Coronation Street in 1977

1977 was Coronation Street's eighteenth year.

Main characters[]

Ranking	Character	Played by	Duration	Number of Episodes	Running total	Previous year's ranking
1	Elsie Howard	Patricia Phoenix	Full year	81	1184	8
2	Len Fairclough	Peter Adamson	Full year	78	1358	1
3	Bet Lynch	Julie Goodyear	Full year	76	572	2
3	Hilda Ogden	Jean Alexander	Full year	76	934	5
5	Rita Littlewood/Fairclough	Barbara Mullaney/Knox	Full year	74	406	12
6	Ray Langton	Neville Buswell	Full year	69	717	5
7	Betty Turpin	Betty Driver	Full year	68	639	3
8	Annie Walker	Doris Speed	Full year	66	1335	4
9	Ken Barlow	William Roache	Full year	64	1151	7
9	Alf Roberts	Bryan Mosley	Full year	64	458	9
9	Eddie Yeats	Geoffrey Hughes	Full year	64	146	22
12	Deirdre Langton	Anne Kirkbride	Full year	62	294	9
13	Mavis Riley	Thelma Barlow	Full year	61	259	16
14	Fred Gee	Fred Feast	Full year	60	115	18
15	Renee Bradshaw	Madge Hindle	Full year	59	103	20
16	Gail Potter	Helen Worth	Full year	58	167	9
16	Stan Ogden	Bernard Youens	Full year	58	873	15
18	Ernest Bishop	Stephen Hancock	Full year	57	406	13
19	Mike Baldwin	Johnny Briggs	Full year	56	72	24
19	Emily Bishop	Eileen Derbyshire	Full year	56	966	13
19	Albert Tatlock	Jack Howarth	Full year	56	1024	17
22	Suzie Birchall	Cheryl Murray	From January	54	54	-
23	Tracy Langton	Christabel Finch	From January	40	40	-
24	Ena Sharples	Violet Carson	Until August	32	1056	21
25	Vera Duckworth	Elizabeth Dawn	Full year	17	24	27
26	Ivy Tilsley	Lynne Perrie	Full year	16	55	28
27	Steve Fisher	Lawrence Mullin	From August	14	14	-
27	Derek Wilton	Peter Baldwin	April, July to August and November to December	14	26	25
29	Blanche Hunt	Maggie Jones	January to February and May to June	10	90	26
30	Peter Barlow	Joseph McKenna	August to September	6	35	-
31	Janet Barlow	Judith Barker	February only	3	71	-
31	Billy Walker	Kenneth Farrington	October only	3	328	-
33	Alan Howard	Alan Browning	July only	1	256	-

Production[]

Silver jubilee — The residents mark the Silver Jubilee

After being appointed the programme's producer in 1976, Bill Podmore carried on for a second year. Two former producers, June Howson and Leslie Duxbury, stood in for Podmore for episodes 1738 to 1739 and 1744 to 1747, respectively. Podmore then remained in the role until Episode 2269, broadcast on 29th December 1982 - the longest run of any producer to date.

Although Podmore is mostly remembered for his comedic storylines, his tenure occasionally veered into darker territory. In February, the first suicide of a main character occurred when Janet Barlow took her own life after failing to affect a reconciliation with Ken. As Janet and Ken were still married, Judith Barker was approached about reprising her character for a final time in order to close off that chapter of Ken's life. Unlike the planned suicide of Sheila Birtles in 1963, this storyline does not appear to have stirred up any controversy.

Len Fairclough and Rita Littlewood's wedding in April broke 20 million viewers, making it the most-watched episode of the decade. The culmination of a five-year courtship, the occasion was marked by a special TV Times souvenir magazine entitled There’s a Wedding in the Street. The magazine is notable as it contained a wedding album of colour photos taken several weeks before the film shoot at All Saint's Church on Barton Road, Stretford. The cast effectively performed the ceremony twice so that the magazine would have time to go to press before the episode aired. This caused a problem when, on the day they were set to film the wedding scenes, Patricia Phoenix called in sick. The result was that Elsie Howard had to be painstakingly removed from all of TV Times's photos.

Alongside the programme's on-screen celebration of the Queen's Silver Jubilee, almost all of the main cast appeared in a skit written by John Stevenson in a Jubilee variety show at Manchester's Palace Theatre.

A major location shoot took place in the Peak District for a storyline in which Ken Barlow was injured during a walking holiday with son Peter. The Royal Air Force Service and the Buxton Mountain Rescue Team assisted the production team during filming, for which they received a credit in the transmitted episodes. Peter was aged up by several years as Joseph McKenna took over the part, the only actor to play him with a Scottish accent.

