Mr. Grimley

Mr Grimley was a rent officer employed by Weatherfield County Borough Council. Minnie Caldwell had fallen behind by two weeks in her rental payments on 5 Coronation Street to Alfred Wormold and fretted about evicted. Albert Tatlock hadn't helped matters by passing on to her that Wormold had told him he had an appointment with Grimley and she consequently began to think the meeting was about her and possibly raising her rent.

Bet Lynch noticed her distress and got Len Fairclough to talk to her. He elicited the full story and in his role as councillor asked Grimley to call on her. Unfortunately, he did so when Albert was also visiting to loan her the £2 arrears and what should have been an easy visit become somewhat prolonged. Albert interrupted, cross-questioned and made a general nuisance of himself to the point where Grimley could barely get a full sentence in. When he was able to, he finally made it clear to Minnie that she had a controlled tenancy so the landlord couldn’t change the rent without doing certain things, such as consulting him or making certain improvements to the property, such as putting in a bathroom, before raising her rent. Albert's sarcastic contribution was to tell the man - who he deduced used to be a policeman - that it had taken him long enough to get to the point and Minnie didn't help Grimley's patience by excusing his supposed tardiness, telling Albert that the man's heart was in the right place.