDAY - Episodes originally broadcast 2nd and 4th March 1994
Vera was after a job, but Curly took on a young Mandy Dingle rather than her, pointing out that she was caught shoplifting in Bettabuy only a few months ago. She blamed Ivy And Her Lips for some reason. Des moved Raquel in, much to Tanya's annoyance, and they had a housewarming party. Derek banged on the wall to complain about the noise and Mavis, the party animal, banged right back at him. Emily and Bernard organised a holiday together, with separate rooms, though Sally saw the brochure and assumed they were off on a dirty weekend. Maureen grew frantic when she couldn't contact Maud, thinking she'd gone missing, only for Bet to reveal she was sat in the Rovers after a day in Blackpool with Percy and Martin. Mike presented Steve with a massive rates bill, finding it amusing that he was getting all these debts stacked up so early, and Jim went and had a word with him for being such a smug git.
FRIDAY - Episodes originally broadcast 7th and 9th March 1994
Ivy and Andy spotted a boy in Bettabuy stuffing sweets into his pocket. He was dragged up to Curly's office, where he turned out to be a very young Joseph Gilgun. Even better, his mum turned out to be Tricia Armstrong, played by the Member of Parliament for Batley & Spen, Tracy Brabin (although obviously as there's a General Election going on she's not technically the MP right now). Tricia flirted with Curly then returned the next day in search of a date. Derek went to see the school governors, waiting for the axe to fall, only to find himself reprieved. Mavis had written to them explaining about the Miss Saigon disaster. However, they found it so amusing, Derek took umbrage and handed in his resignation. He went back to the Kabin and unloaded a lot of resentment on Mavis. Denise - with an enormous hairdo that tripled the size of her head - went to dinner at Ken's. She wanted to be friends with him, but it seemed the gossips of the Street had decided they were at it like knives, so she decided not to see him at all. Sally tearfully confessed to Kevin that despite their best efforts, she was pregnant. He thought she'd done it deliberately and stormed out, leaving her sobbing. Honestly Kev, that's Sophie on the way, she'll be no bother. You should've got all upset when Sally got pregnant with Rosie - she turned out to be an absolute nightmare. Anyway, he soon came round, and admitted he was pleased and that he loved Sally. I really love the young Websters. They're absolutely adorable.
Of course, the arrival of Ivy's New Lips means that we'll very soon be seeing the departure of Lynne Perrie. But on the plus side, next week will also see the first appearance of a certain Norris Cole. Join me on Twitter @merseytart for the welcoming party.
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