Plot[]
Part One: It's New Year's Eve. Mr Bond, the mission preacher, puts up a notice saying that the council has bought the premises with a Compulsory Purchase Order. Minnie is aghast and realises that Ena has been putting on a brave face since she heard the news. Emily wants to take Peter and Susan out but is disappointed to find out that Hilda has already arranged to take them to Oakenshaw Park. As they wait for the Sunday service to start, Minnie tells Ena she can live with her but her friend isn't thinking that far ahead. Lucille tells Dennis that she doesn't know where the hippies went after Union Street. Out with the twins, Hilda is flattered when keeper George Greenwood shows her round his park. Having read the story in the Gazette, the angry residents call Len "Judas" and accuse him of not acting in their interests. He promises them the redevelopment does not include the houses in the street. Ena defends Len as he let her know before he should have. She surprises everyone by not fighting the demolition. Dennis is horrified as the hippies - Robert Croft, Monica Sutton, Roy, Keith and Vanda - suddenly arrive and move themselves into No.11.
Part Two: Hilda leaves Stan to serve his own dinner while she goes back to the park. Dennis can't an answer out of the spaced-out hippies as to why they've turned up when there's no party. Hilda is pleased to meet George in the park again. They become fast friends and learn all about each other and their families. Ena doesn't like everyone feeling sorry for her and goes to see in the New Year on her own instead of staying in the Rovers. Lucille is surprised to see the hippies have arrived. Robert thinks Dennis is uncool. At the stroke of midnight, the regulars sing Auld Lang Syne in the pub while across the street, Ena plays the same tune on the harmonium alone in the empty mission. Dennis is put out when the hippies will neither go nor party. He hopes that Lucille will lead them away, but she states her intention to join them at the No.11 encampment instead.
Cast[]
Regular cast[]
- Minnie Caldwell - Margot Bryant
- Valerie Barlow - Anne Reid
- Kenneth Barlow - William Roache
- Miss Nugent - Eileen Derbyshire
- Hilda Ogden - Jean Alexander
- Ena Sharples - Violet Carson
- Dennis Tanner - Philip Lowrie
- Lucille Hewitt - Jennifer Moss
- Annie Walker - Doris Speed
- Jack Walker - Arthur Leslie
- Albert Tatlock - Jack Howarth
- Len Fairclough - Peter Adamson
- Stan Ogden - Bernard Youens
Guest cast[]
- Mr Bond - Brian Badcoe
- Mrs Thacker - Kathy Staff (Credited as "Katherine Staff")
- Paper Boy - Kevin Walker
- George Greenwood - Arthur Pentelow
- Robert Croft - Martin Shaw
- Monica - Angela Pleasence (Credited as "Angela Pleasance")
- Keith - Michael Attwell
- Roy - Kenneth Cranham
- Vanda - Veronica Clifford
Places[]
- Coronation Street
- Rovers Return Inn - Public/snug
- 9 Coronation Street - Back room/kitchen and hallway
- 11 Coronation Street - Back room and hallway
- Viaduct Street
- Glad Tidings Mission Hall - Main hall
- Oakenshaw Park
Notes[]
- The children playing Peter and Susan Barlow are uncredited and only appear in the location scenes in Oakenshaw Park. The majority of the scenes in the park were filmed on location except for a scene in the shelter which was recorded in studio.
- Kathy Staff makes a pre-Vera Hopkins appearance as Mrs Thacker.
- The poem that Emily Nugent quotes from is Ring Out, Wild Bells by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
- TV Times: No synopsis appeared in the magazine between Episode 702 (6th September 1967) and Episode 755 (11th March 1968)
- Viewing Figures: First UK broadcast - 8,250,000 homes (1st place).
| January 1968 episodes |
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