Plot
Part One: Elsie Lappin nips out to visit her daughter, leaving Florrie alone in the shop. She serves two customers who buy a packet of firelighters and then reveal they are police officers. As she has sold goods after 7.00pm, she has broken a by-law and will receive a summons to appear in court. Florrie is mortified. Rovers' landlord Jack Walker completes his pools coupon and dreams of riches. He and Annie serve pensioner Martha Longhurst who is looking after her granddaughter for the day. She's spotted a car outside No.3 where within Ken tries to persuade Susan to go into town with him rather than remain in the area. Ena is annoyed when she can't buy boiled ham for her supper in the shop as Florrie is now keeping to the letter of the law. Christine Hardman of No.13 is angry that Ena is telling everyone that her mother May, who is in hospital after suffering a breakdown, has gone mad and threatens her with a solicitor's letter. Ida embarrasses Ken by showing Susan his baby photos. Kids scratch Susan's dad's car and hammer nails in the tyre, leaving her and Ken stuck in Coronation Street until it can be fixed.
Part Two: Linda thinks Ivan will be coming after her. He does so, buying a drink in the Rovers, where Annie tells bus driver and widower Harry Hewitt from No.7 that he ought to marry again and get his young daughter, Lucille, out of the council orphanage. Annie and Harry think they recognise Ivan but can't place him. Ena holds court in the Rovers' snug with Martha and fellow pensioner Minnie Caldwell. Ena recognises Ivan from across the bar. Linda is bored at home and persuades Elsie to go to the Rovers with her. David fixes the tyre while Ken takes Susan to see neighbour Esther Hayes at No.5. They are interrupted by Christine who pours out her troubles about her mother to Esther. Susan embarrasses Ken by making him take her into the Rovers. She gets annoyed at his attitude to his background. Ena is delighted when Linda and Elsie walk in and meet Ivan, expecting trouble between them.
Cast
Regular cast
- Elsie Tanner - Patricia Phoenix
- Linda Cheveski - Anne Cunningham
- Ivan Cheveski - Ernst Walder
- Frank Barlow - Frank Pemberton
- Ida Barlow - Noel Dyson
- Kenneth Barlow - William Roache
- David Barlow - Alan Rothwell
- Florrie Lindley - Betty Alberge
- Ena Sharples - Violet Carson
- Christine Hardman - Christine Hargreaves
- Harry Hewitt - Ivan Beavis
- Esther Hayes - Daphne Oxenford
- Annie Walker - Doris Speed
- Jack Walker - Arthur Leslie
- Martha Longhurst - Lynne Carol
- Minnie Caldwell - Margot Bryant
Guest cast
- Elsie Lappin - Maudie Edwards
- Susan - Patricia Shakesby
- Policeman - Bill Croasdale
- Policewoman - Penelope Davis
- Sandra Haddon - Jennifer Moss (Uncredited)
Places
- Coronation Street
- Rovers Return Inn - Public/snug
- 3 Coronation Street - Back room and kitchen
- 5 Coronation Street - Back room
- 11 Coronation Street - Back room and exterior
- Corner Shop
Notes
- First appearances of Christine Hardman, Harry Hewitt, Jack Walker, Martha Longhurst, Ivan Cheveski and Esther Hayes. Minnie Caldwell also appears but she has no dialogue and is a silent partner in Ena and Martha's first televised conversation in the snug of the Rovers Return Inn.
- The episode was videotaped fifteen minutes after the live transmission of Episode 1 for transmission the following week.
- Annie Walker says her birthday is in June but later scripts have her birthday as 11th August. Likewise, Ken Barlow's school is stated to have been Balsom Street in place of the later-established Bessie Street School.
- Martha Longhurst refers to Lily Haddon as her "youngest daughter"; it has not yet been established in the narrative that Lily is Martha's only daughter.
- An envelope addressed to Elsie Tanner shows Coronation Street to be in Manchester, as it has not yet been established in the narrative that it is actually located in Weatherfield.
- An uncredited Jennifer Moss provides the voice of Sandra Haddon, Martha Longhurst's unseen granddaughter who wails after hurting her knee from the doorway of the Rovers Return Inn. The reason for this was to give the sixteen-year-old Moss experience of a television studio before her proper debut in Episode 4 (21st December 1960). For the same reason, she also provides the voice of Christine Farrar, a girl who gives cheek to Elsie Tanner in Episode 1.
- TV Times synopsis: "Continuing the everyday adventures of the people who live in Coronation-street"
- Viewing Figures: First UK broadcast - 3,590,000 homes (chart placing unknown).
- This episode was included on the following commercial releases:
- Coronation Street - The Early Days released by Granada video on 7th May 2001.
- The Network DVD collection Coronation Street: The Best of 1960-1969, released on 31st July 2006.
Notable dialogue
Elsie Tanner: (Reminiscing about a hotel she visited) "Commissionaire looked at me a bit funny but I just stared him out. I thought, 'Yes Tiddles, you wouldn't be looking so superior if this was 1942 and I was sweeping in with one of my Yankee officers.'"
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Ena Sharples: "...you know sometimes I think I'm just about ready to go off down to that cemetery, but if I had my way I'd just like to go like me mother did."
Martha Longhurst: "Ee, that were a beautiful ending."
Ena Sharples: "Oh, lovely. She just sat up, broke wind and died."
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