Three new younger characters were introduced. One was Tracy Langton, daughter of Ray and Deirdre. Tracy was the first baby born in Coronation Street since 1965, and actress Christabel Finch the first child in the cast since the Barlows twins were written out in 1971. Unlike the twins whose appearances in the late 1960s were kept to a minimum, a conscious decision was made to feature Tracy as much as possible. Blanche Hunt returned for the birth, with Maggie Jones making further appearances in the summer.

The other arrivals were Suzie Birchall and Steve Fisher, who along with Gail Potter made up the programme's trio of teenagers. Gail and Suzie, who both lodged with Elsie Howard, worked together at Sylvia's Separates which became the Western Front, a modern boutique owned by Mike Baldwin.

Derek Wilton, Billy Walker and Alan Howard also featured. With 14 appearances across five months, Derek was cemented as the main man in Mavis Riley's life. The occasion of Kenneth Farrington's return was the 40th anniversary of Annie Walker becoming landlady of the Rovers Return. The same episode saw Deirdre Langton molested under the viaduct by a mystery attacker. Alan Howard's appearance was a vocal cameo where his voice was heard as Elsie Howard read a letter from her estranged husband. This was Alan Browning's final contribution to the programme as the characters were divorced in 1978.

A minor change was made to the title sequence with Episode 1768 on 26th December. Following the refurbishment of the Rovers exterior, the final shot was re-filmed to reflect this fact.

Viewing figures[]

TAM/AGB (see Viewing Figures) changed their publishing method on 1st August. On that date, they abandoned their previous system of measuring viewers in terms of number of homes watching, and went over to number of viewers.

The early part of the year saw ratings climb to their highest levels since 1965, with five episodes gaining over twenty million viewers. The last of these - seen by 20.85 million viewers, the biggest audience of the decade - was Episode 1697 on 20th April, which saw Len Fairclough and Rita Littlewood finally tie the knot after a five-year on-again/off-again relationship. Six months gained on the same intervals in 1976, all but one of which were in the first half of the year. The last quarter of the year was over a million down on 1976 but the strong performance in the early months were enough to elevate the yearly average to 15.88 million viewers, the second-highest of the 1970s after 1970 and an increase of nearly 500,000 viewers on 1976.

Nine episodes reached number one in the viewing charts, the most since 1971 and an increase of eight from 1976. This number would steadily increase over the next few years as Coronation Street regained its position as the UK's top-rated programme for the majority of the year.

Episodes[]

