Episode 798 (12th August 1968)

Plot[]

Part One: Frank Riley blames Val for alerting the police. She begs him to leave. Ena joins Elsie and the Flemings in No.3 as does Len. He advises them to stay together as they worry about Val and the kids. Det. Insp. Sharp takes Ken to the maisonettes' walkway to get a better idea of the inside of the flat. They use a loudhailer to tell Riley to come out. Ken has trouble keeping calm. Riley produces a crowbar. The neighbours hear the loudhailer and grow concerned. The police realise they can't break the door down. Sharp gets Ken to phone Val and he tells her that she must shut the sliding door between the living room and the kitchen so that the police can get into the kitchen through the window unseen. To her relief, Riley closes the doors himself after checking the window and the police start to cut the glass out of the window.

Part Two: The residents start to feel the strain of the wait. Sharp gets Ken to ring the flat to cover the noise of their entry but Riley smashes the phone to the floor. Enraged, he prepares to leave, using Val as a shield but the police burst in and overpower him. Val sobs in Ken's arms as he's taken away. Sharp agrees to leave his questions of Val until the morning. The next day, Hilda and Annie haven't slept well. Hilda gossips about what Riley possibly did to Val. Len also wonders how long Ken and Val will take to get over the incident. Under questioning, Val assures the police and Ken that Riley didn't touch her. Sharp gets a policewoman to further question Val. Elsie tells Ena and Maggie that Ken looks as though the matter is far from over for him. Alone at last, an on-edge Ken asks Val again about Riley. She grows hysterical and shouts that he did nothing to her. The story appears in the papers with Annie and Hilda eager to see if they are in print. A pleased Annie gets a letter asking her to give a talk on "Sixty years of women's Suffrage and where has it got us" at the Lady Crusaders' meeting. No one is impressed.

Cast[]

Regular cast[]

Guest cast[]

Places[]

Rovers Return Inn - Public/snug and hallway
3 Coronation Street - Back room and hallway
6 Coronation Street - Living room
Maisonettes - Walkway
14 Coronation Street - Living room, kitchen and hallway

Notes[]

The scenes on the walkway of the maisonettes was recorded in studio and not on the Grape Street set.
A technical hitch blanked out the screens for a long period during the transmission of this episode in a vital scene between Val Barlow and Frank Riley. When the episode returned some time later the scene had moved on and viewers were non-the-wiser as to what had occurred in the interim. As the Daily Express reported on Wednesday 14th August the Granada switchboard was "jammed" by complaining viewers. Executives therefore took the decision to repeat the episode on Wednesday 14th August in the normal 7.30pm timeslot. As the 1968 ITV Strike was at its peak at this point (the episode and its repeat were actually transmitted by management from the Foley Street ATV network centre in London, the videotape having been brought down from Manchester and walked through the picket line by the same management), the repeat also gave ITV a short breathing space before its stock of pre-recorded episodes, two at this point, ran out and they were unable to broadcast the channel's most popular programme.
TV Times synopsis: End of an ordeal
Viewing Figures: First UK broadcast - 6,400,000 homes (1st place) and the repeat on 14th August gained 5,350,000 homes (4th place).

August 1968 episodes
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