Episode 2631 (18th June 1986)

Plot[]

Kevin and Sally return at 5.30am from Sheffield. They spot smoke coming out of the Rovers' door. Sally wakes the residents whilst Kevin tries to wake Bet. Ken phones the fire brigade. Percy is raised and he and Kevin get a ladder up to Bet's window. Bet wakes up and tries to escape but the fumes force her back to her room. She vomits and collapses. The residents move their cars and try to wake Bet. Kevin climbs up the ladder and smashes Bet's window. He climbs in as the fire engine arrives and the front windows explode. Kevin tries to drag Bet to the window, the firemen take over and carry Bet to safety. Kevin is proclaimed a hero and refuses to go to hospital; he's only inhaled some fumes. Bet is taken to hospital in an ambulance. The fire is quickly put out, but the pub is completely gutted. Jack is worried that he might have caused the fire by putting the wrong fuse in. Gail feels she should tell Brian about her affair. Audrey advises her to leave it. The destroyed pub is boarded up as Betty tells Jack and Gloria that the brewery has decided to pull the Rovers down.

Cast[]

Regular cast[]

Guest cast[]

Places[]

Coronation Street - Main street view, ginnel and yards
Rovers Return Inn - Public, cellar, landing and Bet's bedroom
9 Coronation Street - Back room/kitchen
Jim's Cafe
The Kabin

Notes[]

The idea of setting the Rovers on fire was pitched by writers Tom Elliott and Paul Abbott after they were asked to write some episodes without the pub while designers Eric Deakins and Roy Graham updated the interior sets. Elliott and Abbott felt that their task would be made easier if the Rovers was closed for an extended period in-story and made the suggestion at a story conference.
Producer John G. Temple allocated an additional day's recording on a Saturday for this episode, with the inside of Pineapple Inn on Water Street being used to record some Rovers interior scenes (Forty Years of Coronation Street: A Collection of Memories, Boxtree, 2000). Julie Goodyear, performing Bet Lynch's attempted escape from the burning Rovers, was given oxygen every four minutes to protect her from the smoke. Her nightdress caught on fire while performing the scene where Bet staggers over to the staircase and finds it consumed by flames. Floor manager John Newman ran over and beat the flames off her feet as soon as recording ended. Goodyear stated later that Bet's scream atop the stairs was completely authentic (The Coronation Street Story, Boxtree, 1995). In the event, the cast and crew went over time and re-assembled the following Saturday to finish the shoot.
Last appearance of Tracy Barlow until 13th October 1986.
This episode was transmitted at the earlier time of 6.15pm to allow for World Cup coverage. As its viewing figures were affected by being out of its normal timeslot, ITV gave the episode an unscheduled repeat on Thursday 19th June: 9.00pm for the Granada region and others, and 10.30pm for Thames Television in London.
The woman who drops off Kevin Webster and Sally Seddon at the beginning of the episode is uncredited despite having lines of dialogue.
This well-publicised episode had a unique title sequence showing a photocaption montage of the dawn sky over tower blocks and towards a set of cooling towers (in reality, those of Agecroft Power Station, north of Salford which were demolished on 8th May 1994).
The closing credits for this episode run longer than usual, with almost the entire theme tune being played and delays between the last few credits. The credits last 1' 45" seconds, over twice as long as usual.
This episode has all its location scenes shot on videotape. At this period, the show was still routinely using 16mm film for location work, which was reverted to after this episode and remained until the full-time switch to video in Episode 2807 (22nd February 1988).
TV Times synopsis: Crisis, heroism and danger when disaster hits the Street.
Viewing Figures: First UK broadcast - 22,750,000 viewers (1st place). This was the highest-rated episode of the year although it was calculated by BARB by combining the original transmission (with 14,187,000 viewers) with that of the Thursday repeat (8,581,000 viewers) - a practise that had enabled EastEnders to claim the number one position for most of the year and which had been a repeated complaint by Granada who knew that Coronation Street still had higher ratings than the BBC1 soap for first transmission of their respective episodes.
This episode was included on the following commercial releases:
- Coronation Street 1986 released by Granada and Windsong Video on 5th November 1990.
- The Network DVD collection Coronation Street: The Best of 1980-1989, released on 31st October 2005.
- The Golden Anniversary DVD Collection, released by ITV Home Entertainment on 11th October 2010. Despite retaining its original Granada end cap, the copy on this DVD set runs 2' 11” shorter than the unedited episode on the Network set, and is likely to be as prepared for transmission on Granada Plus in 2000.
This episode was added to streaming service BritBox in late 2020 under the Coronation Street: Greatest Episodes banner and included an introduction by Sally Dynevor.

June 1986 episodes
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