Plot[]
Elsie and Ena decide not to saying anything to Val. Betty wants it confirmed that she is senior barmaid over Bet. Gregg, Gary and Maggie think Irma is jumpy. The soldiers organise a poker game in the flat. Val rips up a letter from Ken in anger and decides to give people something to talk about. She asks Ray to be in the Rovers at dinnertime. Gregg and Gary ask Joe why Irma is so jumpy. He spins them a story of her not being happy with his protectiveness. Major Ryan summons Gregg and Gary to Burtonwood after getting a call from Saarbrucken in Germany. Jean Moseley accepts £20 off Gregg. Betty is made senior barmaid although she is not on more money. Emily organises a street outing to see Cinderella on 23rd December at Manchester's Opera House. Val and Ray drink in front of everyone's watching eyes. Hilda sees Gregg and Gary get their summons to Burtonwood. She tells Irma about Jean. Irma now thinks all the Yanks are in with Joe and shows she is scared of Gregg too. Emily confesses writing the letter to Val. She tells her she realises she was completely wrong in her assumptions. She breaks down and Val comforts her. Irma asks Elsie if she ever thinks about Steve now. Ray has a go at Emily but Val feels sorry for her. Joe is perturbed when he hears where Gregg and Gary are. Gregg and Gary tell Ryan they don't know where Joe is. Joe tells Irma how his father punched his mother across the room when she nagged him too much. Ryan tells Gregg and Gary that Joe put a German woman, Hildegard Schmidt, in hospital and she's just come round after three weeks being unconscious. Irma feels afraid and trapped by Joe as she watches him decorate the flat's Christmas tree.
Cast[]
Regular cast[]
- Ray Langton - Neville Buswell
- Len Fairclough - Peter Adamson
- Hilda Ogden - Jean Alexander
- Annie Walker - Doris Speed
- Billy Walker - Kenneth Farrington
- Lucille Hewitt - Jennifer Moss
- Emily Nugent - Eileen Derbyshire
- Maggie Clegg - Irene Sutcliffe
- Valerie Barlow - Anne Reid
- Irma Barlow - Sandra Gough
- Betty Turpin - Betty Driver
- Bet Lynch - Julie Goodyear
- Ena Sharples - Violet Carson
- Alan Howard - Alan Browning
- Elsie Howard - Patricia Phoenix (Credited as "Elsie Tanner")
Guest cast[]
- Joe Donelli - Shane Rimmer (Credited as "Joe Donnelli")
- Gregg Flint - Bill Nagy (Credited as "Greg Flint")
- Gary Strauss - Callen Angelo
- Jean Moseley - Lois Daine
- Major Ryan - Warren Stanhope
- Sgt. Ucello - David Cargill
Places[]
- Coronation Street
- Rovers Return Inn - Public/snug
- 14 Coronation Street - Living room and hallway
- Corner Shop
- Corner Shop bedsit - Living room and kitchen
- Burtonwood - Offices of Major Ryan and Sergeant Ucello
Notes[]
- The Christmas outing flyer that Emily puts up in the Rovers misspells the word "restaurant" as "restuarant".
- A scene outside the Rovers Return Inn was recorded in studio and not on the Grape Street set.
- Although ITV had begun full-colour transmissions on 15th November 1969, the ITV Colour Strike which began on 13th November 1970 caused this episode to be recorded in black and white.
- As was well publicised at the time, this episode was shown on the programme's tenth anniversary.
- TV Times synopsis: In which Greg and Gary answer an urgent call.
- Viewing Figures: First UK broadcast - 6,950,000 homes (6th place).
- This episode was repeated on ITV3 on Monday 7th December 2020 at 10.35pm to mark the programme's sixtieth anniversary. This was part of a sequence of episodes shown which had originally been transmitted on or near every tenth anniversary of the show.
| December 1970 episodes |
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| ← Wed 2nd • Mon 7th • Wed 9th • Mon 14th Wed 16th • Mon 21st • Wed 23rd • Mon 28th • Wed 30th → |