Plot[]
Part One: The Rev. Bryan Hesketh marries Elsie and Steve. They exchange vows and rings. Photographer Gordon Bishop waits patiently outside and chats to Stan and Walter when they sneak outside for a smoke while the register is signed. Minnie is amused to see Ena weeping. The newlyweds make their way back down the aisle and outside. Mr Bishop takes the photos. Elsie deliberately throws her bouquet to Ena to catch before the party runs off in a hail of confetti. The party, including the Rev. Hesketh, move on to the Boar's Head where the bride and groom receive congratulations. Concepta tells Lucille they want her to return to Ireland with them until she's of age. Lucille tells her that she's not going and tells her to keep her nose of her affairs.
Part Two: After the buffet meal Hilda, Emily and Annie flirt with the Yanks. Harry is exasperated at Concepta and Lucille rowing again. Lucille tells him that there's nothing and no one for her in Ireland, upsetting her father. Dennis and Gregg bring the party to order and read the telegrams from Mrs Tanner, Frank Barlow, Jerry, Irma, who's ill, Albert, Jim Mount, Capt Bill Myers, the girls at Miami Modes, Christine Appleby, Billy Walker, Florrie and Norman Lindley in Winnipeg Canada, Charlie Moffitt in Worksop, and Jed, which has a special coda for Minnie. Dennis proposes a toast and Steve makes his speech. The happy couple cut the cake. As the party continues Len and Harry nip out to visit an old mate, Sid Bell. On the way, the van breaks down, and Harry gets under it to effect repairs. Lucille enjoys dancing with Gary Strauss. Emily gets tipsy. The Tanners leave for honeymoon in Lisbon to a drunken farewell from Annie. The jack slips from under the van and it falls onto Harry. A frantic Len and a passing lorry driver frantically pull Harry out, but he is dead. The party continues with the celebrants unaware what has happened.
Cast[]
Regular cast[]
- Elsie Tanner - Patricia Phoenix
- Dennis Tanner - Philip Lowrie
- Linda Cheveski - Anne Cunningham
- Ivan Cheveski - Ernst Walder
- Jack Walker - Arthur Leslie
- Concepta Hewitt - Doreen Keogh
- Lucille Hewitt - Jennifer Moss
- Annie Walker - Doris Speed
- Harry Hewitt - Ivan Beavis
- Len Fairclough - Peter Adamson
- Ena Sharples - Violet Carson
- Minnie Caldwell - Margot Bryant
- Kenneth Barlow - William Roache
- Valerie Barlow - Anne Reid
- Miss Nugent - Eileen Derbyshire
- Steve Tanner - Paul Maxwell
- Hilda Ogden - Jean Alexander
- Stan Ogden - Bernard Youens
- David Barlow - Alan Rothwell
- Gordon Bishop - Stephen Hancock
Guest cast[]
- Dot Greenhalgh - Joan Francis
- Gregg Flint - Bill Nagy
- The Rev. Bryan Hesketh - Jonathan Newth
- Walter Greenhalgh - Derek Benfield
- Gary Strauss - Callen Angelo
- Lorry Driver - Geoffrey Brightman
Places[]
- St. Stephen's Church, Warrington - Interior and exterior
- Boar's Head, Newton-cum-Wells
- Unknown roadside
Notes[]
- Final appearance of Ivan Beavis as Harry Hewitt.
- Last appearance of Ivan and Linda Cheveski until 25th December 1967.
- First appearance of Ernest Bishop although the character is billed as "Gordon Bishop" which was later revealed to be his trading name for his photography business. He next appeared on 16th June 1969.
- The scenes of Harry Hewitt's accident were filmed on location.
- The poem that a tipsy Emily Nugent tries to recite is The Wreck of the Hesperus by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
- The episode begins without the usual title sequence but instead has the programme title of a shot of Elsie and Steve Tanner stood before The Rev. Bryan Hesketh. The episode's end credits are run over a big band arrangement of Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing instead of the usual Eric Spear theme, and were played against a shot of the continuing party.
- This edition was the first Coronation Street episode to actually show the wedding ceremony. Previous episodes did not show the ceremony itself and normally showed the bride and groom leaving for the church and then moved to scenes at the reception.
- TV Times synopsis: The Wedding of the Year
- Viewing Figures: First UK broadcast - 9,200,000 homes (2nd place - this and the preceding episode were the only two episodes of the year to gain figures of more than nine million homes watching).
- This episode received its first repeat airing on Wednesday 20th September 1967 in a special showing at 9.00pm advertised as Coronation Street - Wedding of the Year. This repeat was only shown by the following ITV stations: Granada, Associated Rediffusion, Southern Television, Border Television and Tyne Tees Television. This repeat was watched in 4,100,000 homes.
- This episode was next repeated on Friday 8th May 1981 at 10.30pm as part of a week of repeats celebrating Granada's 25th anniversary. The repeat was not aired by London Weekend Television, ATV, Ulster Television, Anglia Television, Scottish Television, Westward Television, Border Television or Channel Television. The episode was transmitted at 10.00pm by Tyne Tees Television. This repeat was seen by 4,675,000 viewers (chart placing unknown but outside the top twenty). The other episodes repeated in the week were Episode 1, Episode 16 (the 1961 gas leak), Episode 375 (Emily Nugent jilts Leonard Swindley), Episode 668 (the viaduct collapse) and Episode 923 (the coach crash in the Lake District) although these repeats were not screened in all of the ITV regions (see individual episode entries for details).
- This and the preceding episode had an omnibus repeat on Channel Four on Saturday 8th February 1992 at 8.50pm as part of the TV Heaven series.
- The only episode to have been repeated more times on terrestrial television is Episode 1 which has so far had five repeat transmissions.
- This episode was included in the Network DVD collection Coronation Street: The Best of 1960-1969, released on 31st July 2006.
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