Template:17 November

17th November 1965: Valerie Barlow had begun evening classes studying sociology in October 1965, worried that there was an intellectual gap between her and Ken and leaving him one night a week to look after the twins. On one of those evenings he nipped to the Rovers for a packet of cigarettes, leaving the twins unattended. A piece of coal fell from the fireplace, setting some nappies which were drying in front of it smouldering. Ken was delayed at the pub by Stan Ogden who insisted on buying him some drinks. It was therefore Val who came home to No. 9 to find a conflagration in the back room and their seven-month old babies unattended upstairs. She blamed him squarely for the incident, though Ena Sharples told her it was as much her fault. When Val saw Ken about to light another cigarette, she threatened to leave him.
 * For more information see Episode 515 (17th November 1965).