#	Ep. No.	Date	Writer	Director	Viewing Figures (homes, until August/ viewers)	Chart Position
1	1666	Monday 3rd January	John Stevenson	Alan Bromly	7,600,000 16,720,000	13
2	1667	Wednesday 5th January	Julian Roach	Alan Bromly	8,550,000 18,810,000	2
3	1668	Monday 10th January	Adele Rose	June Wyndham Davies	8,950,000 19,690,000	4
4	1669	Wednesday 12th January	H.V. Kershaw	June Wyndham Davies	8,900,000 19,580,000	6
5	1670	Monday 17th January	Paula Milne	John Black	8,900,000 19,580,000	3
6	1671	Wednesday 19th January	Brian Finch	John Black	8,800,000 19,360,000	4
7	1672	Monday 24th January	Kay McManus	Laurence Moody	8,800,000 19,360,000	5
8	1673	Wednesday 26th January	Leslie Duxbury	Laurence Moody	8,800,000 19,360,000	5
9	1674	Monday 31st January	Leslie Duxbury	Alan Bromly	9,050,000 19,910,000	2
10	1675	Wednesday 2nd February	H.V. Kershaw	Alan Bromly	8,800,000 19,360,000	4
11	1676	Monday 7th February	John Stevenson	Quentin Lawrence	8,950,000 19,690,000	2
12	1677	Wednesday 9th February	Barry Hill	Quentin Lawrence	8,650,000 19,030,000	5
13	1678	Monday 14th February	Adele Rose	Laurence Moody	9,000,000 19,800,000	3
14	1679	Wednesday 16th February	Brian Finch	Laurence Moody	8,650,000 19,030,000	5
15	1680	Monday 21st February	Brian Finch	Oliver Horsbrugh	9,250,000 20,350,000	2
16	1681	Wednesday 23rd February	H.V. Kershaw	Oliver Horsbrugh	9,050,000 19,910,000	6
17	1682	Monday 28th February	Adele Rose	Quentin Lawrence	9,050,000 19,910,000	2
18	1683	Wednesday 2nd March	Janey Preger	Quentin Lawrence	9,000,000 19,800,000	3
19	1684	Monday 7th March	Kenneth Eastaugh	Bill Gilmour	9,150,000 20,130,000	4
20	1685	Wednesday 9th March	Leslie Duxbury	Bill Gilmour	8,400,000 18,480,000	7
21	1686	Monday 14th March	Leslie Duxbury	John Black	9,100,000 20,020,000	2
22	1687	Wednesday 16th March	H.V. Kershaw	John Black	8,300,000 18,260,000	6
23	1688	Monday 21st March	Peter Tonkinson	Oliver Horsbrugh	8,850,000 19,470,000	3
24	1689	Wednesday 23rd March	Adele Rose	Oliver Horsbrugh	8,550,000 18,810,000	4
25	1690	Monday 28th March	John Stevenson	Quentin Lawrence	9,144,000 20,116,800	1
26	1691	Wednesday 30th March	Brian Finch	Quentin Lawrence	8,587,000 18,891,400	4
27	1692	Monday 4th April	Adele Rose	June Wyndham Davies	8,883,000 19,542,600	2
28	1693	Wednesday 6th April	Paula Milne	June Wyndham Davies	8,200,000 18,040,000	4
29	1694	Monday 11th April	John Stevenson	Laurence Moody	5,902,000 12,984,400	n/k
30	1695	Wednesday 13th April	H.V. Kershaw	Laurence Moody	8,483,000 18,662,600	3
31	1696	Monday 18th April	Leslie Duxbury	Stephen Butcher	8,731,000 19,208,200	4
32	1697	Wednesday 20th April	Brian Finch	Stephen Butcher	9,478,000 20,851,600	1
33	1698	Monday 25th April	John Stevenson	June Wyndham Davies	8,680,000 19,096,000	4
34	1699	Wednesday 27th April	Brian Finch	June Wyndham Davies	8,841,000 19,450,200	2
35	1700	Monday 2nd May	Kay McManus	Laurence Moody	8,097,000 17,813,400	6
36	1701	Wednesday 4th May	H.V. Kershaw	Laurence Moody	8,120,000 17,864,000	5
37	1702	Monday 9th May	Adele Rose	Philip Draycott	8,443,000 18,574,600	1
38	1703	Wednesday 11th May	Leslie Duxbury	Philip Draycott	7,628,000 16,781,600	5
39	1704	Monday 16th May	Brian Finch	Stephen Butcher	8,211,000 18,064,200	1
40	1705	Wednesday 18th May	Paula Milne	Stephen Butcher	7,135,000 15,697,000	8
41	1706	Monday 23rd May	Barry Hill	Laurence Moody	8,032,000 17,670,400	3
42	1707	Wednesday 25th May	Adele Rose	Laurence Moody	5,345,000 11,759,000	n/k
43	1708	Monday 30th May	H.V. Kershaw	Philip Draycott	7,627,000 16,779,400	1
44	1709	Wednesday 1st June	Leslie Duxbury	Philip Draycott	6,848,000 15,065,600	4
45	1710	Monday 6th June	Julian Roach	Bill Gilmour	5,409,000 11,899,800	n/k
46	1711	Wednesday 8th June	John Stevenson	Bill Gilmour	6,420,000 14,124,000	9
47	1712	Monday 13th June	David Crane	Laurence Moody	7,776,000 17,107,200	1
48	1713	Wednesday 15th June	Brian Finch	Laurence Moody	7,079,000 15,573,800	7
49	1714	Monday 20th June	H.V. Kershaw	Philip Draycott	7,439,000 16,365,800	1
50	1715	Wednesday 22nd June	Leslie Duxbury	Philip Draycott	6,350,000 13,970,000	7
