The Week In Classic Corrie

MONDAY - Episodes originally broadcast 28th and 30th June 1993

Kevin and Steve were taken in for questioning by the police.  They were charged with perverting the course of justice, with Steve getting additional charges for driving without a licence, and Mike was told he'd have to pay his insurance money back.  Elaine turned out to be efficient and enthusiastic with her eyes on a promotion, and Curly hated it.  Angie rightly realised he was being threatened by a powerful woman and suggested he was nice to her instead of putting her down.  Elaine immediately thought he was trying it on.  In other women in the workplace news, Tracy Barlow started work as a florist full-time, and Deirdre tried to negotiate a pay rise with Brendan.  She backed down when he threatened to make her part-time.  Baby Tommy came down with mumps, and Phyllis told Vera that it could cause impotence in grown men, so she kicked Jack out the house.  He went to Don for a bed, but Don admitted he was in the spare room so there was no place for him, so he ended up at Curly's.

TUESDAY - Episodes originally broadcast 2nd and 5th July 1993

Do you know, it's always annoyed me that the sign on the front window says "Alf's Mini Market", the little illuminated sign at the top says "Alf's Mini Mart", but the strip over the door says "CORNER SHOP"?  Consistent branding is key to a good business.  Alf locked it up for the last time (cough) and had his farewell do in the Rovers.  It was understandably bittersweet for him, and when Betty brought out a cake, he wandered off and spent a quiet moment behind the counter.  Brendan got rid of all that confusing branding anyway and replaced it with big signs saying BEST BUYS.  He also caused ructions by refusing to offer credit; a pain for Phyllis the day before pension day, a major cause of hassle for Jack and Vera, as Brendan demanded they pay up their tick by the end of the week - £220.  Still, it was a distraction for Vera from prying into Ivy and Don's marriage.  Steve and Kevin went to the Magistrate's, only for the case to be referred to the Crown Court, leaving it hanging over their head.  Elsewhere Derek and Curly had employment problems, with Derek not getting promoted to Head Caretaker as he expected, and Curly having his prep for the manager's interview ruined by Jack and Don having a card session.

WEDNESDAY - Episodes originally broadcast 7th and 9th July 1993

Be still my beating heart.  Today's episodes saw the arrival of Colin Barnes, Des's sailor brother, who made my sixteen-year-old self quite weak at the knees.  (Although if I'm honest, in 2019, Neil the Hot Builder was better).  Before that though, Jack discovered that Brendan had paid Alf £75 for the Duckworth's debt.  He offered to pay £2 a week to pay off the lower amount, and when Brendan refused, he left quite happily thinking that would be the end of it as £75 was too low an amount to go to court for.  Des warned him that Brendan might get the heavy mob in instead, and when Vera spotted a stranger in the pub, she tried to lamp him.  It turned out to be our Col, visiting his brother with a mission to charm the pants off everyone he met.  Curly went for his job interview but the panel - including Reg - were incredibly hard on him.  Fortunately he got the job anyway and Elaine congratulated him through gritted teeth, pointing out that you have to be a man to succeed at Bettabuys.  She did however stay on as assistant manager.  Jim's mum had a heart attack, so he had to rush back to Belfast; Liz awkwardly told him to pass on her love.

THURSDAY - Episodes originally broadcast 12th and 14th July 1993

Curly began work as manager with a stirring - but lengthy - speech delivered to the unenthusiastic Betterbuy masses (including a very young Melanie "Scary Spice" Brown in the front row).  He continued to bombard them with management speak as he tried to bring about a whole new world.  There were other big retail changes in the Corner Shop as Brendan transformed it into an Olde Worlde grocery, with jars of provisions and Deirdre in a mob cap and lacy overall.  She was furious.  Phyllis was mostly annoyed she couldn't get her dinosaur pasta any more, and Brendan's offer of "tagliatelle verde" instead wasn't appreciated.  Joe got the afternoon off and went to the park with Sally, feeding the ducks and enquiring about her marriage.  Reg and Maureen got a potential buyer for the house in behind Maud's back, and Maud immediately took the opportunity to put him off with chat about mice.  Hanif's mum went to Denise's for a haircut to find out more about her, and raised her eyebrows at her bawdy chat and two ex-husbands.  Hanif admitted he'd told his mum he was in love with Denise to put her off arranging a marriage for him, which left Denise less than amused.

