50 Years Of Corrie In 50 Days – 1980

(This post was originally posted by Sunny Jim on the Coronation Street Blog in 2010, reposted to this blog with permission.)

Day 20 of our 50 day countdown of Coronation Street - written by blogger Sunny Jim.

In order to cater for Deirdre Langton’s childcare needs, she and Emily Bishop decided to set up the Coronation Street Secretarial Bureau. One of their first clients was Arnold Swain who owned a pet-shop and needed help with his bookkeeping. He took an interest in Emily but scared her off by asking questions about her finances. Deirdre truned private investigator to look into Arnold’s background and found that he was no gold-digger as he had plenty of money himself.

He proposed to Emily twice before she accepted and they were married in Weatherfield register office before honeymooning in Shanklin on the Isle of Wight. After the wedding Emily was shocked when Arnold started making plans to sell up and move to Derbyshire. But before the move could be finalised, Emily received a visit from an insurance man searching for a Mrs Margaret Swain. She was stunned to discover that Arnold had another wife to whom he was still legally married. She confronted him and he admitted it but said that the marriage had only lasted three weeks and he had told everyone that she had died to avoid the humiliation. Emily threw him out and she went to report the matter to the police but they refused to believe her, thinking that she was just a lonely old soul who had made it all up.

Despite having just recently signed a new contract, in 1980 Madge Hindle found out that her character Renee Roberts was to be killed off as the producers didn’t think that her marriage to Alf Roberts was working. Renee was learning to drive and she and Alf had gone out into the country for a meal. Alf had had too much to drink and so Renee got behind the wheel for the return trip to Weatherfield. Whilst going through some roadworks, Renee stalled the car and an agitated Alf got out of the car and made her change places. Before Alf could get back in to take control, a lorry appeared and smashed into the car. Renee was rushed to hospital and underwent surgery for her burst spleen but died on the operating table.

Also in 1980: Nicky Tilsley is born; Ena Sharples moves to St. Anne’s; Hilda wins a night out with Mike Baldwin; Bet wears Annie’s dress the wrong way round; Martin Cheveski comes to stay with Elsie; Eddie Yeats starts work on the bins.