Plot
Bill Gregory leaves to go back to his ship today and tells Elsie that she has to make up her mind to go with him or not. Ben worries about Annie but she is in high dudgeon and rings to report him. Ray and Bernard feel guilty about Ben possibly losing his job. Cyril decides to find out what really happened to the lamp. Ena gets Alan to call round on Elsie on a supposed errand for her. He does so and asks Elsie not to go. Annie agrees not to report Ben if Cyril can discover what really happened. Len asks Bill to leave Elsie alone. Cyril deduces the crowd at No. 3 took the lamp as a joke. Elsie and Alan kiss. Bill leaves in his taxi and Elsie watches him go from her doorway. Annie decides to treat the lamp matter as a joke. Stan gets the idea of selling himself as a composer using Ena's songs. Elsie tells Alan that she has no regrets. Stan rings club signer Mickie Malone and claims the songs as his own compositions.
Cast
Regular cast
- Albert Tatlock - Jack Howarth
- Stan Ogden - Bernard Youens
- Bernard Butler - Gorden Kaye
- Sandra Butler - Patricia Fuller
- Elsie Tanner - Patricia Phoenix
- Ray Langton - Neville Buswell
- Audrey Fleming - Gillian McCann
- Dickie Fleming - Nigel Humphreys
- Jack Walker - Arthur Leslie
- Alan Howard - Alan Browning
- Annie Walker - Doris Speed
- Ena Sharples - Violet Carson
- Cyril Turpin - William Moore
- Len Fairclough - Peter Adamson
- Maggie Clegg - Irene Sutcliffe
Guest cast
Places
- Coronation Street exterior
- Rovers Return Inn - Public/Snug
- 3 Coronation Street - Back room and hallway
- 9 Coronation Street - Back room/kitchen and hallway
- 11 Coronation Street - Back room/kitchen
- Corner Shop
- Camera Shop Flat - Living room/kitchen
Notes
- This episode features two black and white flashbacks of Elsie Tanner and Bill Gregory's previous relationship both taken from Episode 165 transmitted on 11th July 1962. The second of these two flashbacks featured the scene in the Rovers when Bill leaves with his wife Phyllis Gregory and Ken Barlow and Valerie Tatlock rush in to announce their engagement. Actors Mary Quinn, William Roache and Anne Reid are therefore credited at the end of this episode as well as Angela Crow playing Doreen Lostock and Eileen Mayers playing Sheila Birtles as they are briefly seen in the clip.
- Sandra Butler says that Elsie Tanner and Bill Gregory came to visit her mum seven years before in an old boneshaker. Bill also says that he and Elsie parted company over Phyllis Gregory seven years before, although the latter scenes took place in July 1962. Ena Sharples refers to knowing Elsie was she was six years old.
- An additional credit reads "Song by Derek Hilton and Joan Squillino". This refers to the original tune Dreaming Time composed in the storyline by Ena Sharples which Stan Ogden wishes to sell for his own benefit.
- TV Times synopsis: Elsie is asked to catch a train; Stan catches on to a money-spinner and Ray is caught out.
- Viewing Figures: First UK broadcast - 8,750,000 homes (1st place).
Notable dialogue
Len Fairclough (to Bill Gregory): Elsie’s a sparrow in a dirty street. She couldn’t survive in an aviary with birds of paradise. She tried it once…and they nearly pecked her to death.
| February 1970 episodes |
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