51	1716	Monday 27th June	Janey Preger	Bill Gilmour	7,350,000 16,170,000	1
52	1717	Wednesday 29th June	H.V. Kershaw	Bill Gilmour	6,550,000 14,410,000	6
53	1718	Monday 4th July	Adele Rose	Laurence Moody	6,400,000 14,080,000	3
54	1719	Wednesday 6th July	Leslie Duxbury	Laurence Moody	5,500,000 12,100,000	18
55	1720	Monday 11th July	Julian Roach	Stephen Butcher	6,550,000 14,410,000	5
56	1721	Wednesday 13th July	John Stevenson	Stephen Butcher	6,300,000 13,860,000	11
57	1722	Monday 18th July	H.V. Kershaw	Bill Gilmour	7,000,000 15,400,000	3
58	1723	Wednesday 20th July	Barry Hill	Bill Gilmour	6,050,000 13,310,000	13
59	1724	Monday 25th July	John Stevenson	June Howson	6,850,000 15,070,000	1
60	1725	Wednesday 27th July	Leslie Duxbury	June Howson	5,600,000 12,320,000	17
61	1726	Monday 1st August	Adele Rose	Oliver Horsbrugh	10,915,000	8
62	1727	Wednesday 3rd August	Julian Roach	Oliver Horsbrugh	10,306,000	16
63	1728	Monday 8th August	H.V. Kershaw	Tristan de Vere Cole	12,738,000	2
64	1729	Wednesday 10th August	John Stevenson	Tristan de Vere Cole	11,217,000	7
65	1730	Monday 15th August	Brian Finch	Darrol Blake	11,841,000	10
66	1731	Wednesday 17th August	Kay McManus	Darrol Blake	12,251,000	9
67	1732	Monday 22nd August	Leslie Duxbury	Jeremy Summers	12,604,000	6
68	1733	Wednesday 24th August	Julian Roach	Jeremy Summers	11,660,000	11
69	1734	Monday 29th August	H.V. Kershaw	Stephen Butcher Laurence Moody	10,525,000	n/k
70	1735	Wednesday 31st August	Brian Finch	Stephen Butcher Laurence Moody	12,728,000	11
71	1736	Monday 5th September	John Stevenson	Tristan de Vere Cole	12,820,000	13
72	1737	Wednesday 7th September	Adele Rose	Tristan de Vere Cole	12,798,000	14
73	1738	Monday 12th September	Leslie Duxbury	Marek Kanievska	12,057,000	16
74	1739	Wednesday 14th September	Julian Roach	Marek Kanievska	12,111,000	15
75	1740	Monday 19th September	H.V. Kershaw	Philip Draycott	13,492,000	8
76	1741	Wednesday 21st September	John Stevenson	Philip Draycott	12,813,000	17
77	1742	Monday 26th September	Leslie Duxbury	Roger Cheveley	13,887,000	8
78	1743	Wednesday 28th September	Adele Rose	Roger Cheveley	12,592,000	n/k
79	1744	Monday 3rd October	Janey Preger	Oliver Horsbrugh	14,740,000	2
80	1745	Wednesday 5th October	Julian Roach	Oliver Horsbrugh	12,767,000	17
81	1746	Monday 10th October	Adele Rose	Matthew Robinson	14,288,000	5
82	1747	Wednesday 12th October	H.V. Kershaw	Matthew Robinson	12,328,000	n/k
83	1748	Monday 17th October	Barry Hill	Colin Richards	14,818,000	4
84	1749	Wednesday 19th October	John Stevenson	Roger Cheveley	12,731,000	20
85	1750	Monday 24th October	Leslie Duxbury	Oliver Horsbrugh	15,011,000	4
86	1751	Wednesday 26th October	Leslie Duxbury	Oliver Horsbrugh	13,162,000	19
87	1752	Monday 31st October	John Stevenson	Matthew Robinson	14,350,000	5
88	1753	Wednesday 2nd November	Julian Roach	Matthew Robinson	12,900,000	13
89	1754	Monday 7th November	H.V. Kershaw	Colin Richards	16,150,000	3
90	1755	Wednesday 9th November	Kay McManus	Colin Richards	13,450,000	18
91	1756	Monday 14th November	Leslie Duxbury	Jonathan Wright-Miller	15,500,000	9
92	1757	Wednesday 16th November	Brian Finch	Jonathan Wright-Miller	15,800,000	7
93	1758	Monday 21st November	Julian Roach	Jeremy Summers	15,950,000	8
94	1759	Wednesday 23rd November	Paula Milne	Jeremy Summers	16,350,000	6
95	1760	Monday 28th November	Brian Finch	Colin Richards	16,600,000	7
96	1761	Wednesday 30th November	Leslie Duxbury	Colin Richards	16,000,000	10
97	1762	Monday 5th December	John Stevenson	Roger Cheveley	16,550,000	9
98	1763	Wednesday 7th December	H.V. Kershaw	Roger Cheveley	15,700,000	16
99	1764	Monday 12th December	Leslie Duxbury	Jeremy Summers	16,300,000	5
100	1765	Wednesday 14th December	Adele Rose	Jeremy Summers	16,250,000	7
101	1766	Monday 19th December	Paula Milne	Colin Richards	16,500,000	6
102	1767	Wednesday 21st December	John Stevenson	Colin Richards	15,250,000	10
103	1768	Monday 26th December	H.V. Kershaw	Roger Cheveley	8,564,000	n/k
104	1769	Wednesday 28th December	Brian Finch	Roger Cheveley	16,210,000	6