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Arthur Dewhurst was a Weatherfield police detective sergeant who enjoyed a relationship with Elsie Tanner in the Spring of 1961.

They first met when Dennis Tanner, coming home one night from the Orinoco Club came across Arthur being beaten up by three men in the ginnel whilst in the course of his work. Dennis's intervention caused the three assailants to run off and he helped the roughed-up man into the back room of 11 Coronation Street where Elsie and Dot Greenhalgh tended to his bruises, though Dennis, just a few months after a spell inside himself, was taken aback when Arthur revealed his job to his helpers, much to his mother's amusement.

Finding Arthur polite and charming, Elsie agreed that he could call on her again, though he was hardly love's young dream and was very different to the usual men friends she associated with. For a police officer, Arthur could at times appear feeble-minded, with his slow-talking, slow-moving manner making him seem rather unauthoritative. He liked to enjoy life and seemingly always had a grin on his face and a cigarette in his hand. On the same day as the attack, Elsie had met sales rep Walter Fletcher at Miami Modes and though he was much more her usual type, she rejected his advances and chose to go out with Arthur instead. One of their first dates was in the Rovers where Elsie began to have initial doubts that he was a bit too clingy and possessive. She was taken aback when Walter turned up in the pub and got her son-in-law barman to get rid of him, though was angry when she found out that Ivan had said that Arthur was her husband as she felt it might compromise her on-going divorce from her husband Arnold.

On another occasion in the pub, Arthur was impressed with the way in which Jack Walker physically ejected a drunken customer and was assured that the incident was most unusual for the premises. Dennis also found himself warming to Arthur when ex-cellmate Jed Stone appeared on the street, wanting his help robbing a general store on Rosamund Street. Dennis was determined to go straight and enjoyed introducing Jed to Arthur when he returned in the evening wanting an answer to his proposition.

Keeping an eye on the goings-on at No.11 was Ena Sharples who told Arthur she was very pleased that he was keeping an eye on his disreputable neighbour under the guise of going out with her. Ena spread the news that the two were engaged, though aside from her own cronies in the snug, no one believed the gossip. Linda Cheveski thought her mother ought to consider marriage but her mother, not entirely seriously, thought he was the man to come back to once she had sewn her old wild oats.

Arthur's professional skills were on display for all in the May when Jack and Annie Walker returned from a Licensed Victuallers' ball to find there had been a break-in at the pub in the small hours and Arthur was leading the investigation. He confirmed with Jack the inventory of the damage: six hundred cigarettes and two bottles of whisky were stolen, and the best wine glasses smashed, though no cash was on the premises at the time of the crime. Arthur's investigations caused gossip when he asked to see Ivan, though it was only due to his neglecting to register his change of address to 9 Coronation Street as an alien resident. Elsie was furious that he'd embarrassed her son-in-law in front of the residents and it revealed cracks in her relationship with Arthur whose plodding ways were starting to irritate her. A trip to Blackpool for the Whit Monday holiday where Arthur made undiplomatic remarks about her weight only made matters worse.

Arthur's investigations discovered the Rovers' thief when he broke into a warehouse - a teddy boy from the other side of town. He later brought a friend from the force, Peter Derwent, to meet Elsie in the Rovers but she was too distracted to greet him properly as she impatiently awaited news of Linda who was in hospital giving birth to her son. After a week or so of the baby taking over the Tanners' life, Arthur's suggestions that Elsie should spend a few quiet nights at home as she was looking tired didn't go down well with her, craving excitement that she was unable to get from the staid man. He started to get suspicions that she was seeing other men when she refused a night out with him, preferring Dot's company and the two had a major about the matter. A few nights later, Arthur brought Peter back with him into the Rovers, watching to keep an eye on Elsie and have the matter out with her about her too-healthy interest in the opposite sex. By coincidence, Joe Baumgarten, an ex-GI from the USA was in the pub that night looking for a lady he knew from the Second World War. Everyone assumed it was Elsie he had in mind and she fled into the snug when she saw Arthur in wait and Joe following her, but it was Minnie Caldwell who he had lodged with who the American had spotted in the room and who he greeted with delight.

Arthur's propensity to make back-handed comments to her continued to get on Elsie's nerves and she was pleased and relieved when he was transferred to another district in the July, enabling her to swiftly move on to her next relationship with Walter Fletcher who came back into her life at a propitious moment.

List of appearances[]

1961

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