Francis was a resident of the upmarket Stillwaters retirement complex where Ken Barlow and Claudia Colby made the decision to move into in February 2020.
Soon after their arrival, based upon his reputation as the author of a series of "very well-received" stories in the Weatherfield Gazette, a reluctant Ken was volunteered by Claudia into giving a speech to the residents' literary society after the usual organiser had been taken into hospital.
Felicity Moore, the wife of the residents' chairman Charles, spread the word and the talk ended up with a large audience. Beforehand, Felicity introduced Ken and Claudia to Francis who told Ken how much he was looking forward to the event and said how he had once heard Lionel Shriver give a similar talk in Hong Kong, upon which Claudia embarrassed herself by asking if "she" had been any good. Francis told them that he had been a Foreign Office consul there and prompted by Claudia, he spoke a greeting to her in Cantonese.
Although nervous, Ken gave one his readings which earned a large round of applause. Felicity started a Q&A with her own query as to where he got his inspiration and then threw the floor open to further questions. To Ken's surprise, none other than Norris Cole stood up, revealing himself as another of the complex residents and proceeded to try and put Ken on the spot regarding the number of works that he'd actually had published.
Ken tried to give an evading answer but had to admit he'd only had one book published, however Francis came to his defence, citing Emily Brontë, J. D. Salinger and Sylvia Plath as other examples of "one-hit wonders" of fiction writing. Charles also stood up for him, quoting Oscar Wilde's line about the cost of everything and the value of nothing, and Norris's mischievous attempt at humiliation came to an end.