Plot[]
Hilda starts running the corner shop. She's scandalised when Frank let himself into the flat where he disturbs Bet, who is still sleeping. He asks her to go on a job to Skipton with him. Stan tries to get cigarettes on the slate but Hilda makes him pay. Ken arranges for Billy to fix his car while Lucille gets annoyed with him for delaying fixing Arthur Noblett's radio. He further angers her with his attitude towards her good works. Bet enjoys the drive across the moors. Noblett is annoyed when Lucille buys him teabags instead of loose tea and demands his radio back. In the garage, Billy chucks the radio to Kev, his young mechanic, who drops it on floor smashing it to pieces. Billy offers to get a replacement. A garage/hotel that Frank knew on the moors is now a derelict. He and Bet explore it and he tries to scare her as it's supposedly haunted. Bet is worried about the age difference between them. They make love in the deserted premises. Ray puts Annie's name up above the door. She demands it's painted as "Anne Walker", amusing the regulars, and then changes her mind. Bet and Frank walk across the moors. She likes the peace but he thinks it's like a graveyard. Lucille is delighted when Billy gets a reconditioned television instead of a radio. Bet and Frank call into the Elm Cafe. Noblett hates the television and angrily demands his radio back. He threatens to report Lucille to the Salvation Army. The waitress at the cafe, Judy Cookson, knows Frank. Bet is jealous as they seem to have a history together but Frank says he doesn't fancy her. Nevertheless, the two chat at the counter while Bet watches on.
Cast[]
Regular cast[]
- Hilda Ogden - Jean Alexander
- Bet Lynch - Julie Goodyear
- Stan Ogden - Bernard Youens
- Ena Sharples - Violet Carson
- Billy Walker - Kenneth Farrington
- Kenneth Barlow - William Roache
- Lucille Hewitt - Jennifer Moss
- Ray Langton - Neville Buswell
- Annie Walker - Doris Speed
- Betty Turpin - Betty Driver
Guest cast[]
- Frank Bradley - Tommy Boyle
- Arthur Noblett - Jack Woolgar
- Judy Cookson - Rosalind Ayres
- Boy Mechanic - Kevin Walker
Places[]
- Rovers Return Inn - Public/snug
- Corner Shop
- Corner Shop bedsit - Living room and kitchen
- Canal Garage
- Arthur Noblett's house - Front room
- Roads between Weatherfield and Skipton - Roads, derelict house, a petrol station, grassy field
- Elm Cafe - Interior and exterior
Notes[]
- Tommy Boyle makes one of several pre-Phil Jennings appearances as Frank Bradley.
- Arthur Noblett complains that without his radio he's unable to listen to The Dales. Lucille Hewitt accurately points out that the programme is no longer running - the final episode of the long-running BBC radio soap had been broadcast eighteen months before on Friday 25th April 1969.
- All the location sequences for this episode, including the interior of the Elm Cafe, were shot on 16mm film. The initial sequences showed Oldham whose old Town Hall features in the very first shot. The extended scenes of Bet Lynch and Frank Bradley at the derelict house were shot at Buckstones Lodge, situated on Marsden Moor on the A640 between Denshaw and Pole Moor, and overlooking the March Haigh reservoir. The building, which has been a gamekeeper's house, an inn and petrol station in its time, has since been renovated and refaced in local stone with some of its outbuildings removed and is now a private residence.
- TV Times synopsis: A new name goes over the door of the Rovers.
- Viewing Figures: First UK broadcast - 6,700,000 homes (4th place).
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