Plot[]
As a loudspeaker gives out instructions to the residents, Minnie and Charlie, with Bobby and Little Titch in tow, are told by a policeman to evacuate to the mission cellar. Albert joins them. The Ogdens are already there as Ena takes charge, telling the residents where to place their belongings as she keeps to the same procedures she followed as a shelter warden in the war. She tells Stan that when she sings Keep The Home Fires Burning, it will be the signal for the all-clear. Ena and Albert reminisce about the wartime days, as do Stan and Hilda though Irma thinks everyone is going barmy. Ena refuses to let an angry Albert go home for his pension book. A depressed Florrie sluggishly collects her things but breaks down crying. Annie is delighted to find she can still fit into the slacks she wore when she was a munitions worker. She directs Jack to fetch various things she deems to be of value before they leave the Rovers. Stan sneaks out of the cellar to fetch some beers. The army inspect the bomb in No.1's back yard. Captain Platt thinks it came down in the Manchester blitz of 23rd December 1940. They wait for the full evacuation before starting to defuse it. The residents suddenly realise that Florrie is missing. Stan and Hilda go to fetch her. Elsie and Dennis return from the Luxy and are told by the police to join the others in the mission cellar. Florrie has to be carried, crying and screaming to the mission by Stan. The army start to work on the bomb's fuse. Charlie starts a sing-song of wartime songs and reminisces that everyone enjoys except for a bored Dennis and Irma who take their chances and leave. The bomb is successfully defused. The police tell the residents they can all go home and that there's an Irishman waiting for Florrie in the street. She rushes to see him but the others are having too good a time to go and happily join in with Ena singing Keep the Home Fires Burning.
Cast[]
Regular cast[]
- Annie Walker - Doris Speed
- Jack Walker - Arthur Leslie
- Albert Tatlock - Jack Howarth
- Ena Sharples - Violet Carson
- Minnie Caldwell - Margot Bryant
- Elsie Tanner - Patricia Phoenix
- Florrie Lindley - Betty Alberge
- Dennis Tanner - Philip Lowrie
- Charlie Moffitt - Gordon Rollings (Credited as "Charlie Moffit")
- Irma Ogden - Sandra Gough
- Stan Ogden - Bernard Youens
- Hilda Ogden - Jean Alexander
Guest cast[]
Places[]
- Coronation Street
- Rovers Return Inn - Public
- 1 Coronation Street - Yard
- Corner Shop - Florrie's bedroom
- Glad Tidings Mission Hall - Cellar
Notes[]
- John Quayle makes a pre-Anthony Stephens appearance as Captain Platt.
- The voice of the police loudspeaker is uncredited.
- Dialogue infers that Irma Ogden was born during the Second World War, and not 1946 as later established.
- The radio programmes, songs and people from the Second World War that the residents remember are, in order: the BBC show The Happidrome (1941 - 1947); the song The White Cliffs of Dover; Lord Haw-Haw (a British traitor who broadcast on German radio); the song Over There; the BBC show ITMA (1939 - 1949) and its various comic catchphrases; the song We'll Meet Again; and, the song Mairzy Doats.
- This episode was the final one to be produced by Tim Aspinall who had started in the role only four months earlier with Episode 357 on 13th May 1964. He returned to the programme as a writer on four episodes in 1975.
- Instead of the theme music being played at the end of the episode, the credits run against the sound of the residents singing Keep The Home Fires Burning.
- From Episode 172 (6th August 1962) to Episode 459 (5th May 1965) the programme featured a standardised cast list for the regular characters. This means that in this episode the following were credited but did not appear: Lucille Hewitt (Jennifer Moss), Valerie Barlow (Anne Reid), Kenneth Barlow (William Roache), Miss Nugent (Eileen Derbyshire), Len Fairclough (Peter Adamson) and Mr Swindley (Arthur Lowe).
- TV Times synopsis: History repeats itself in Coronation Street
- Viewing Figures: First UK broadcast - 8,012,000 homes (joint 2nd place with 7th September 1964).
- This episode was included on the Granada and Windsong Video Coronation Street 1964 released on 5th November 1990.
Notable dialogue[]
Policeman (to Charlie Moffitt): "'Ave you got any control over Granny 'ere?"
Minnie Caldwell: "No, I cannot fly under a false flag. I am not a granny. You are not to know it, but I am the last of the Mrs Caldwells."
Policeman: "Madam, you'll be the late lamented Mrs Caldwell if you don't get a move-on!"
---
Ena Sharples: "Poor Martha. What a nice bit of an excitement for 'er to go an' miss. Allus the last in the shelter, an' the first of us girls under the sod."
---
Minnie Caldwell: "I enjoyed proper war, but this is a bit of a washout, isn't it?"
---
Policeman: "Only residents are allowed past this rope, madam."
Elsie Tanner: "Oh! Well don't you know? I'm the resident that people wrote about all during the war, complaining."
Policeman: "Have you any means of identification?"
Elsie Tanner: "No, but I've got a lovely birthmark!"
---
Elsie Tanner: "Dennis - you frightened of that? That bomb's older than you are."
Dennis Tanner: "Yeah, so are you, and you're always going off."
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