Spider Smart

Spider Smart was one of a number of loutish football fans who descended on the Rovers Return in March 1970 when a football special bus was scheduled to begin its journey in Coronation Street. Jack Walker was pleased at the extra income they received from the hard-drinking lads but Annie was much less so. Spider deliberately got off to a bad start when he asked Annie if she should be working at her age. She threatened them with eviction if they made one more disrespectful comment. He found this amusing and momentarily stayed silent but then asked permission to speak so he could ask where the gents were. Audrey Fleming knew him from school where he had always been a troublemaker and loudmouth. She further said that he lived across the canal from her parents’ and had done a spell in borstal.

When Annie found out what the yobs had written on the Rovers’ wall, she wrote a letter of petition to the transport authorities demanding the removal of the bus but the menfolk refused to sign it. In retaliation, Annie got the womenfolk to withdraw all of their “services” to their husbands.


 * Spider was an early role for Nicholas Ball who later starred as the title character in the late 1970s series "Hazell".