Jed Stone

Jed Stone was the flat-cap wearing Scouse who lodged at Number 5 for a while in the 1960s. He tried to make a living from a variety of get-rich-quick schemes but they always backfired.

Biography
Jed was born in Liverpool in the late 1930s. He served time in a borstal in Manchester in 1960, and first showed up in Weatherfield the following year to see if his friend Dennis Tanner, who he met in the borstal, would help him out on a job - of dubious legality - but Dennis wasn't into that sort of thing and turned him down.

He returned in September, reformed but unemployed, to find work with Dennis' help. Dennis was promoted at the Orinocco club and managed to get Jed his old job. Jed was a regular fixture in the street from then on and became fast friends with Dennis, Christine Hardman and Jean Stark, who he briefly dated.

After some time away, Jed reappeared in November 1962, as Dennis had told him he would be able to lodge at Number 11, but Dennis' mother Elsie wasn't having it. A sympathetic Minnie Caldwell let Jed live with her at Number 5. He wasn't working at the Orinocco anymore but made money by doing odd jobs for friends and putting into action the occasional business idea of his, including selling wash basins, waxwork dummys, operating a market stall and working in an auction room. Whatever the job, they were always short-term and he never earned a lot, if anything. Jed found that some of the street's residents didn't trust him, and as Dennis was away nobody was vouching for him. It wasn't long before his charm and incomparable wit got him a few friends, namely Sheila Birtles, Jerry Booth and Doreen Lostock. He became a ray of sunshine in pensioner Minnie's life, the son she never had. When Sunny Jim, as Minnie called him, decided to leave Weatherfield in 1963 and live with some friends back in Liverpool, he didn't know how to tell Minnie and ended up leaving without telling her, as he couldn't bear to break her heart.

Jed unexpectedly showed up at Number 5 in January 1966 and paid a few months rent in advance, telling Minnie he would be staying for a while. Pretty soon he conjuring up more get-rich-quick schemes, and opened the Viaduct Bargain Boutique with Dennis, hoping to make money by holding auctions there. He stayed until September, when he the police were after him for possessing stolen blankets and caught up with him in Coronation Street before he had a chance to scarper. He was more worried about leaving Minnie feeling devastated again on her birthday and asked the police to pretend to be friends of his. He was sent to Walton Prison for nine months.

Jed kept in touch with Minnie and was supposed to return for a visit in 1974 but sent his friend Eddie Yeats, who he had met in Walton, in his place.

Miscellaneous information
Jed was well remembered for always wearing a flat cap. He never took it off, not even in bed.

Behind the scenes
The spritual precursor to Eddie Yeats, Jed wasn't originally concieved as a comic character, it was Kenneth Cope's input that turned Jed into the lovable rogue he became.

Jed wasn't featured for a year between late 1961 and late 1962. This was because of the Equity actors' strike. See that article for more information.

Jed will be returning to Coronation Street later in 2008.