FRIDAY - Episodes originally broadcast 16th and 19th July 1993

After haranguing Alf to retire, Audrey was annoyed to have him clattering round the house and following her round the Street.  He was enjoying himself though, partly because he could keep an eye on her spending.  He also rescued the Alf's Mini Mart sign from the bin as Brendan rebranded the shop to Scott's Provisions.  Colin's flirting lead him to Raquel, and he continued right in front of Gordon, leading to a fracas.  Des warned him off Raquel so he went to drink at the Queens.  While talking to Liz she broke down in tears; number 11 had been broken into while it was empty and they'd stolen a picture of Katie.  It turned up in an alleyway, but she was still distraught, and Steve agreed to move back in to watch the place.  Denise confessed she had deeped feelings for Hanif and he told her she was just a bit of fun and dumped her.  She felt down and cried on Don's shoulder.  You'll regret that, love.  The Holdsworth-Naylor wedding preparations continued apace, with them hiring Angie to make a wedding dress, while Reg quietly interrogated Martin about residential homes for Maud. 

Did I deliberately pick that last screengrab because it has Colin in a pair of tight shorts?  You might think that.  I couldn't possibly comment.  Except perhaps on Twitter @merseytart.

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The Week In Classic Corrie

MONDAY - Episodes originally broadcast 4th and 7th June 1993

It took Jim exactly a week to go from supportive husband to absolute pig, as he accused Liz of sleeping her way to landlady of the Queens.  She understandably was furious and in retaliation he went on strike and refused to do any work in the pub.  When Tanya admitted she'd made up her allegations about Liz and Willmore, Jim finally said sorry, and admitted he felt emasculated because her name was above the door.  Get over yourself man.  Liz rightly told him he needed to accept she was a good landlady, and she was getting a career, and reminded him that she'd followed him round as an Army wife.  There was a rare rocking montage, as Let's Stick Together blared while, erm, Emily and Percy drove round Manchester.  Not exactly The Fast and The Furious is it?  They parked up to do some shopping and ended up with a clamped wheel and a forty pound fine.  Denise complained to Hanif about the money she owed Neil, and he misinterpreted her, thinking she was after him paying it for her.  She stormed out and was picked up by Don, who gave her the money himself.  She returned his cheque when she realised he hadn't told Ivy about it.  Jonathan was a nightmare child to Sally and she considered getting rid of him, but Joe managed to persuade her to keep him another week.

TUESDAY - Episodes originally broadcast 9th and 11th June 1993

Mike left his Jaguar and documents with Kevin for a service.  Dodgy Doug - now buried under a beard that made him look even more like a tramp than usual - took it to a Mercedes dealer, pretended to be Baldwin, and said he was thinking of trading it in.  Jim was still convinced Liz was having it away with Willmore, and when he caught him coming downstairs from the pub flat, he thumped him.  Jim was convinced this would mean Liz got sacked and they could go back to normal, but she picked the Queens over him.  Sally took on Jonathan full time then embarrassed herself by asking Joe for payment in cash - only for him to reveal he was a tax inspector.  Emily paid the fine on her clamping but the injustice got her riled up and she started telling people not to park there.  Don explained his non-marriage with Ivy to Denise, and persuaded her to take his money, saying he didn't want anything more from her.  She foolishly believed him.  And Angie and Alma had a heart to heart over a curry, where Ange admitted she was depressed and felt a failure, but it was an absolute joy to watch.

WEDNESDAY - Episodes originally broadcast 14th and 16th June 1993

Andy came back from Sheffield to his parents' broken marriage.  When he asked for an explanation, Jim told him his mother was a trollop who was sleeping with her boss.  The twins were disgusted he could think such a thing - because nineties Liz McDonald is a virtuous innocent, not a man-eater - and moved out of Coronation Street and into the Queens.  Brendan discovered Reg was thinking of buying the Corner Shop.  He dallied over giving him his redundancy, so Reg demanded a £5000 reduction in the sale price from Alf.  Understandably Alf kicked him out on his ear.  Emily continued with her crusade against the clampers, camping out on the forecourt and seeing off drivers, enraging the owner and leaving him to threaten her with the police.  Doug fiddled with the Jaguar so Mike couldn't use it, forcing him to go to London on the train and leave the car in the garage.

