Equity actors' strike

The Equity Actor's Strike was an industrial dispute between the ITV television companies and Equity, the actor's union.

After rumbling discontent that had lasted for many months, the strike was called on 1st November 1961. The cause of the strike was an insistence from Equity that actor's basic rate of pay, which had been set to a low figure when the cash-strapped ITV companies began broadcasting in the mid-to-late 1950's, be raised now that those companies were comfortably profitabel.

As the terms of the strike were that actors would not sign new contracts, Coronation Street lost a large part of its cast. Characters who were deemed at the time to be "Guest Cast" were on short-term contracts (in some cases, weekly) and, as the programme was recorded very close to transmission at this time, they were immediately lost to the storylines. For this reason, Episode 93 broadcast on the day the strike was called features the last appearance of Bill Gregory and Jed Stone in 1961 and the next few episodes were hurriedly re-written to explain their absence. (Bill Gregory was next seen on 2nd July 1962 and Jed Stone on 5th November 1962).

From that point onwards various characters disappeared, some never to be seen again (Jean Stark, Norman Braithwaite and Phil Dobson), others came back to the programme after the strike was over (in the main Miss Nugent, Mr. Swindley, Esther Hayes, Christine Hardman, Doreen Lostock, Sheila Birtles, Lucille Hewitt, Val Tatlock) and others, where the actors had previously been signed to long-term, year-long contracts (a rarity in television) remained. The characters who continued to be seen in the programme were Annie Walker, Jack Walker, Albert Tatlock, Frank Barlow, Ken Barlow, Harry Hewitt, Concepta Hewitt, Elsie Tanner, Florrie Lindley, Ena Sharples, Minnie Caldwell, Martha Longhurst and Len Fairclough. Philip Lowrie's long-term contract to play Dennis Tanner expired before the strike ended on 3rd April 1962 and thus his character too disappeared from the programme. For the most part, the programme survived for five months with just fourteen characters, no guest cast and no extras however it was the only ITV videotaped drama to continue through the actor's strike. Many programmes, such as Emergency Ward 10 and The Avengers disappeared from the screens during the period of the strike and the schedules were filled with variety shows, US imports and filmed series.

Although the strike presented the production team with many problems, it was a blessing in disguise as the programme had virtually no opposition during the period concerned. It was consistently at the top of the ratings and its popularity became assured.