Episode 1697 (20th April 1977)

Plot[]

Len and Alf's car has a puncture. Rita is told to drive round the block by Ken as the groom hasn't turned up yet. Len and Alf make it to the church before Rita comes back and the wedding takes place. The manager of the Greenvale Hotel, Ted Brownlow, thinks he recognises Elsie when she makes it to the reception. Stan and Hilda gatecrash the reception but are too late for the free bar. Len and Rita Fairclough are waved off on honeymoon.

Cast[]

Regular cast[]

Guest cast[]

Places[]

Coronation Street
Rovers Return Inn - Public/snug
9 Coronation Street - Back room/kitchen and hallway
St. Mary's Church - Interior and exterior
Greenvale Hotel - Function room and reception
Unknown streets in Weatherfield

Notes[]

Last appearance of Derek Wilton until 25th July 1977.
William Tarmey appears as an extra in scenes at the wedding reception party, two and a half years before making his debut as Jack Duckworth.
Location filming both inside and outside the church was conducted at All Saint's Church on Barton Road, Stretford. The same location was used the following month for Tracy Langton's christening. The opening shot of the episode with the wedding car was filmed at the Sevenways roundabout which intersects with Barton Road. The two scenes on the Grape Street set were also on 16mm film.
TV Times synopsis: "From this day forward, for better for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part..."
Viewing Figures: First UK broadcast - 9,478,000 homes (1st place). This was the most-watched episode since Episode 429 on 26th January 1965
According to the BFI [1] (and using a millions of viewers calculation rather than millions of homes), this was the most-watched episode of the programme in the 1970s with 20.90 million viewers and was fifteenth-placed as the most-watched television programme of any kind in that decade.
This episode was repeated by Granada Television on Friday 11th December 1981 at 10.30pm as part of a week of repeats celebrating Coronation Street's 21st anniversary. The repeat took place on Thursday 10th December at 5.15pm in the regions covered by Thames Television, Westward Television, Channel Television and Tyne Tees Television. All other regions transmitted the repeat on same day and the same time as Granada with the exception of ATV, Ulster Television and HTV where transmission was at 5.15pm, Scottish Television where the transmission was at 11.00pm and Grampian Television where the transmission was at 11.30pm. This repeat was seen by 6,246,000 viewers (chart placing unknown but outside the top twenty). The other episodes repeated in the week were Episode 194 (the Walkers' silver wedding), Episode 1756 (the Ogdens' second honeymoon), Episode 1710 (the street's Silver Jubilee preparations) and Episode 1246 (the Forties show in the Rovers) although with the exception of this episode and Episode 194 these repeats were not screened in all of the ITV regions (see individual episode entries for details).
This episode was included on the following commercial releases:
- Coronation Street 1977 released by Granada and Windsong Video on 5th November 1990.
- The Network DVD collection Coronation Street: The Best of 1970-1979, released on 25th July 2005.

April 1977 episodes
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