THURSDAY - Episodes originally broadcast 18th and 21st June 1993

The glorious Milton Johns as Brendan Scott slid into the Corner Shop and gazumped Reg, offering the asking price.  Alf snatched his hand off and left Holdsworth floundering.  Curly also realised that if Reg wasn't going anywhere, he wouldn't be manager.  Emily wrote to the Gazette about the clampers, worrying Percy, who was concerned her obsession would cause another breakdown.  He put £60 in an envelope and told her it was a refund from the clampers.  Unfortunately, the Gazette then got in touch about an interview, and Emily gleefully told them she'd won the battle.  Doug traded in the Jag for a Mercedes and drove off into the sunset listening to Chris Rea.  Mike wandered around broken hearted about his missing car and missing mobile, driving a hired Nissan Micra, and making Alma giggle behind her hand.  The garage phoned him to let him know he'd left some gloves in the Jaguar, and when he persuaded them he was the real Mike Baldwin, he went to the police.  In a loss to the nation's education system,  Tracy Barlow decided not to study for her A-levels.  She also told Deirdre she never really liked Doug Murray.  You and me both. love, but at least he's gone now.

FRIDAY - Episodes originally 23rd and 25th June 1993

There was a rare glimpse of Emily's front parlour - that's not a euphemism - as she gave an interview to the Gazette over her clamping saga.  When the details appeared in the paper, the clamping manager accused her of lying about the refund, and Percy was forced to admit the money came from him.  Emily felt humiliated and demanded he pack his bags.  Reg received a promotion to Area Manager, but he refused to recommend Curly as his permanent replacement, so he was made temporary manager alongside an Elaine Fenwick.  She turned out to be extremely ambitious.  The police delivered Mike's Jaguar to the garage.  Sergeant Bannen was surprised to meet Kevin, as he was the one who'd dealt with the car when it was crashed by Steve the previous year.  Because Steve didn't have a licence, he'd given Kev's name, and Baldwin pressured him into handing in his papers.  Now Bannen had met the real Kevin, he was understandably suspicious, and he then discovered Steve was the real culprit.  The police told Mike he may be charged with insurance fraud.  There's something quite delightful about a tiny plotline coming back to haunt the characters six months later; current writers, take note.  On top of that, Doug sent a smug postcard from Germany, so it really wasn't Mike's day.  (I must also note that Mike wore his mobile in a kind of holster under his jacket, which I think was meant to give him a gunslinger vibe, but actually made it look like he was wearing a bra).

No, none of those paragraphs in Emily's story actually relate to Emily Bishop.  The set dressers of 1993 didn't reckon with @merseytart squinting over YouTube.

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The Week In Classic Corrie

MONDAY - Episodes originally broadcast 12th and 14th May 1993

I know Reg Holdsworth has gone down in history as some comedy great of the Street but I cannot stand him - and in combination with Maureen, he's even worse.  The two of them are quite hysterical together, so my heart sank in today's episodes when Reg proposed and she said yes.  The only good part was Maud Grimes continuing to treat him like she'd found him on the bottom of her wheels.  Reg fought back though, telling Maud that if she continued to disapprove, he'd take Maureen away and leave her on her own with no-one to take care of her.  How revolting.  Elsewhere, Raquel visited her boyfriend Wayne during a coaching session at the High School and was shocked to find he had a saucy "driver" called Serena.  Bet told her to get a grip on him - somewhere painful.  Hanif told Angie to stop spreading rumours about him and she realised Neil was the one behind it.  She furiously accused him of still holding a torch for Denise.  Again.  The terminally hopeless Doug - another character I think we're meant to find charming, rather than unpleasant - left his van to move in as a lodger with Des.  This thrilled Derek, because it meant they could report his awful Dormobile as an abandoned vehicle, but he was less amused when Des hired a crane to pick up the van - and dumped it in the Wiltons' back garden.  Call me a miserable old sod, but I didn't find the sight of Derek and Mavis distraught at a lump of rusty metal crushing their bird table that amusing.

TUESDAY - Episodes originally broadcast 17th and 19th May 1993

Raquel continued to dream of being a WAG, despite the fact that Wayne was clearly stringing her along.  Gordon from the football club tried to get her to see sense - and offer himself up as an alternative - but she only had eyes for her beloved.  Bet and Stella Rigby got their heads together and realised Harry Potts was trawling the pubs of Weatherfield with his stories of road widening.  It seemed at some places he was getting more than free drinks as well.  They resolved to fix him.  The fantastic Brendan Scott reappeared, threatening redundancies, and Maureen suggested they take the money and buy the Corner Shop.  Alf was less than thrilled, but he finally let Reg see the books, only to send him away when Holdsworth offered eight grand under the asking price.  Derek took an angle grinder to the Dormobile in his back yard - a surprisingly alpha male move from Wilton - and chucked the bits over Des's fence.  This put off the bloke who was thinking of buying number 6, and enraged Doug, who strangely believed the van still belonged to him even though it had been dropped in Mavis's fish pond.  When Derek realised he'd ruined Des's sale, he tried to take the bits back, but Doug threatened him for stealing what he considered his - just as the potential buyer turned up for another look.  Des had reached the end of his tether and gave Doug twenty four hours to pack up and leave.

