Episode 3168 (31st December 1990)

Plot[]

Sally returns home with baby Rosie. She worries how she and Kevin will cope with Rosie on their own. Phil and Deirdre fly off to Paris. Ken lays on a feast for Tracy. Audrey tries to persuade Alma to spend New Year with her and Alf but she wants to be on her own. Emily invites Rita to a Friends of Weatherfield Hospital tea dance as they both want to get out more. Mike tells Alma that he's selling the flat and moving in with Jackie. Tracy is forced to tell Ken that Deirdre is in Paris when he suggests taking a bottle of wine over to No.1. He blows his top and tells her that he wants Deirdre back and he hates being humiliated. Tracy gets upset and runs away to No.1 when he says it's Deirdre he wants, not her. Emily and Percy witness them rowing in the street. Ken plays it down. Tracy arranges to spend the night at friend Debbie Dawson's house. She tells Ken she's sick of him and that he only feels sorry for himself; he's pathetic and he's not even her father. Ken is hurt and begs her forgiveness but she goes anyway. Kevin and Sally are worn out by Rosie and their constant visitors. Rita decides to join Emily at the tea dance. Ken remembers the past and, as the residents see in the New Year next door at the Rovers, he opens a bottle of pills...

Cast[]

Regular cast[]

Guest cast[]

None

Places[]

Coronation Street
Rovers Return Inn - Public
1 Coronation Street - Back room, kitchen, hallway and yard
The Kabin
13 Coronation Street - Front room
15a Coronation Street - Living room and kitchen
Jim's Cafe
Jim's Cafe flat - Living room/kitchen
Manchester Airport - Departures ramp and entrance

Notes[]

As Ken Barlow reflects on the past, archive voice clips of Frank Barlow, Albert Tatlock, Valerie Barlow and Deirdre Barlow are played, as well as Tracy Barlow from earlier in the episode.
Jack Duckworth (William Tarmey) is credited but does not appear.
At the end of the closing titles, the copyright line credits the incorrectly spelled "Granada Televison".
TV Times synopsis: Voices from the past haunt Ken as he makes first a discovery about Deirdre, and then many more about himself. And the Websters are beginning to show definite signs of suffering from too much baby talk.
Viewing Figures: UK broadcast - 16,430,000 viewers (10th place - combined figure including repeat).
The Granada Plus repeat of this episode on 20th November 2002 was transmitted without any cuts.
The ITV3 repeat of this episode on 23rd November 2018 was transmitted with the same end cast credits as Episode 3169.
This episode was included in the Network DVD collection Coronation Street: The Best of 1990-1999, released on 5th September 2011.

Notable dialogue[]

Ken Barlow (to Tracy Barlow): "Oh, so you don't mind your mother going off to Paris for a dirty weekend with some spiv, don't you? You don't see anything wrong with your mother getting in and out of bed with every man who knocks on the front door? Do you know what I've given up for that woman? I mean do you really think I like living in this rat-hole? Over a shop in the street that I was born in? It's a humiliation! Like it's a humiliation every time I go into the Corner Shop or the Rovers and I see them all nodding to themselves and tittle-tattling, but I did it! I swallowed my pride and I moved in, and I tried, I tried to get her back. I was reasonable and sensible even when I saw her taking her fancy men into my house! And sleeping in my bedroom!”

December 1990 episodes
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