WEDNESDAY - Episodes originally broadcast 21st and 24th May 1993

It was Reg's engagement do, and he brought Maud along to meet the locals.  She put on a smiley exterior and made the locals think he'd been lying about her.  At the party, Stella and Bet confronted Harry and as punishment they made him buy drinks for the whole pub.  Alf also caved and agreed to sell the shop to Reg.  It was dependent on him getting redundancy, but Reg knew if he let Brendan Scott know he wanted to go he'd never get it, so he decided to be lousy at his job and get driven out.  The news spoiled Ivy's plans to run the shop herself; well, that and Don telling her in no uncertain terms he didn't want to be involved.  Mavis caved and got the Dormobile hoisted out of the garden.  Des and Derek were thrilled, thinking the other had paid for it, until Des offered to pay half and Derek realised Mavis had gone behind his back.  Raquel decided to cook Wayne a nice dinner in the hope it'd get him to propose.  She went to buy some candles - not the type you'd need a "candlebra" for, mind - and Mavis gave her one of hers.  Liz was offered a pub by Newton & Ridley: the Queens, one of the best pubs in their portfolio, which got up Bet and Stella's nose.  They wondered why they'd never been offered an establishment of that calibre.  At the White Swan, Stella implied that Richard Willmore had tried it on with her but she declined ("one husband and one boyfriend at any one time is enough."  Bet: "You sweet old-fashioned thing.") and suggested that maybe that was how Liz got the Queens...

THURSDAY - Episodes originally broadcast 26th and 28th May 1993

It was more Heartbreak City than Weatherfield as the young ladies of the Street discovered how awful men were.  Raquel, with Betty's help, prepared a rich birthday meal for her and Wayne.  When he failed to show up she got Gordon to drive her to his Wethy Quays flat, only to find him there with Serena.  She pushed him in the dock, but was still heartbroken.  Gordon - a kind of Diet Curly - offered her a shoulder to cry on, and they ended up kissing.  Denise got dressed up for a posh night out with Hanif, enraging Neil to such an extent he tried thumping him.  He ended up worse off though and Angie chucked his stuff out.  She stayed at home feeling sorry for herself and when she went into work Hanif fired her.  Liz said her goodbyes to the Rovers while Bet seethed.  Betty told her off for being a jealous cow, but it was too late - Bet had already let slip to Jim on the phone (he was "visiting his sick mum", which I assume means Charlie Lawson had the flu) that Willmore was a bit of a lech and might fancy Liz.  Rita made Bet see sense and she made it up with Liz.

FRIDAY - Episodes originally broadcast 31st May and 2nd June 1993

Bank Holiday Monday brought with it a bevy of changes.  Liz and Jim moved into the Queens, meeting their new staff: cellarman Zak Dingle from Emmerdale, and barmaid, the superb Tanya Pooley.  Tanya immediately established her credentials as an absolute cow by bitching about the McDonalds behind their back and dropping hints to Jim that Willmore was after Liz.  Amazing.  Sally got a new childminding client, little Jonathan, the son of civil servant Joe.  Sal idly wondered where Mrs Joe was.  Raquel went and got her hair done, coming away with dreadlocks and looking quite astonishing.  Not in a good way.  She also reassured Gordon that she didn't regret their kiss.   Angie's life was quietly falling apart so she had chips and red wine with Alma in the cafe and they got gloriously drunk.  The evening ended badly though when Neil shoved a goodbye note under the door.  Still, being the strong, fantastic woman she is, Angie pulled herself together and put her sewing machine in the flat so she could set up on her own.  Neil had decided there was nothing left for him in Weatherfield, so he went to Denise and asked for the money he loaned her back.  She gave him a post-dated cheque to get rid of him, while secretly knowing she didn't have the cash. 

That's the last we see of Neil The Hot Builder, and I am bereft.  Please send kind thoughts via Twitter @merseytart.

Classic Corrie is on ITV3 every weekday from 14:50 with a repeat the following morning from 6am.

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